Sunshine & Sand Key Largo!

I’m just hanging out with the locals!

There is a lot to be said for taking a few days without a sewing machine in tow.

Eventually you have to look up from the project and pay attention to what is going on around you or you just might miss it.

I spent some time yesterday just enamored with these birds – are they ibis?  walking around the sandy areas as if they owned the place.

In a way, I guess they do!

Yesterday was day 2 of scuba instruction for the hubster, and that left me time to explore a bit, to kick back and relax a bit.

And to monitor how the release of Part 1 for our En Provence mystery was going.

So far, so good!  At least for my part I didn’t find any major faux pas, I think everything was explained in as much detail as possible when it comes to the construction of 221 4-patches, etc.

There have been several emails on “where can I find…..” and my answer is simple.  It’s all under the En Provence mystery tab at the top of the blog. Yesterday’s part 1 has been added to the line up, and Monday we’ll add a link to our Mystery Monday Link-Up to the line up as well.  It’s all going to be there.

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Gratitude Conquers Hurt.

I woke up this morning to over 500 comments on yesterday’s post.

More than FIVE HUNDRED of you took the time to share with me your feelings. 

You lifted me, you cried with me, you understood where my heart was hurting.

I am so grateful.

I think there comes a time where we just reach “empty” and run out of gas.  I have felt this approaching for a while now, but the comments that came on Tuesday were just the very last straw in a long line of things that have drained me.

A good friend and I had a long conversation while in Houston, and the one thing I learned from her was that “Some people are just BROKEN.”

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Turning a Page…

Yesterday, I posted about love.

I opened my heart about how it feels to be living in North Carolina where the KKK is marching.  And how Nazi salutes caused fitful sleep.  No matter “which side” you are on, these are real events and they disturb me.  It is NOT a political statement.

I simply expressed how I felt and that we need to reach out with love to those who are different than us.  Love conquers fear. And that quilting joins us together.

NOTHING I said was political.  If you don’t believe me you can read yesterday’s post.

But today I am hurt, and really have no words for the kinds of ugly comments….DIATRIBES paragraphs long - bashing me for political views that I NEVER EXPRESSED.

I never expected this from you, my readers.

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Pumpkins, Packages and….

I stole away to the studio about 9pm last night just to get in an hour of stitching.

I needed only 3 pumpkins to finish what was on the floor.

I was a quilter on a mission, and I needed to feel the hum of the machine and the heat of the iron as I sewed and pressed.

And wonder of wonders, I FOUND the missing rectangle that i had searched high and low for.

Of course it wasn’t where it was supposed to be, it had “flannel boarded” itself to the back of a totally unrelated piece of fabric that I had likely laid on top of it.  No bother, at least it was FOUND!

Seeing this 1953 Bernina just waiting for me made me smile.  This thing has POWER.  I have loved all 3 of the Berninas that  have come through my life at different times, and this makes number 4, and it makes me the happiest of all.  All metal, vintage forest green and chrome, flat bed and all.  Still wondering what this one will do in a treadle cabinet!

But there was no time for that last night.  3 pumpkins, remember?

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