Impromptu Quilt-Cam Alert!!!

I’m free!

I’m home alone!

I have a driving trip to Maryland and New Jersey tomorrow – but tonight?  I’m free!

I am sending this out as an impromptu announcement so you can get yourselves ready, your project lined up, your family fed ---

I’ll be ready to sew along with you at 9pm EST TONIGHT!

In between now and then I’ll be packing the van and getting ready……

Mona left just a bit ago….this is a sneak preview of what she got up to today:

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Bind, Mona, Bind!

As long as I have been teaching folks to piece quilts, very rarely have I ever had the opportunity to take one person from beginning to end!

This is exciting!

I don’t think I’ve EVER taught anyone how to piece binding by joining the strips on the diagonal.

I know that I have never shown anyone how to press those seams open, to iron the binding in half lengthwise.

I know I have never shown anyone how to start and end a binding so that it has the same diagonal seam that wraps around the edge of the quilt at an angle so there is no real way to tell where you started and where you stopped!

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Quilt, Mona, Quilt!

Mona came down to Wallburg today to load her very first ever quilt top in the long arm and learn what this machine quilting thing is all about!

Now, this quilt that was supposed to be lap- size has grown to 86.5” X 100.5” ----so she is off to a good start as a quilter! LOL!

Remember when she had her First Ever Quilting Experience?  It was only November – and in 4 months she has two tops pieces, and two more in progress!

If you are going to do it at all, do it ALL THE WAY!

We chose simple 4 patches in a 9 patch setting for her blocks, and I let her roam freely through my red/blue/neutral scraps. 

It’s so fun to watch what other people will choose and how they react to different fabric pairings.

Mona goes at it with reckless abandon ---I’m so proud of her!

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Hexie Love E-Magazine! Give-Away!

**NOTE** This Give-Away has ended!  Congrats to our winner!  Be watching for more Give-Aways coming up soon!

There is a new e-magazine available for download!

If you love your kindle, your ipad, your cell phone or your laptop – this magazine is for you!

When I was asked by Julia Wood if I would participate in a blog hop for the release of her premier issue on Joomag, I of course said YES!

You know I have been working with hexagons since the mid 1990s.

The first grandmother’s flower garden quilt was made with 1.5” hexies, traced with a template, cut with scissors and hand stitched with a 1/4” seam allowance in the traditional hand piecing method.  This project occupied hours and hours of time while waiting on the side lines for things like swimming lessons, soccer practice, baseball practice and games, and gymnastics while my boys were growing up.

I hand quilted that quilt and learned how nasty warm & natural is to hand quilt with….NEVER NEVER AGAIN! HA!

I started the large project below in 1999 when my grandmother’s health was failing and I was needing something to occupy not only my waiting time but my travel time:

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Happy Easter, 2015!

I love vintage cards, be they Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentines, Birthday – you name it.

I love the whimsy and the attention to detail!

Just look at this bunny family coming to visit the gnome in his eg home – the doorway and the steps and window shutters made of four leaf clovers.

However you spend your Easter Sunday, I hope it is filled with family, friends, food – perfect for making memories!

Our Easter is a quiet one this year.  Jason has to work, and Jeff is home dealing with a tooth abscess, and the antibiotics upset his stomach enough to make the driving up to the cabin and back a bit undesirable.  He’s taking couch time at home, and I’ll be bringing him leftovers when I return home tomorrow morning.

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Borders on a Blustery Day!

My borders are done!

And I am so happy with them!

I wish I could share with you the whole project, but I need to wait a bit longer. 

I CAN however, share with you how I did my borders –they look great on almost ANY quilt.

The center of this quilt is fairly busy, so to tone it down a bit, I chose one color family, blues, for my piano keys instead of using a myriad of multi colored strips which would have kept the busy going on and going on.

If you want a riot of color, go for it!  if you want to tone it down…pick one color family.  It gives two different looks, and I like both depending on which quilt these are going on.

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Easter Eve Day at Quilt Villa!

Rick & Mona’s little precious dog Beanie is hiding in the bushes, hoping that Sadie is done chasing her for a while!

These two are just best buds when they get together, and it’s a big to-do.

Sadie chases Beanie, Beanie chases Sadie!  And when Beanie is done with it she finds somewhere small to crawl into to show Sadie a thing or two ---“Hahaha! You can’t get me if I’m under the ramp to the shed!”

I caught this photo with the daffodils in the back yard at the cabin while both Sadie and Beanie were taking a well deserved time out. 

It makes me tired just to watch them!

There was much stitching last night, and I finished the binding on the Serpentine Web:

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Treadle THIS!

How many of you recognize this fabric?

I was dating it to the late 1970s by the selvage --

During this time of my life I was in high school, sewing my own clothes.  And very involved in drama, musical theater and choir productions which meant I was also sewing costumes.

 Not just for myself, but also for other students.

I didn’t have access to a sewing machine at MY house –I lived with my dad at the time, but I had been offered the use of a machine by the mom of a friend.  You would often find me there after school and on weekends just sewing away.

My friend didn’t care much for sewing, so I think her mom was happy that someone did!  And she taught me quite a bit!

When I got married…my meager stash came with me, and the rest is history.

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Morning on the Mountain!

This is a beautiful Good Friday sunrise as Sadie and I made our way out for a 2.5 mile hike.

We have this loop we like to do –actually, I don’t know why I am saying “WE” because she would be happy to go anywhere, but this is an easy trail, up our street, through the woods, down an incline and up a dirt road along a ridge.

It’s a gentle climb up, but that means it’s a nice gentle slope down as we reach our turn around spot at Steve’s drive.

Usually when we are out we come across Steve and his dog Zeke out for their morning walkies as well ---Zeke and Sadie saying hello by touching noses and sniffing dog parts.

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