Mystery Monday Link-Up, Part 6!

Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone!

It’s Mystery Monday Link-Up time!

Part 6 of our Good Fortune Mystery was released on Friday, and here it is Monday and I have seen from so many of you that you were able to kick out this clue over the weekend, if not all in one day.  HOORAY for easy clues that fall between major holidays.  It does my heart good to know that so many of you were able to squeeze in some machine time.

The neutrals you are using in part 6 are so wonderfully varied – each photo was a treat for these old eyes!

I do want to stress FIRMLY once again – for those using ONE PIECE OF YARDAGE as their neutral to WAIT before cutting into that fabric for part 6.  DO NOT CUT YOUR YARDAGE if you are not string piecing or strip piecing from multiple fabrics. 

I will not be held responsible if you have cut your fabrics, ignoring what I have said and find that you wish you hadn’t later.  This just applies to those using ONE PIECE of neutral as their background.  Please folks – if you must cut something, go cut something else – like a UFO project or something.

If I suggest “WAIT IT OUT!”  That means WAIT. IT. OUT.

Check out these shares from our Quiltville’s Open Studio group on Facebook!

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When in doubt, PAINT IT!

It doesn’t matter where you start -

Just pick up a brush and dig in!

I love – I mean deeply, absolutely, positively ADORE the old quirky door frames and the variety of mismatched doors of various sizes – none of them the same – at Quiltville Inn.

Some of them have been repaired with added bits and pieces holding them together – the door knobs also varying throughout the house.  A hodge-podge of 135 years of living under this roof.

And while “shabby chic” and “chippy” are the in-thing with farmhouse style decorating, I’m just not one to faux-shabby anything.  I like to think of what the original owners may have preferred to see in this grand old house.  Given the choice – would they want chipped up paint with sanded and roughed up corners to make it look “vintage?”  Heck, no!

And since most door frames, doors, moldings and base boards are going to take at least two coats if not three, just pick up a brush and get busy with it.  Make the rounds.  Then come back again in a day or so and do it again.

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Saturday Morning Ramblings -

There are days when all you wish for is time to sew.

I have counted on the holidays to bring me that “down time” that I need – but there has been LITTLE machine time over the past week. Still, I was able to crank out some more purple triangles where I was running low for a current project.  Pieced one evening, and then pressed the next.  It’s amazing what you really can do with an hour here, an hour there making you realize you CAN accomplish quite a bit in small bites of time.

Not that I’m getting cranky or anything – There are other things that I have longed to have time to do – and to be able to do them as a family has been a great experience to date.

It’s become our daily ritual – wake up, watch the sunrise, have breakfast. head down to the cabin studio to sit at my computer and type out that morning’s blog post, or write a mystery clue, or work on class supply lists for the coming year, or answer emails of a variety of natures – and by 9:30am I’ve been in the van, Sadie in tow – heading 7 miles up the road to Quiltville Inn to continue on with the next item on the renovation list.

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Little Time for Sewing!

These have sat untouched since Christmas.

But I’ll get to them eventually!

I am surrounding the recycled shirt nine-patches with purple bonus triangles to go in along with the red ones.  This is going to be fun – when I can get time to get back to it!

For now, sewing is on the back burner as we work on doing some of the much needed fixes at Quiltville Inn.

Coat 3 has been brushed on to the kitchen cabinets – FINALLY looking the way they should.

There has to be a life lesson in that – take it slow, there is no rushing.  It can’t be done all at once, but in smaller bites.  Bit by bit things will even out.

The bathroom cabinets have received coat 2 – and I ran out of paint, so another trip to Lowes was made last evening.  I think we are getting to be on a first name basis with these folks – all roads lead to Lowes!

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And The Quilty Box Winners are….

Oh, Sadie Jane!

No, the winner isn’t Sadie, but she steals the show wherever she goes and wanted to photo-bomb the post so how could I say no??

This morning we are drawing for the winners of the December Quilty Box and Quilty Box Mini!  Did you get your entry in?

Check out these lovelies:

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Merry Christmas, One and All!

It is indeed and beautiful Christmas Morning at the cabin!

This is a very short post, as our goal today as a family is to spend time together in the same room, not apart in our own corners of the cabin each attached to our own mobile devices and computers. 

There are favorite old movies to watch.  There is a pumpkin pie baking in the oven for tonight’s dessert – filling the cabin with spicy hints of cinnamon and nutmeg, and Christmas music is playing through the sound bar via my favorite holiday channel – James Taylor Holiday.

A family funny – did you catch that the presents are wrapped using electrical tape to hold the paper on?  When you live this remotely, it isn’t possible to always just go buy scotch tape.  This was The Hubster’s doing.  Whatever could be found on his work bench was what had to be good enough.

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Mystery Monday Link-Up, Part 5!

Happy Christmas Eve, Everyone!

Things have finally settled down here at Quiltville – spending time at our cabin in the mountains of Southwestern Virginia just fills me to the brim and rounds out all of my rough edges and mis-matched points don’t seem to matter as much.  LOL.

Wherever you are, and however you are spending the holidays, may your corner of the world be lit by a little more hope, a little more joy, a little more patience and love for those we share this beautiful planet with. 

You have enriched my life beyond measure – and I am so grateful for this time of year and our mystery quilt adventures that bring us closer together as we work to bring these clues to a fine and wonderful finish.  Soon, my friends – so very soon!

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It’s Mountain Time!

Balm to my soul, this is my bliss!

I arrived in Virginia yesterday afternoon, the van full to overflowing with groceries, quilt projects, items for Quiltville Inn – my clothes for a week, my backpack with my laptop and busy bag – It’s full on Christmas mode time.

There is a definitely “elevation line” as I climb up and over  the mountains on highway 16 leading north out of Wilkesboro, North Carolina.  the road rises steadily through Miller’s Creek, through Wilbur (also nicknamed  “the flats” by us) -  and up toward the Blue Ridge Parkway before finally reaching Jefferson, NC and onward to the Virginia state line.

The roads were clear with no snow until just before the parkway – By the time you have gone under the parkway overpass, temps have dropped 10 degrees from the high 40s to into the 30s and snow is still visible along the sides of the road, in yards, fields, farms, and definitely on the mountains in the distance – the remains of 20’’ of snowfall a couple of weeks ago.

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When You’ve JUST Gotta SEW!

This little ditty happened last night.

It’s not done yet, by far – but I’ll get to the borders while up at the cabin. I have some ideas -

Isn’t that always the way that it gets you?  The ideas?

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