Hoping for some good Karma!

This past March I was lucky enough to go to the first ever Sew South Retreat where I got to hang out with my buddy Dana of Old Red Barn Co.  Dana gave me a load of lovely presents but this one really touched my heart....

 Eighteen almost finished 12" hand pieced antique quilt blocks.  Almost because they still needed their corners.  I think she bought them at a flea market or yard sale.  Dana also gave me some turquoise and green fabric for a perfect finish!

Corners sewn....added two squares of Lark.....

 ...Voila!!  Don't you love it?!!!:) It is just awesome!

 The ladies at the shop think these may be 1940s fabrics.

 What do you think?  They are fabulous!  Some of the blocks are a bit faded but who cares?!:)

 This just makes me sooooo happy!

 But mostly I hope some good karma has happened and someone somewhere ;) is happy because the blocks are finally all together!  Thanks so much Dana!! xoxoxox

 Keeping with feel good quilting is this stack of red, white and blue which became....

 ...this patriotic cuddle!  Our shop was trying to collect 100 quilts that will be given to returning soldiers next month.  I wanted to be one of the 100.  I ended up being is one of over 135+ quilts for our troops!!!!  

A big heartfelt virtual hug to all you wonderful quilters from Virginia, Maryland, DC and across the USA (we received many by mail) bearing warmth from your loving hands.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!!

~d

Beautiful Song for a Wonderful Museum!

Greetings all! I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about something close to our hearts and our girl's heart.

Faithful readers all know the girl has been living and working these past three years in the city of  dreaming spires, Oxford, UK.

She's been working for several non profits but  

the one closest to her heart is The Story Museum, a center of children's literature and storytelling, a place of wonder and magic!  

One day the museum will be totally open to the public but in the meantime in their words, 

"The pumpkin is being 

transformed into a coach and taking us one step 

closer to the ball!"

One of the lovely interns, Nat Mahri, has written a song and the proceeds are going to the museum.

Spaces is a beautiful song and can be downloaded for whatever you wish to pay...your call! 

Go give it a listen and hear for yourself!:)

Thanks Natalie!!

~d

Blogger's Quilt Fest 2013 Part II of the Duo

(scraps sewn together then cut to make flying geese)

Part II of my scrappy adventures started with the chain stitched like crazy flying geese.

Before I trimmed off the corners of said geese I turned that chain of flying fowl around and stitched 1/2" on the other side of the seams to make half square triangles (HSTs)!!!:)

Each goose gave me two HST now I had 100 5.5" HSTs!:)

Hence my second entrance in the Blogger's Quilt Fest Scrappy Quilt category!:)

 Scrappy  Rainbow Geese on the right and Scrappy Paths on the left!

 I had such fun playing with all the squares making different designs. In the end this pattern was the winner.  I did some hand quilting on the Fusion Ombre straw background fabric.

 Backing is a Dutch Wax Print from Africa courtesy of my sister-in-law. This quilt now belongs to my pal Sally's lovely daughter who graduated from college this year!:)

Hopefully you will all join me over at the Fest taking in all the other talents of our worldwide online community of quilters!

Thanks for visiting!

~d

Blogger's Quilt Fest Fall 2013 Tale of Two Quilts Part I

Five years ago Amy of Amy's Creative Side came up the idea of the 

Blogger's Quilt Fest to celebrate the creative fun of our online community.

This year I thought I'd enter a quilt or two!

Remember this photo I took of scraps sewn together by color? These sat around for a long time while an idea percolated.

 Finally I figured out what to make.  After cutting out some rectangles then adding two squares to each corner....chain stitching like crazy...finally I had...

 ....my Scrappy Rainbow Flying Geese!  My pal Linda did the awesome quilting, sort of like a breeze!

 Twenty-five geese duos, each duo is 12" square.

 The background is Robert Kaufman Fusion Ombre in Straw.

I wish I had a whole bolt of that stuff!

 Backing is Jane Sassaman Willow Wands from her Garden Divas collection.

I really like this quilt. I see something different in it every day. 

I am submitting this one in the  

ROY G BIV Quilt category!  It makes me happy!

But remember this a tale of two quilts.

Next post will be about Part II!!:)

Now go visit some other online Fest  friends and leave them a comment.

It makes us feel good!:)  

Thanks for visiting and thank you Amy for all the fun!!

~d

Twenty-eight Years?!!

 Last weekend my little bro brought up his portable sawmill and....

...set up shop where a couple years ago hubby had plopped two huge pine logs. 

They did some measuring and calculating...

...adjusting and readjusting....

...then got down to milling lumber that will one day...

 ...be steps going up to our second floor!:)

 While they were milling....the boy was collecting wood and kindling and making....

 ...a great stone surround so we could have...

 ...an anniversary fire complete with smores and hot cider compliments of James' friends!:)

Next day hubby and I took a drive over to West Virginia and then back down into Western Virginia and back to our favorite pumpkin patch.

 Nall's never disappoints! I had a hard time not bringing one of those wee gnomes home!

Guard dog?:)

What a perfect weekend...thanks  hubby for 28 years of great weekends!

For those of you going to the International Quilt Festival in Houston....Carly and some of the Webfabrics team will be vendor number 1336 right in the middle of the convention center under the flag....a little bit of me will be there too so go say hi to my wee zippy bag!:)

~d

Bitty Block Bee meets Clock-Along!!

 This past year I have participated in the Bitty Block Bee.  There were 14 of us and each month one of us was Queen/King Bee, picked a theme and received two 3 1/2" or 6 1/2" blocks from each member for a total of 26 blocks.
The month of May rolled in and it was my turn to be Queen!  I was inspired by some fruit and veggie blocks on text fabrics seen while perusing Flickr AND wanted to make a clock.  Yo peeps, could you each pick a Roman numeral 1-12 and a fruit or veggie and one of you  make me some clock hands?

They were game and more than rose to the occasion! Here are the blocks all put together that those crazy creative folks made for me!! 

All I did was highlight the numerals with a black running stitch and do a bit of quilting.

At the Mini QT Swap we are having a Clock-Along.  A couple of the lovely ladies (Marilyn and Ruthie) made up a tutorial for us to follow which made it soooo easy for me! 

In this photo you can just make out some buttons we received when our girl was at West Virginia University...left them there so you could see how big it is....21" square!

I love it!  Thanks Bee Buddies!

I bought more clock works because it's a great gift to make with orphan blocks!

I was going to put some buttons on the clock then I found the huge hands so that idea went out the window but my buttons now have a new home cause...

...my pal Sandie gave me this HUGE glass Ball jar for my perle cottons!!:)

See that little project next to my sewing machine?

Now it's an oh so cute little zippy bag made from a pattern called 

This and That Suzy's Sack and some Shelburne Falls!!:)

Gotta love plaid!:)

~d

Guess where we went last week?!:)

The Outer Banks of North Carolina!! WhoooHooo!

Hubby had to put some crown molding up in a condo in Kill Devil Hills so we got to stay there for the week...for free!:)

 We finally found some sea glass!

 Collected buckets and buckets of shells!

(This was the only day with ANY clouds at all!!)

 Enjoyed the near empty beaches!

Found a skull-shaped shell!

 Took some selfies!

Because of the government shutdown there were no vehicles at Oregon Inlet which is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Never seen that before!

 They have a really hard time keeping the sand off the roads on these barrier islands and to show you how skinny some areas are I borrowed a photo...

 ....from the Outer Banks website.  Can you get over this...it's an amazing place!! Go look at the map to see these barrier islands along the coast of North Carolina!

 On the way home we visited my folks....and a farmers market.  

 Oh....and I found a quilt shop at the beach and bought a few treasures!:)

~d