Monday, Monday....

Sunday, Sunday...I was sewing. I got up early, caught the 10am meeting over in Blowing Rock and then after making a quick stop for Sunday Burgers to share with Maya, beat a path for home.

Got back into my jammies and spent the whole day in my studio!
Such luxury to have the time, the desire, and the ability to do what I enjoy ~~
I know I'm blessed!


Got up today and it's crappy, drizzly, rainy, chilly, gray and did I mention crappy? Uh huh...that's it.

Back into the studio and for every seam I sewed, I think I ripped out another. Was not in the zone today, but did get this top finished and I love it.

My high school art teacher would have complained loudly that it is too "busy". Yep, it is busy.

But it exactly captures what I love about Mexico. No matter how much we (outsiders/americans) try to pigeon-hole another culture (in this case, Mexico) and make it fit neatly in some box ~ it is just plain loud and busy and colorful and joyous, and vibrant and alive and did I say colorful? Uh huh...that's it!

So now I have 2 done....one is in the mail to the long arm quilter and this one will go next. I plan to get the 3rd one done to send along with it. Then it's on to a quilt for my niece and one for my nephew before I tackle the king size quilt for "slappy the bait shop guy".

I'm running to Asheville tomorrow and will be gone for the day. Talk to you layta.

Acccckkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!

No Explanation Necessary!

Question: Do you know how to make God giggle?

Answer: Make plans.

I had a plan for today. I was even going to do a good deed, so I dunno if that counts, or what...but God had other plans for me today I guess.

I even went to bed early so that I'd wake up at a decent hour (and just what is decent anyway?).
Anyhow I was going to drive a friend here down to Asheville to visit her doctor. It's a 2 hour drive and while I've passed Asheville on my way to other places, I've never stopped and was looking forward to it. I'm still fighting the valiant battle against letting this cold get a foothold, and a little road trip just seemed like a good thing. My friend was looking forward to a visit to a bookstore and I was going to Hancock's for some sewing notions I can't find here in Boone. She wasn't up to doing all the driving so we made a plan.

I guess at some point during the night it rained, and immediately after that the temperature dropped quickly. My friend called me early to tell me that our trip was off and I went out on the porch to see for myself.

This is how the car looked.....it had about three-quarters of an inch of ice covering everything. It was a Subaru Ice Cube and stayed like that until about 2pm when stuff started to thaw out enough for it to start dripping.

This is down the road to the left of me and though this photo doesn't show it, the sun was out and everything was just glittery and very magical.

It's probably the first ice storm I've seen in 30 years or so, since the last time I was in Illinois visiting my mom during winter. She is gone now, but I thought of her this morning. The snow plow passed by to lay down some de-icer on the road and it reminded me of how she used to fill a thermos of coffee and brandy and take it out to the snow plow that came down her country road in front of the farm. Now she was not on a much traveled road, so she was kind of low on the totem pole when it came to getting the road cleared, but amazingly once word got out that she would have some special hot coffee ready for the snow plow drivers.....she didn't often get snowed in for long. Gotta love a woman who thinks like that! So I made a platter of lemon-poppyseed muffins and when the plow came back this afternoon....I was ready for them. No brandy, but coffee and muffins might cause them to remember me.

This is how it looked down the road to the right of me.
All of the trees on the hillside across the road from me are heavy laden with ice and some of them have bent nearly in half. As the day has gone on, I hear the snap, crackle, and pop of limbs breaking off and the sound of icicles falling to the pavement. I was a little nervous walking down the steps from the porch....it was no stretch to imagine an icicle breaking off and knocking me in the head.

As it was I tried to dodge all the drips as they melted and still got damp and chilly.

Since the weatherman contributed to my delinquency today...hehehe...I was able to spend part of the day sewing. I'm working on another Mexican quilt and I put together the center block....another Virgen de Guadalupe framed by fabric celebrating the variety of Talavera Tiles that you find all over Mexico. In Puerto Vallarta where I shopped weekly for household stuff, they have a tile factory in old town. I got most of my tiles there when I was building my house in Punta de Mita, and it was really fascinating to go upstairs and watch them paint the designs freehand on the tiles....no templates or streamlined automation...just artisans with their brushes and pots of glazes. In addition to tiles, they made sink basins, towel bars, soap holders, and all manner of dinnerware and other ceramic clay items. All the images in these 3 Mexican Quilts I'm working on, are memories of my time in Mexico and so I find myself thinking about it a lot lately. Be right back........

The UPS guy just was here....brave guy out in this weather. I love it when the big brown truck stops here. Maya loves it too, because she loves the UPS guy and he always has a minute to scratch her behind the ears and tell her how pretty she is....now if I could just get him to do that to me! LOL

Sylvia's quilt is back from the Long Arm Quilter over in Tennessee! I love it and Kathy did a great job on it. Now I just need to square it up, trim it, machine stitch the binding on and then hand stitch it. I'm so excited to get it back and see how it turned out.

Meanwhile I'm busy getting the next ones ready. I have one ready to send off now, so will take it into town and send it tomorrow if the weather permits.

See you next time.

If I'm Testing Zicam, Then....

That means I have a cold!! Ack!!!!
I've been bragging off and on (and smugly too) that I haven't had a cold in over 2 years. Tempting fate, huh? Well, yesterday at The Quilt Shop I noticed that I felt just a little off...nothing I could put my finger on, just off, yunno? So I wake up at 4:30am with my face glued to my pillowcase from my nose which had been running while I was sleeping. I know, I know...ewwwwwww. Get over yourself, ok, ...just trying to get a little sympathy going here. I bought some Zicam swabs when I first moved to the mountains, thinking that I'd be needing them. Glad I had them. Okay, enough of that.


This is Tod Prescott from the Quilt shop. She is wearing the new Emmeline Apron designed by Meg of Montessori By Hand.

(While you're over there looking, check out Meg's blog and her other patterns)

Tod was one of the pattern testers for Meg and she chose to make it with fabrics from Jane Sassaman's Hothouse Garden line for Free Spirit. Since the apron is reversible, it really is stunning and is just too much fun. I love it. Tod has ordered the pattern for her shop, and you can order them now too.

Speaking of Jane Sassaman...she has started a blog, and she has posted a freebie pattern on there that is drop dead stunning....called Folk Art Hearts. Go take a look and see.

You might have noticed that I've not written a single word this week ~~ bad blogger!

I've been making blocks, trying them out on my design wall, and then making quilt tops like a mad woman. I have 6 quilts in various stages of construction and hope to get two of them off to the long-armer this next week. I plan to quilt 2 of them myself, so will add them to the two that are already pin-basted and ready. I haven't decided yet, whether I'll quilt the others, or send them out.

This lovely one over here to the left has it's borders sewn on since I took this picture.

I've also made the binding, picked fabric for the backing and hopefully tonight will get that sewn.

Talk to you soon.

Yesterday with the Quilty Girlz....

If it's Wednesday, then this is where I am.

I'm writing about it on Thursday, because I'm there on Wednesdays so I can't write about it on Wednesday.

The Quilt Shop lets us bring our machines and have a sew-in on Wednesdays. In the summer, it's a madhouse because all of the "seasonal" quilters who spend summers here from Florida, are there in addition to the locals...the rest of us who live here year round.

It's a great space....with lots of fabrics to tempt us....and a calendar full of classes to inspire us.

I try not to miss it, and if I'm not there then it's the odd happenstance and someone should be calling my house to make sure I'm still breathin!


This is Tod Prescott, the owner and our partner in crime. She keeps the candle lit and is ready at the drop of a hat to slice some lovelies off of those bolts you see behind her. She is a Kaffe Fasset groupie, though I don't hold that against her....hehehe. She teaches, she quilts on her long arm machine there in the shop, and recently she has taken up pattern testing for Meg at Montessori by Hand.
If you ever, ever, ever are in Boone, NC up in the Beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, do yourself a favor and visit Tod in her shop.



This is Sherry...she's been a good customer, and most recently has come to work at the shop part time while finishing up her coursework at the University.
Sonja and Ann are two of the regular quilty girlz. There's about another 3-4 of us locals but some are camera shy. I'll try to get a group shot one of these days.

I just wanted you to see a place that figures largely in my weekly schedule. In addition to Wednesdays, I probably stop in 2-3 times a week just to see what I might be missing...lol.

Now ya know.

Links....Other Blogs

First things first....this was the kitchen window this morning. Frosty!!

The temperature today got up to about 18 degrees farenheit, and tomorrow promises to be chilly too.

Now on to the topic of the day. I don't know who reads this blog.....regularly or otherwise....but I'm always assuming that I'm just not talking to myself here. I also am a fan of a bunch of other bloggers. I have probably 40-50 of them saved in my favorites and I shuffle them from time to time, adding some and letting go of some others. There are a few that are constant and you will see them listed there along the left of this page. I recently reorganized them, did that shuffling thing, and realized in the process that they fall into some categories and so I sorted them that way. Don't get too attached, though, because I might reorganize them again. LOL

Anyway you will notice that I have a category called red headed quilters....I found that when I was looking through my faves, I had these 3 women listed together and it was a coincidence that they all have red hair. I like them a lot and enjoy their blogs for very different reasons.

Nancy Rose is prolific as heck, is sleep deprived like me, and somehow weaves stories of her hubby and kids into the postings in such a natural, loving, and humorous way that I totally relate to.

Beth really cranks out the quilts! She also is pretty consistent about blogging, so it seems like she is always working on something new. I get inspired to get busy when I read her.

Deb doesn't seem to quilt as much as the other redheads, but she is multitalented and I read her for her photography as much as anything else. Besides that, she loves red shoes and while I don't have but 2 pair.....I always admire them in the store or on other women ~ I always notice them! She has themes that she explores with her camera. She sees the world a little differently and causes me to broaden my vision as well.

Do you have some bloggers you love? Leave me a comment and let me know who butters your grits.

Back atcha!

How About Orange?

That's the name of a blog that I read regularly. I stumbled over it by accident. Was intrigued by the name, because I had recently become enamored of the color orange and wanted to investigate a blog that I believed would reveal a kindred spirit of sorts. I fall in love with color the same way I date.....one at a time. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there's a color out there that I don't like, but from time to time I absolutely go crazy for one color in particular. Right now, and for the past year it has been the color Orange.....oooooo-weeeeeeeeee, I love me some Orange!

So yesterday, on the How About Orange blog, I noticed that my kindred spirit (Jessica Jones) was showing fabrics she had designed recently and was devastated to discover that there is not an orange one in the bunch (as if I need one more piece of orange fabric!!!!). And, to add insult to injury, I will not be able to partake of the offering because the fabrics are designer weight ~ too heavy for quilting. I understand this of course, because she is a designer for the trade and not a quilter. (by the way, go take a look at her blog and see why I love it so)

Still, it got me curious about just how pervasive this love of orange was evidenced by my surroundings. So, camera in hand, I did a walk-through. And this is the result....see for yourself.