The No Crank Day

A day the car isn't cranked?

It's a myth.  I'm not talking smack here.  The days that the car is NOT cranked are becoming more and more elusive. This is not a complaint.  There are days that we all want to stay in, read, not answer the phone, stay in jammies, eat popcorn for lunch, swill Coca-Cola and pay little attention to the horrors displayed in the bathroom mirror. Throw in a thunderstorm, some quilting,  and you have a nearly perfect day to stay in your personal nest.  Yes, I hear you saying, "Amen!"

But the days the car is cranked are good too.  Lately, I've had the chance to kiss my grandbabies a lot, work with a couple of delightful ladies as they learn to make a hand pieced, hand quilted quilt (just like the pioneers did!),  and spend some time hanging out with the ladies that come into a ministry for women that our church established.

On the home front, I'm working on making a quilt from homespuns.  Holy cow.  I have a huge stash of homespuns to choose from (the effort of years of stashing), but apparently I didn't pay much attention to the quality of what I collected. Most of it seems to have all the nice stretchiness of rubber bands and fails to behave despite the best efforts of a strong right arm and clouds of steam.  Muttering leaves the fabric unfazed. But I do love the way it looks.  

I'm taking a break from pin basting it with a zillion pins so far.

Had to sneak a peak at American Idol and root for David Archuleta.  Yes.

Big Stone Gap

So far, today has been a tremendously satisfying goof off day.  A friend and I went up to Big Stone Gap, Virginia to the Southwest Virginia Museum to see an exhibit of about 115 quilts.  Lovely museum in a grand old house.  Beautiful new and old quilts, all respectfully and attractively displayed.  

Lots of inspiration.

Then a stop for lunch in the town drugstore  What a treat. Items on the menu included cabbage rolls, chicken and dumplins (their spelling, not mine), cornbread, green beans, blackberry cobbler and sweet tea.

Hallelujah, we live in the South!

Stopped by a used bookstore to buy Adriana Trigiani's book, Big Stone Gap.  That's something to read while checking in occasionally to see who gets the boot on American Idol.

It's the middle of the afternoon and tonight is church night supper, so there will be no heat (or chores) in our kitchen tonight.

A good reason to just be worthless for the rest of the day, if one is needed.

Life is good.

Radiant Wreath

I'm starting this blog as a way to keep up with what I'm doing with quilting, and to create within myself a desire to do more with this art.  Right now, I'm stitching a bit and designing for my friend, Jackie Robinson's fabrics and her publishing company.  Here's the pattern cover from the newest design.  It will be introduced at International Quilt Market in Portland, Oregon later this week.

It was a rush job to get the two quilts stitched because of delayed shipment of fabric from Korea. (It's great fun to sew under pressure!) A very talented local quilter, Donna Patrick, came through with flying colors and did truly wonderful and creative quilting on the tops.  

You can see Jackie's Poinsettia fabric line for Maywood Studios and the newest patterns for that line at Jackie's web site:

http://www.animas.com

Working with Christmas fabrics has inspired me to work on presents to give to my family at Christmas.  And to slow down at the same time. And try to really discover the child like enthusiasm that originally brought me to quilting.