Vacay Update

Days 2.5, 3.0, and 4.0

I was so terrified of fireworks as a small child. My mother blamed it on the fact she was standing next to the man shot out of a canon when I was 9 months old.  As an adult, though, fireworks make me smile -- as long as they are done professionally and safely.

Well, the fireworks at Stonewall Resort on July 3 (Day 2) were fabulous! (for a small show) What made them fabulous for me was I could watch from our room in my jammies!

 



 

Unfortunately I forgot I have a "fireworks" setting on my camera so the pictures through my window leave a lot to be desired.

On Day 3 we drove up to Pennsylvania for the day to tour 2 houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and 2 designed by one of his pupils. All of the houses we saw were of the Usonian style -- designed for "common folk" who couldn't afford a custom design.

Duncan House at Polymath Park

The Duncan House is one of a very few of Wright's prefabricated homes built in Wisconsin, advertised to cost only $15,000 in 1957 (it ended up costing about twice that!). Destined for the wrecking ball, it was purchased, dismantled, and reconstructed on this site in this century. Polymath consists of 3 Usonian homes; all can be rented for overnight accommodations.

After lunch at the Treetops Restaurant on site, we drove about 30 miles south to Kentuck Knob. We had visited this house two years ago, but this time we took the "in-depth" tour where we got to see three spaces not on the regular tour. Since our new house design is following Wright's principles, Alex was anxious to revisit some of the design features. We were not disappointed. Because the house is privately owned, photography was not allowed inside and it was pouring outside. You'll just have to take my word.

We made it back to Stonewall just ahead of a tornado warning. Fortunately nothing serious developed. Being Monday and a holiday, no quilt shops in the area were open.

We had all of Day 4 to get to our next destination, Springfield, Ohio. We made a stop at the Nelsonville Quilt Company, a sweet shop in Nelsonville, Ohio.

Nelsonville Quilt Company

The town of Nelsonville is the original home of the Star Brick Company. Hence the shop's license plate for R-B-R 2016.

 Another quilt shop and another house tour on the agenda for Day 5. Stay tuned!



Vacay - Day 2

Wild, Wonderful West Virginia

While Alex was up at 4:30 to exercise and shower, I opted to sleep in this morning. We only had 250 miles to cover today, all interstate except the last 5 miles, so we took our time, arriving at Stonewall State Resort Park in time for a nice late lunch. Apparently I hit the wrong button when making my reservation because we got an ADA room with roll-in shower! (note the umbrellas draining ...)

Roll-in Shower

The upside is we will have bedside seats for the fireworks display tonight!  (assuming we can stay awake 'til dark!)

Once settled in our room, we were trying to decide between kettle corn, ice cream, or hot dogs for the evening repast. Oh, for all Life's decisions to be so uncomplicated! However, we waited too long to decide, got nothing :-(

Built on a large Corps of Engineers lake, Stonewall is a relatively new resort. It has a large lodge,

Lobby at Stonewall Lodge

... an assortment of modern cabins, a choice of restaurants, an indoor-outdoor pool,

Indoor-outdoor pool

... spa, golf course, miles of hiking trails, and all sorts of organized activities.  Unfortunately for everyone, rain moved in this afternoon, along with chilly temps.

Poolside stalwarts wrapped in towels

Coincidentally, the dam to form Stonewall Jackson Lake was built to mitigate catastrophic flooding like what occurred in this area of the state in the 1980s. In a gesture of kindness, they are collecting cleaning and other supplies for the flooded areas in Greenbrier and other counties.

Cleaning supplies for southern WV

 Whether you live near here or are just passing by, I highly recommend Stonewall State Resort Park.

Nothing to report on the quilting front as it is Sunday and my favorite shop in Princeton, WV was closed when we came through.

Vacay - Day 1

Off to Bristol

Since we already had some swell-deal reservations at Stonewall State Resort Park in WV, as well as tour reservations at two Frank Lloyd Wright sites in Pennsylvania, we decided the first change in our original plans (once the golf tournament was cancelled due to flooding) was to leave a day earlier so that we could arrive at the park somewhat refreshed and in time to enjoy the 4th of July activities on the 3rd.


I wish I could say we got off to a rollicking start this morning, but the Smith luck of the last few weeks carried over.  Loaded for bear -- where did that phrase originate? -- the tire pressure light came on as we were pulling out of the garage! Indeed, there was a honking big (well it looked big to ME) screw imbedded in the left front tire. Firestone was wall-to-wall so we used Gabby the Garmin to find a small tire shop down the street and we were on our way about one hour later.

On the quilting front, we made a stop at Heavenly Stitches to pic up a R-B-R license and pattern.

Heavenly Stitches is a lovely shop in Kingsport, TN with a nice variety of fabric and a very friendly staff.  I also got 3 yards of one of the white Grunge fabrics (not very photogenic). Not sure it's exactly what I have been using, but if it doesn't work where I need it, it certainly won't go to waste!

Gassed up and ready for Day 2.

Oh Happy Day!

Hot Pink

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016 color for July - one of my favorites to work with!

And yet -- do I have a pink scrap bin? NO! Nothing in the FQ bucket, either! Maybe the hot pink scraps are lurking in the red bin .... no time to look right now.

I do, however, have a couple of UFOs where hot pink is featured, so it was easy to come up with my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for July.  Actually, it's going to be a TMG month.

Project One goes back a LONG way, and all it needs is quilting. Now that I'm feeling more confident in my machine quilting skills, I think this little 36" x 38" wall hanging is very doable.

Bloom Where Planted

This came from a guild challenge quite a few years ago where the theme was taken from a Mary Englebreit quote.  Having recently finished a queen size Blooming 9-Patch, I thought the pattern would make a nice backdrop for applique, but in a smaller scale.

I had been collecting yellows and pinks for another quilt (that has never been made, by the way) so that was my starting point. You can see the progression from almost white to mostly yellow and eventually on to yellow with pink. The 9-patches and whole squares finish at 2-1/4" (don't ask me why I came up with such an odd measurement). The applique is from a pattern by Cynthia Tomaszewski called "Sitting Pretty."

The project stayed unfinished for quite a while until I tackeled the top stitching on the fused applique --one of my least favorite things to do, next to borders. So it remained without borders until I found the right fabric.

Now it's time to get this one done!

Project Two has languished not quite as long, but you can see some of the same fabrics appear in it along with many of the other fabrics that had been designated for the never-started project.




Terrific Triangles a/k/a Chopsticks

 I began this in a class with Sue Jones at Fall Quilt Camp 2013. It's come out to play on several occasions only to get put away because I don't like the waste of trimming off the side triangles like the pattern calls for. I need to come up with a solution -- either constructing half triangles or finding a setting fabric. Most of the blocks have been made so it should be another quick finish to flimsy stage.

I'm linking up with Heidi at Red Letter Quilts -- declaring my OMG for July.

When Life Gives You Lemons ...

... Change Your Plans

Let me first say that my heart goes out to those affected by the flooding in West Virginia. We have spent a bit of time in that area during the last 3 years, so I recognize many of the landmarks in the news photos and it's heartbreaking to see the devastation.

I know worse things can happen to me, but when your Christmas gift to your husband was tickets to The Greenbrier Classic pro golf tourney in White Sulphur Springs, WV -- which is now cancelled -- and you've already lined up SIL to take care of the Queen Mother for the duration, what's a person to do?  Here's what:

We'll start out in WV as planned and from there we'll visit several Frank Lloyd Wright-designed homes between PA and St. Louis. My architect husband is excited about this change in plans, as am I. Especially since he has offered to indulge MY interests by stopping at quilt shops along the way!

I don't need more fabric, though -- well, maybe a few yards -- so my scheme is to hit shops participating in the Row by Row Experience, picking up a license plate and pattern at each. I might even be inspired to make a quilt and enter it in the contest; we'll see.

My quilting plans changed last week, too, as we scrambled to piece together a trip that would be interesting without being exhausting. In fact, I got very little done, maybe 10-15 minutes a day. I did finish assembling the center of the Wink & a Smile leftovers UFO. The borders will be the same fabric as the sashing. This is the third quilt from those 9-patch centers.

Jack's Back

I named it Jack's Back because the W&S blocks on point remind me of jacks.

Nothing will be accomplished in the sewing room this week at all. Since I had to empty out my clothes closet last week to give the HVAC guys access to the eaves storage area to install a new upstairs unit, I chose to review/reduce/recycle before returning my clothes to the closet. That included deaccessioning some costume jewelry pieces which led me to wondering about the value of some pieces I'd like to part with but might be able to sell for the metal in them.  I guess I need to wait till after vacation to check into that. Have you ever sold some old gold jewelry? I made enough to pay for shopping in Paducah once!

Dentist/bank/gas today, pack Friday, depart Saturday. No time to sew. I'll be taking a couple of quilts that need the binding turned, as well as some little HSTs that need trimming. Most exciting, though, will be my visit to the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild next Saturday as well as dinner with blog buddie Jan at The Colorful Fabriholic.

Hope y'all have a safe and happy 4th of July!

Mission Accomplished

June OMG is Finished!

 



Heidi at Red Letter Quilts issued a challenge at the beginning of the year to

limit myself to just One Monthly Goal (OMG) and then report at the end of the month. 

I'm happy to report that I finished my June goal of completing the top that has become known as Tropical Trellis (thanks to Jan at Colorful Frabriholic for the name).



Tropical Trellis

I had hoped to have enough extra parts to extend the outside stars into a border, but I couldn't make it work with what I had on hand so I decided to go borderless -- for now, anyway.  I don't have anything in the stash that will work as a border and it will finish about 45" x 60" as-is, a nice lap size.

So I'll consider it done. And almost a week before the end of the month -- a first!

There are still about 10 extra center stars which I'm thinking about combining with some rainbow hearts and plain squares in a top for the Orlando-Pulse Project.



Extra center stars

 

 I'm dutifully linking up with Red Letter Quilts for the OMG end-of-month linkup ...

 

... and with Angela for Scrap Happy Saturday.

 

 

 

 

 



A Little Ennui ...

... A Lot of Sweat

I haven't had much interesting to write about lately. It's been SO hot inside as well as out, and my sewing time has been interrupted by many distractions.

Let's see, I last left you as the 24-hour power outage ended a week ago amidst near 100-degree temps. After a quick cooling shower I headed off to an impromptu 3-day retreat of Procrastinators Anonymous. Several of us were suffering from the ennui malady and we thought getting together to sew would get the mojo going again.

Procrastinators in Diana's studio

When Diana suggested we get together at her house over the weekend, I was ready!  However, I think the 24-hour heat wave in our house fried my brain because I only packed one change of clothes (for 3 days!) and I didn't get a lot accomplished. Nevertheless, just being able to get away from the events at home was SO refreshing!

Friday I mostly worked on getting units made for my "soft country" version of Wink & a Smile. I finished two more blocks, but decided it would go faster if I got in production mode and did all of the sew-and-flip corners for the remaining 16 blocks first. (I'll try to get a photo of my progress this weekend.)

Saturday I took a break to attend the Music City MQG meeting where we made enough rainbow heart blocks to complete two quilt tops for the Orlando-Pulse Project.  I took the cutoffs from the large sew-flip corners back with me and stitched them into triangle squares (HSTs) to make another top.

Blocks for Orlando-Pulse Project

After I returned home on Sunday I powered through the problem blocks in Tropical Trellis and got that top finished. I'll have a photo of the completed project in my OMG report this weekend.



Before

After



Monday I pulled out another UFO that I've been working on over the last couple months. It's another Wink & a Smile that uses up leftovers from a class sample. All it needed was setting triangles so I got those cut and began final assembly. The triangles will be the same gold as the cornerstones -- maybe not the best choice, but I'm sticking with it!

Tuesday I went to the LAQ to pick up Pineapple Sun-day. Somehow when I get dressed up and drive across two counties, I can't get back in the groove to sew when I get home.



Pineapple Sun-Day before quilting

 Wednesday the Main Man had a medical procedure -- you know, the one every 5 years that requires a "responsible adult" to drive him home -- and then it was the weekly grocery run. No time to sew.

Thursday we had the upstairs AC unit replaced -- inside and out. (The old one quit cooling the last few weeks every time the outside temps hit 85.) It was an all-day process and the 90+ temps up there spilled over to the main floor making it hard to accomplish anything. I tried going to the basement to sew, but we could hang meat down there it was so cold! I'm glad it has balanced out again!

So that was my week. Getting through all that is definitely whoop-worthy so I'm linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.