Vacation Fun

 We've been on vacation down in the Smoky Mountains.  We really love that area of the country.  We rent a cabin and relax and take some side trips into neighboring towns.  If you look closely, you can see the rainbow we saw from our cabin after a rain.

I managed to do a little stash enhancement.  I don't usually see many small floral fabrics, so I bought these.  I think the print in these is small enough to use in hexagons.  As I pulled the bolts off the shelf and put them on the cutting counter, I had an idea.  

I've had this container of bright 1" hexagons for a long time.  I've taken them on retreats, on vacation, to sewing get togethers, and I never work on them.  So what if I put some of these with some of the florals in the photo above?  I think part of the reason these have been around for so long is that they're 1".  I'd really rather work with 3/4" hexagons, but I don't know if I want to take apart what I already have basted, trim them down, and make them 3/4". 

I know a lot of those in the container are already basted, but there are just some squares of fabric in there, too.  Decisions, decisions.  

And what if I'd put in some black and white fabrics?   Sometimes I think it would look good.  Other times I think it would look like a hot mess.  

This is one of our favorite places to visit when we're in the mountains.  The Morning Mist Cafe serves lunch.   

                                         

Then we walk around and visit the shops until we have room for some of the hand dipped ice cream from Glades Soda Fountain.

The shops close around mid afternoon.

At the far end of the shopping area I saw a sign that said crochet.   You know I couldn't pass up anything  crafty.   

The owner has crocheted all kinds of cute things from little stuffed animals to key chains.  

The 3 chickens in the bowl were spinning around,  It was a cute shop, and the owner was really nice  

The owner showed me this ergonomic crochet hook that she uses, so I bought one of those.  I've got a bit of a start on a granny square afghan.  

I also bought this little flower to sit on a shelf as a reminder of our trip.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.  

Stonefield's Blocks 1 - 4 - I've Started

Hi Everyone   Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.

I've started the Stonefield's quilt.  This pattern is by Susan Smith.  I've had this pattern for quite awhile.  It was a gift from a nice lady named Barb Perrin.  I haven't seen her in years, and I hope she sees these blocks as I (hopefully) keep working on this quilt.   Here are the first 4 blocks. 

  

This quilt is mostly made up of handwork which really appeals to me.  There are 121 blocks which are mostly applique'.  I think this quilt has always attracted me because the pattern is a lot like the Dear Jane quilt.  There are line drawings and a sentence or two about how the maker constructed the block.  We're left to either use her suggestions or come up with our own method of doing the blocks.  AND, there is also an outer border of 3 rounds of 3/4" hexagons. That's right up my alley.   The inner border is made up of flying geese.  

I did do these four star blocks by machine because it seemed like the most accurate way to do them instead of hand piecing them.  These fabrics have been in my stash for awhile.  As soon as I saw this pattern, I started collecting fabrics.  The date on the pattern is 2013, so I've had some of these fabrics for quite awhile.  

I know this is a long term project, but this has been on my list of quilts to make for a long time.  

I've been watching Chris, Rebecca and Gretchen work on their Stonefield's blocks, so I decided to join in.  Gretchen has finished stitching all the blocks, and they're gorgeous.  She was working on one of the last few blocks when I saw her at the Dear Jane retreat in April.  

I didn't mean to be gone for so long.  I caught some kind of a flu bug, and it's taken awhile to feel better.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you're finding time to stitch today.  

Design Wall Monday-Not Stonefields

I know I said I was starting Stonefields, but when I got downstairs to my sewing room I saw a pile of nine patches.   So I got an idea.   Our challenge for the next retreat is to sew something that reminds us of Rebecca Haarer that owns Rebecca's Arts and Antiques in Shipshewana, IN.  Somehow I missed the trip to the church cabin where the original quilt is hanging, but the girls that went took photos.  Here's my design wall with the blocks that I've sewn so far. 

The Christmas cross stitches that you see hanging around the edge somehow didn't make it upstairs with the other pieces of cross stitch that I have in my basket of shame to be finished somehow so I can display them.  

This is the photo that one of the girl's posted of the Church Cabin quilt.  It's really pretty simple.  It's a nine patch of nine patches.  The little individual nine patches finish at 3".  I've loved this quilt since the first time someone posted photos of it.  Several of the girls from the retreat have made their own version of the quilt.  I'm still doing handwork at night, but this is my new machine piecing project.   

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday at my friend Judy's blog.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you're finding time to stitch today.