A Weekend Getaway

 We had a weekend getaway to Ohio at Hueston Woods Lodge in the state park there.  The room had a lake view, and the Lodge has a restaurant in house so it's just a nice place to walk around and relax.  And......

The Real Story:    We went for the hot water.   Yep.   Last Thursday I did a lot of laundry, and I noticed that the washer sounded like there was air in the pipes.  Then later on in the day I noticed that the same noise was coming from the sink.  Friday morning we showered and my husband drained the hot water heater tank thinking that if he drained it and turned the circuit breaker off and back on that would take care of the problem.   Well no.  The circuit breaker wouldn't turn back on so there we were with no hot water.  We called a plumber, and he came out on Friday.  He couldn't fix the old water heater......and he couldn't come back until Tuesday morning with a new one.  That's a long time without hot water from Friday to Tuesday.  Besides not being able to shower, your brain automatically makes your hand go to the hot water faucet whenever you wash your hands or do anything at the sink.  And then nothing comes out.  My son said we were welcome to go to his house to shower, but after thinking about it we'd have to take clean clothes, towels, shampoo and conditioner.  So I had the idea to go to a hotel for a couple of days.  We checked a few places, and decided to go over to Ohio to Hueston Lodge.  We stayed until Monday afternoon.  The plumber was here at 8 this morning, and after 3 1/2 hours, he had the new water heater installed.  When he left he said we'd have hot water in about an hour.  No.  My husband went downstairs to check the temperature on the new water heater, and one of the pipes was leaking.  The plumber just left (after his second visit today), and again said we'd have hot water in about an hour.  We'll see.  

Here are a couple more photos I took of Hueston Woods.  This was taken with the panorama setting on my phone.  It looks like everything is squished.  

This is the lobby where you check in.  For some reason I didn't take a picture of where the rooms are.  They are off to the right of the photo.  This is where I've gone in January 2024 and 2025 for the Keepsakes Stitch Away retreat.   It's especially nice in the winter because sleeping, stitching and the restaurant are all right there so we don't need to go outside in the winter weather until we're ready to head home.

The lobby is actually on the second floor.  Here is the big spiral staircase leading from the first floor up to the lobby.  

Of course I took along a hexagon project.  This is the layout for the Avignon quilt I'm working on.  The pattern is in the Feathering the Nest 4 book by Brigette Giblin.  This quilt will be totally scrappy using some new fabrics I've purchased and some of my old repro fabrics that I love.  That cheddar one down toward the bottom of that photo might not make the cut.  It kind of stands out too much from the rest.  I'll see when I add these to the others I have stitched.  These are 5/8" hexagons.  

I've also started a new counted cross stitch project with a couple stitching friends.  We take turns picking a project on our birthdays for all of us to do.   Some years we send each other a kit to stitch.  Other times we just pick a project.  I didn't pick a project on my birthday in April, but another friend picked this one for her August birthday.  This is America the Beautiful by Stitching with the Housewives.  This is a pattern that I've had for quite awhile and have always wanted to do.   Priscilla and Chelsea did their model stitch on black fabric.  They stitch on 28 count over 2 threads.  I decided to do something different so mine is on 18 count dirty Aida cloth.  The word America looks like it's stitched in black, but it's actually a dark navy.  It shows up better in person.  It's actually kind of fun to get back into cross stitch again.  

That's it for now.   I've got more stitching to show but I'll save it for next time.  If you're still reading, thanks for listening to my tale of woe about having no hot water.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

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

Stonefield's Hexagons and How I Sew Them

Here are the hexagons that I have finished for the outer border of my Stonefield's quilt.  These are made from fabrics that are brighter than I usually sew with, but I think they will look nice on the outside border of the quilt.  Stonefield's is a pattern by Susan Smith, and I think the blocks kind of lend themselves to brighter, fun fabrics. 

I've had people ask how I can sew hexagons together so quickly.  I've tried different methods of sewing my hexagon flowers together.  This one seems to work best for me, and I feel like it's the fastest method.  (I'm not an expert.  I'm just sharing how I sew mine together. ) 

 

First I glue baste my english paper piecing.  I'm not doing heirloom sewing.  I'm just making quilts for my own enjoyment.  I use the Sewline glue pen, and I buy my refills from Amazon here.  

These are glue basted.  I cut a 3/8" seam allowance on my hexagons so if I've fussy cut a fabric I've got some wiggle room to center it.  I sew my hexagons using the flat back/ladder method.  There are a lot of good videos out there showing this method.  You can see by the position of my needle how this works.  I can start my hexagons this way, but if you have trouble getting started you can put the right sides of the hexagons together and take the first couple of stitches that way.  Then you can hold them flat like you see in the photo below.  Most every quilt with hexagons has 2 hexagons sewn together like you see in the photo below.  So I start by sewing a lot of sets of 2 hexagons together.

 

A hexagon flower has 3 sets of 2 hexagons sewn together so I start by sewing them in pairs.  

Now sew them into a ring leaving an opening.  

Now you can choose a center hexagon and finish sewing the hexagon together with just one thread.  This avoids the starting and stopping, and I think it goes so much faster because after you make the ring, you only have to thread your needle once to add the center and finish closing the hexagon flower.  I start at the arrow, go around and out where I left the opening.  

I keep a container of odd hexagons made from scraps or something that I think would make a good fussy cut center.  

Here are a few centers that I've auditioned from my container above for the center of this hexagon.  

And, here's the finished hexagon flower ready for my Stonefield's quilt.  

Here are a few more that I've sewn.  I know there are a lot of ways to sew these little flowers together.  This is just the way that I do it.  

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

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Christmas Is Coming

 

The question of the day is:

Who doesn't need another Christmas quilt? 

That's what I thought when I saw these blocks on Joy's blog:   Days Filled With Joy

I've finished blocks 1 and 2.

Joy is generously offering these blocks as a free block of the month called Floral Baubles.  (Thank you Joy!)     Joy leaves them up on her blog free for a month. 

Joy is doing her star points scrappy, but I decided to alternate mine with red on the first month.

And, I did green for the second month.  

The blocks come out on the 2nd Wednesday of each month.  There will be 9 blocks in all, and they will finish at 12 inches.  They are quick, easy embroidery.  I don't usually do anything fancy when I embroider.  I usually just do chain stitch, stem stitch or outline stitch.   My backstitch never looks even so I avoid that one!

I've downloaded block number 3 and have started to chain stitch around the outside edge.  

These are the fabrics I've pulled so far to do my star points and background.  

This block of the month won't finish until February, but that leaves plenty of time to get the blocks sashed (or not), sewn together and quilted so it's ready to go for the next Christmas.  

Melisa of PinkerNPunkin blog shared her blocks on her post here. 

 These blocks are really a lot of fun to embroider, so I hope you check them out at Joy's blog.  Until next time.......

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

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