Rafting Carnage

once again...we're off our rockers...

Best of Gauley

Here we go kids!

We are of to NYC, DC and white water rafting...smile

Before I begin this new post, let me make a correction about the last HP book review. I said to reread the Order of the Phoenix. Excuse me! I meant the Half Blood Prince. Reread the Half Blood Prince. The Order of the Phoenix was on my mind, cause I just saw the movie. My husband has never read any of the HP books and he picked up the last one and had lots of questions that the Order of the Phoenix movie could not answer. Please forgive my confusion.


On to the newest post:


We are off to collect our daughter, Chelsea, who has been away for 2 1/2 months on an internship at the American Museum of Natural History. She has been researching the Allende meteorite. Apparently this is a famous meteorite that fell to earth in Mexico and is being researched by the museum. Besides her time at the museum, she is having the time of her life in NYC. She started a blog called Chelsea's New York Capers. She is so sad to leave that town. It is a young person's town. Like Disney World, it is full sensory bombardment to the max. Maybe with a bit more smells than DW, that aren't all that pleasant, you can imagine. We are driving to New Jersey to catch the train into NYC. Then we'll spend the day seeing the special sights she wants to show us, this now professional tour guide for New York. Then we are driving to Washington DC. Following our time in DC, we will be going white water rafting in West Virginia.


We will return in time for me to enter 2 quilts in the Kentucky State Fair. I'll take pictures of my entries and past winners when I return. There is much debate about our fair and the judging, but, that probably goes on no matter what. What was that judge thinking when a particular quilt won a blue ribbon. I have to keep in mind the quilt I enter may be the one to inspire some one to want to learn the craft of quilting. What a wonderful craft it is. Quilts are beautiful and are a legacy left by the designer.


More than anything, put those labels on your quilts for future generations to know who made it and what it was made for. This will increase the value of your quilt as well. The Antiques Roadshow calls it Provenance. Anyway, if you watch that show at all, you know that any extra trivia articles or personal, historical information means at least an extra $50,000.00...smile...

Signature Blocks

These are my signature blocks for our exchange for our group. Next week we will be giving each other fabric blocks to each other for signatures and sayings/well wishes. I've fused Pellon Craft Weight fusible interfacing onto the backs of my blocks. Then I sewed around the edges where I want the writing/embellishing to stop. If I was making these for myself, sewing around the edge is not necessary, but, since others will be working on them, I added the extra bit of stabilization.



We went to Locust Grove Historic Home today. This is a picture of George Rogers Clark. He was most unhappy about his life at this point. By the time he arrived at Locust Grove, he'd lost a leg, felt he was cheated out of what he was owed and fought a not to pleasant reputation. Does this look like an unhappy man or what? The curator, Dr. Ely, brought out all the early 1800's quilts she had in storage for us to peruse. Really a sad treasure. Sad, because they had deteriorated so much the fabric was barely hanging together. We learned a lot about the history of Louisville, as well as got to see some very lovely old quilts. One tidbit of information. The British spelled Lewisville in correspondence, instead of Louisvile. They hated the French so much they did not want to recognize the King-at least that's what our docent told us. Ah well, fact or fiction, it was still a lovely time had by our group. I highly recommend this trip to this lovely house and all it's history. Also we had box lunches delivered from the City Cafe that were good. This was a fun all inclusive trip.

More fabric for my scrap quilt...

I needed to make my quilt larger, so I bought more fabric. Something is wrong, but, you know I gotta make it right. So, I'm off to matching my fabric in my intended scrap quilt. Scrap quilt should be using up scraps! But, I just have to make this one match. I will be making a version of a string quilt that our lovely member Shirley will be teaching us how to make soon. This is the pattern. Strings of scraps sewn together and then cut into this pattern, alternating with a solid or tone on tone, using this pattern also. I'm going to be going to NYC when she teaches this next week. I think I can figure it out though, it's a lot of piecing end to end of a variety of 1 to 2 inches strips-any length. We also will be making a signature block for our next exchange. I'm thinking about having the members sign hearts. This time, besides the names, we will be adding our own person tip or favorite saying to the name. We can also decorate them to our hearts content or not.


Upon reflection of my previous post, I suppose all quilts must come to these particular quilting zones as the float on down the river of a finished quilt. First the boat is launched in the upstairs bedroom and cut and sewn pieces together. Next the Quilt makes the first turn into the dining room and is machine quilted. As much as I love hand quilting, I do want to finish it in my lifetime, so I've become a machine quilter. Lastly the trip to the pier and docking at the handwork zone of quilting in my house, the basement, where I can watch movies as I put on the binding. I live a blessed life!

Quilting Zones

"You've taken over the whole house!" This is what my husband told me and so here's how I've taken over the whole house with my wonderful obsession, quilting.

This is my hand work zone, in front of the TV in the basement.

This is my machine quilting zone, in my dining room on the first floor.



This is my sewing/piecing zone upstairs, I've taken over 2 of the three bedrooms.

Next week we leave for NYC to pick up my DD Chelsea. She's been away for 2 1/2 months now and I'm sure she's grown up in so many ways Kentucky could never begin to educate her about. Life moves at such a fast pace there and keeping track of everything in the big city is a growing experience, to say the least.


Quick movie review: Miss Potter-sweet biography of Beatrix Potter, with Renee Zellwiger in the lead. Nice, if you like a period piece.

Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead. It's a lot of violence and so hard to believe the tale is based on true life in Africa. It is a good movie, in my personal opinion.

I finished the last Harry Potter book-great. No book has done more for establishing the habit of reading for children and adults than this series of books. Have the tissues handy. It probably wouldn't hurt to reread the Order of the Phoenix before you start this one. I didn't and I wish I had.

New music I'm listening to: The Avett Bros-wonderful banjo, stand up bass, and guitar along with a cello-Emotionalism is their new CD.

Will Mason is a young singer songwriter with an old voice in a young man's body. Beautiful lyrics in his new CD The Ocean Gets Rough.