Fly Fishing and the Kentucky Backroads

We left bright and early on a trip to below the dam on Herrington Lake.  You are hard pressed to find a more beautiful shot than smoke rising on the water, early in the morning in Kentucky.

On our way through the scenic byways, we saw lots of farms and scads of potential quilt barns.  Whoever lives in that area needs to get on it and start the process of putting the quilts up on those barns.

Arriving at our destination, the limestone centurions greeted us with a wry smile, I suppose.  They must have known what I did not, that there would be no fish that wanted our bait.  Anyway, I got in a lot of good practice casting.

The day wasn't a total lost as I just love being outdoors and nature in the fall in Kentucky can't be more lovely.

Off to Shaker Village where they "Welcomed us kindly".  I think I like that phrase, as old fashioned as it sounds.  They were in the midst of a stone wall building competition, with competitors from around the world.

On to the Inn where we had hoped to have lunch,but, were told no reservations?  No food.  Upon some inspection of the Inn, it was plain to see the demise of the Shakers, his and hers stair cases.

The Beaumont Inn was our next try for lunch, they don't serve lunch on Saturday, but the Owl Tavern did.  Pretty good pub fair, fried chicken and bread pudding, yum!  I'll have to ride 10 miles tomorrow.

Patterns are only guidelines

A little too dull

Not exactly the right blue, but, a hint will be okay

It's too bad that life can't be more like quilting.  In quilting there is almost nothing you can't fix.  About the only time I saw something that couldn't be fixed was when I was teaching a fabric painting class.  Someone blended their paint so much they ended up with grey mud.  At that time, there were not the beautiful metallic paints they have on the market today.  Or maybe they were available and I just didn't know about them.  If they were out there in the early 90's my statement...almost nothing you can't fix, still held!

Anyway, I bought this pattern to make a lantern purse.  I liked it right away and I pulled some fabric I have and just thought it was missing something.  So, I'm going to add a blue piping to pop the blue fabric out more, just above the pleats.

There you go, the pattern  is close but not quite right.  However you look at your projects and analyze their needs, there is ALMOST nothing you can't fix to your liking in quilting.

Just don't give up on it and challenge yourself...the life of a quilter...smile

It's fall in the Ohio Valley

Along with all this lovely fall goodness, I'm working on a Tennessee Waltz quilt and a purse.  The quilt is too big for the design wall and it's time to add the rows of blocks.

I'm still auditioning fabric for my Lantern Bag.  It's put together like box pleated drapes.  In my early life of a quilter, I made drapes for interior designers.  I made a couple of box pleated drapes in my time and I saw this and thought brilliant!  You have the capacity to expand your bag.  Without expansion you have the accent fabric to show, or if junk expands to the space allotted, you have the peek a boo of the bag fabric to show.

Foot Pedal Tip for Pfaff's

Tired of your sewing machine foot pedal scooting all around?  Try turning it upside down.  The ball of your foot rests on the action part of the pedal and you have much more control of the pressure.

All foot pedals are different, so your's might not work like this.  But, if you own a Pfaff, I have 2 machines, they both have the same foot pedal and it's upside down and pedal to the metal, or you know what I mean...smile.

Yes, those are scraps from my Tennessee Waltz quilt I'm neck deep into and almost finished with the top.  So that means until I'm finished with a quilt, an organized mess is par for the course while I'm working on a quilt for a deadline.

Happy Quilting!

Another fun day of bike riding...albeit a little warm

On a warmish Sunday afternoon we took another 10 mile trip around the lovely homes of Louisville.

We are not original to Louisville.  I'm from Collinsville, Oklahoma and my husband is from Tulsa, Oklahoma.  We met in college at Oklahoma State University and moved to New Mexico, where we lived in Lovington, New Mexico for a year.  Then we moved back to Broken Arrow, Ok, where we lived for a few more years, then on to Houston for 11 years and now to Louisville for 14 years.

In all this time I've never really driven around the neighborhoods.  Now that we have our bikes and are the Wheeling Around Louisville book, we are well on our way to finding out about the older beautiful neighborhoods around us.

If you get the book, it's designed to start out "slow".  Ten mile bike rides with no hills, called Turtle rides are the first few mapped out plans for your route.

Yesterday took us around Seneca Gardens.  This is near Bowman Airfield off of Taylorsville road.  The winding trail lead us past beautiful homes and pre-civil war era homes, one of which was probably built in the early 1800's and was a home to slaves.

My new baby...nope not a sewing machine

I've been pretty busy with my new bike.  It's a Specialized Vita Sport.  The weather is getting cooler and so I'm outside a lot enjoying the weather and getting some exercise.

My husband, Bob and I went on a 10 mile ride around downtown Louisville.  The planned route came from a fabulous book Wheeling Around Louisville.  We wound around Old Louisville and got to stop in on the Garvin Gate Blues Festival.

The trip we took, if you get the book is called Tour of the Nabes.  It's a trip through several of Louisville's historic neighborhoods around downtown.  Including St. James with it's lovely fountain, yes, the one where the great craft fair is every fall.

I am told this book is designed so that if you ride the rides in order of the book, by the last one, you will be able to go on a century (100 mile) ride.  This first lovely ride is called a Turtle Ride, which is a classic term for mapped routes with no hills.

I'm kind of a slow and steady wins the race kinda gal, so it fit me just right!