Staying Busy

I finally got in some sewing time this past week. I am working on machine quilting this baby quilt for the girl that cuts my hair. She is having her first baby, a girl.

Still working in the garden. Last week I planted some seedlings and picked the dried bean pods on the vines.

I planted pinto and black beans in the spring. The top left corner shows the only black beans I got from that planting. So I planted some more pinto beans and got a pretty good crop this time. I dry the pods on the vines, then shelled them to dry some more. I will let them sit on a screen for a week or two to make sure they are good and dry. 

These will be good to eat this winter.

I was also able to get the border made for the September Kathy Schmitz block of the month. I still have the October border kit to make.

 The other day I was in the garden and noticed this caterpillar on some dill that was growing. I think it will turn into a black Swallowtail butterfly if a bird doesn't eat it first. I will check to see if it is still on the plant tomorrow.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

DC

I haven't really stepped foot in my sewing room lately. The last few days my "feet" have been outside working in the yard and the garden. We have had delightful weather here in North Carolina. Fall is in the air.

I thought I would share a few photos from my trip to Virginia. After the wedding Mr. P. and I went to my #1 son and daughter-in-law's home near Washington DC. It had been a very long year since we had seen them. We only had a few days together but we enjoyed every minute. My son took us to the conservatory in downtown DC. It was the holiday so the crowds were minimal. Here are some of the photos I thought as quilters you would enjoy.

The next day my son and daughter-in-law took us on a boat taxi from Old Town, yes that is the name, to Georgetown. It was a fabulous day. Here is the Washington monument. It is being repaired after an earthquake that happened a couple years ago. There is scaffolding all around it.

Once in Georgetown we strolled the streets to check out the shops. Look close at this photo. Those are all sewing machines in the window. I think this was a clothing store but I can't remember.

My son insisted that we go visit the famous Georgetown cupcake shop. He ordered a dozen cupcakes. So many flavors and so yummy.

Unfortunately our time with them was so short and it was time to head back home. We stopped at a quilt shop on the way home. This store had lots of fabric too. They put all the fabric on short bolts. You could definitely get more fabric on shelves but I didn't care for it only because I couldn't see what line of fabric was on the bolt. One plus though was the fabric was $9.50 a yard.

This shop was call the Quiltery. It is in Fairfield, Virginia. As you can see I found some fabrics.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Before and After

The guild that I am a member of puts out a newsletter each month. One of the members sent in a request to be published. She knew someone that had an applique pillow that needed repair.  I emailed the member and told her I was interested. We met at one of local quilt shops and this is the pillow she gave me.

 The original request from the owner of the pillow was just to repair the background fabric. Well, I didn't see any way of doing that without taking the whole thing apart. So I carefully un-sewed the rooster making sure to keep it all together as much as possible. I did not want to lose any of those pieces. Then I un-sewed the background fabric from that blue border fabric. This pillow had been used a lot and the fabrics were very faded. If you look close on the main body of the rooster you can see some yellow embroidery. All but those two lines were missing. A lot of the brown embroidery on his chest was broken threads. If you look to the right you can see where there is top stitching done on the brown that was an attempt to repair the piece.

 Here is Mr. Rooster in all his glory again.

 I appliqued him to the new background and did all the embroidery over again. I replaced the purple part with a color that was similar to the faded piece which was torn too. I added the yellow embroidery that I could see on the original piece.

 Then I hand quilted around the rooster like the original piece. The lady who owns this pillow must love it very much for some reason to want it repaired. I hope she will be happy with my repairs.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Old and New

As I mentioned in the last post the cabin we stayed in had quilts on every bed. These were made especially for the cabin. Here is a vintage quilt hanging on the wall. I love this design.

 Here is the one that was on our bed. It was hard getting a good picture because of the lighting. We were in a loft.The machine quilting in the middle was great. Just take my word.

  There were more beds but they were in other family member rooms. I didn't want to invade their space.

 Unfortunately I didn't think to get pictures until they had all moved into their rooms.  The quilts in the cabin were not really "Old" except for the first one. But because we stayed in the cabin it made it seem like they were old.

So this past Wednesday the Modern Quilt Therapy group met at the Little General. Now to the "New" modern quilts.

 These two were made by our featured member.

 This whole cloth quilt was made by Laura who has been quilting some of my quilts.

 Simply Amazing!

 This wonderful star quilt was made by LC of MayChappell. You can find out more about this quilt on her post here.

 We did a pencil pouch swap during our meeting. This is the pouch I made. We were to put our pouch in a brown paper bag so it was a secret swap.

 This is the one I received. I was told by the maker, Tomoe, that it was made from scraps. Whatever it was made from, I just love it especially the little flower she made hanging from the zipper. Thanks Tomoe!

 There were two door prizes given away. I was one of the winner of this stack of fabrics.

Old or New, we quilters love quilts in all styles.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Last Week

So part of last week I was in Virginia at my nephew's wedding and visiting my #1 son and daughter-in-law. The wedding was in Charlottesville. As we were driving into town I spotted this barn with a quilt block on it. I know it is hard to see but it is that yellow square in the middle. We drove past it several times and this is the best shot I could get. 

 Before we drove to where we were staying we drove into Charlottesville. Mr. P. is always so good to drive me to quilt shops when we visit new places. The shop is called Cottonwood. I could have spent hours in this shop because of all the fabric they sold. A quilter's delight for sure.

 I highly recommend that you visit it if you are in the area.

 I happened to visit on a day they were having a sale. I got the Kissing Booth layer cake 40% off and some of the fat quarters were on sale. I am collecting these for a quilt I plan to make next year.

After we stopped here, we ate lunch and then headed towards the cabin we were going to stay at. This is one of the views as we were driving up the road.

 We drove up the mountain. This was a rental cabin. It was originally two cabins brought up the mountain. The center part was added in between the two cabins. What was so neat was that the windows on both sides of the middle section fold up like an accordion so the room could be open to the outdoors. We did not do this because it was too hot and humid.  My sister-in-law invited us along with several other family members to stay at the cabin before the wedding day. It was great to see family. My two boys and their wives were there too. My daughter wasn't able to be there because of her job.

 Inside the kitchen was a functioning wood cooking stove. The refrigerator was a electric replica.

 Every bed in the cabin had a quilt on it. I will show some of them next post.

With Passion,
Carrie P.