What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I know I’ve been quiet lately. It seems like I have been busy all week, but I haven’t had one thing to blog about. It is mostly mundane stuff, nothing exciting or even just interesting going on. I’m working on the Quilt of Valor that I’ve shown you before. Other than that, just doing a bit here and there, and moving things around for the flooring that was finished up this past week, trying not to go crazy from all the noise of hammering and chain saws. But, I did observe one exciting thing during one ...

This past week was busy with retreat, and some work around the house. So, I don’t have much for chatting today. We finally have a few flowers coming out as the weather warmed up this week. My one little clump of daffodils did produce some pretty blooms.

One little crocus is trying to bloom.

The early morning showed some lovely soft purple and pink colors, with a golden glow showing the approach of the sun.

Over near the retaining wall, where my husband has put stones over the bare earth, a few intrepid daffodils struggle to come up around ...

It is finally March, and I am ready for spring. The birds have been here a lot, getting their fill of seeds. It has been so cold, and they really need the extra calories. There are so many, they’ve been going through a feeder-full every two days. I need to get a couple more suet cakes done and hung up so they have the extra fat and protein. Here, a bluebird and a nuthatch grab a bite.

A goldfinch looks down from the bracket waiting his turn.

On the feeder, the rosy bird on the left is a male ...

Our first drive with the MINI club was this weekend. Everyone was excited to get together again and drive our mountain roads. Even with it still being winter, with no leaves or flowers yet, the countryside is still beautiful. It had been raining up to half an hour before our meeting time, and the skies were still overcast. We started out at a local grocery store parking lot to meet and have our driver’s meeting.

Then we were off. No rain fell on us during the drive. It was overcast most of the way to the interim stop. Since ...

With more time to sew this week, progress was made on the Quilt of Valor begun last week. When we left off, the top was assembled and ready to quilt. It uses a panel with six star blocks and large sections of a patriotic print.

I loaded it on the longarm frame, and began auditioning thread colors looking at light blue, navy, red, and white. I didn’t take any photos of that. Ultimately, I decided on a light blue Glide thread for the top with light blue Bottom Line in the bobbin. The backing is blue with light and ...

Another cold weekend, with a lot of wind blowing down branches caused power outages yesterday. Luckily, we were not affected. The snow melted away, and it is now just bitterly cold. But this won’t last, it is doing to warm up to the 60sF this coming week. More gorgeous sunrises this past week brought color to the dawn over the mountains to the east.

I didn’t have a lot of time to take more photos of the birds that I know you all love to see. Here’s one I didn’t show from before the snow melted ...

Another weekend of cold and dreary weather, with snow! At least not as much ice this time. Still, it is enough to empty out the stores of bread and milk, LOL!! Luckily, I had shopped earlier in the week. The birds have been here in big numbers all week. Ones I haven’t seen in a while, like a pair of towhees, are showing up now to get their share of the suet. Here, a cardinal on the left shares the seed with a chickadee. On the suet, a Carolina wren sits on top, while a downy woodpecker works on ...

The small herd of five deer have been hanging around here lately. They were back earlier in the week on the mountainside behind the house. I believe they are all females. Two appear to be adults, while the other three are likely juveniles almost grown.

One was moving ahead of the others, and paused to look at me near the rhododendrons with their leaves curled up against the cold.

The others behind headed up the west side in the morning sun.

They nibbled their way behind the rhododendrons. I put an arrow to the one almost hidden.

They ate the ...

This week, I’ve been working on some small projects, and was really looking forward to the guild meeting on Thursday. Unfortunately, this is what I awoke to that morning. It wasn’t much, maybe a half-inch, but enough to keep me from backing the car down that hill. At dawn, the golden light glows behind the mountains on the east side. The snow was continuing to fall briskly.

It stopped later, with under an inch total of the pristine beauty. Still, it was enough to keep me home, so I missed the guild meeting. Sadly, I missed seeing friends ...

A few days of warmth have been followed by a really cold snap. The deer have been here several days looking for food. I think it is fine for them to eat the vines and weeds out of the hosta garden.

This gal did her part.

Three of them moved through, and I wish they’d stay a bit longer and finish off the weed removal. But, it is hard to find good help these days.

In the birdhouse, I thought I saw a bird sitting in the opening with its head looking around. I realized after taking several photos ...

Several mornings this past week had such colors at dawn that I had to step out to the freezing cold to take pictures. This day had purple clouds low on the horizon, almost looking like a second mountain ridge with the sun coming up in front of them.

The birds seem to like the new feeder. A pair of chickadees take advantage of the bounty on a very cold and overcast day.

Here, a Carolina wren gets his share while a downy woodpecker has a meal on the opposite perch.

Another dawn in golden yellow and peach hues.

Morning fog ...

This past week, My Sweet Babboo had to replace our bird feeder. The old one was falling apart due to constant assault by a pileated woodpecker. He would sit on top of it and jackhammer the plastic with his beak. The plastic tube that held the seed was a bit old and had a crack in it as well. I liked the cage around it as it kept the doves from sleeping on the perches keeping the little birds out, but the pileated could hold onto the cage, and reach his long beak inside. He was eating half the seed ...

It has been a wonderful holiday week, with a slower pace, more time with friends, and the last of the shopping. Settle in with a cuppa for a long and picture heavy post. The gifts are under the tree, and the stocking stuffers are hidden for when Santa comes on Christmas eve. Handmade cards were sent, and Christmas cookies baked and frosted to enjoy at leisure. Tuesday night, we had dinner with friends and went to the Lake Julian Festival of Lights show.

This is a small show, in comparison to others. But we love it simply because it is ...

It has been a crazy busy week this past week. Every one of my clubs had their holiday event, and one club had two. Tuesday night we went to a party, Wednesday was our guild tea, Saturday was a car club breakfast, followed by a drive out to Balsam Mountain for a party and overnight with breakfast event with the MINI club. We had planned to do a holiday stroll on Friday night but it was just too bloody cold to walk around outside. Back home, this little table top hanging said it all – I just want to Bake Stuff ...

Fall color came into its peak at our place this past week, and was gone just as quickly. Early one morning, as the sun came up over the mountain to the east, the oranges and golds were glowing in the light.

The colors were beautiful down the driveway and around the street.

Gracie, our resident squirrel, came up for a treat. Of course, she looks so cute that she got her peanut butter sandwich.

Across the valley, more red can be seen in the pear and maple trees.

Then, one morning, snow! OK, it is just a dusting, but we ...

November is showing off its colors in our area as we hit the peak this past week. Beautiful russet and gold adorns the view from our veranda. The colors are not as vivid as they have been in the past. Mainly this year was too dry in the late summer, and the winds picked up blowing off many leaves before they could change fully. Still, there is beauty here in my favorite month of the year.

Wildlife has been coming by regularly. This small herd of four female deer was busy with the acorns on the driveway.

The resident black ...

With Fall Fortnight beginning in just two days, let’s have a chat today. Autumn is slowly arriving, with some varieties of trees already turning, but most have not begun yet. Late October is generally our peak for fall color, so it is a bit early yet. Plus the weather needs to get a lot cooler for the trees to be turning.

Stepping out on the veranda one morning, I found a spider had been very busy. This web was beautifully done, lovely in its symmetry. It is really difficult to photograph a web as the camera just refuses to ...

Yesterday, our MINI club participated as a group in the Autumn in the Mountains car show. Knowing it was coming up, I found some autumn theme ducks for the cars and tied little cards I made to them as a sort of party favor.

They were so cute with their fall leaf wings and acorn caps, and I think were a hit with the car owners. I took extras so I could put one in MINIs that were not current members.

I made up a photo scavenger hunt for us as well, with things like a British Flag, seen here ...

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of the worst disaster I’ve ever lived through, Hurricane Helene. You can read my original post on the aftermath as we were living it on this post – Hurricane Helene Dealing With the Aftermath. Three days of rain before the hurricane arrived had already softened the ground and swollen rivers. The torrential rain and wind of the hurricane on top of that created massive flooding and uprooted trees causing such devastation that parts of our area may never recover. In our county, we got 24 inches of rain in just three days. It took ...

Every fall, our car club’s Appalachian region does a multi-day event of drives and parties called Appalachian Adventure. This year the event was held in Kingsport, Tennessee. We spent several days having fun with friends, and meeting new ones from other regions. We got there early on Thursday to work the registration desk, then enjoy a cocktail party. The next day, all the cars were parked on the golf course for a participant judged show for the morning. After lunch, we were off on our first event of the weekend. There are some wonderful old barns and pastoral scenes ...