What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Warmer days mean having meals on the veranda. Last week we had friends over for a meal, so I had to set a nice table for them. After washing the pollen off the table, I set it with white placemats, spring green chargers, white dinner plates and pink floral salad plates.

Spring green napkins are held with plastic crystal design rings, with everyday flatware. I didn’t put the drink glasses on the table, as I had several sizes for our guests to choose depending on what they wanted to drink. I put one set of salt and pepper shakers ...

Tomorrow is Earth Day and it is the perfect time to make our yearly pledge to help our planet by recycling, repurposing and reusing. I’ve talked about some of these ideas before in various posts, but it has been awhile since we looked at them. So, I’ve pulled a number of ideas from several past posts, and a couple of new things for our chat today. We live in a beautiful world, and I know if everyone can do just a little, it will make a big impact. Let’s start with a lovely shot of our local ...

This past week, I managed to eek out a bit of time for some creative fun, and stamped a few more cards for the boutique. I think I’ll stop at 30 to have for sale. The great thing is if they don’t sell, I’ll have them to use myself. I love this sentiment!

Two more with a different sentiment. I put this same saying on the inside of a few other cards.

Are you in the path of the total solar eclipse? See my posts from 2017 when we were able to see one. First, Preparing for ...

The garden is still gearing up, with some things finishing their blooming cycle and others are just getting started. I still haven’t bought the forsythia I want for the circle island, and now it may once again be too late. I need to figure that out this week. This is a photo of one from a few years back, just to show you the gorgeous yellow flowers that cover the bushes in early spring.

The redbud tree is coming out beautifully, with the pink blossoms alive with pollinators.

I love the rich purple pink of these flowers.

In the ...

Now that I finished the little table topper in yellow and grey, I wanted to set a pretty springtime table with it. I pulled out yellow chargers and my favorite yellow salad plates. They are called Chloe, and I got them from Pier 1 years ago.

I start with putting the table topper at an angle on top of a white tablecloth, with the points toward the places.

I have two of these adorable ducklings with eggs, with green hats and big orange feet. Pulling out my yellow ceramic basket, I filled it with faux spring tulips and hibiscus, along ...

The peach trees we saw in South Carolina last week got damaged by the frost on Monday night. A report on the news said that only time will tell how much damage there is this year, but it comes on the heels of a 90% loss in peaches last year from a similar late freeze. So, it may be more expensive have a peach this year. Our apples are not budding yet, so they were safe from the cold temps. This week my little peach trees came into bloom. They are pitifully small trees, and don’t produce great fruit ...

The week we had a great day to do a drive down to South Carolina to see the peach trees in bloom. They bloom in mid-March most years, with some varieties blooming a bit later. The day was supposed to be warm enough to put the top down on the roadster, and we met up with more members of the British Car Club at a local shopping center.

The sun was out, even though it was a bit cool in the morning. Light jackets worn to look at the cars and visit with friends were quickly shed once we were ...

A busy week is behind me, with three full days of retreat then a lunch meeting on Friday that was more fun than work. I also had displays to set up at the library Friday morning, so I had to just drop things in the sewing room and put off cleaning it up until Saturday. I’ll talk about retreat this week, after I get all those photos processed and have time to write about it. But for today, as always, we have a variety of subjects to chat about. So get your cuppa, and settle in.

As I was ...

Chester made a couple of appearances over the past couple of weeks. He doesn’t always stay around to get his picture taken, but this day he must have been really hungry as he was on the veranda trying to beg a treat.

I’m delighted when he stops by, and wish he’d come more often.

In the meadow, a couple of dozen robins came by and stayed a couple of days. We saw them many times, and then they moved on.

The photos had to be taken with the long lens on the camera from inside the house ...

I am fascinated by fog. It brings a stillness and quiet that has such an ethereal quality. We had a couple of mornings with fog followed by a rainy afternoon, perfect to hunker down and do some sewing and stamping. On this early morning, the fog is so thick that the next house down the street isn’t visible, and the valley cannot be seen. If you look really close at the bottom of the photo, a faint outline of the rooftop of that house is barely discernible.

Looking down the driveway, the same thick fog obscures the road before ...

The Safelight Project made great headway in the past two weeks, as case sets started coming in, and checks arrived. I was stunned at the amounts on several of them, in the hundreds of dollars! So much so that I can announce that we have exceeded our financial goal!! To say thank you seems so inadequate, but to Dorothy F, Janet S, and Tina W, you are all amazing. The three of you funded over half the project! Special thanks also to Kay, Susan and Vicki, your generosity is much appreciated. Those donations along with a lot of $5-$50 ...

It has been bitterly cold this past week, and the birds are stuffing their beaks to get enough energy to keep warm. Of course, this means the feeder empties out quickly on some days. We have a pair of hairy woodpeckers that live here year round. Here the female hangs off the bottom of the feeder, while a goldfinch sits on the left keeping a close eye.

The goldfinch flew off, and a bluebird stopped by to take its place. More goldfinches were visiting and taking turns.

A titmouse landed on the empty suet feeder looking for more sustenance on ...

This past week had a couple of meetings, a delivery, and lots of time to sew. But did I get anything done? Well, not really. I could have made a quilt top in all the time I had, but it was eaten up with household chores, some piddling around, and a fair amount of just wandering, not doing anything. I didn’t want to do the handwork on the wall hanging, saving that for the weekend. Nothing else seemed to capture my interest, so I petted the fabric, moved some things around, and tried to organize a bit of clutter ...

It was a rainy day with lots of fog on the route when we set off for the MINI Christmas event in the northeast Georgia mountains. Arriving mid afternoon, the MINIs were staring to line up in the parking lot.

Some had added some holiday cheer to their cars. They are still fun to see, even in the drizzly weather.

The hotel was on a lake, and even with the fog it was beautiful. Later in the evening, this firepit was lit, and we toasted marshmallows for s’mores. We couldn’t sit down because the chairs were wet, but ...

Every year, during our Appalachian Mountain MINIs Christmas party, we have a silent auction to raise money for charity and have some fun. This year, I decided to make some Christmas cards in addition to a quilted item. I found these clip art images online, and printed off several pages of them. I colored them in before cutting them apart.

Then, I dug out some cardstock in colors to coordinate, and began layering elements. I began with mounting each image on cardstock to be a frame. Then I put elements together on larger folded cardstock to create the card.

Every ...

Are you enjoying this Thanksgiving Weekend and beginning of the holiday season? I sure am! This weekend, my Thanksgiving cactus burst into bloom all over. I think these blooms are so interesting, with their shapes that make me think of little rockets.

The plant has blooms all over, most are red.

On the other side, there are a few yellow ones blooming, and more buds on the way on the fronds behind.

Several people asked about the difference between the Christmas and Thanksgiving cacti on the leaf shape. The spiky ones are Thanksgiving. But if you cannot decide, look at ...

So much to catch up on today! Get comfortable and enjoy a long and picture heavy post. Cooler weather is supposed to come in this week, and I am hoping for more seasonal temperatures, but where has the month gone?! It is turkey time around here, the wild kind. These guys have nothing to worry about from us this week, though. They know me, and come running when I step out to scatter some sunflower seeds for them.

It is always a delight to see the wildlife.

A predicted freeze last week prompted me to pull the more tender perennials ...

Glorious color adorns our driveway with the fall season reaching its peak. The reds and golds are brilliant even in this early dawn view. Fog settles into the valley sometimes, and I love that. This photo was taken two weeks ago, as the colors hit their peaks.

When the sun came up over the east mountain, the driveway was awash in autumn color. But we are in a drought, and this scene didn’t last long as the leaves fell quickly. Some of the trees in our view still have beautiful color.

A couple of days ago, this photo shows ...

It has been a minute since we had a Sunday chat. October was so jam packed with projects. November is a time to relax and enjoy the season. Autumn color is hitting its peak this past week or so, and the color is glorious. We did a wonderful drive on our mountain roads with a car club, enjoyed some hot soup for a charity event, and watched the wildlife from our door. Get a cuppa, and settle in for a nice, long, catch-up chat.

Our local food bank, called Manna, serves the 12 county area of Western North Carolina, supporting ...

Tuesday night was the third cooking contest, this time with eggs. The rules specified a frittata, so I decided to make mine Mediterranean. It has Italian sausage, spinach, onion, garlic, mozzarella cheese and cherry tomatoes. Tomatoes often add too much water to a recipe, so I had the idea of cutting cherry tomatoes in half and placing them cut side up on the top of the frittata. This worked well when I tested the idea on a quiche a month ago, so I went with it.

It did not place in the competition, but we ate almost half of it ...