What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

The drawing for the raffle quilt benefiting Steps to Hope was held this week. I am happy to report that the charity made almost $800 from its efforts. Thanks to Pam B in Delaware who graciously allowed her stunning quilt to be the raffle prize. The money raised will help residents of the shelter take care of their basic needs. I was gratified to learn that over half of the donors purchasing tickets were blog readers. Thank you all so much! The drawing was held last night, and I do not know who won yet. But it is very possible ...

It has been a crazy week, with multiple cooking contests and lots of entries to find in the Expo building. Today, if you can tolerate the tooting of my own horn, I’ll show you a few more ribbons in other divisions. In Senior Crafts, this holiday theme table topper won second place in Holiday Decorations. I love this sentiment! It is perfect for the holiday season. Used a baking print for the wide border.

In Senior Crafts Embroidered Item Hand or Machine, this set of hot pads with the chicken fabrics and the “Cluck It” saying won first place ...

As August draws to a close, the harvest begins. It isn’t quite fall yet, but I am ready for cooler days, and the flavors of fall. Apples are my transition theme for cooking and decorating this time of year.

Labor Day weekend is our local Apple Festival, and it was gorgeous weather for it with clear skies, cool temperatures and low humidity. The four day festival in downtown Hendersonville has apple orchards from all over the county setting up booths to sell fresh apples and apple treats.

The King Apple parade on Monday is the highlight of the event ...

This past week was crazy busy, with something to do, someplace to be or an appointment to keep every single day. Most of it was fun, though, with a wonderful drive with a car club on Wednesday through the lush green of summer in the mountains. The weather was nice, with wispy clouds, and our drive took us past fields and farms, mostly in the valleys and then to Saluda for lunch.

I love seeing fog on the mountain top like this, as we drove by.

Then, on Thursday, I went to the Asheville Quilt Guild show and it was ...

I am happy to report that Lemon Twist is almost finished! When I finished ripping out all the bad stitching (see my post Quilting Lemon Twist), I did some trouble shooting and discovered the top thread was not seated into the tension discs. How it jumped out is beyond comprehension, but there it was. I re-threaded the machine, did some test stitching, and all looked good. But I was nervous, and stopped to check the stitching multiple times on each replacement row and through the end of the quilting. All was well.

I removed it from the longarm, and trimmed ...

Moving into August, the hydrangea is starting to turn color to the muddy pink it usually takes on in the fall. But there are still a few blooms with the pretty clear lavendar I like best.

One blue bloom came out this week. The muddy pink can be seen behind it.

On the veranda, the orchid loves this hot humid weather. The single bloom is still lovely, and has been like this for three months now!

Unfortunately, the smaller bud behind it has never progressed beyond this point after the same three months. Sorry for the blurry picture, I could ...

The flowers on the veranda continue to be happy with the high humidity these past days. The geranium keeps giving me gorgeous blooms. The plant is really leggy now, and I need to cut it back, but I want to wait until these blooms fade.

Sunset one day last week after a rainstorm had passed gave an interesting look to the clouds. The section lit by the fading sunlight just glowed.

On the bird feeder, the cardinal pair visited again. The female and male took turns on the perch. I think the one on the right is a female house ...

Another week of exhausting heat, and I am ready for summer to be over. The humidity is stifling these days, and it rains almost every afternoon because of it. I admit a certain amount of nervousness as the weather people mention hurricanes in the ocean, and the news keeps going over what to put in emergency kits. But, I cannot imagine that the particular set of circumstances of three days of heavy rain prior to a hurricane hitting us will happen again. At least I hope not. So, I live each day, grateful for our home and the beautiful land ...

Time for a Sunday chat, so get yourself a cuppa and settle in for a long and picture heavy post. There has been a lot of activity in the garden lately, as it is in lovely bloom now. The day lilies have been giving us two or three blooms each day. The orange ones I don’t like are still in the garden, but it has been too hot to dig them up. This is the only one I have left that I like, pretty ruffled edge apricot with a yellow throat.

The goldfinches have been here daily, sporting their ...

It is National Fried Chicken Day, and I want to reprise some stories I’ve told before as I pay homage to my favorite food. I am completely addicted to fried chicken, as my fellow guild members can attest to (when I am not eating sushi). The combination of delicate crunchy breading and tender juicy chicken is happiness on a plate. Fried chicken was the comfort food of choice for my childhood years, and the very best was made in my grandmother’s kitchen in her cast iron skillet.

My grandmother lived on a very small farm, about two acres ...

So much to say this weekend, settle in for a long and picture heavy post. This week has been brutally hot, with highs in the 90s (which is really hot for us) and humidity at 85% first thing in the morning. Ugh, I hate this kind of heat. So, nothing for it but to hide in my cool basement and play with fabric and paper. First, I finished the Japanese prints wall hanging with the gold sashing. It is quilted and bound, and awaiting a label. I had enough jelly roll strips to make the cranes go all the way ...

Yesterday, we had a driving event with one of our car clubs. We met at a local grocery store, and drove back country roads for two hours (with a comfort stop halfway in) to the Highlands Motoring Festival in Highlands, NC. The drive route was so pretty, lush and green the whole way. We drove along the East Fork river, then into the higher mountains to the show.

Along the way, I know you love seeing these pastoral scenes of barns and fields.

At the show, there were lots of exotic cars. Ferrari was the featured marque, and Porsche had ...

Last week, My Sweet Babboo and I did a test drive to time the route and check the roads for an upcoming drive for our MINI club. We are leading a group up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a picnic lunch at Pisgah Inn. There is only one road up to that section of the parkway open to us right now. The Pisgah Inn is open, and we want to bring attention to the business and take our club there to support them. This day, the clouds were settled into the valley so thick that they covered the mountaintops ...

This week, the amaryllis opened fully with its second bloom. The last flower wasn’t completely open before the first one was fading.

They get white streaks in the petals as they fade.

The orchid made more progress.

Later, it is almost fully open. I do love these flowers with their pristine white petals and interesting center markings.

The dogwoods are in full flower, lovely white blooms against verdant green.

The mountain laurel has opened up, and is lovely.

A closer view shows the unusual configuration of the flower. The red and white flower has tinges of pink as it ...

As the weather warms, more green is coming out on all the trees. It is lovely around our place, as well as on the drives we’ve been taking. The redbud has finished its flower show. Several mornings this past week have been foggy like this in the early morning.

The purple petunias in the hanging baskets are apparently very happy.

With all the spring green outside, I decided to bring that color inside for a nice tablescape. Spring green chargers and napkins provide the color, with a centerpiece of green, white and pink.

The settings have white china plates ...

I have been too busy lately with cleaning things out, appointments and meetings, and I have not had a lot of sewing time. Yesterday I went around the property and took some pictures so I would have something to talk about today. I noticed the mountain laurel has a lot of buds, and is just coming into bloom. Some of the flowers are open, most are still closed. These are such pretty things, with clusters of pristine white flowers with little red lines emanating from the center.

The shrub has a lot more to come, as it is heavy with ...

It has rained most of the week, which has been wonderful for tamping down the wildfires. It has made the grass and weeds grow, and brought the azaleas in full bloom. I’ve been taking more photos of them. We have this deep pink, along with the pastel pink and white ones. A few days from now, there should be blooms all the way down the driveway.

My Merlin app says we have a blue-grey gnatcatcher in the local avian choir, but I have not seen it yet. They look a lot like a titmouse without the tufted head. There ...

The azaleas came into bloom this week with about half of the shrubs well into their spring show, just lovely! We have a lot of bushes inside the driveway island and down the edge of the meadow along the driveway. My favorite ones are the white ones. Luckily, the cold nights do not seem to have damaged the blooms significantly.

There are a few brown edges here and there, but mostly they are pristine.

I love the soft pink of this one, and it was full of big bumblebees busily collecting pollen.

On another white azalea, there is always one ...

Spring is arriving when the ajugas bloom, although this week has been a full-on Blackberry Winter with lows near freezing, and that will continue into next week. It may damage the plants that have already begun to bloom, like the azaleas, but these ajugas can take it. We have lots of clumps all over the lawn out front and the back yard. Most are purple like these.

Here and there are white ones.

The dogwood is blooming, this year a pretty white. Some years the blooms tend to a greenish color.

They are just lovely, looking like springtime at the ...

It has been an up and down week. The beginning of the week we still had wildfires out of control, with the air full of smoke for a couple of days. Rain brought some relief, thank goodness. The clear blue sky with a few clouds was a welcome sight after a night of rain. At this point, the fires are under control, 79-100% contained, the evacuation zones have been canceled, and the burn ban is lifted.

The redbud is blooming in full now. Usually I spend some time out on the veranda with my good camera to once again try ...