Hiking Connemara

A short drive from our home is the 260+ acres of the Carl Sandburg estate called Connemara, in Flat Rock.  He purchased the home in 1945, and continued to write and publish here until his death in 1967, producing almost a third of his life's work in that time.  His wife raised goats, and they …

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Double Chocolate Delight Cookies

When the going gets tough, the tough turn to chocolate, isn't that right?  I've been working on this recipe for some weeks now, and just had to make it several times to be sure.  No, really, I had to.  Testing combinations of shortening and butter, different types of chips took several batches.  Plus, I wanted …

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Finishing the Vintage Christmas Placemats

The placemats are finally done!!   When we left off last time, I had all the embroidery work done on the placemats and was ready to quilt them.  All the blocks had three inch strips of the directional ornament fabric put on each side for a placemat size of 12 x 18. I loaded the longarm …

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Jolly Bar Row Along Finishing the Quilt

Now that the top is done, assembly went quickly.  Sashing strips were put between the top leaves and between the rows.  I assembled the top three rows first. I put the sashing strips between the leaf blocks and the next row's arrows and butterflies.  Then, without really paying attention, I sewed the rows together with …

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Being Distantly Social

Bee-bee-beeeeeep! "We're sorry, but the person you have reached has been disconnected." Yep, that's me.  Disconnected.  Forgive me while I vent for a moment.  Just skip this paragraph if you want.  My usually busy schedule is now blank, no quilt meetings or shows, no retreats, no classes, no sew-ins for charity or anything else.  Quilt …

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Finishing the Dahlia Panel

The Dahlia panel quilt is finished, and now hanging up.  I did the back differently than usual as this wall hanging is too large for the quilt clips I have in the den.  I have a curtain rod with ring clips for hanging quilts in my sewing space, but for this one, I wanted to …

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Quilt Block Mania Back to School

Where has this summer gone?  Staying at home is becoming a bit strange as the months are going by without the usual activities.  For many, this school year will be different too, and what better time to sew up a Back to School theme quilt with sampler blocks of all kinds.  Thank you to our …

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August in the Garden

It is hard to believe it is August, this year is going by in a blur of days that mostly look the same.  But there have been a few happenings here, and the flower show keeps going.  Time for a long and picture heavy post!!  Vibrant pink geraniums bloom profusely in just one pot. In …

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Fiction with a Quilting Theme

With all this extra time on our hands, reading has been a nice way to spend a morning.  This past month and a half, I've gathered several new books and devoured them all with quilting as a theme.  Two were sent to me by C&T Publishing specifically for this post, and two by their authors.  …

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Jolly Bar Row Along Update

We are more than halfway in the Jolly Bar Row Along.  This is a weekly block and row quilt along on Jolly Jabber, the Fat Quarter Shop blog.  We began with the Sparrow Tracks block, making a bunch of those for the top and bottom rows. I'm using the Harper's Garden Jolly Bar to do …

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