What's in a Color Name?

 Remember the 64 count box of Crayola Crayons with the sharpener on the back? I loved that box of crayons. I especially loved all the names of the colors. But this is where my question comes in: what is the difference in some of the names? Blue-green, green blue, turquoise, aqua, teal, aquamarine, sea-green, azure, cerulean. See what I mean? What is correct, and what is not?

I have two bins of scraps in my stash. One is labeled blue, the other is labeled teal. I have done my best to sort them in good light, so they are in the correct bins. On Sunday I took out the teal bin to begin a project I want to do. (Like I need another one?)

This is what I have made so far:

                                      More blue than green

                                       More green than blue

The rest of the blocks are similar to the first two, although the second one is definitely the greenest one.

I decided it didn't matter too much to me, what went with what, as long as I liked the end result.

These are all blocks for a new bed-size quilt for our bed. I wanted to really use my stash and as much scraps as I could, so when I went looking for inspiration, I landed on the Missing U quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison. It is still one of my favorite books I ever bought. I have used it to inspire myself many times. The quilt in the book is a rainbow of colors, but I am not so sure any more that that is the direction I am headed. Time will tell.

I hope you have a lovely creative day.

A Birthday Jaunt

 When my husband found out the weekend before my birthday wasn't already busy with things, he decided we should take a jaunt to Asheville. We haven't been there since we moved home. So with less than 48 hours notice, we packed a bag and made a tentative plan and took off.

We drove on the interstate, so no real cool scenery to show you there, but after we checked in to our hotel, we walked to the downtown area and went to one of our favorite places for lunch. This is just the best little place to eat and people watch. And the food there is very good.

I had a house made ginger beer with my lunch and it was so good and spicy. Very fresh. The server said they make all their things in house pretty much. And I love the glassware they use. We mostly just hung out in Asheville that first day. We did drive over to Highland Brewing which is another place we love to go there.

The next morning we planned to hit the Blue Ridge Parkway after breakfast. The sky was such a beautiful blue when we walked downtown to get breakfast at another of our favorite eateries. They have the best breakfast foods, very southern and filling. Had to get our grits, you know.

And then it was off to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway. We spent the entire day driving north and east toward Boone, which is where we spent the second night.

There are tons of scenic overlooks you can pull off on and this is a picture of the side that was behind us as we looked out at the view. These are some big mountains.

There was rain forecast for the day and as you can see here, it was often off in the distance. There is sun where we were standing.

As you can see, I was very taken by the clouds and the mountains and the way the sun came and went all day long. It was so quiet up there, even the birds seemed subdued.

In the afternoon, the rain finally caught up with us. I took this picture from the Moses Cone homestead on the front porch. Can you imagine this as your view every day? It is now a public place where they have a gift shop and teach classes about the history of the area and such.

This is one of the things that always amazes me, the clouds are so low and you are so high, the clouds just roll over the mountain tops.

Just a few more pretty pictures from the day. As we were headed down towards the place to get off to take the state highway into Boone, it was raining so hard and the clouds were down on the road, like fog and we had a hard time seeing anything. It really almost defies description. We made it to Boone though.

The only thing we did besides have dinner there and spend the night, was to visit a little place that brews beer and make cider. I have to say it was pretty tasty.

After a good night's sleep, we headed for home, coming down the mountain from over 3000 feet to just over 800 feet in elevation. That was something else too. But all in all it was a nice little birthday diversion for us.

Talk to you soon.

Summertime and the Living is Hot

I have been wanting to get around to posting for awhile now, and only just realized that it has been a whole month since I last posted. It seems that every time I make a decision to try and post more, something happens and I don't follow through. I must admit, I am a bit lazy about posting because of all the hoops I have to jump through to get it done these days. Logging out of my regular google account that I use for everything else, and into the one I use for blogging, having pictures downloaded...the list goes on. There has been lots going on in July here. 

There has been lots of embroidery work happening. I finished this piece after several weeks of working on it. It is from BeCoProductions, a designer from Canada. She has an Etsy shop.

I got a bee in my bonnet to make a postage stamp quilt from some really soft colors. I made four 10"x11" panels and sashed them with some off white. All of this is scraps, so I don't really have any fabric information.

I got a new drive belt for my grandmother's Singer featherweight and installed it. I am so glad I did, because the old one was cracked in several places and I would have been sad if it broke in the middle of something.

We go to a local farmer's market every Saturday and one thing I always get is a bouquet of local flowers. It has been fun to seen the varieties change as the season progresses. Early on it was peonies and now its Zinnias and sunflowers and Marigolds.

I made another crochet rag rug from balls of strips that I had put together about a year or so ago. I have it in my kitchen and it was so much fun, I am making scrap balls for another one. It's very helpful in culling out scrap fabric strips that would otherwise be tossed.

More embroidery work. This is another pattern from BeCo Productions. I love her stuff.

The littles were here with us for a week of "camp" and one of the activities was to start building this LEGO Hogwarts Castle. Granddaddy bought this with B in mind, as he loves LEGOS and Harry Potter. There are over 6000 pieces, so it will take awhile to finish. We love the "stained glass".

And I am working on making some small felt cacti to fit in these tiny pots for my oldest grandson. He got the pots from a teacher last year and wanted to fill them with something that didn't need tending to. I have 4 done and 3 to go.

There has also been lots of swimming going on. When the littles were here, we went every day. Now we go 3-4 times a week. It's good exercise.  So you can see, I have been very busy. Also, I had a computer issue while typing this post. Another reason I avoid posting. Computers are unpredictable.

I hope you are staying cool. Happy summer.

This and That

 I have many projects in the works. Some are on the machine, some are hand work. This is a little round up of some of them.

The first is a sweet little stuffed bunny from Kiriki Press. They come in little kits with everything you need except an embroidery hoop. I get such a kick out of these.

Many on-line vendors carry these. I bought mine at Snuggly Monkey. This is an on-line shop that carries tons of stitching items. She has embroidery, sashiko, cross stitch and so much more. If you go to visit her, be sure you have plenty of time to browse. There's lots to see.

This is my collection so far. I am getting ready to start the Kangaroo and joey one soon. I bought it Saturday when Snuggly Monkey had an open studio day where locals can actually go in and shop in person.

I finally figured out what to make from this large block that I made about a year ago. I decided that instead of another small quilt to hang up, I would quilt it and make a pillow.

I had a chunk of this left over from a quilt backing a number of years ago. I had bought a 108 inch wide chunk for backing and there was a bit left over.

And here it sits on my bed. I used up all the stuffing I had, which made more room in the closet, YAY!

And as you can see, it is right at home here among all the quilts both on the bed and on the wall. I hope you have a lovely day. Talk to you soon.

I Made a Sandhill Sling!

 I have long been a fan of Anna at Noodlehead. I found her blog many years ago, and since then she has become a wonderful pattern designer. Most of her patterns are for bags, pouches, backpacks and the like. She does a lot of testing to make sure it's right before she releases new patterns. Her directions are spot on every time. 

The Sandhill Sling pattern came out a couple of years ago I think. I loved it then, but I knew I wouldn't use it, so I just admired it from afar. I also have a bit of a reticence to trying bag patterns, as I sometimes struggle with the bulkiness of them under my needle. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when my daughter saw a post on Instagram about the Sandhill Sling. She fell in love with it. She had purchased some canvas awhile back with the idea that she wanted me to make her a tote bag of some type. I told her that when she found a pattern she liked, to let me know. She purchased the pattern and the hardware kit on line and as I waited for that to arrive, along with some interior lining fabric, I read and reread the pattern.

Then, I discovered that there had been a sew along for the Sling and so there were videos of the steps to make it. I went ahead and watched all the videos before I started. As I am a visual learner, this was so valuable to me. Once I started sewing, I could do a step, and then stop the video and do the next step. It made the whole thing come together so easily.

This is the interior of the sling with the gathered pocket. The elastic gather really helps to hold things in.

My daughter chose the zipper colors to compliment the fabric. She chose to not have the zipper cover on the exterior pocket so you could see the two zippers that matched. The fabric is a Charley Harper print.

The strap and hardware also came from Anna's shop. She has exactly what you need to make this bag, which makes it so easy to get ready to sew.

When I finished, I could hardly wait to go and give it to my daughter. She loves it! And I have had a couple of other family members express an interest in having me make one for them. Also, my grandson wants me to make him a backpack from one of Anna's patterns. I hope I'm up to that!

I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed this make, especially having the videos to help me through the process. I know there will be more Noodlehead patterns in my future.

Around Town

 I love all the small towns around where we live. There are small businesses of every kind that we can and do patronize. Every small town has a farmer's market on the weekend and we have visited 4 of them in the past few weeks. The best part of the day on Saturday is just before the sun comes up when it is still cool and quiet...except for the birds. They are very noisy at this time of the year. 

The farmer's market in Carrboro is on the town commons. The commons sits right behind the town hall and the fire station.

There are many murals painted on buildings around town. This one was new to me. It is on the side of the fire station. Up close it looks so realistic.

This is one of my new favorites. I love the bees and the flowers. I wonder if it was chosen for this spot because of the market.

In addition to the wonderful fruits and vegetables and homemade cheeses and baked goods, you can find that many of the farmers sell bundle of wild flowers at their booths.

Each bouquet is unique. Right now sunflowers are in many of the bouquets due to their abundance. A few weeks ago it was peonies. For my money, this is the best way to spend an early Saturday morning. Talk to you soon.

Welcome Home

Home is many things to many people. It is often said that home is where the heart is. If that's true, I guess home really is North Carolina for me. When I drive down the back roads, I feel home. When I hear the thunderstorms, I feel home. So many moments that make me feel home. Sights, sounds and scents all evoke that feeling of home. Every time I get that feeling, I think "welcome home".

Fresh tomatoes from the farmer's market, made into sandwiches with mayo salt and pepper.

Local strawberries. Nothing tastes as good as a local strawberry, grown on a small family farm.

Fresh peaches. This was the first weekend there were fresh peaches at the farmer's market and I can't wait to cut into them later today.

The market also has bundles of fresh wild flowers at several booths. The colors are stunning and so many more fun types of flowers than at a florist.

Look at these gorgeous multi colored carrots. I could have stared at these all day long they were so pretty.

And I bought some cucumbers, again some of the first of the season, and made some bread and butter pickles. They should be ready to try tomorrow. I am so excited!

We have had several thunderstorms this spring and we love watching them roll in. The clouds seem so low you can almost touch them. The smell of rain in the air, and when it hits the hot pavement, is so evocative of summer to me.

This is my daughter's garden. She is in year three, and the garden is transitioning from flowers and veggies to mostly just flowers now. It is a delight to watch these interesting plants grow and change and develop.

And the bees and other pollinators are in love with all of the flowers and so fun to watch. There are also so many varieties of birds that come by for the bird feeders, but they are really waiting for the sunflowers to start producing. Then they will be in their hey day.

And for me, all this means home. My heart is happy. Life is good.

Talk to you soon.