Eyeglass Case from Quilting Test Scraps

When I am quilting, I often make a test quilt sandwich to try out my thread tensions.  I happened to have a couple of those when my eyeglass case unfortunately got run over last weekend.  I stitched a lot more decorative stitches into the two small quilted pieces, joined them together, and made a new eyeglass case.

The little red square is a scrap of needlefelted fabric that I sewed on to cover the Velcro square on the cover.

Here is the back side.  I just joined the two pieces together with zigzag stitch.

Pretty easy!

We have had quite a few lovely warm days, interspersed with dreary cold rainy days.  Here are some pictures from the nice days.


This is the pond behind our Raleigh house.

And here is Lake Lynn in Raleigh, which has a nice greenway all around.  Kasey and I walked the whole perimeter yesterday, which is about two miles.

it was sparkly and beautiful!

Snowy Week

It is rare to get a snowstorm in Raleigh, North Carolina.  But it happened this week!  We got several inches on Tuesday night, accompanied by frigid temperatures.  Life slows down to a crawl as everyone enjoys a snow day at home.  Even my intrepid husband with the big pick-up truck stayed home yesterday.  Loved it!

I actually did a lot of cooking over the last few days...hamburger soup, baked butternut squash, barbecued chicken, roasted veggies, and focaccia bread!  That's not like me at all, but it was very satisfying to fill the house with delicious aromas.  I am trying out the Wheat Belly diet, and am using recipes from the cookbook.  So far, so good!

Here are some more sights from around our yard.  If you live in an area that gets a lot of snow, you probably aren't excited about it like we are here in the South!

 This afternoon I get to visit with my grand baby Charlotte.  Usually I babysit on Monday and Tuesday, but I only went on Monday this week.  Now the parents are back at work and the two grandmas are tag-teaming today to take care of our little snow angel.

Another beautiful, sunny, but much colder day. Here are some photos from a neighborhood walk.


The morning sun creates a blaze of light on these yellow trees.

This is a pond at the former end of our street. Nice autumn reflections!

The ducks have been clustering near the spring head where the water enters the pond.

My street looks pretty rustic in this view. There are several vacant lots across from the pond that are preserved as natural areas due to the springs. You can just see my dog Maggy at the bottom.

This is the driveway entrance to the house with the pond. They have about six acres of land, some of it very woodsy.

Went into the "big city" today to get some supplies for my next journal project. I had a 15% off coupon at the Teach Me Store, and got some wonderful Christmas gifts to put away for the grandkids. A nice day!

More Mountains and One More Quilt

Yesterday I shared a lot of pictures of our weekend in the North Carolina mountains. Today, I have a few more from our Sunday adventures. Above you see the little bridge over the creek that is our entrance to the Hall-McBrayer family compound. Hyannisport, move over! The driveway you see goes to my sister's home and one that her son built behind it. Take a right to get to Ricky and Mary's new home. To get to our place, hang a left at the bridge.



Then pass the pond and go up the hill.Look how tall the zinnias have grown behind our cabin! The tallest are my height, about 5'7". That mountain soil will grow anything super-size!
Thankfully, there is no hunting allowed on Sunday, so we were able to enjoy our ride in the Gator to the top of the mountain. Here is one of our favorite stopping places, overlooking many hills of Christmas tree farms. As we sat there, a nice breeze stirred up the leaves. It looked like it was raining golden leaves. I felt like I was in a Disney animated movie like Bambi. You can barely see the leaves tossing around in the air in the photos below.

While we were on the mountain, we retrieved the memory chip from the Stealth Cam near one of the feeders. It has been fun to see the raccoons, turkey, squirrels, and deer at the feeder- sometimes all together! This first picture was actually from last month.



Well, this time, there was finally a picture of Mr. Buck at the feeder. I hereby give him the World's Ugliest Antlers award. Maybe that ugly rack will prevent him from becoming a trophy on some hunter's wall. Charlie calls that antler sticking up a "cow horn." He has another antler laying right over his eye.

I had a wonderful surprise on Sunday afternoon. Our friends Art and Mary from college also have a mountain cabin about twenty miles from ours. Last weekend, Art was on a bicycle camping trip, and Mary brought her college roommate, Dottie, to the cabin for the weekend. Dottie and I were also close friends, bridesmaids in each other's weddings, in fact. She got married about ten years after I did. I'll never forget her wedding rehearsal. I was about two months pregnant with Dave, and during the long-winded preacher's blessing I keeled right over in a faint. After that they stuffed me with food all weekend to steady me up! Anyway, Mary and Dottie came over just before we left on Sunday afternoon. I gave her a quick Gator tour, and then rode home with her as far as Burlington so we could catch up with each other.


Okay, back home again. Here is the second of Teresa's quilts that I finished. It is very similar to the last one I posted, but it is slightly larger and has four-patches in some of the center squares. I used the same yellow thread and curvy swirls, but added a funky spiral design in the center squares.

This quilt looks good with A-Muse-ing Violette looking down from my wall, doesn't it!

That's it for today. I am excited that my granite counters and new sink are being installed this afternoon. I am more than ready after having no counters and no running water in the kitchen for the past week. Pictures tomorrow!

ATQ Goes to the Mountains

After a stressful week at home wondering if we would ever have a floor, if Wachovia was failing, was becoming Citigroup, or was now Wells Fargo, Mr. Quilty and I headed for the hills for a little mountain therapy. Perfect weather, golden sunshine, crisp mornings, cloudless skies, and autumn color beginning to color the hillsides...yes, that did it for us!It was so beautiful that we took longer, scenic routes to go to town on Saturday morning for our errands. I spotted the quilted garage doors and barn art as we were on Rt. 16 after getting off the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway. Not sure about the white on the red barn wall. Surely not gang graffiti???
Here is Mr. Quilty stopping at our favorite produce store. I love the displays of mums, pumpkins, and bountiful vegetable harvests.


When we got back to our cabin, I planted a few dozen mixed daffodils. Charlie did a little hunting (again, no danger to the deer population from his efforts) and I stitched my two little quilt bindings down while sitting outside near the bird feeder. The chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, and a few little woodpeckers emptied the feeder in one day. Then I grabbed my camera and went off with Maggy to take pictures of the pond and creek area, where no one hunts. Perfect for restoring one's good mood, with the sun warm on my back and post-card beauty everywhere I looked.

In addition to the fall color, I loved seeing the reflections of the sky and trees in the water.
The pond below our cabin was looking very serene in the golden light.

On Saturday night, we rode in the Gator to the top of the mountain for an unobstructed view of the stars. It was a great night for shooting stars. The next afternoon we also enjoyed a ride through the Christmas tree farms and along the creek.
On the way home, we took the Blue Ridge Parkway again. Here is one Happy Little Cloud in the blue sky (RIP, Bob Ross!)

The clouds were starting to roll across the valley as we headed down the hill. What a beautiful weekend of R&R!