Men at Work

 The title of the email was "Why men die first". This is one of those funny emails that is so true that it is scary. We have all seen similar things, I am sure. They say that necessity is the mother of invention, but no mama came up with these! Hold on to your chair and scroll down....

 How many men does it take to lift an air conditioner to the third floor? ...and two to hold the ladder, one to take the photo, and one to get the beer. Or maybe the beer came first?

 Definitely do not walk under these ladders!

 And when he gets that thing unscrewed he's gonna do what? Fly?

 Insane!

 Really???

If you are tired of getting the emails about women drivers, you now have this as a rebuttal.

A visit to Millstone Quilts!

This is the darling quilt shop Joan and I went to visit on Thursday. It is Millstone Quilts and is just outside of Richmond, VA. We have been wanting to take a trip up there for quite a while. The shop is owned by Regina Simmons and is situated in an actual old mill that her husband restored. Brick walls and wood floors combined with lots of fabric and quilts makes you want to move right in!

Millstone Quilts was featured in AP&Q Quilt Sampler, Fall 2011 issue, and they sell my patterns! In fact they had three models on display and I felt so flattered. Below you can see the magazine that their quilt was featured in, along with jars of thread and darling pincushions made by the indispensable Vicki Johnson. Vicki gave us a tour of the shop and made us feel very much at home there. It took us so long to get there that we missed seeing Regina as she had to go to another appointment.

 You may recognize the brown and blue quilt in the center as my
 Old Elegance. Doesn't it look wonderful? 

They have one kit left for this quilt if you are interested. 

I don't know why this darn photo is sideways, but it is too pretty not to include.

 Kits are available for this darling sailboat quilt that Vicki made.

I love it!

Below is a lovely display of flowers on the stairs going to the porch. They were too pretty to ignor.

 This shop caters to those of us who love reproduction fabrics. If you are traveling down Hwy 64 between Richmond and Williamsburg set your GPS to find Millstone Quilts. It will not dissappoint!

Saturday Frittering

Here I am frittering away another Saturday. When was the last time you frittered away? Seriously, where do these words come from, and why do they pop into my culturally sensitive brain?

I finally took the time to finish up a couple of cross stitch projects this week. I have the sad habit of doing the needlework and setting it aside. So above you see the pillow I made from a design by Stacy Nash Primitives. I love it! You can see that I finished in it 2010 and the border fabric is current Barbara Brackman Battle Hymn by Moda that just happened to be on my cutting table and is a perfect match. Oh dear, I am putting historians in a quandary. Haha!

This little pincushion is a Blackbird Designs project, again 2010. I have a few more of these and wonder if my eyes are up to it?


I have been on a rampage the past two days making flying geese like crazy. Yes, more designs coming, but it will be a while. I tried to take photos but I am afraid the slide on my camera that holds in the batteries got cracked and so I am having trouble pressing the thing closed while trying to focus. Yes, even with auto-focus you need to hold the camera somewhat still. 

 

 So here is my photo attempt. Take note of the little cheddar unit. It has a special template on it that I love. It is made by Bloc-Loc. I picked up a few of their precision rulers at market a while back and have really gotten hooked on them. There is a little ridge in the bottom of the ruler where the seam runs on the block. You slide the template into place and it catches on the seam, then trim around the edges for a perfect Flying Geese unit! I know lots of people love wonky everything these days, but I am a stickler on accuracy and these Bloc-Loc rulers give me that. They also have HST template rulers and they keep coming out with new rulers for different shapes all the time. For me these are a great investment because I know I will use them for years and years. Click on the link and watch the video.

  

Summer Fun

Looking for a cute little project to work on this summer? This little quilt called Tinder Box is fun and easy! You can find the pattern at my website, patchalotpatterns.com.

 Sometimes I come up with names for quilts while reading books. For Tinderbox I was reading a book by Suzanna Kearsley called The Rose Garden. This was an enjoyable story about a woman who visits Ireland and lands back in 1712. She falls in love with a man named Daniel Butler and the rest, as they say, is historical fiction! At some point she needs to start a fire using a tinderbox! I don't believe I have ever seen a tinderbox, let alone know how to start a fire with one. But I did send some sparks flying on this cute little quilt, don't you think?

I am back in Virgina as of a few days ago. The weather started out cool and refreshing, but now it is heating up. I finally broke down and turned on the air conditioner which my husband has been reluctant to do. He goes into competition with himself to see how long he can last. Well, he lasted until I came home!

Friday morning my husband woke me up at 6am and told me there were tall ships in the bay. We live one block from the Chesapeake Bay, close to the mouth of the bay where it opens into the Atlantic Ocean. There are always cargo ships lined up out there waiting for their chance to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and go into Norfolk and northern ports. So we walked down to see the action. It was quite a sight and took us back a couple of centuries (rather like time traveling).

Hard to believe this is right down the road from us! As you can see their sails were lowered as they waited for their opportunity to go up the bay.

 This photo is of the Godspeed, a replica of the vessel that sailed to America in 1607 along with two other ships, the Susan Constant and the Discovery. Currently these ships are located at Jamestown and tourists may board them and get a feel for the travel conditions in 1607. (I borrowed this image from the internet). I am told that the Godspeed was one of the ships in the bay, and one of the smaller ones! You can see the other ships at the OPSAIL 2012 website. The event, I am told, was to commemorate the War of 1812.

I am off to try and get some sewing done at last! Yesterday I managed to pull muscles in my back as I reached back and forth to the floor sewing pieces together then replacing them in order. It was all too big for my design wall so I improvised. What a mistake! But today is already better, so let's try it again!