All cut up and ready to sew!

Yes, I am finally getting ready to sew something! These are the pieces that I will work with tomorrow to make a baby quilt. Can't wait to start but it is late and I must get to bed. I think this will go together very quickly. I hope!

Now while I wasn't sewing I did manage to shop online for some "sewing" fabric. This is one of the themes I'm focusing on and collecting. Who knows when it will surface in a quilt. So many plans.

I love the vintage look of this fabric. And I remember some of these items. Does that make me vintage?

If you look closely, you can see buttons, tape measures, and other things sewing.

 Love the pieces in this panel. Vintage again.

 Not sewing but I love this Summersville collection. The black and white line drawings are great.

 And these are from the Book collection at Connecting Threads. My other love is reading!

And just in case you are planning to be in the Pittsburgh area in October, you might want to plan to attend the Beaver Valley Piecemakers Quilt Show on October 12, 13, or 14. For more information, you can go to http://www.bvpiecemakers.com  Click on the quilt show tab for more information and to see their lovely raffle quilt for this year. Would love to have that one.

Hope to add some progress reports tomorrow as I start that quilt. Best part of making one, right?

Touring the city

Last week I went on a bus tour with other Pearl S. Buck volunteers. Our main purpose was to view the murals in Philadelphia. The city has over 3,000 public murals which are all pretty amazing. This was started over 10 years ago as a way to combat graffiti. It is a wonderful story. Now other cities look to Philadelphia as an example. 

 The pictures don't do them justice but I hope they can give you a taste of what is there.

This mural was bigger than life size and fascinating to view.

I really wished I could have gotten a better picture of this one. I hope you can see the quilter working. On the wall opposite this were children holding the same quilt as it was spread across the area.

 To the left in this mural was a painting of an Alex's Lemonade Stand. Beautiful. The butterflies seemed to fly off the wall.

More quilts!

 The best part was the way the murals popped up out of nowhere. As you walk or drive through the city, you never know where one will appear.

 This mural was on the side of a flower shop.

More flowers!

In Clark Park, there is this lovely statue of Charles Dickens and Little Nell from The Old Curiosity Shoppe. We also stopped at the Free Library to view their Dickens collection in the Rare Book section. Pearl Buck credited Charles Dickens as her inspiration for her writing.

More color!

Just can't even envision painting these. 

This is called the Magic Garden. One man used all manner of items to create this fascinating area. Need to go back and walk through here.

Our final stop was the Edgar Allen Poe house. We were all impressed with the docents who lead our tours of the house. This mural/portrait was on a building in the area.

If you are in the Philadelphia area, I recommend going on one of the mural tours. Well worth seeing! You can get more information at the  Mural Arts website.

I'm still here!

It seems like ages since I have posted anything on this blog. And it has been. Partly because I have no sewing to share and partly because life keeps getting in the way. And that is not a complaint. It has been all good things. Most of my time is spent with my volunteering at Pearl S. Buck International . It is such a great place to be and does so much for children all over the world.

While I haven't done much sewing, I did have the chance to be creative when we held our pre-Mother's Day tea. It was a wonderful day. My partner in crime did all the heavy lifting of getting the food, dishes, etc. together and I got to do the fun part of decorating the table and making the favors. Yayyy!

 The picture at the top of the page is the little favor I made with some help. It was great fun to create and then put together for our 160 guests. If you look closely you can see that I had the chance to use some of my stash. I had 1 yard of various fabric bunched on the table, topped with a hatstand and hat, surrounded by pearls and graced with a teapot.

You can see some of the vendors pictured in the background of the pictures. All the ladies in attendance had a great time browsing and shopping. What more could you want?

We had dishes of all kinds, which really made the tables look like mini quilts.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and a Happy Mother's Day. Enjoy!

A Happy Pilgrimage

This past weekend I was lucky enough to go with a group of others to visit The Pearl S. Buck birthplace in Hillsboro, WV. We had the chance to have a private tour of her birthplace as well as her father's homeplace, which has been relocated to the site. It was well worth the very long bus ride from Pennsylvania.

I loved the period furnishings that are in the house. Love the idea of a trundle bed.

 A great idea for hat storage. Older houses really needed to use all the space they had.

An intriguing staircase.

And beautiful countryside.

Our visit on Sunday ended with a play that had been written about Pearl Buck. The story centered on her work in founding Welcome House. The actors in the play did a wonderful job telling her story. 

It was a terrific weekend and so fun to be with other people who are passionate about keeping the legacy and work of Pearl Buck alive. 

Thank goodness for others

I'm happy to say that I have a little bit of sewing to show tonight. But sad that it is the sewing of others! We had our Good Enough Quilters meeting tonight and I brought my camera while others brought their sewing.

Lynn brought some squares that she made using a special technique. I didn't write it down but I think it is called tunnel quilting. The fabric was donated by someone else and it was such bright and cheery fabric. The picture below shows the second option for the block. Looks like fun.

Peggy brought her almost finished cat quilt. This is going to her niece as a graduation present. Isn't this the most happy quilt too. She quilted outlines of the cats and it just looks great. She only has to finish the binding.

Cindy's share was a very pretty blue and green quilt. It was interesting to see how she chain-stitched the pieces and we could easily envision the finished quilt. Just love these colors together.

I did bring a little something but nothing finished. I think these both go into my someday pile. First is the wonderful fabric I won from Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. This is the special lawn fabric that  was sent to me directly from Connecting Threads. It is just so soft.

The colors and patterns are really wonderful. I think this would be perfect for a soft, cozy quilt.

My final share was Amanda Jean's new book, Sunday Morning Quilts. Don't you just love the image that conjures in your mind. Some really great patterns to try in here. Someday...