A Slice Of Country Charmer

Well here we are!  One whole month of 2013 is already in the history books!
January has been nothing short of frigid in my little corner of the planet.  It's been a perfect time to hide myself away and plan, and cut and sew.  And sew I have.  I took my time making my fabric selection.  I mentioned during my quandry about what color arrangement to go with for Country Charmer, that I might pull some Autumn fabric from the Underground Stash Storage Facility.  I did...I hauled it up and I hauled it back down...and two days later...I hauled it up again.  I love Autumn and Harvest and Pumpkins and Changing Colors. I loved the distraction those warm colors gave me when it was so cold that I had become convinced that my face would have frozen off had the 3 minute walk from the back door at work out to my car parked in the Frozen North Forty been 2 steps further.  It also seemed appropriate that I honor my first face to face meeting with Lynn Wilder last September by selecting an Autumn theme for this Sew'n Wild Oaks design of hers.
So, I filled my fancy schmancy pizza box with bits and pieces...1272 of them to be exact...carefully stacked and double checked to be sure that they filled the lines of Lynns perfect piecing layout template exactly.  I spent hours upon hours picking, auditioning and laying out fabric selections to be as close as possible to true love as one can be with 24 scrappy autumnal, but not too matchy-matchy blocks.  There are some constants...in the center block...and yet, time will reveal that there will be some changes here as well.  My background is also the same cream crackle print throughout.

 

Photography became a little bit of a challenge as my autumn oranges wanted to glare like a clown streaking across a circus tent with his frizzy wig on fire!  Trust me...that orange is not as flaming as it looks! 

Then I began to sew. I wanted to make a test block, just to be certain I was on the right track.  The first block went together like a dream.  I was soooo proud of myself that I nearly dislocated my shoulder patting myself on the back!  Like a bag of potato chips...I just had to make one more to see how cute it was gonna be!  Karma!  Block 2 became an exercise in seam ripping.  I spent 3 hours trying to whip that little 9-patch into perfection.  I finished it...for now...still gonna rip it out and try and get closer to 8.5 inches square, rather than the 8.25 inches that it seems determined to want to be...no matter how many times I squash it!  I swear, that block is as obstinant as that little patch of my bangs that, even with my best blowdrying techniques, wants to stick straight out in front, shading my left eye for the remainder of the day!

Anyhow,  I've decided not to attack block 2 again...yet...I'm going into serious mental and physical training before going there again.   For now, I'm distracting myself with a little chain piecing therapy.

I also gave up on pretty new cameras ability to take a non-glare photo.  I went back to old black reliable with the sticky retractable lens cover, until I've had more opportunity to become familiar with the settings on the cute new fashionably burgundy one.

 

Just one more note of importance.  I am blessed with a husband who doesn't mind accompanying me to quilt shops and shows, he appreciates and admires our Works of Heart.

He laughed as hard as I did, maybe harder, through one of Mary Ellen Hopkins lectures in Sisters many, many years ago.

He puts up with my quilting obsession floating in and around nearly every room in our home and patiently listens to me chatter about new quilts and techniques.  He doesn't mind it when I shove my tablet under his nose to share pictures of the many wonderful quilts that inspire me out there in blogland

When we are traveling, it is often he who has my 7 lb. long coat miniature Doxie, Maecee, draped contentedly in his arms, while I'm perusing bolts, books, fat quarters and patterns or juggling my camera...and it is he who scrambles to hang onto her when she has decided that Mom has gotten too far away for comfort.

Often I turn around to find him surrounded by quilty women

in all shapes sizes and ages, cooing over my little red headed baby girl...

maybe that's what's in it for him...

hmmm...I'll have to consider that a bit more carefully in the future

Oh Never Mind, Blessed I Am...

Happy Birthday Dear Husband...

 

Happy February All!

 

Nancie Anne