It Feels Like Home To Me

Pieced, Appliqued, Embroidered, Quilted, Blocked, Trimmed, Bound, Labeled, Loved.

Blocked & Drying

I just have to say Thank You to that "well known by quilters" company that makes the nice scented starch for supplying good quality spray nozzles on their bottles!  We've purchased numerous empty spray bottles for a variety of uses over the past few years and sooner rather than later, we are completely frustrated because they never seem to spray correctly.  Therefore, I have a closely guarded collection of 4 or 5 of "their" spray bottles that I use for water or other concoctions. 
Upon recommendation by a LQS,  I also divide the contents of a full bottle into 2 bottles and dilute it.  It works just as well and goes twice as far!
I've also been known to toss my empties in the car, just in case I happen to drop by a quilt shop, so I can get a refill while I just happen to be there...totally an unplanned stop...really! 
So if you park by a little blue car with empty starch bottles rolling around on the floor boards...that could be me!

On the last Shop Hop that took me 2 1/2 hours into Oregon, I stopped in at the shop where I had previously purchased the olive green plaid homespun, twice, & purchased what was left on the bolt.  Odd as that may sound, it has, over time, become one of my favorite fabrics.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, I just knew that sooner or later I'd be kicking myself if I didn't get more while I still could. 
That intuition paid off.  I had set aside a brown homespun for a potential binding while the quilt was away at the quilters.  When I put the two together I had an immediate Ick! Pooey!! Yuk!!! moment and went just as quickly to the homespun stash and grabbed my favorite green.
I worried for about 2 minutes, about strips of the same green landing so closely together, but once it was there, I was soon over it!  I love it and I'm so glad I made that purchase or I wouldn't have had enough to get all the way around.

Careful cutting, careful pressing with tons of Heavy Spray Starch (not the sweet smelling stuff) helped it go on beautifully.  The little disposable orange Steris bag clips that one of our nurses collected in a drawer & gifted to me have come in so handy for keeping my bindings straight as I do the handwork part of stitching them down!  Funny little things that squeeze open and closed & look like a Preying Mantis' front legs!  Sadly, we no longer use the Steris Machines, so no more cool clippys for me!  I have to keep good track of those I have. Fortunately one of our OR Techs also gifted me a great little plastic container that once held sterile implants used in an orthopaedic surgery, to keep them in. 
Repurposing at its best!  That is what we quilters do, right?

 

 So yeah, don't die of shock here...but I've officially finished three quilts in the last two weeks. 

I'm so proud of me!!!

 

So here we go...drumroll!

Country Homecoming,

now

"It Feels Like Home To Me"

 

Here is part of what I put on the label. 

There are Places you feel Safe,

Arms that Envelope you with Love,

Sights and Sounds that Calm Your Senses & Fill Your Heart,

Smells that Entice you to Breathe Deeper, Fill your Lungs, and Exhale a Sigh…

This Quilt, for Me, is That. 

Simply Put,

It Feels Like Home To Me…

It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way back where I come from
It feels like home to me, it feels like home to me
It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong…

Completed July 10, 2015

~Nancie Anne