Mountain Quiltfest 2021

 With covid impacting a lot of things several shows and conventions were canceled or delayed. One of them being Mountain Quiltfest in Pigeon Forge, TN. It's normally in March and was the last thing I did before lockdown last year. This year they moved it to May. This week in May to be exact.

I've always gone to shows but never entered anything. The most daring I've been, has been to enter the county fair. Because I didn't believe in myself enough to enter anything I considered a professional show. But the ladies who enter the fair are professional at what they do. Their quilts are fantastic, and until I saw my completion I just thought I'd have a better chance at the judging. 

This year I decided "Why Not!" I put my best quilt forward. I did Gravity by Jaybird Designs and paid to have it quilted. It was too large for me to tackle. I am thrilled with it. I love how it came out. I spent a week fussing over it and the little things before turning it in. 

The show started today and goes on until the 8th. Mom, being excited to see the winners called today to see when they would post them. They told her noon tomorrow but I decided to check out the website tonight. I wanted to figure out where to look tomorrow. To my surprise, they had already posted the winners.

I won second place in my category. I am so ecstatic to see this. I can't wait until I can go to the show this weekend and get a picture in front of the quilt. I have pictures of it but not in this setting. If you go to the show I'm L-16 in extra-large quilted by another!

Since there hasn't been much travel lately so my drink to spotlight is not tea. I went to a speakeasy in Knoxville and had some very fancy drinks. This one is called a paper airplane and I loved it. The bartender is a genius artist! It's in the alley next to the Oliver Hotel in the downtown area. There is a password and I don't know it right now. When we went we didn't have to give it since my friend was staying at the hotel.

Craft Shows!

 I have been a busy bee the last several months. Just not busy writing about it. In November I decided to take a chance and participate in a craft show. I made several small projects and took a few of the larger ones I had to sell in the Christmas Market in Oak Ridge. I can say I was successful. 

I have since looked into participating in more. This weekend I have one in Johnson City, TN. It's far enough away for a day trip, but still close to home. We are going to get a hotel for the weekend. I'm excited about the new venue and change of scenery.  I have been working the last three months hard to making new items for this show. I have several bowl koozies, table toppers, masks, and other quilted items. I'm excited to see how this show goes. 

If you are in the area it's Sat March 27th at the Appalachian Fairgrounds. 100 Lakeview St, Gray, TN

Tea Time!

Tea for today was one I enjoyed in December. I'm so far behind. I picked up a holiday tea sampler at World Market and loved every one of them. It's always nice to get variety packs so I can have something different. The cup is a present from my best friend I got several years ago. My cousin moved in with her two cats and I had to move the teacup collection to a safer place. I pulled the cup out to use it since it came with a strainer for loose tea. I've enjoyed using the cup a lot. 

Bonus photo of my new sewing companions.

Knit in Public day June 13th

I do not knit. I have tried and I suck at it. I do cross-stitch and small had stitching projects. I normally go to Sit N Stitch with my local quilt shop and work on a Harry Potter SYOA cross stitch. Recently on Knit in Public Day, I decided to join the shop in their social distance gathering. It was nice and fun. I got to talk to people I've not seen in a long time. Meet new people. There was a food truck with yummy food and drinks. I don't know how much progress I really got on my cross stitching but it was relaxing. I know a few other people in other locations who do knit and did knit in public.

I got tea and mini quiches from the food truck. I also got a mango smoothie cause I couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted to drink. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the food truck right now. I can see myself coming back later to add them.

The shop is going to throw another day similar to this in Jackson Square on July 24th. She's calling it Crafters Night Out. The Crazy Cuban Food Truck will be there and we can just sit outside and enjoy a summer evening ran or shine. Thanks to covered walkways we can still go out. I just hope it's not 100 degrees outside.

East Tennessee Shop Hop 2020

East Tennesse Shop Hop Shop list

This year's shop hop got delayed a little. It had 10 shops participating. Two of the shops did double blocks instead of one so they can have a total of 12 blocks for the hop. One of the shops from last year decided not to participate and one of last year's shops closed. That did keep me from having to drive all the way out to Jamestown, but I did make the trip to Johnson City.

Downtown Johnson City

We split this up into three days. We were going to do more on day two but were a little tight on the budget so that trip was rescheduled.

The hop was originally scheduled for June but was rescheduled and extended due to COVID. This year's theme was "Blooming Blue in Tennesse" featuring the Leah collection by the Beginning Fabrics. The blocks were designed by Marti Michell. It looks like an exclusive pattern for the shop hop because I was trying to see if the overall sampler had a name but I couldn't find one. The individual blocks do have names.

Outdoor Gallery in Johnson City

Sat July 12tn

• Little Blessings - Crossville - 4 Curtain Call & 7 Center Stage
• Loose Threads -Harriman - 2 Blowing in the Wind
• Gina's Bernina - Knoxville  - 8 Folsom Favorite

Mon July 13tn

• Twisted Sisters - Maryville - 9 Crossed Tower



Mural and Flowers at Cafe in
Johnson City

• Dizzy Diva - Knoxville - 6 Tempest in a Teapot

Sat July 18th

• Bernina in Stitches - Johnson City - 5 Sukey's Corners
• Sewing Bee- Jonesborough - 11 This kit is being mailed to me so I don't have the name.
• Tennessee Quilts- Jonesborough - 12 Junior Rockets & 3 Big Top
• Cherry Pitt- Sevierville - 1 Rolling Along
• Mountain Stitches by Susan- Gatlinburg - 10 Hearts Among the Stars

Mom's Haul

Overall I got to explore some of the areas I didn't stop to look at last year and had a fun road trip with mom. Both of us ended up with a massive haul. I can't say I'll ever have as massive a haul as I did from Quiltcon Last year but this was fantastic.

I was going to turn my passport in at Gina's but since that shop is the closest to mom I decided to have her turn hers in there and I turned mine into Susan's.

My fabric haul

Stash Buster Mini Series SAL updates

I've missed a few months of updating. I've not stopped working. I finished the #miniseriessal by #guicyguice and #alisonglass. This was a learning experience but I don't think I will do that again. I made a small table topper with all the blocks.

I finished the stash diving mystery and participated in a few more. I did not get a final photo of two of the tops but I will have them up at a later date. I did also finish Jaybird Quilts Gravity quilt pattern. I've been calling it the Galaxy quilt. That one has been sent off to the quilter to be quilted. It's roughly queen plus and I do not have the ability to quilt it myself. I don't mind paying someone with a long arm machine to do it for me. I can't wait to have the finished quilt back.

When the shop that sold the Elmwood teas opened back up I went back to get some teas. I picked up this Bourbon black tea. It's an interesting rich tea. It's good to drink straight up or in cocktails.

Mini Series Stitch Along.

We are about to enter week 4 of the Alison Glass and Guicy Guice mini-series stitch along. Week 1 was the log cabin block. Week 2 was the courthouse steps, and week 3 was the pineapple block. The patterns are so tiny but they are getting easier to stitch on such a scale. It's hard to tell from the photos, but I'm doing 4 1/2 inch blocks.

Last week I saw on Instagram where someone had done a spiral pattern with the pineapple block. I decided that was what I wanted. It took two days of work to make the block. The first day was mostly planning on where what went. I'm ready for the next block. I have the patterns for all the blocks and I can just start one, but I like seeing what everyone else is doing before I completely decide on mine. Plus I'm not 100% sure what's next.

Quarentine Stash buster

Fabric Selection

My local quilt shop has decided to do a stash diving mystery quilt. Since most quilters have a bit of stash built up it's easy to pull from and gives us something to share. You can find the clues on The Fiberology Lab's Youtube page if you want to join along. The current quilt is pretty simple so far, but we still have two more clues to go. I don't think she's going to do anything complicated to make it easily accessible for all sewing levels.

Latest units.

The first clue was fabric choices along with cutting instructions. I started with a batik jelly roll I had purchased recently and a couple of solids. I chose a dark blue background and a dark grey contrast. There is a lot of tonal difference between them and the strips, but I'm interested in what the final outcome is going to be.

Fabric Selection for the next mystery quilt.

Go watch the videos and play along. She's going to be doing a second stash diving mystery quilt next week. I got the fabric requirements for that one and got them ready to begin.

Tea today is actually a walk down memory lane. Over 10 years ago I stumbled into a tea room/ gastropub in Mobile Alabama. I don't even remember the name right now, but I had never been a tea room and it looked interesting. I was on vacation with my friends and they usually go along with my suggestions. I've been told I'm good at finding fun unique places. This one was near the university and it was my first experience with English high tea. I loved it so much, it made me want to look into more tea rooms after that. Now I've always been a tea lover but I think the experience made me obsessed.