Last Morning in Knoxville

Saturday morning dawned bright… no rain,, power on, hot water in the shower (thanks Ann!!) and this beautiful view out of my bedroom window.Having a pool like that right there might encourage me to go for a swim? or not?

Ann had promised me a visit down to her basement studio so down the stairs we went, past this beautiful quilt…

Through a sumptuous living space and into the first room of her sewing suite.

Is this a stash or what?So beautifully arranged.

But wait, there’s more….And more!These beautiful fabric are pulled ready for a quilt top…Once upon a time I bought a yard and a half of that front one and used it as a backing on a quilt…

This quilt is sandwiched and ready to go. Lovely Marcia Derse fabrics.We talked about some walking foot alternatives before entering another room. More fabric?And what might be in these colorful drawers?Why, thread of course!Ann, you are not going to run out of beige any time soon 🙂

Before Ann moved to Tennessee she had a very busy long arm business. She says she does less now but everything is still set up and ready to go.

Two long arm machines…Love the nearly finished top on the design wall.

The top on the machine belongs to a quilter in her 90’s. It’s next in line for machine quilting.The fabric at the front came out of Ann’s collection for the backing. It’s the perfect complement for the top.

So Ann, you have a lot of stitching in your future. You do have a beautiful space to create in. Thanks for sharing it with us!

The only thing left to do was gather up my bags, much lighter after my visit with the Village Quilters, and head back to the airport. Our flight was a bit delayed because the computer system was having trouble, The pilot told us he had tried resetting it several times (turned it off and on again?) but that didn’t work, so a technician had to come out. He must have found the issue because we were soon in the air and after the short flight, complete with zesty ranch mix and coffee, we were touching down at O’Hare. Steve was there to meet me and whisked me away to dinner. Go Steve!!

(Today’s featured image is Midway Airport from the air as we flew past… Those runways are not very long?)

Thanks Jean for suggesting the first of the quilts from yesterday’s post was an Album Block. My friend Valli stayed up late last night after our Guild meeting and found it in the Electric Quilt Company’s BlockBase, the electronic version of Barbara Brackman‘s Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilting Patterns. With that information I looked it up and found it by the much cuter name of the Chimney Sweep Block!

Valli really did stay up late. An e-mail timed at 12.51 AM arrived identifying the second quilt block as a Double-X Variation and then one came at 1.22 AM with a link to a quilt using the blocks in the Quilt Index. Crazy woman, but very interesting.

I just have to hand stitch down the binding on a table runner I have been making today. It’s basted ready to go. I’ll sew it while I am at this month’s PAQA meeting. This afternoon I am going to tidy up my sewing room and supplies (again!) and work out what I need to do to get ready for next week’s excursion to Heath, Ohio.

Oh yes, we need milk and bread…