Quilt Shop and Winter Wonderland
January 6, 2010|Comments (15)
The countryside whispered sweet nothings to us from under a liberal dusting of snow and big skies worthy of being featured behind The Duke astride a golden palomino. We took the back roads which wound through the cattle-dotted hills and crossed streams busily tripping over fallen logs to the quilt shop in the historic Wharf District of Staunton, Virginia. Read more
An Old Fashioned Sewing Party
November 9, 2009|Comments (11)
After suffering many years on the back-burner of hobbies, sewing is finally more than an irregular blip on the radar. This is in part because I have this nifty new sewing room with L-shape tables but also because my friends have started coming around to sew with me. My guests used to suffer my infamous Old-Fashioned Folding Parties in which I forced then to help fold my clean clothing while chatting. It’s amazing I still have friends. Thank goodness for goodness they stuck by me… because I now throw Old-Fashioned Sewing Parties instead. They are WAY more cool. Read more
A Quiltin’ Man
November 11, 2008|Comments (14)
That’s right, folks, Josh tried his calloused working man’s hands at quilting. I was so proud. Contrary to popular belief, sewing is not just a woman’s job. Knowing how to sew in a survival situation could save your life. Don’t believe me? Just ask Bear Grylls of Man vs. Wild.
Westville Village in Lumpkin, Georgia is a blast! Josh’s Aunt Julie came to visit on Saturday and so we packed our lunches and took off to explore Westville. Having grown up in Virginia, I was used to visiting Williamsburg and Jamestown which give the illusion that early settlers were all living in large towns. Not so. Westville is frozen in time as an 1850′s Southern American country village. Volunteers from the area arrive in plain clothes to show everything from making cane syrup to handcrafts like spinning yarn.
We kept waiting to feel that we had awoken on a different planet as many people around us appeared to feel but Julie, Josh, and I felt completely at home around all of the traditional furnishing and crafts. More than anything, we felt like asking if we could just pack up our chickens and move in. Particularly alluring was this sweet baby:
All of my life, I have dreamed of having a loom. I used to wrap yarn around chair legs and pretend that I was weaving rag rugs or even fine linen. Eventually, I made a simple cardboard weaving frame and went to town but there are many ways to make them. Perhaps my fascination with weaving was an early indicator that I would lean toward the simple and sustainable living.
What craft first caught your fancy?
