Quilting in a Tree House

Last week I had the opportunity to go away with my hubby to one of our favorite places, Kingsport, TN. Steve lived there for 2 years while working on a project for a paper mill. He would come home every other weekend, but on Spring Breaks, Fall Breaks, and during the summers the kids and I would go there for a visit. Trips to Gatlinburg, TN to view the Smoky Mountains, or to Asheville, NC to see the Biltmore House were some of our favorite things to do.

Closer to Kingsport is the oldest town in Tennessee, Jonesborough. It's this sweet little town that has a Storytelling Museum, lovely little antique shops, a local coffee shop called the Cranberry Thistle where the locals hang out and drink coffee while a nosy tourist sits and listens to their conversations(well, they were talking loud and one guy was talking about his upcoming trip to Toronto during the SARS breakout and what he was going to do to protect himself. I needed to know just in case I was going on an unexpected trip to Toronto, which I did not too long after that!).

Ahem....

Another great place to visit in Jonesborough is this beautiful quilt shop, Tennessee Quilts. They have lots of fabrics, a friendly staff, and their on-line shop is great, as well.

Back to my story...Steve went on a business trip to Kingsport, and I was planning to go, but instead I decided to stay home and clean out my extra bedroom.


Yeah, I know...I'm crazy.

I'm showing this photo in black and white. You can still see the mess, but it looks worse in color; take my word for it! My oldest daughter is planning a garage sale, and in the meantime the extra bedroom has become sort of an upstairs garage, if that makes any sense. Yes, I know you might quite possibly see fabric in the background, but I'm not getting rid of it. I really don't know why it's in there, to tell you the truth! Oh, this is embarrassing!!!

My other two children have added to the collection of things that need to go into the garage sale. There are books, out grown clothes, toys that the grand kids no longer play with, and tons of magazines. I decided it was time to make some sort of organization out of the chaos because it was starting to get to me! And look what I found sitting on the edge of the futon!


How funny is that? I had to shoot a picture because it's just too ironic! I forgot about that quilt, too! I've been wondering where it was!!

While clearing out the room I was thinking to myself just exactly what was going to be the purpose of this room. It used to be Julia's bedroom, but when Laura moved out Julia moved into her room. I already have a sewing room, but it would be nice to have a room to set up another sewing machine for when I want to do some machine quilting on smaller quilts that I don't send to Terry (best friend with a long arm quilting machine). Only in my dreams....


It would be like quilting in a tree house!

Okay. So, back to my husband bursting my bubble after I e-mailed him this photo reality. Steve is now working from home after many years of working in Savannah, GA, New Bern, NC, Johnsonburg, PA, a little town in Michigan, Hazzard, KY, and Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada. He flew home every other weekend and now he's home all the time, except for last week. At the end of the month he will officially be forced to retire, which is the reason we really need an office and he needs a space where he can work and take phone calls in his new business adventure without the dog barking or me loading the dishwasher in the background. The extra bedroom will be perfect for him to work. On the weekends it will be a nice place for the grand kids to stay when they want to spend the night, or when guests come for a visit, or for me to set up my set up my sewing machine in my pretend tree house when Steve isn't looking!

I did manage to get some quilting done in between breaks of clearing out chaos. Connie invited her blog readers to join in an International Signature Swap.

Sixty people signed up for the first group. She had a lot of people interested, so a second group was formed.
These are what my blocks look like when I laid them out on the floor.

It will be exciting to receive everyone else's blocks and see all the different countries that will be represented and to visit their blogs.

Thanks for reading about my little dream of quilting in a tree house. I'm still working on clearing things out and organizing to make things a little better. As Vanessa says "baby steps". I'm getting there! Next time you'll see me conquering magazines! It's all Mary Ann's fault!

Amanda