Hi ,

My last visit of the day was to Bernina In Stitches, a small quilt shop in downtown Johnson City.

This cute shop was also packed to the gills with a beautiful supply of Moda fabric, notions, buttons, and more.

I was super tempted by a special Bernina embroidery foot that would fit my old Bernina 1130 and 1230.

After my mini shop hop we went on a wonderful tour of Appalachian Caverns, one of the best caves I've ever visited.

Josh and I both regretted not wearing old clothes and tennis shoes so we could take the longer tour and get really dirty crawling through the tight areas of the cave.

As you can see, inspiration for new free motion quilting designs were everywhere in the cavern's texture and various structures!

How is your Solar Flares block going?

This funky asymmetrical block gave me a bit of trouble in piecing because I kept getting the triangles flipped around.

In case you missed it last week, make sure to check out the piecing video here to find tips on piecing this block.

Obviously, I really love to sew and make clothing, but rarely have the time to fuss with the fabric, pattern, and sizing to get everything just right.

But now that may just change thanks to SproutPatterns.com!

So instead of buying fabric, then buying the pattern separate, you can now buy the fabric with the sewing pattern printed directly on top.

What makes this even more awesome is you can design the fabric for a new shirt, skirt, dress, or kimono robe! I first designed the pink blossom fabric for a Spoonflower challenge, but decided I wanted the trim and belt to contrast slightly so I took out the flowers and created another fabric with just the background gray rings.

What has resulted is a gorgeous new garment that's just needing to be cut and sewn! I love the 3D imaging that Sprout Patterns offers because you can really see what the project is going to look like being worn.

Click Here to check out this kimono project.

Yesterday our door bell rang with some very bad news. Our neighbor had found our cat, Tanookie, on the side of the road. She had been hit by a car sometime overnight or in the early morning and died.

Tanookie became our cat in 2012, along with an orange tabby we called Shy Guy. Both cats were sort of hand-me-downs from my dad who was working and away from home so much that he couldn't keep the cats anymore.

Instantly the cats became part of the family hanging out on the back porch, sneaking inside anytime they got a chance, and stalking chickens for fun in the yard.

She loved to be petted, but for only around 30 seconds. Any more than that and she'd attack your hand viciously. She was an excellent hunter, but really wanted to get credit for her kills so she'd leave lots of dead little bodies all over the carport and stepping stones.