Lakeside Get-away

Last week we escaped for a week to a rented lakeside cabin in the mountains of East Tennessee.   Once off the highway we left all of life's stresses behind... as well as cell phone reception!  I drove up into the mountains on roads that were, at times, so curvey the 25mph squiggle signs didn't do them justice.  Often times I couldn't see what was around the bend.  The area borders on the Cherokee National Park and the views as we climbed were gorgeous!

 


Our first stop was to unload and launch the boat where the guys could then cruise across the lake to our cabin.

  I set up my sewing machine by the sliding glass doors with a view of the lake off the covered porch.  The weather was beautiful most of the week and I was able to slide open the screen door and listen to the birds and get the fresh air without all the bugs! 

The early morning view with the "smoke" rising off the lake and mountains was phenomenal!

 

I worked on several projects throughout the week... 
         

First... and most important to him... was Matthew's Puppy quilt.  He spent the past 8 months embroidering these puppies and I promised to help him get it assembled into a top and quilted to enter into the county fair in August.  I've got a white with black dots for the backing to match the white dots on the blue sashing and red cornerstones (I'll have to try for a much better picture later).

I thought I brought along fabric and parts (HSTs) for Orca Bay Step 5, but all I had was the fabric.  So I cut the 350 triangles...and the sewing will have to wait until I find time at home.

I did bring along my Easy Street fabric and parts.  I had the square-in-square pieced borders almost ready to attach to the center, and a few extra pieces to fill in the corners.  I was pleasantly surprised at how easily it all fitted together...there was minimal tugging or easing to fit.  I love how it turned out! 

 
















 
After adding the final border, I forgot to take a picture out on the porch deck.  Now that I'm home, my floor space isn't big enough to lay it out, and it's raining outside today, but here is a picture of one corner showing all the borders.

There was only one day that the weather didn't cooperate, so we went for a long drive and ended up in Elizabethtown where we did  some grocery shopping and enjoyed a nice steak dinner out to celebrate Father's Day.  

I also stopped and picked up some fabrics to work with.  Back at the cabin I cut and stitched some pinwheel blocks but wasn't happy with the results.  I think the pinwheels are too strong and overwhelm the floral print.   Plan B is to make 9-patches using some white on white and the matching green I was going to use for the backing and use the pink and blue as the center square... hoping it will all play together better.

The water was a bit on the chilly side for me, but that didn't stop Matthew from going for a swim.

  
The fishing wasn't exceptional, but we did catch a couple of bass... enough for dinner one night.

This guy came swimming by nightly looking for bread scraps.  He and three others were brought to the area when a gentleman from Florida relocated nearby several years ago.  His companions are gone and he refuses to stay in the pond he was relocated to.  So the locals and tourists feed and take care of him.

It was a very relaxing and much needed vacation.