Calling All Hand Quilters

Greetings to you friends!  I hope the week has flown by for those working and been relaxing for those  who aren't.  In my post yesterday, I showed the wall hanging I made from my Sister's class; I have been pondering what type of hand quilting to do on it.  Thankfully, I have a friend whose mom quilted for most of her life and when she passed, my friend inherited her stencils. On Tuesday, I went over to see what she had and what a bonanza!  I found eight possibilities, out of 30+ and came home with them.  I had already picked my favorites, but wanted to really look at them closely.  Well, yesterday I traced the three I choose and am happy with the designs.  For the big snowball block-mostly white, I choose a Dahlia for the center; it's the perfect size for the square.  For the small center of the red square, I choose a small round pattern, with lots of stitching.  The border was easy-a feather pattern.  During our travels, I found that quilt stores just aren't carrying stencils for hand quilters anymore; they say there isn't the demand there once was.  I was so disappointed.  I have a fair number of stencils, but always looking for more.  So for you hand quilters, do you have a source where you get your stencils?

On another subject-the Soberances fire in northern California:  I talked to my girlfriend last night and although they've faced wildfires before, this one is scary.  She has spent two days working with neighbors to cut down undergrowth around the road.  She said that from her back deck all she could see was a wall of flames two ridges over.  "Maybe a mile by how the crow flies".  I can't believe they haven't yet been evacuated, at least last night.  They've had four helicopters flying over the area dropping water, circling continually; I would want to be down the mountain by now.  I had hoped to find a photo of the area of her deck, but can't seem to locate one.  They've done all they can possibly do to protect their home, now it's up to the fire fighters. Here is a pic from Aletha's deck last night, taken by her son.  The flames are behind the far ridge-looks a bit away, but still.....

Noreen