COVID-19 and the impact on quilting

First and foremost, if you are reading this I hope you and yours are healthy and doing your part to help stop the spread of COVID-19.  With many people staying at home, the amount of quilting projects being completed by many people is staggering and inspiring.

For some of us, myself included, as an essential worker who is now pulling unprecedented levels of overtime, quilting is something we do in stolen minutes.  Even those stolen minutes do add up.

Currently, I'm working on a Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt - the 2019-2020 "Frolic".   Each of the main blocks is 64 individual pieces!  There's a good reason I've included the seam ripper in the picture below!  This is testing my skills in precision cutting and piecing.

The temptation now, is Bonnie having generously created a new mystery just to help the quilting community stay sane during this stay-at-home phase called "Unity".  Oh, the temptation to join in.  If you want to learn more, click this link and head on over to see that Bonnie has planned:  Unity-quilt-along

So I plan on quilting and blogging more, especially as I expect we will one day look back on this time and wonder what we did to stay healthy, stay connected, and stay sane.

Happy New Year and New Decade

I'm looking out my window at the snow coming down and having re-aquired my love of quilting, thanks mostly to my husband and my best friend.  They have both encouraged me to spend time on my quilting and the progress I am making has re-ignited my love of this creative outlet.

So I will keep this short for now, as I have to go away from my computer and over to my sewing machine to keep working on my passion.  Stay tuned, as updates on my efforts will come soon enough.

Oops! How to recover from mistakes

Oops!  It has been far too long since I last wrote.  I debated closing down the site, and decided I need to give this one more try.   I want to do this for myself as much as for anyone who happens to read this.

I love to write and I love to quilt.  There are other things I love too, please don't get me wrong, but this is a creative outlet that supports my desire to write and encourages me to quilt.  It is never too late to start over, start again, or start to further your goals.  This is true of quilting, blogging and life.  So, let's start with a challenge for myself:  to create and post a weekly update for this blog.  Each week I will give an update to this blog and let's see where this journey goes.

Oops!  My latest project is a mystery quilt that was designed and run by our local quilt guild.   There was a number of 4 patch blocks that were included in the design and the layout would create a chain.  If you look closely, you'll see the challenge I created for myself (what others might call a "mistake") in the layout of my 4 patch blocks.

To leave it or to correct it - that is the challenge!  I decided that now that I noticed it, it would drive me crazy and be the only thing I saw if I left it there.  I decided to rip out the 4 seams that attached the block to the quilt, and re-sew it in the correct position.  The results....well, lets save that for our next installment!

Have you ever created a challenge for yourself in your quilting?  How did you handle the challenge?

New Attitude

I've been away from my quilting for too long and just before Christmas, I started back in and realized quickly, just how much I've missed it.  So this year I've been working on some new tips and techniques for focusing on the important things in life and I'm going to add this blog back into the mix.

Get ready and stay tuned.  Next update - tomorrow!

Inspired and the Deepest Cut

There is nothing like a Quilt Guild to inspire someone.  In my case, I had the distinct pleasure and honour to hear Bethany Garner speak and the joy of being inspired by her trunk show.  This woman is so eloquent and creative - what a combination!  If you ever have the chance to meet this amazing woman and/or see her work, I strongly encourage you to do so.  I've added a link to her blog space and I encourage you to check it out.

This was the second meeting of the Guild I joined this year and it was during last month's meeting - the first, with my best friend there too -  that left me inspired to attack my collection of UFOs.  I finally made the first cut on my oldest UFO - a Trip Around the World quilt that I've had for more years than my daughters have been alive COMBINED!  A simple thing, but very surreal to finally take my rotary cutter to this fabric that has been moved between 8 homes over the years.

As I mentioned earlier, I've been inspired to work through the large stash of UFO's I have.  In addition to the Trip Around the World, I also did some work on a Border Creek Mystery quilt that has been on my plate for a while (oldest and youngest).  This is a step from the 6th month of the mystery and it's starting to come together.

Both this blog and these projects should continue to make progress!

When life gets in the way...

I saw my blog and once again regretted the long hiatus.  Life just gets in the way sometimes, or does it?  I have not been working on my quilting very much in the past year, so what have I been up to?  A new job with a long commute is part of the equation.  Spending time with my children as they are getting older and don't want to miss out.  But if I'm brutally honest, the television has become a bloodsucker in my life.

So what's changed?  Almost everything!  Start with a new diet, and already losing 25 pounds, while supporting my wonderful husband who started this diet because the doctor told him to and now we both continue willingly for how it makes us feel.  

I've also begun to realize I don't use the hours in my day we'll.   I started with an old school agenda and this weekend switched to bullet journaling.   It is a planner, to-do list(s), and a record of accomplishments with major creative elements and already, between the two, I've spent more quality time with my husband and children AND QUILTING!

So now I have renewed interest in life, in this blog, in homesteading, and seeing where this chapter of my journey takes me.  Why not come along for the ride!

14 Feet and Counting...

So remember those lovely sets of 3 strips of fabric from my last entry?  How did I not notice that I had cut one of those strips 1/4" short (the whole strip, the whole width of the fabric)?  When I did the math, I realize this meant ripping out 14 feet of stitching.

Now by the time I passed the 10' mark, I realized that I might need new glasses to see what I was doing, because things got a little blurry.  Fortunately, I had some material still in my stash and I was able to cut new strips and eventually, I once again had 4 sets of strips.  I think that's a good day's work!

Tomorrow, we cut those strips to pieces!!!