I gave some serious consideration to not putting this blog under the Quilt Diary label but decided screw it. I’ve been living in a world of secrets for the past 15 months. You know how some of you have secret sewing, I had secret business deal in the works. It finally came out in the open on March 2nd when we announced our company was being sold and the deal was closed on March 11th. I am officially self-employed now. The past two weeks have been high stress, emotional, and ton of work. I have worked 12 hour days for 12 days straight which left zero time to quilt and I mean ZERO. This has been the hardest part of the past two weeks as I use quilting to keep my sanity. While it has been three weeks since I posted a blog, not a lot of things have happened in my quilting world due to work life. So let’s see if I can get you updated on the good stuff!
Challenges
Smash That Stash Swap was mailed on March 3rd!!! Mine has not come yet but that’s okay. My partner posted mine on Instagram and it is so cute. It will fun to use that as the basis of a new quilt. Today the new Make Modern digital issue came out. I have not had an opportunity to look, but I am sure I will sign up for this issue of Smash That Stash Swap. Maybe I will be crazy and do two this time. I will let you know. As soon as my block comes, I will show everyone. Here is a picture of mine that I mailed off. Adorable pattern and I look forward to making a quilt.
Cosmos Mystery Quilt is quickly coming to an end. Clue 8 arrived in the past two weeks. I have it on my To Do List for this week. An email came for the completing of the quilt but they did not list everything for mine so I am not sure what to do. I have tried emailing but it looks like a phone call might just do the trick.
Name of the Rose Mystery Quilt is underway. I posted clue 1 last time and Clue 2 has arrived. So far so good. The two quilts colorways are so very different that I definitely can’t mess it up. LOL! On the To Do List for this week as well.
Quilter’s Planner 2020 Sew-a-Long is going well. January and February are done and now it is time to cut March this week. Next time I should have a picture of the finished block for you.
Monthly Color Challenge is orange this month. I’ve printed out the pattern for the month. Now it is time to cut the block. I am using my Alison Glass stash for this challenge by Patterns by Jen.
Lost and Found Quilt hosted by Paper Pieces has slipped a little. I finished block 3 and am working on block 4. Here is a picture of those:
I’ve printed out the instructions for March blocks 5 & 6. My goal for this week is to finish block 4. I love how they are using these block as a teaching moment about color and the impact of your choices. Because I am a little brain dead, I admit that I am using the same exact fabrics as they are so I don’t have to think.
Meadowland Quilt-A-Long hosted by Then Came June stalled last two weeks. I started off pretty good for weeks 1 and 2. I finished all my blocks for week 3 and now I am totally derailed. That QAL wraps up this week so I will be on my own for this one after this week. It will be an official UFO. LOL!!! I have no plans to work on this one this week as I attempt to check some things off my To Do List this week. I will get back on it next week. I had decided that I actually wanted to make 30 blocks instead of the 20 that most people are making so I would have had more to do anyway. I am loving my Tula Pink Monkey Wrench fabric with the PURPLE solid fabric. It really is sharp.
Sugaridoo Bernina Sew-A-Long has been my biggest disappointment. So far 2 out of 4 rows are foundation paper piecing. I have only finished Row 5 from the first week and now I need to play catchup with rows 12, 1, and 9 in that order. #2Both 12 and 9 are foundation paper pieced. Due to my work distraction, I just have not had the bandwidth to deal with this. While Row 1 is on my To Do list this week, it will not be done. I can check off ten other things for the time it will take for me to get caught up on this one.
All People Quilt Resolution 2020 March is item number 7 which for me is my Candy Rail Lap Quilt. I made this quilt on a whim one day with fun candy jelly roll. So cool. One of the reasons I added it to the 2020 list is because I really wanted to finish it. So I am excited to be able to work on it this month. I just wish I had the full month. But maybe with the Covid-19 virus making us all stay home, it can still be a reality.
For January I worked on quilting #2 – New Year’s Eve Quilt. I just need to label and bind this one. This is on this week’s To Do List.
For February I worked on #9 – Quilter’s Planner 2018 block of the month. I assembled the top including borders. The next step is assembling the back as I do not have one large piece of fabric. I put it on the list for this week so it doesn’t fall into the crack even though I don’t expect to work on it.
My Projects
English Paper Piecing Projects
Farmer’s Wife 1920 quilt is slowly moving forward. I haven’t completed block 38 in the past 6 weeks so I need to make sure I work on it a few days every week for 15 minutes. I do enjoy this project. Ruby’s Garden Quilt was pulled out of the closet yesterday. I had put it away and you know the saying – Out of sight. Out of mind. I am excited to have it at least visible again.
Applique Projects
I have been working on my wooly mug rug series by Shabby Fabrics for almost two years now. At the last post, we talked about how I only had two left. Guess what?! I finished both of them. It feels good to finish up the Candy Canes and Snowmans. Here are the final products!
You may recall I have diligently been working on A Year in Words wall hanging series as well. The three current active projects are Halloween, Give Thanks, and Winter. Once again my focus has been elsewhere so I want to swing back to both of these this month. I am still in the process of machine appliqueing all of them. Obviously they are in different stages of completion. Update to come soon.
One of the other series I have been actively working on is the Blooming wallhanging series – another fun loving series. Pumpkins, Leaves, and Pansies are my current projects. Pansies just needs to be bound and Leaves just needs a little free motion quilting on the background and then bound. My Pumpkins still have a wee bit of machine applique to do.
The last applique series that I have open projects on is the A-Door-naments wallhanging series. I have Santa and Snowmen both of which are in the machine applique stage.
Sewing Projects
As any good quilter, I have numerous projects including Halloween mug rugs which needs to be bound, Advent Christmas Quilt blocks need to be trimmed, as well as my 100 days 100 blocks 2019 quilt. I hope to work on these as well.
Hockey News
We flew down to San Diego last night for the State Championship for Shaun’s PeeWee Hockey team. As we pushed away from the gate, I got a text saying they cancelled/rescheduled the weekend to mid-April. So when we got to San Diego, we picked up our bags went to the Southwest counter to book next flight home. This corona virus deal is really messing with everyone. Today we received an email cancelling the State Championships permanently for 2020. We have no idea if and when life will get back to normal.
Stay home and be safe everyone. Do a little quilting instead of traveling for the rest of March. I hope to be able to get back to you soon!
Breaking News
This morning my long time companion Russ passed away. He had a long beautiful life and he was held in loving arms to the very end.
Take care of everyone and be safe!
Peggy