It’s been a very expensive and educational week here at Sugar Meadow. Things are breaking right and left, and home insurance, car insurance, even the AAA Gold membership we have paid for over the last 30 years covers none of it, as the various bureaucracies informed us. If you have ever thought that it’s all and only about sewing here in Blogland, you are mistaken. But one of the benefits of being older (there are many) is that you can shrug off bad news fairly easily– we’ve done it all, haven’t we? No one is hurt and we’ve been able to get out of trouble as quickly as we’ve gotten into it. And the best news– my sewing projects were only slowed down a little!

    Back to the happy world of Blogland… this happened over the weekend!

   A Ribbon Runs Through It is a completed top… all 5,000 pieces. The requisite amount of time pinning and groveling about the concrete floor has been served… my knees loved every minute!

     If I may say so, I did a beautiful job piecing this quilt… those little squares are 1/2″! I always took the time to go back and pick out seams where my points got chopped, or sew a seam a little tighter where they missed. The finished size was supposed to be 99-1/2″ x 99-1/2″ and it came out exactly that. I think history will judge me very kindly as the maker of this quilt. ❤

     The instructions by Lynne Wilder of Sew ‘n Wild Oaks were very well written, and special thanks to Fat Quarter Shop for offering this sew-a-long. You all got me through my mom’s illness and a stressful move as I secretly did a little sewing each month at night.

     I’m looking at another Lynne Wilder pattern– The Country Charmer– or maybe I’ll finally switch over the the Barn Sampler… it looks easy now! (No, she’s not standing on the quilt.)

     The quilt fits perfectly on our queen size bed– I can only attribute that to pure luck, because I never check the size of a pattern before buying it, do you? I just go by looks-hehe. Hoping to get it sent out for quilting by the end of the month– even if my longarm was assembled at this point in time, it wouldn’t fit!

    The artist-in-residence and her fiancé have figured it all out on their own. The kids put it the syrup up on their Etsy shop and the entire first year’s estimated production is sold out– there’s a waiting list at this point!

    Finally, the meadow has a porcupine! Another cute Winter Twist animal, or a varmint that destroys acres of forest each year?

     At first, we thought he was a real cutie pie–he moves only slightly faster than a sloth and appeared to be waving at us from the trees. Even better– he was leaving me the gift of “sewing needles” everywhere!

    Then, we noticed he ate the bark off an entire tree! Even if you only take the bark off a tree in a small ring, the tree dies– sap can’t flow up and down to nourish the new leaves. After that discovery, it then became war, as we Googled up ways of getting rid of him– trapping, coyote urine, pepper spray… lethal force is not recommended, as then you have a spiny body to get rid of!

So far, he’s made a total fool out of us.

    So that was my week. It’s “Spring Forward” Sunday, but I have to confess the past few days sucked any spring I had out of me. I’m ready for some warmer weather– but not before a few more long winter’s naps.