It’s back to reality now after the quilt show. This includes, yes, more snow, our dear little Hen Rietta dying after brief illness, a house in bad need of spring cleaning, and taxes– owe, owe, owe. I’ve reached the “What am I doing with my life?,” phase in my mind. I do recognize cyclical patterns in my mental health, so there’s no need to worry. It will soon pass. It’s triggered when I start to wonder why I am cutting perfectly good fabric into small pieces, then sewing it back together {or not}. The only cure is to cut fabric into small pieces and sew it back together {or not}, so here’s where I am this week!

Poshness is complete as called for with 42 blocks. I originally purchased extra low volume fabric for my backgrounds of this collection– you need an incredible 1 yard for 5 blocks. (Did I mention I’m about $400 into this project?) For the last 1/3 of blocks, I decided to use busy backgrounds instead and I’m glad I did– they are joyous. The most fun part of this quilt is throwing together colors for each block indiscriminately, but I did end up making a single rule for each block instead of going totally crazy. Here are some of my favorites from this set with their “rationale” listed.

Solid Petals, Busy Background.

Pinky Winky.

Bluey.

All Floral.

The Everything Bagel.

And here they are all together. I’m over scrambling on the floor to lay 42 blocks out, so I photoshopped them together– the colors are a little off.

Like you, I’m also looking at this for the first time myself and I’m not sure what to say! It’s a beautiful block and the quilt is an impressive size. I sure did get a good mix of colors. I’m kind of caught up to where I wanted to be at the end of March, but I still want to add another row of 7 to make it a square, and I want a border to frame it. It’s a very different thing than I have ever made, which is always good. I honestly think we are going to have to wait and see it in person hanging on the wall and then judge it for the WOW factor. These blocks are exhausting to make which is clouding my vision at this point, too. Phew!

The mushroom quilt is over the finish line! On to the longarm it goes. I’d love this done in the next couple of weeks– the barn baby shower will soon be upon me!

This is a good example of not really knowing how a quilt will come out until it is finished. I was skeptical of this all along, and now I love it. My little grandson will think he’s playing on the forest floor. If the quilt looks like there’s a bulge in the center– that’s my daughter at 30 weeks. ❤️

Here is my quilting plan– ferns and mushrooms are special to these parents-to-be. The keyword is LUSH!

I think I’ve been a very good girl, staying focused on just a couple of things, so it’s definitely time for some new starts. My niece is getting married in August and she worked at an ice cream store every summer for about six years through high school and college.

Perfect, huh!

This is “Single Scoop’” by Katie’s Quilting Co. It is huge– 80″ x 80,” but looks fairly simple to put together with large pieces– the cones could totally be strip pieced. I already know how I’d quilt it– swirls in the ice cream, crosshatching in the cones, and straight line in the background. I’m definitely going for it! Something new is definitely going to snap me out of the doldrums. Background fabric is on the way!

And I bought this little cutie yesterday–

Apparently I have a thing for fireflies– I have the firefly cross stitch and a large quilt kitted up. I’m also a sucker for a boxed kit! This is a Riley Blake small wall hanging series– one per month. I saw them first at the AQS show, but at that point I was already over my spending budget. So now that I’m home, the budget resets, right? You can assemble all twelve banners into a quilt and they are adorable, but so far I’ not tempted– there’s too many other things I’d like to finish first. Note that August– my birth month– is the fireflies– meant to be. ❤️

On the hand stitch front, incredible progress has been made on the Christmas in the Woods stocking. I finish the top portion and got a wood post done on the bottom already. The colorful birds really brightened up the whole piece.

This is how much I got done on HO HO HO while away. Not much, but it’s nice to have a quicker stitch option to grab when the stocking gets overwhelming.

And here’s another quickie I’ve had in my stitching drawer for quite awhile. My SIL and daughter hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2022– he loves mushrooms and her trail name was “Fern” so I’d love to backstitch a fern and an AT (Appalachian Trail) logo in and make them a commemorative ornament. I think I found it at the end of an aisle in Michaels– good find!

And it is time to prep another Sweet Land applique block! I hope to get started on that this weekend.

So that’s me, home again! I’ve been saying this for weeks, but would it hurt Mother Nature to just allow a little warm sun on my face? My poor daffodils refuse to risk blooming– that says it all.

xox
Carol