This tidal wave of an event has rolled over and passed— it was one for the history books!

The problem with being so far out in the boonies is that no one is near enough to help with anything— no chair rentals, cake, or food. A campground up the road generously let us borrow their picnic tables, but beyond that, we did it all ourselves! Here are a few pictures of our event space before the crowds arrived.

We completely cleaned out our barn and decorated just about every square inch except for a corner that was concealed by…. quilts! Hmmm… what a great space for a quilt show…

As you can see, I finished the quilt and the banner on time!

Here’s a better look:

I am so proud of my fern and pebble quilting, but most of all, how quickly I was able to finish it up.

For our daughter, it was never about the gifts— she just wanted to feel her community around her and a happy spirit presided over the whole event. I really enjoyed seeing all of her worlds collide– friends arrived from her youngest ice skating days, college, and then the newer Maine friends all made the trip up! Despite not being about the gifts– there were gifts a-plenty! In fact, no one brought “a gift”– it was all giant bags of multiple things, many handmade. I was too busy socializing to really pay attention to what she received, but I’m going to walk over today to ogle everything.

If you need a balloon arch for an upcoming event, I’m your woman. xox

None of my worst fears were realized– the black flies did not attend, and the barn was warm enough. The worst thing that happened– my son’s dog ate a wooden banana from Harlow’s toy farmstand, but he was perfectly fine– one of the kid’s good friends is a vet!

MY biggest gift— a clean house! After all the effort, I don’t think I’m going to have to do much for quite a while. There was also enough leftover food for the entire week. So, when it was all said and done, I launched into… SEWING!

The next big family event is just a week away– it’s Harlow’s first birthday, if you can believe that! Fortunately, this is an AWAY game. Here is her first birthday quilt— it’s just about ready to be longarmed. Again, I have just a few days, but I know I can do it. There’s a little #1 candle left to be appliqued at the top of the quilt.❤️

I also finished up 7 more POSH blocks over and above the 42 shown in the pattern. Why do I have to be so extra all the time? But I do love a square quilt. I looked for finished Posh Penelope’s on Instagram, and I noticed another person made it square. Not the only crazy one, here!

I pretty much threw out all my “rules” for these– such as– use all the colors in each block, no repeats on petal colors, no repeats on fabric pattern. Truthfully, I had plastic baggies of leftover parts that I just wanted to use. I’m glad I did, because this beauty did not fit the mold and would never have come to life!

Here’s the back– I am constantly down on myself for taking so long on things, but the obsession with neat backs is part of the problem. I have a little saying in my head– “Neat back = neat front.” It’s true.

Every time I finished one of the 50 steps, I’d say to myself, “That’s the last time you’ll ever have to do that!” And then– the payoff!

The colors look a little washed out here, because I laid them out next to my floor to ceiling windows. Basically, the colors appear in diagonal rows– the reds look like they are standing out a bit, but I don’t think they do in real life. I’m trying to sew together one row a day and it’s going well. Look at my pretty points and matching center strip!

I do have a sit ‘n sew day at my favorite shop next week– the same place where this adventure started last October.

Also heading straight for me like a freight train— my niece’s wedding in August. I got some cutting done for Single Scoop— she worked at an ice cream shop each summer, year after year. It must be tough to settle into a boring career now. 😂

Those are the ice cream colors. Does the fabric look familiar? If it does, it’s because I way overbought on Sunday Brunch for Posh! I think if I sew this massive thing together in rows, not blocks, it will be a cinch. You can see how optimistic I am with my time frame penciled in! Week One, Week Two– haha– we shall see! The cone parts look like they could be one massive strip set.

Both Posh and Single Scoop need to be FFO’d by the last week of July– I’m hopeful. Ferns and pebbles, right?

Tons of progress on my cross stitch Christmas stocking— I’ll show you where I was and where I am now and you’ll be impressed!

Before:

But I’m setting it aside for a week and a half— look! Appliqué block 3 of Sweetland is all prepped!

It’s fantastic to have a Cricut to cut the stabilizer pieces out, but it’s still taking me a full eight hours to fuse each shape to fabric, turn the edges, and glue the shapes down to the background fabric.

I really love hand sewing— Sweetland has inspired me to wrap up two other applique quilts I have going this summer.

All my Prairie Meadow blocks are finished and all that’s left is the scrappy border. To make it my own, I’m only going to use the cool colors. I don’t love the browns, and I think it will make my warmer flowers pop. Four years in the making, but, oh, so close to a finish on this!

And then there is My Forever Project… it’s a kit from the early 2000s. I have two problematic blocks that are holding me back– you can see them in the upper left. The Tree of Life was the first block Keepsake Quilting sent out– it is very badly done so far, and it was part of the reason I realized I didn’t have the skill to make this way back when.

I was going to just finish the block and keep it as part of the quilt, as a sort of testament to my former self and to my progress as a quilter. But now that I’ve looked over all the other finished blocks, I see there is plenty enough crappy applique to showcase, anyway. 😂

I have looked for a replacement brown fabric for the tree for years, and while surfing eBay between shower prep, I found both problem blocks with the fabric, “Brand New in Package!” I can’t wait to get these in the mail, but I’m going to force myself to finish the fourth Sweetland block first.

Here’s to fresh starts in life! You know, you stitch away on these things year after year without feeling progress, but suddenly, I could have three applique quilts by the end of the summer!

So that’s me— the shower is over, and I’m very enthusiastic, as you can tell, about warm weather sewing. Spring is still off to a very slow start— last night was in the 30s! But checking the weather— we should be in the 70s very shortly. And although I’ll be headed out to the garden, I’m super motivated to put lots of stitching time in.

Xox
Carol