Last month I decided to join a quilt a long with Christa Watson using her pattern Blooming Wallflowers. I bought the PDF and looked through my stash for a large enough piece of background fabric. I came across the scraps and remaining fabrics from the El Camino BOM I did in 2014. There was enough of the blue for the background and lots of scraps for the “flowers”. This past week Christa posted a video about cutting and the Quilt-a-Long started. I got my pieces cut in two sessions and then sewed the triangles in a square together in two more sessions. I got excited about finishing the top and did so yesterday. I like how it turned out, and coincidentally, my colors match the ones that Christa has in her sample version. This quilt pattern is unique in that the size of the blocks, not the number of them, determine the size of the quilt. All three sizes given in the pattern use the same number of blocks. The quilt a long is a weekly one, going on through February, so still plenty of time to join and share.

I have been stitching X’s a lot too, I am almost finished with the moth piece. I am going to start the Pansy bouquet next. Funny thing, I ordered the flosses from 123 Stitch a few weeks ago and when they came in I decided to put them away in a bag, so I wouldn’t misplace them. As I was putting them into the box that has all my cross stitch in it, a bag of floss fell out. Wouldn’t you know it was the bag of floss I had already picked for this project? I think I am going to start a journal of cross stitch projects, no more double orders. I got this cute little book a while ago, although its not sewing themed, I think it’ll work.

My Longarm is still at the repair shop, I may just call on Monday, and check on its status. I keep finding all these great looking pantographs to do, and beautiful ones to keep in mind for future quilts. I am even thinking of putting the Misses Miller quilt on the frame first up. That BOM sampler quilt has been finished for a while, I think I am going to do some hand guided and some computerized quilting on it. Looking back, I finished the top on January 20, 2020, ha, where does the time go?

I’m toying with the idea of a paper pieced quilt, similar to this one “Catena” by Timna Tarr. She made this one in 2011, and the pattern appears in Quilters Newsletter Dec/Jan 2013 issue. I may do batiks, with a white (ish) background, or thirties prints, or green and red like the original. I saw this quilt recently on Gladi Porsche Quilts she is using Asian prints for her version. I have a drawer full of indigo prints that might work, but they might be too similar with not enough contrast. It is a “simmering” quilt idea. I think I am going to pull out the Simple Days quilt and see what needs to be done with it. Then I have two months of the Reunion quilt to do, and the first block of “A Ribbon Runs Through It” BOM should be arriving next week. Lots of fun in store!

Be Kind.