Terrific Tuesday – The Quilting Zone

Would you believe me if I told you that I’m really enjoying my Tuesdays these days? Well actually my Tuesdays AND my Thursdays which are now dedicated to Mission UFO.

While the weather outside was looking blustery and full of snow over Grand Mesa to our north, we were warm and toasty in the classroom being industrious and having a great time visiting and sharing stories with each other.

Cindy is making lots of progress on her Hanging Garden project. Take a look at how far she got today.

I love how this is going together. It’s built on-point, so tilting your head slightly will give you a better view of what it will look like when finished. Just a little more for the body before the borders go on. Such a great pattern!

Her boarders are already made, and her goal on Thursday is to finish up the body and then get the borders put on. I think I’m looking forward to her finish as much as she is.

I was able to get the blocks on my Ganache set with side sashing. Now, I just need to add the horizontal sashing and put the rows together.

Here it is…growing wider all the time. Adding the horizontal sashing will increase the body to be a much better shape to fit on a bed, lol. I struggled a bit in trying to put the smaller components together in a scrappy way until I tried a sample block that all matched. THAT was way harder to do, which surprised me a lot! Back to a scrappy layout and it just got easier from there.

Out of the same project box (…my Moda Bakeshop box), I pulled out a set of blocks that I’ve had waiting to be set for several months. This quilt is called “Sherbet” and is made from the Bakeshop Recipe Card #1. It’s another quick and great looking quilt made from a layer cake plus some additional background fabric.

I can honestly say that I don’t remember a thing about buying the layer caked being used here. I like the fabrics well enough. Actually, I like them a lot better in this quilt than I did as a layer cake. My preferred palette is much brighter than the colors here. But it’s growing on me and I’m glad that I’ve worked with this color way. It’s stretching me as a quilter…and that’s always a good thing.

And over the weekend, the yummy plaid fleece that I showed in a previous blog became a cozy quilt. As soon as it makes it to its new home, I can show you pictures of the front, but for now…a peek at the back is all I can share.

It’s a happy day when the quilting motif looks so good on the back of a quilt. It’s curvy without being too feminine, and a quick moving e2e pattern that allows a nice drape to the over all quilt.

Tomorrow, I have another friend coming to spend the day and we plan to sew and visit to our hearts content. We haven’t been able to have a sew day for a couple months now. So, I’m really looking forward to our time together. I hope to have some great pictures for you too!

Have you had a chance to sew with a friend lately? I mean, in person and not through a virtual platform? Even in our current life where so many of us are taking extra precautions, and self-isolating, I think it’s an important thing to still try and get together with others. Don’t get me wrong, each of our personal situations require us to do the things we are compelled to do, but the shortest story to the long diatribe is that we are social creatures. Everyone needs personal contact to thrive — and we are suffering in ways many of us cannot see right now because we are just trying to make it through all this “stuff”. But for others, they feel it more acutely.

I suppose that as I write this, my readers could easily ask about what I do and the why that goes behind having classes and meeting with a friend or two. The honest truth about the classes is that I’m trying to get my business back on track…classes and retreats followed closely by long arm business are my focal points. But meeting with a friend is purely because I need to be in contact with that person.

I would love to say to everyone, just meet with one friend, and catch up with them. Meet outside or wherever you can to respect each other’s personal decision about dealing with “stuff”, but reach out. Our isolation can be such a hard decision to bear, and the simple act of seeing a face you care about…a whole face, is like food for the soul.

Somehow, somewhere, sometime…we have to reach out and re-connect. I think those days are going to become easier to accomplish. I hope we all can find a way to reconnect and regain so much of what we’ve lost by being absent from our regular lives.

I wish everyone a better day today than what we had yesterday.

Until next time, may your bobbin never be empty.

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