Hitting the reset button

This winter, life has been crazy hectic!  I've been squeezing some sewing time in while running full speed at work and parenting my teenage boys (who are relentlessly creative about finding ways to get into trouble). But then, a week ago, it all came grinding to a halt.  My heart goes out to all whose health and/or livelihood is affected by this current crisis.  Luckily (knock on wood), my family is healthy and we are on vacation from school anyway, so our lives haven't been that disrupted.  My kids may be bored, but honestly, apart from this being a scary pandemic, this time at home has been a dream come true for me!

I read the entire book club book BEFORE the book club meeting for next month!  That right there is a sign that these are crazy times!  While I read A LOT (I've read or listened to 17 books since January 1), I somehow never seem to find time to read the book club selection!

I've also been sewing up a storm while listening to audiobook after audiobook.

I've pulled out my Grandmother's Flower Garden UFO and have done some hand sewing.

I've pulled out my Carpenter's Wheel UFO and made two more blocks.

Can you see that a couple of my muslin pieces are a different, lighter muslin?  Oh well!

I finished my 2018 Temperature Quilt and now just need to figure out borders.

A pretty mild year!  I have LOTS of blue left over (blue was for cold!)

I made a couple more blocks for my String Shadows UFO.

I sewed a baby quilt top, and am currently contemplating...is it done?  Does it need borders?

I pulled out my leftover border blocks from my Sew Many Strips quilt and made two of the corner blocks so I can use this border treatment for another quilt - who knows what I'll put inside?

I've made a total of 11 Jewel Box Stars blocks so far as Leaders & Enders.

There is so much scrappy goodness that I can hardly choose what to work on at any given time.

In the meantime, I'm keeping calm, sleeping in, talking long, slow walks with the dog, and appreciating this time to hit the reset button.

I was a Westering Woman!!

The second block of Barbara Brackman's Westering Women BOM was released yesterday, so, of course, I made it today.  It was an easy block called Indian.  It seems strange for me to use such big blocks - the center piece is 6.5" square - as most of the quilts I make have much smaller pieces.  But hey, it went together quickly!

I was tickled by the accompanying blog post because it highlighted St. Joseph, Missouri as a "jumping off" point for wagon trains.  In the summer of 1993, I, too, traveled across country, albeit on a motorcycle and not a wagon, and I, too, stopped in St. Joseph, MO.  I left my home in the woods of Maine, and zigzag-ed my way across the country, stopping anywhere I knew somebody or found a youth hostel or cheap motel, and 20 days later arrived at my destination: San Francisco, CA.

This is me on my bike leaving Cambridge, MA in July 1993 after spending the night with my college roommate.  See that spot of yellow underneath the green sleeping bag I have strapped to the seat behind me?  That was my rain gear.  And for those of you who know bikes, this was an 87 Honda Rebel 250cc - can you believe I drove across the Rockies on that little thing???

St. Joseph wasn't a planned stop for me; I didn't know anyone there.  However, it is where I was when I didn't want to ride anymore that day.  I remember staying in an inexpensive motel and eating dinner at a restaurant with an Old West decor, all the way down to wagon wheels!  What really made St. Joseph stand out to me, though, was the fact that I accidentally left my rain gear in the hotel when I left, and I REALLY could have used it the day I drove through Salt Lake City, UT and stopped in West Wendover, NV to spend a stormy night in the WORST rundown deserted motel EVER - it didn't even have a radio or clock, let alone a TV, in the room! - and then the next day from West Wendover to Truckee, CA; it rained BUCKETS those two days and I had no gear to keep me dry.  I lived to tell the tale, though, which is more than can be said for many of those who headed west in days of old.

Today I also pulled out my Carpenter's Wheel HSTs and put another wheel together, plus another center Lemoyne Star.

Terrible nighttime lighting, I know.

I'm wondering about alternating the Carpenter's Wheel blocks with the Lemoyne Star blocks instead of just making Carpenter's Wheel blocks.  What say you?  Yay or Nay?  Am I just being lazy?

When everything is going to pieces around me...

One of the benefits of having a hobby is having an outlet when everything around me seems to be going wrong.  My car just spent time in the shop, emerging after nearly $4000 in repairs.  My son gets braces this month to the tune of over $5000.  My ancient computer won't turn on, so I can no longer put off getting a new one.  Someone went through my wallet this week, so I spent had to cancel all my bank and credit card accounts and get new ones.  Granny has been agitated lately, and has woken us up three times in the middle of the night this week.  In short, I am tired, worried about money, and frustrated with things that don't work.

But through it all, I quilt.  I am a half square triangle making machine for my Carpenter's Wheel quilt.

I've made a few more blocks for my plaid quilt.

My Quilting The Basics: Log Cabin Quilts class started this week at the shop, and I've been having a ball simultaneously making class samples and taming the scrap bins.

I am so thankful to be a quilter, to be able to build quilts when things around me are falling apart.

What would YOU do?

My sewing spree continues!  I finished putting my blue & white chevron quilt top together, and now it just needs sandwiching and quilting.  I have a recipient in mind, so I think I'll do that right away.

The colors look awful in this photo!  I guess that's what I get for taking photos near midnight.

I've also got most of the HSTs made and cut for my new Carpenter's Wheel quilt - I just need to do some pressing and squaring up.  One block is up on the design wall (not yet sewn together), and while I like it, I'm not sure I can see doing the whole quilt with just those 8 prints and the white.  I'd love feedback - will this work, or should I introduce more fabrics and give in to my scrappy nature?  What would YOU do?

Only 8 prints and white - not sure I can do a whole quilt like this...

New to me!

Perhaps it's because I've been sewing with the kids during Embroidery Camp this week, but whatever the reason, my quilting mojo is BACK!  I've been exhausted when I get home each day, often in the shop from 8 AM til 7 PM, but no matter - once dinner is done, I've been heading down to my sewing room to work on quilts!  I've made some progress on the sashing and cornerstone blocks for my plaid string quilt and I've got the top half of my blue and white chevron joined into one piece, but that's not all.

First of all, I really want to make this quilt for a friend's new baby.  I happened upon some red and white anchor fabric and wham!  I was inspired to pull and cut fabrics for the whole quilt.  Which, for me, is so far from normal!  I never cut out a whole quilt in advance!  Since I'm usually so scrappy, I just go along piece by piece until a quilt is done.  With the whole thing cut out, it shouldn't take much time at all to get it all pieced together.

EXCEPT...

A friend gave me a bunch of magazines and I fell in love with this Carpenter's Wheel quilt from Spring/Summer 2008 Quilt Sampler.

Love, love, LOVE!!

I love it in all its scrappy and 30s repro glory, but I don't have enough 30s repro fabrics to make it...yet.  I also don't have enough bright white.  But what I DO have is lots of natural/cream muslin and a bunch of civil war repro scraps, all somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 yard.  My brain kicked into gear - what if I made something that WASN'T scrappy?  What if I just picked 8 print fabrics to make the star points and went from there?  Not all the fabrics are actually repros, but close enough.

Can I stand to make a quilt with only 9 fabrics?  Will it hold my interest while piecing?  Will it hold my interest as a finished quilt?  We shall soon find out!

And not only am I using a limited number of fabrics, but I also used the grid method for making HSTs, so I cut all the fabric for the quilt before taking a single stitch.  Again, this is so new to me!  But, I can see how "less scrappy" can also mean "more efficient" when it comes to piecing.  I can't believe how many HSTs I have already done with so little effort!

I've never used this method before, but then, I've never made a quilt that would use so many of the same fabric combo HSTs.  I love how quick and easy this is!

32 HSTs pieced in about 5 minutes?  I love it!  There's no way I could make as many scrappy ones in the same amount of time.

Who knows, I may not like the look once I get all the pieces ready to make a block, and then I'll have a quilt's worth of HSTs left over.  But even so, I guarantee I'll find a use for them somewhere.

I see a lot of piecing ahead in my weekend plans.  How about you?