What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

We had to go home for a family wedding at the end of Octobedr.It was such a beautiful ceremony and fun reception.The reception was at the Detroit Yacht Club.I had never been there before and it was a fabulous venue.I got about 4" cut off my hair and had it highlighted.I was very happy with how it turned out.I had to go see the doctor later in the week (Halloween)I had a weird rash all across my

 Yes, I mean recovery from Covid.  (I have not entered a 12-step program to disengage from my sewing machine.)  It's October, which means a week in Tobermory with the Beach Girls, and that seemed to me like a perfect place to recover!

 Janice and I are spending our last five days in Italy quarantined in our hotel room.  Because I have Covid.  I tested positive on Friday morning, and yes, I feel like total crap.  I've had the worst headache, that does not want to go away without drugs.  Tylenol to the rescue.  Janice is NOT sick, but because she's traveling with me she is automatically considered infected too.

I'll share a bit of our LAST day out...

The 5th was a free morning so we wandered around town, went to the post office so I could mail some ...

 I bought a layer cake.  Well, actually I bought a lot more than a layer cake, but we'll leave it at that shall we?  At least this goes with a border print that's been in my stash for many years, AND I have a pattern that will work with all this stuff.  So it's good!  Well, except for the part where I'm not supposed to be buying fabric.  Ahem.

Even Coco thinks some of DH's t-shirts should go in the trash bag.

 I recovered from Covid in five days. Then hubby tested positive and the battle began. He has a compromised immune system. His doctor was worried and put him on a medication that could cure him or kill him. The cough and lack of sleep took their toll. He was disoriented at times and lost some hearing. The cough medicine that might help is sold out everywhere. Even A...zon couldn't deliver until January. BUT after a scary twelve days, hubby tested negative on Monday. We were shocked and rejoiced. Then one of our pastors found some of the cough ...

 Don't know where or when or from whom, but I was given the Covid virus this week. Mostly like a severe cold (without a runny nose) combined with a massive dose of sleeping pills, so at this point, I am sleeping lots. My hubby is taking good care of me yet keeping distance and we are both hoping he stays well.

I have nothing sewn to show or tell except I had one lovely dream about designing patchwork. Also missed the trip to the coast to deliver my GD's quilt. We were both disappointed that this will now ...

Not much quilting is going on in my life right now.  This is cottage time and my sister and I have been busy doing a bit of redo ...... painting and flooring.  It never ends, but we enjoy our work done so far.  I even cut down a wee tree by hand.  It took about half an hour of sawing, but it got down.  This little cedar tree was blocking my sister's view of part of the lake and she asked if 'we' could cut it down.  I knew what the 'we' entailed ..... me!  LOL

A few weeks ago, I ...

There are only have a few more days left this month to get the binding done on my April challenge quilt!  This is the home stretch.  After this, there will be a sleeve and a label to add to complete the challenge.

I've been busy lately.  A few projects got borders on and are now at the LAer.  I'll be getting them back in a few weeks.

First up .... this "I Spy" top.  It was in strips for quite some time and after a few days of concentration, viola a completed top.

Then, my "Xmas Stars" finally got the last two borders on.  It is not really what I wanted, but I'm happy with my decision.  This top is also with the LAer as well.

It feels good to get a few more projects off the shelf.

So far ...

 Here are a couple of November quilt jobs.  Both of these are made with simple blocks, and the end results are great.  Both are also very scrappy - my favorite!

#1 - 9-Patch blocks

Today was one of those days where I was having trouble getting motivated.  To be honest though, many days are like that.

At some point during the pandemic isolation (it's all kind of a blur to be honest) my online group of quilty friends decided to have an "Orphan Block" Challenge.  The challenge was to take all those blocks left over from other projects, unused sample blocks, or maybe blocks made to learn a new technique, basically sad and lonely blocks in need of a home, and put them all into one project.  And believe me, it really was a challenge.

First, every single one of my orphan blocks went up on the design wall.  

Then, play time!  Making something out ...

Another niece, another wedding quilt.  This time it was Paige's turn.  I was on a roll using up those batiks!  The Organized Chaos pattern by Cozy Quilts is perfect for batiks.  I'd been wanting to use this eggplant batik with gold stars for a while.  I had never auditioned it next to other prints before.  It turned out to be perfect.  I need to "play" with my stash more often!

I worked on this quilt during the Covid isolation while I wasn't even thinking about blogging, so I only took two photos.  Let's just jump ahead ...

When I left you almost 2 years ago (can you believe it?) I never dreamed the Covid crisis would keep me away this long.  I certainly didn't think being in isolation would keep me out of my sewing room for over six months.  It should have been the opposite, right?  I should have been sewing up a storm (as my mother used to say).  Alas, motivation is an interesting thing.  Its appearance has been pretty random around here.  

Right before I took my blogging break I had been doing "A Little Housekeeping" in my sewing room.  I recovered my ...

A lot of work has been happening over the past few weeks at our cottage.  One bedroom that had dark panelling was transformed with a couple coats of white paint.  A new floor was also installed.  What a change.  Plus the outside of our cottage went from beige to Wedgwood Blue.  Sorry no photos, but we are happy with the changes.

While driving to and fro from home to the cottage, the fall foliage showed us its' glory.  This section of the gravel road to our cottage is mostly yellows.  Other sections are beautiful reds and oranges but we didn ...

 Wide borders can be a bit challenging to quilt.  Oddly enough, I had TWO quilts that came in with wide borders, and even ODDLY-ER (Yes I know that's not a word.  Who cares?) the same border design worked beautifully on both of them.

Yikes - all paper pieced!

Applique, with a bit of additional batting behind the leaves for ...

First day seeing an animal (any animal): Me: What is that?  It looks like a boar.  Runs to find someone who can accurately identify said boar.  Told it’s a warthog.   Second time seeing boar-like creature: Me: Oh look! It’s a warthog. Confidently lists several features of the warthog; it’s preferred vegetation, which animals prey upon it, etc. First day […]

Off we go on our grand adventure to Africa tomorrow! Here is a little recap of the last 24 hours… Yesterday: Wake up to find we have been sent a notification from the airlines that our flight has been cancelled. Wait, what?!??? My heart skips a beat, a precursor to the flood of panic that […]

 This is the hard 'C' post, pronounced 'K'.

Colour.  This one is self-explanatory...wowsers.  I love it!!

Christmas.  Actually it's Winter, not Christmas.  But that would ruin the alliteration.  A great strippy quilt.  This was fun to quilt.

Complaints.  I'm running a personal challenge - 30 consecutive days with no complaints.  This started on July 12th, and I'm now on my FIFTH start date.  At this rate I will still be trying in 2022.  Interestingly, the first two restarts were because I was trying to one-up somebody; "Hah, you think that's bad...".  Also ...

When COVID hit New York City over a year ago now, death was no longer an abstract idea. People we knew were getting really, really sick, a few of them died, a few are still not 100%. When the mobil morgue parked just blocks away from our building to handle the overflow of dead bodies, […]