What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

April is almost over. Did I forget my RSC blocks? Of course not. Meet my light/bright blues.

Light/Medium Blues

Bright Blues

Sharing with Angela's Linky Party.

____________________________________________________________________

I am happy to share my newest finish with you. I have named it - "The Positivity Quilt"

Strangers in a Park - Happily Helped Me :-)

Blues to Beat the Blues

Green Grass - Bright Red Binding

Positivity means Affirmative Willingness. Yes, it is so AND I am willing to do something about it.

Lately positivity and positivity rates have been associated with Covid-19 infections. The overwhelming feelings of loss, sadness, helplessness and ...

Warning - this is a rant. Proceed at your own risk.

I had neither the time nor the desire to write this post. But I had to because I was so seething with anger and disgust. And if not here then where else?

Let's call her Auntie Marilyn. I am so tempted to use her full name, but I am not going to. Because I am better than that.

Let's start at the very beginning. The year was 2015 when Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company shared this tutorial on youtube.  You can buy the pattern Double Square ...

A while back, when the Bloom With Grace fabric first arrived in my shop, I knew I wanted to use some to make a Mercyful Quilt. It seemed so perfect for bringing comfort to a grieving family. The colors are gorgeous and the sentiment is very sweet. I took a panel and cut the four main blocks apart. Then it sat. This seems to happen quite often in my sewing room!

After a bit, I cut borders from some of the coordinates in this line. I added these to the four blocks and alternated the colors when I placed the ...

For some time, I wanted to make a trilogy of quilts - Serenity, Courage and Wisdom, inspired by the Serenity Prayer written by the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.  A little research revealed that Niebuhr's prayer originally asked for courage first, and specifically for changing things that must be changed, not things that simply can be changed.

Quilting Serenity

Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other. 

Of course I sleep with polar bears

Blues and Greens

I also feel that way ...

I fear I have become a lazy blogger. No fair to just read all of your posts and then never write one. Becomes a bit of a one-sided conversation. Here is a quick update for you.

Julia and I were called to jury duty on the same case – a faux pax on the part of the jury selection system I suppose. Anyway, we both went and answered their questions as well as filling out a huge questionnaire. Fortunately neither of us were selected. It was an ugly case involving domestic violence, rape and more. I know this stuff happens and ...

Just sitting here on a chilly, damp morning drinking that first cup of coffee. (Nothing better than that first cup, is there?) I am trying to wrap my head around the fact that my oldest child is celebrating his 36th birthday today and number two celebrated his 34th birthday two days ago. How did that even happen? Time just marches on. I love having adult children – watching them carve their path, raise children, and develop their careers. It is truly satisfying.

OK – moving on from blathering about my boys, let’s look at a fun project I worked on this ...

Somehow almost two weeks have passed since the last post. Not sure how that happened, but here we are. I have actually been in the sewing room quite a bit so I will do a quick update on what has been in the works.

First and foremost, I have been working on a cute baby quilt for my niece. It is just about done – I have a few more inches of binding to stitch down and then into the wash it goes. Once she receives it, I will share it here. I am 99% sure she doesn’t read the ...

I waited till after the year was over to join the "Best of 2020" Linky Party hosted by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs. Gosh, who knows what might happen on the last day of the last hour of this unexpected and unprecedented year?

The quilts/posts chosen for this recap have one underlying theme - Unexpected. 

At Home with Scraps

1. Meanwhile -  I love this quilt because it was, for a long time, just a bag of flannel scraps languishing behind the bag of batting scraps. I had no expectations from this bag of soft, pre-washed and frayed strips. That is ...

Below is a letter I received from the Palliative Care team at Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, California. They are so grateful for all of the quilts you have made and donated to their program.

Dear Stitchers,

We are writing to thank you…words cannot explain how important these lovely Comfort Quilts are to the family of our dying patients.  When we deliver them, a look of relief and gratitude immediately takes the place of sadness and loss.  For our families to be able to take home something that their loved one has worn is amazing and unforgettable.

Thank you for ...

Yep – it’s true. I have another finish to share. The very small, almost non-existent, silver lining to the fires and smoke we are experiencing is having to stay inside. The smoke is thick and the air very unhealthy so we have been indoors continuously for a long while. This means I can sew!

OK – I started this quilt ages ago. The fabric was leftover from the twin size quilt I made for Julia’s bed in our Downieville house (which we sold this summer.) I made that quilt back in early 2016.

This was a huge quilt ...

Popping in today to share a few things with all of you. Many of us are having a tough time trying to deal with all that has happened over the past couple of weeks in our country. Much unrest, anger, sadness and feelings of helplessness seem to have settled over much of our world. There are ways to help and to remain positive though. Lots of people are trying to provide support where they can, donate to various organizations, and be really vocal about the changes that need to be made.

To this end, there is an auction starting today ...

I have been looking forward to the mail delivery and the UPS guy daily. Most days they bring me a wonderful package to open. It’s like Christmas around here!! Sarah’s amazing Hands2Help event is finishing up at the end of the month so quilts are being mailed to various organizations all over the map. Mercy Hospital in Sacramento is one of the (incredibly grateful) recipients.I have opened quilts from throughout the US – Florida, Texas, Arizona, and North Carolina among others!

I thought it was time to share the bounty with you. I took pictures of some of ...

Happy Saturday Everyone. It is National Quilting Day so I really hope you each find a few minutes to work on a project or at the very least look at fabric and plan the next project!

I got my two monthly scrappy projects done for March! For RSC2020, the color is teal and I decided to make a smaller Dresden plate. I will combine it with the larger orange one I made in February and likely need to make one or two more before I put them together into some sort of wall quilt.

For the Monthly Color Challenge, hosted ...

Oh my gosh, where to start! This is such a crazy world these days. The news is all-consuming as we constantly check for updates on the spread of Covid-19, within the US and internationally as well. Our philosophy is to take it seriously and try to remain calm and rational at the same time. The Governor of California spoke yesterday. He has ordered all pubs, bars, nightclubs and wineries in California to shut down for the duration. All restaurants are to cut their capacity for seating in half and move tables much further apart. People age 65 and over are ...

I received something really special in the mail yesterday. The family of a patient who received a Mercyful Quilt wrote a note of thanks. We quilters have talked about this and agreed we do not need to hear the gratitude felt by recipients of the quilts we donate. As quilters, we donate because it might soothe someone during a really difficult time and it makes us feel we are helping in some small way when we make and give these quilts.

But this family was so taken by this handmade gift and they wanted to be sure we all knew ...