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Most of the quilt alongs/mystery quilts I sew along with start in 1st or 4th quarter.  That only becomes an issue when it's time to produce a finished quilt top for the quilt parade at the end of the quilt along.  That happens for 3 projects over the next 3 weeks. The deadline for the Meadow Mist Designs 2026 Stash Busting Quilt Along is this Wednesday.    

The last 2 blocks in row 4 of Scenic Waypoint are lined up by the sewing machine ready for stitching. 

The sixth and last prompt for the 2026 SAHRR comes from AnjaQuilts, "quilters choice".  Well that leaves it pretty wide open doesn't it?  I've had some of my block books out searching for blocks for next year's guild BOM (Yes I start early. It takes me a while to decide on a final design and pull the fabrics).  I wanted something that worked with the previous blocks and carried similar elements to the Snail's Trail block from week 3.  

Dutchman's Puzzle seemed to be the best option. (Texas Quilt Gal decided the same for her ...

Gail, of Quilting Gail, took pity on us after a week of curved piecing, we just need two colors and any block for the Week #5 prompt. That's easy enough, you just have to pick the block.  I'm trying to keep some consistency between the two rows of blocks in my version. Looking at what was already up on the design wall, a block with no background in it seemed the best option to go with either of the two end blocks on the front row. After quick look in Electric Quilt, I finally decided on a simple ...

I struggled with this week's SAHRR prompt. Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts set "curves" as our focus for this week. Even though I've sewn curved seams back when making clothes was my main sewing room activity, it's been ages. Searching through the blocks in Electric Quilt, I finally settled on a Dresden Plate block.  

I've made a Dresden Plate block before in one or two other quilt alongs. But I've never made one without a pattern.  After searching through my specialty rulers, I found two wedge rulers. Instructions for the 18 degree one were in my ...

Week 3's SAHRR prompt comes from Emily of The Darling Dogwood. I did a bit of Google searching, some Pinterest searching, before finally turning to Electric Quilt for this week's response to the Animal Kingdom prompt.  

The Bear Paw block was considered, but for an 8" block, Snail's Trail would be easier to make. 

I paper pieced the block as that just seemed the easiest option.  The lightest fabric may be too light, but as I'm using left overs, there's not a lot of options there.   It fits in really well with the blocks from ...

This week's SAHRR prompt comes from Kathleen McMusing, "Make it a Double". My first approach was to go to Electric Quilt and type in "double" on the search line in the block library.  The Double X block looked interesting. 

I don't have a lot of lights in the left over fabrics I'm using for this quilt. I went with what seemed reasonable. 

My fabric choices didn't result in very distinct HST corners, but I'm OK with them being a bit muddy.  It's still a fun block and looks pretty good with what is already ...

The week 1 prompt for the 2026 SAHRR (Quilting Gail) was set as hourglass blocks by Songbird Designs.  I'm doing a single block for each prompt. After playing around in Electric Quilt for a bit, here's what I came up with. 

Just a simple block with 4 hourglasses. The fabric placement makes the design.  I had to work slowly to make sure I could get fabric into the right spots when I assembled the four squares.  

I'm not sure yet where the block is going to fit with my center, so for now it's just up ...

Two weeks of January gone and two weeks left in the month.  It hasn't been a bad start to the year.  My hardest commitment to stick to is moving some of my quilt tops into finished quilts, with me doing the quilting on a number of them.  I stuck with that plan this week and managed to assemble row 3 of Kate's Choice.  

There are 6 rows in this project, so I'm half way done with row assembly.  It will be a challenge this week to switch to quilting as late night sew is on Thursday, not ...

My quilt making strategy for 2026 was to focus on just a few projects  and make progress on those.  After the first full week of the new year, I can say that I've not done too badly with that approach.  

My Girl and Queenie left Saturday afternoon to start the almost 10 hour trek back to Houston.  So the house felt really empty.  Perfect time to go hide in my sewing room for a bit. My priority for the week is to finish the February block for the guild BOM and get started on the center block for the SAHRR (Quilting Gail).  I'm almost done with the BOM block, but I can't show that till after the guild meeting.  I didn't start the SAHRR center, but did get all the fabric cut for it. 

I had to ...

We've reached that time of the year when the three of us are off work and have a hard time remembering what day it is. We have no place to be, so the days can just drift by without you even realizing it. We check in with each regularly just to ensure we'll all at least in sync in our belief of what day it is.  

The week before Christmas always seems to pass in a rush. I felt off for a couple of days early last week.  Thankfully it appears to be just my sinuses reacting to all the crap the strong winds blew in.  That slowed me down a bit on the stuff that had to get done, but didn't stop progress completely. All the gifts were wrapped yesterday. Even My Guy has all his wrapping done. There were two sewing projects that had deadlines this month.  The first was the guild BOM. 

This year's BOM includes a large Carpenter Star block ...

This week has gone fast.  Hard to believe that it was just last Monday we got back from our Thanksgiving holiday trip. Both My Guy and I kept asking each other what day it was all week.  Sunday didn't feel like Sunday, mainly because we finally did our big Christmas shopping trip to Tulsa. I'm not done, done, with the shopping, but pretty close. There are still a couple of things we decided we'd be better off ordering. Hopefully, I get that done today.  Getting the tree up and wrapping presents is likely to take a good ...

How are your holiday preparations going?  We need to make one last grocery store run, but our menu is set and we've divided up the cooking chores. This week my focus is on the holiday, last week my focus was on getting the 2025 Guild BOM ready to show at the meeting last Tuesday. 

Thanksgiving is next week.  I'm not ready to be that far into the year!  But it comes regardless. Just like the November guild meeting is tomorrow.  My weekend sewing was focused on getting the 2025 Guild BOM to finished quilt top stage. 

It wasn't the best weekend.  I'm still sniffly and mostly still breathing through my mouth. I didn't sew at all on Saturday, but I did get back to the sewing room a bit on Sunday.  My biggest priorities this month are the 2025 Guild BOM and the 2026 Guild BOM.  I've made progress on both.  For the 2026 Guild BOM, there will be three options, a square sampler and two rectangular options that include a top and bottom border.  I'm not fond of square quilts, so I decided it was worth the effort to add ...

I spent most of the weekend working on the 2025 Guild BOM.  All the Inverted Star blocks are finished with just 2 sawtooth stars left to finish.  That's a wonderful feeling. No last minute dash to the finish line the afternoon before the meeting!  The guild meeting is this week, so the November block will be shown and then just one color left to share with the guild.  Since this quilt needs to be assembled for the December meeting, I started adding the sashing strips to the blocks that have already been revealed. 

I've left the blocks for ...

Most of last week was spent on the road.  So there wasn't much sewing room time. What time there was, was spent on the last few blocks needed for the 2025 Guild BOM. I can't show those just yet. So that leaves the hand stitching I worked on all week.  

I finished up the letters along the bottom and have been working on the leaves just above those.  I still have one color to add to the leaves, then I need to do the back stitching for the vines.  Don't know when I'll next work on ...

The problem with working on the 2025 Guild BOM blocks is that I can't show them till the guild sees them.  Most of what I've been working on in the sewing room is getting those blocks finished so quilt assembly can be started. There's been good progress on that front, but it doesn't leave me much to post about on Monday.  I do keep 2 Wild and Goosey blocks going while I'm stitching other things.  I've also added back working on bits and pieces of Old Town. 

Twenty of the 25 blocks are finished ...

My Saturday sewing time started off with a review of what was on my plate for the rest of this year.  Particularly my responsibilities with the guild BOM.  Last Monday started with an email saying the meeting was on Tuesday and I hadn't started the BOM block for October yet.  That was first on my to do list when I got to the sewing room on Monday.  I finished the black Inverted Star block and a couple of the saw tooth star blocks just in time for the meeting. I finished the rest yesterday.