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It's very slow...

It's a log cabin quilt. How hard can it be? Very hard and confusing if I don't pay close attention to it.

I try to set myself up with every quilt I make with a plan to be more efficient in my piecing. A big part of that is organizing the blocks into stacks that can be chain pieced. Again, it's a log cabin block...but a very big block! Each block finishes at 37", and that's 47 logs plus the center square. And the majority of those logs each have two ...

Happy Groundhog Day! I think I'd like to watch the movie tonight. Moving along...

Along with that came headaches—I ...

As in will she get anything done? 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! New Year's Day was the 33rd anniversary of my quilting life. Again, glass half-full girl here, hoping she can accomplish more than last year, and that 2026 is not the dumpster fire that was 2025. 

WIP - That Girl Done Gone Plum Crazy—a project from the digitizing refresher class I had last year. The top is ...

Only 20 years in a Bin!

Last week was a euphoria-filled week. I quilted every day—and tried a couple of new-to-me techniques. But first, look at this label:

Obs, it was not finished in 2018, but that was the original intent. That’s also the year I went back to college and my quilting took a hiatus. After 3 semesters, my health let me know that maybe I didn’t need to further my primary career and by that time, and my workload had increased due to some staffing issues. Now that I’ve retired I would like to ...

And I am not talking about Click Buy Now! (Well, maybe…)

 —the first finish of 2025 AND finished on Worldwide Quilting Day.

Goodness, where does the time go? It’s February March and I have a finished quilt to share with you! And talk about uplifting—let’s just say with all the happenings in our family circle and the world, it’s nice to see something get accomplished, although I honestly thought by this time I would have at least two quilts done. Anyone who truly knows me is laughing their butts off reading that statement. 

I started this quilt in 2013 when our youngest, David, said he would like ...

Life continues to happen, but you can bet I will always plan to quilt.

…a project that’s not the Tattoo Quilt!

The quilt on the design wall in the Bottoms Up! studio in 2013

I’ve gone as far as I can on getting ready to quilt the Tattoo Quilt. The top, backing, binding and threads are in a bag. The trip to Katrina’s has been rescheduled thanks to a bout with the flu—yes, I always get a flu shot, but I had a reaction to the last one and wonder if that’s why I caught the flu. I haven’t had the flu in decades and was completely caught ...

Of course there are various tones, a few florals with pink in them, etc. I even used the wrong side of some that were just too bold the way they were. It finished at 59" x 61" and has a pink print backing with the same fabric ...

My words for this year are “catalog” and “organization”—Nothing romantic about that, is there? 

 Grace — a topic near and dear to me.

Grace is one of those things that means a lot to some people, including myself. Prevenient grace was something I knew nothing about prior to my baptism, but embraced post-conversion. The older I get, the more I practice giving grace to others; and now I’m trying to give myself more grace—it’s easier now than it was earlier in my life. 

While Grace in this context may not be what the pattern designer meant when she designed this block, it’s how I’m seeing it. While a swan may ...

 Hell hath no fury than a confused quilter.

Fury is the block and my fury rose while cutting the pieces for this one. Goodness gracious, this one required six hours of cutting the fabrics. 

I celebrated my birthday by spending the entire day in the studios. At 9:00 am I walked into the cutting room. I took a 20 minute break around noonish, went back to cutting and emerged at 3:15 pm with all pieces cut. Y’all, the cutting on this one is tedious.

I immediately moved into the sewing room and stitched sections A, B, C ...

 Courage, dear heart.   — C. S. Lewis.

This was the saying that kept going through my mind as I pieced this block. Fiddly, and time-consuming; and my mind went to enough different places while I worked on it that I made several mistakes in the cutting of the fabrics. 

No coup here, but this was a good start on the first day of piecing this block.

I’m now considering cutting out the remaining pieces of the entire quilt so I can just sew, trim and press. A long weekend should fill the bill, so long as I’m not interrupted.

The Hope block…as in I hope I have the wherewithal to continue this project…

DISCLAIMER: When I started writing this post, it was about 6 weeks ago. Life (actually, death) intervened and I talk a little bit about it in this post, so here’s your trigger warning. All references to days are from that time because I didn’t feel like guessing at when they were. Enjoy.

My goodness. Talk about labor intensive—two sections have a triangle about half the size of a pea. And Sunday, I saw where someone on Reddit had pieced the quilt and ...

Make lemonade from lemons, right? And I’m a huge fan of lemon pie.

Fifteen years ago I started a quilt (actually, several quilts were started) and did not finish it. This was back in the days of owning a quilt shop where my eyes were bigger than the time I had to get things done. 

A book by Sandy Bonsib—“Sweet Treats”—had several easy-to-make quilts, each based around two blocks, and all named for pies and other desserts.  

At the time, I thought it would be a good idea for a club at the quilt shop. I started ...

 This one was fun from start to finish.

A couple of years ago I made a baby quilt for my neighbors at the apartment complex—their little girl Charlee is adorable.  It was a version of “eat sleep play repeat” that I made for Max several years ago.  

Now they have Waylon—and I wanted to do something different.  I saw the Moda fabric line “ABC…xyz” by Stacie Hsu and thought it was perfect for a little boy.  I ordered the panel and some yardage.

When it arrived, I put the panel on the design wall and stewed over ...

All the things in one jam-packed year.

Sunrise on the ridge

All the stuff we experienced this year may not seem like much to many, but the sensory overload after 2.5 years of isolation was a lot…for us.  

Because it wasn’t just about building a house — it was a lot about family. 

In our extended family, we lost 4 members; two expected, two completely unexpected.  The unexpected always hurts the most, doesn’t it?  You don’t see it coming and WHAM, it hits you.  My Godbrother and my cousin died; I’ve known both their entire ...

 One of my oldest UFOs is ready for gifting!

I mentioned to someone recently that I am a great starter, but finishing this quilt makes me feel like I can tackle all those projects waiting in The Bins. 

I talked about this quilt in a post a year ago.  I got the top assembled, pieced the backing, and packed it up in anticipation of The Move.  

More about the quilt—when I owned a quilt shop, we were contacted by Rhonda Dieker, the author of and designer of the quilts in the book “Wacky Rails.”  She was doing a book ...

 I have the main part of the uneven nine patch leftovers sewn together.

( blocks from a swap and quilt here )  I am ready for borders. 

This has been a long time project. Well, it seems that way. It became part of my 5 quilt UFO project in March. I had 10 cut in April. I had 5 made in May.  I made more blocks in June. All the blocks were made in July  And the top is made in August. Jen didn't border hers, but, I am worried if I don't do something, it will be hard to have the binding meet the points on the edges. decisions..decisions...decisions