What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Saturday was rainy, but the rest of the holiday weekend has been gorgeous. My Guy and I went for a walk last night after dinner.  My back seems to have recovered, but my right knee is still giving me fits, so it wasn't a long walk.  

The sewing room hasn't been as attractive the last couple of weekends.  I've been reading more than I typically do.  That's OK, sometimes you need to mix it up a bit. There was enough sewing time to finish up the "A" blocks. 

What looks black is actually a very, very ...

My sewing room mojo was a bit sparse this last weekend.   I ended up reading most of Sunday afternoon. But I did finally make it up to the sewing room for a couple of hours before dinner. 

Other than the 2025 Guild BOM, the Bonnie Hunter Lupine and Laughter Mystery  is the only quilt started last year or for that matter this year, that's not a finished quilt top.  I've been working on what Bonnie calls the alternate blocks.  

Six blocks finished over the last couple of weeks. What looks like black is actually a very dark purple ...

If you've followed me for any length of time you probably know I have a week spot for Cheryl Brickey's Meadow Mist Designs mystery quilts and Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt alongs. I've been sewing with Bonnie's mysteries since 2013. That year was her Celtic Solstice mystery. It's still in pieces with a few blocks made. It's on my 2026 project list. Not sure I'm going to get that far. 

It's been a quiet week on the weather front. That's been nice, no late night sessions watching the local weather to decide if we need to move ourselves to the tornado shelter.  My back is still a bit out of whack, I can walk and sit, but bending is completely out for now. Thankfully  I can still sew. 

Last week's post was about catching up in the sewing room after being on vacation. I was going to call this post "More Catching Up Sewing", but then I got to thinking about all the quilts on my UFO list and all the other "oh I want to make that" future UFOs.  So I'm pretty sure you never catch up on the quilting front. 

We've been home a little over a week from our vacation. I can claim that laundry is all caught up. Still a few chores to do before I'm caught up there.  Catching up in the sewing room has been a bit harder.  My biggest focus has been on getting the Guild BOM block done for May. There has been good progress on that front, it should get finished today.  

Last week was very productive, but the weekend was a bit rough since my back decided it needed to let me know I'd over done it.  We had to switch fitness centers (it's a long sordid tale that I don't want to dwell on).  The new fitness center equipment is the same, but different.  Different enough that my "normal" fitness routine is using muscles and putting me in positions different from before.  My back finally cried "Stop!" late Friday night.  So I have some rethinking to do when we go work out tomorrow.  Thankfully, I felt much ...

Winter came back yesterday.  Spring will show up for midweek and then we'll be in summer by the weekend.  My Guy and I joke that spring only lasts about 2 weeks here. This year, it's been a day here and there, with winter in between. I'm not looking forward to 90+ days, hopefully we'll get more spring after that. 

Oh well, the nasty weather (cold, hot, and stormy) have kept me in the sewing room.  Even so, I've slipped pretty badly on the time line for the quilts that have deadlines.  Scenic Waypoint was supposed ...

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.