Project Round Up (aka what I’m doing these days)

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How is it already the end of January? Today is my son Jonah’s 18th birthday, which means that I am the mother of two legal adults! What?! Thankfully, I feel like both Chloe and Jonah still need a mom, so I’m not out of a job yet. The job is just a little different than it used to be. But musing about motherhood is not what I came here to talk about today–though maybe someday soon. I definitely have thoughts on that subject.

Michael Miller charity quilt

Michael Miller charity quilt

Michael Miller charity quilt

Michael Miller charity quilt

Michael Miller charity quilt

Michael Miller charity quilt

January was a blur, but I do have a trail of projects to prove that I was doing something this month. Most notably, I sewed up and quilted a charity quilt that will eventually make its way to comfort a child with cancer through the wonderful charity Quilts for Cure. This quilt, along with six others, are entirely constructed from blocks donated by quilters all over the country. They all picked up fabric at last year’s QuiltCon show at the Michael Miller Fabric booth, made blocks and then sent them back to Michael Miller. Then a handful of volunteers (myself included) pieced them together with borders and sashing into wonderful, one-of-a-kind quilts. These quilts will be hung in the Michael Miller booth at this year’s QuiltCon in Pasadena–to hopefully inspire a whole new batch of quilters to do the same thing this year. I can’t wait to see all seven hanging together! And how amazing to know that each one will someday comfort a child who is fighting for their life. Once I’m done binding, I’ll share some pictures of the completed quilt before I send it off with lots of love.

I love a good sock knitting project

I also made some real progress knitting this pair of shorty socks (yarn from Knit Picks.)  All I have left to do is to close up that toe! And it’s been sitting that way for weeks! I think the problem is that I always need to look up Kitchener stitch to finish it off. No matter how many socks I knit, I cannot commit that stitch to memory. I vow to get that done this week though–since I’d like to pop these in the mail for Chloe at college. I think they will be a fun little Valentine’s Day surprise.

hand piecing

I am in the homestretch of finishing the blocks for my yearlong (and then some) hand piecing project. I’m so pleased to have made it this far. Next will be to actually assemble them into a quilt top, which will probably take all of 2018. Which leaves 2019 to hand quilt it. No big deal 🙂

string block

I’m prepping for a new machine quilting blog hop for February. I will be working my way through Angela Walters new book Free-Motion Meandering. I really need to keep practicing my freemotion quilting and working my way through a book is one way that keeps me inspired. I blogged about working my way through The Ultimate Guide To Machine Quilting and Piece and Quilt previously. It’s a great book–especially for beginning quilters. I has all the basics you need to know, but teaches some really fabulous motifs. I had planned to sew together these blocks, that I made on a whim, for the blog hop (here is a video on how to make a string block) . But, I am running out of time, so I may have to change my plans. Nonetheless, these blocks keep staring at me, so I will get them stitched up into a throw-size quilt soon.

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

And lastly, I continued to read obsessively through January. I finished off the the Inspector Gamache book series and I’m a little devastated that I’m done! I’m sure there will be more, but for now, I have to say a temporary goodbye to some characters that I have truly come to know and love. I’m actually thinking about just starting the series over again. Have you ever done that?

But the devastation didn’t last long, because the newest quilt fiction book from Frances O’Roark Dowell arrived to save the day! If you loved Birds in the Air (and if you haven’t read it, then do!) then you will love this collection of sweet short stories called Margaret Goes Modern. Each story is just so fun and inspiring. Perfect for a curl up on the sofa with a cup of tea.

So, those are some of the things that I’ve been up to . Meet me back here next week when I kick off the fist week of the Free-Motion Meandering blog hop. You can grab the book here, if you would like to follow along!


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