Quilt Night: It's Not a Sock

I met my last big deadline of the summer, hurrah! And even better for you, I will have the chance to work on projects other than a single sock.

This week, I was able to go to Quilt Night again. Finally! I’ve missed the last few get-togethers due to travel and then a sick husband. It felt so good to be back.

About six months ago, I arrived at quilt night and couldn’t find my quilting stencil. I searched for weeks and ended up ordering a new one. Happily, I must have accidentally picked a popular pattern all those years ago because I was able to find it at Quilting Creations International after a quick online search.

Fast-forward to this past week; J— was doing a deep clean of the room we work in, right down to moving out all of the furniture. As she was cleaning the empty room, her shoulder brushed against something on the white design wall: the stencil! The strange thing is that I never work on that side of the room. Even stranger is that the place where the stencil was hanging has been blocked for years by a tall cabinet; it would’ve been next to impossible for someone to reach back there to hang it up. I guess we’ll never know how it got there, but I’m happy to have it back!

More good news is that I rounded the last corner on my hand quilting. I started from the center and worked my way outward, so for a while now I’ve been down to the blocks on the outer edges plus the outer borders. I only have five blocks to go now! I can do a block in about four hours straight of hand quilting, which leaves about 20 hours on the blocks and perhaps another ten on the borders. Then all that’s left is the binding!

Unfortunately, at the pace I hand quilt, it could be another year or so before the quilt is done. But it’s the final year!

I also bought a little fabric, something I haven’t done in ages. A couple of my favorite fabric and yarn shops that are on my usual route closed earlier this year; even if I had time to pop in to a shop, I haven’t had time to drive out of my way to find new favorites. I picked up two yards of Leaf Vines quilting cotton from Michael Miller Fabrics LLC. I like that it’s sort of busy and subdued at the same time.

On a different note, I’m getting ready to do another charity project. It will go into an auction, so I need to make something that will inspire someone to spend a lot of money on it. I knit some scarves over the last couple years, and I’m ready for something new but I’m not sure what. I think I might like to sew something this year. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!