These are the Sampler Spree blocks I made the week of Aug. 28- Sept. 3. I have just under half of the 100 blocks made! Oh my gosh, were these ever fun to make.  Some are ridiculously easy, others call for more precision. Know which ones are my favorites? Well, the pear is adorable. But the spider web looking block in the top row, far right? That was so much fun to make. And the brown basket is adorable. I think the pattern is called "Cherry Basket".  I liked it so much I made it twice.  lol.  So, what do you think? I made the gold background block first and was disappoint ..read more

August was a pretty good reading month for me, with almost 12 books read. I ended up quitting one of them about 75% of the way through. The best part of my reading this past month was that most of the books were really good! Eight of them were 4-5 stars! I'll give a brief recap and my rating. I'll do more complete reviews of my favorites in another post. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. may be the best book of the year for me so far. In the spring of 2020, Lara's three daughters return to the family cherry orchard to wait out the pandemic and beg their mother to tell them the story of her brief rel ..read more

Do you all remember the Sampler Spree Sew-Along? It is based on a book by Susan Ache that has patterns for over 100 6 inch quilt blocks that are sewn into a sampler quilt. I had joined in this sew-along a couple of years ago, but of course, set it aside for various family obligations. It has been patiently waiting for me. So, today it all came back to me when I was browsing Instagram with my morning coffee, and came upon Thelma's post on her quilts of August. Each month she changes out her gorgeous quilts that she has on various bads and walls in her home, and she shares photos on Instagram ..read more

I have lots of finishes in the works at the moment. I hadn't really realized just how many projects I had that were nearly done. I got the containment border on the Red Sampler quilt, and am just waiting for an Etsy order to be delivered with the border fabric. I am going with a white background print that looks like chicken tracks for the border. You can see it in the gingham print block above. Next, I got the binding attached to my Primitive Gatherings scrappy star quilt. My gosh that thing is a monster. It was a struggle just to control all that heavy material while sewing the binding on ..read more

Sewcialites 2 is a finish! Honestly, I wasn't sure if I was ever going to bother putting these blocks together. I didn't care for the settings provided by the Fat Quarter Shop or the participating designers. They all seemed too fussy to me. What I did was put the blocks up on my design wall and take a good look at them. I decided I wanted to focus on the blocks and not on some kind of elaborate setting. I did a simple diagonal set, with lattices in the background fabric. Once the blocks/rows were all sewn together I debated on what to do for a border. I had tons of fabric and had been thinkin ..read more

I had all kinds of sewing plans for Saturday, and they were mostly foiled by a power outage that lasted half the day. 1:00-6:00 PM. Honestly, what a waste of time.  I had the red sampler quilt center sewn together, except for the very last seam. I do still have to attach the containment border and the outer border, which will be a cream background. Love the way this came together. Trimming each block up to size really makes assembling the top easy. It all just lines up. I also have Designer Mystery 22/23 all sewn together except for the containment border and outer border. I have my wor ..read more

I've sure been reading a lot of books this summer, sitting in my chaise lounge in my bedroom, which is a pretty cozy spot. For June, July, and three weeks into August, I have plowed through 36 books. It would be ridiculous for me to try and review them all for you, so I will give a brief synopsis of my absolute 5-star favorites. I am leaving a few favorites off this blog post because I mentioned them in other book review posts. Those additional 4.5 and 5-star mentions were Fourth Wing, The Wedding Dress Circle, & The Secret Book of Flora Lea. Stick with me until the end, when I reveal wh ..read more

I had the best weekend. I sewed for hours and got so much done. My Designer Mystery 2022/23 top just has one more row to attach and the center of the top will be together. The next step is to add a navy containment border and the outer border. Kathy's fabric arrived super quick! To give myself a break from sewing Designer Mystery rows together, I brought out my next UFO to complete, which is Lori Holt's Red Sampler Sew Along from 2021. I tell you, it took me a minute to figure out where I was with this project. I thought I had completed all the blocks, but no. I had actually made some of them ..read more

I did it! I got all the blocks for the Designer Mystery 2022/23 project finished!  Now, I have to say, those bold log cabin alternate blocks absolutely make the quilt, don't you think? I am quite pleased with how it all came together. I'll start sewing the blocks together in rows today. My gorgeous border fabric should get here in a few days. First, I plan to attach a narrow containment border in navy, then the light background floral border. I did make one significant change in the log cabin blocks. I just had to swap out the light blue plaid strips for a more solid light blue. The line ..read more

Good progress is being made with the Log Cabin alternate blocks for the Designer Mystery 2022/23 project. These are actually fun to make and are going together quickly and accurately. It helps me pass the time while sewing to listen to a good audiobook, and I've listened to a couple of them lately, which will soon be a topic of a blog post.  I was so fortunate to have a long-time reader reach out to me yesterday and offer to let me buy that fabric I was searching for! Thank you, Kathy! Quilters are the best, aren't they? I'll be wrapping up this designer mystery project and sending it of ..read more