Small Steps, Big Decisions

Hello quilty friends! This week I finished up playing with my aqua and teal scraps, and boy did I knock them back! I trust that they’ll replenish themselves (don’t they always?) before next year’s round of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. But if they didn’t, I might be *forced* to go fabric shopping! Wouldn’t that be just awful? Hahahaha! 

First, let me make an announcement regarding the A Quilter’s Cove Quilt-Along. This is the “big decisions” thing that was referenced in my blog post title. The date for the start of the QAL has been moved to ….. January 2026. We will be running it in conjunction with the 2026 Rainbow Scrap Challenge! Angela was excited and agreed that it would be a good fit and she’d be happy to help. So, the pace will be more leisurely, and everyone is invited to join us through the RSC! . 

Naturally, we’ll talk about it more as the time grows closer. But in the meantime, think about if you’d like to make a quilt or a wall-hanging. I’m going to do both - a quilt with pieced little houses and trees in all the RSC colors every month. But I’ll also be doing a wall-hanging with piecing, appliqué, and embroidered details. In fact, this is the booklet I’ll be adapting for my wall-hanging minus the flowered block borders but adding my own details. 

I haven’t picked my pieced quilt pattern(s) yet, but I may just mix it up and do lots of variety. Anyway, I hope you’ll join us in 2026. Kat and I are planning to present bi-weekly “lessons” with samples, patterns and links as we go along. 

Moving on, the “small steps” portion of my post title refers to my scrappy sewing this week. My primary goal was to finish up my crumb blocks. I had eleven crumb aqua crumb blocks left over from the past two years. I sewed 8 more to end up with 19. 

Fifteen of them were pulled for our Quilts for Kids chapter - they make quilt kits with 15 solid-color string or crumb blocks in assembling certain kits. The other four will go into my block orphanage to await more brethren. As usual, I’m linking up to Angela’s Scrappy Saturday post for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I was also able to spend some time sewing together part of my Halloween quilt. The side blocks are attached to the main panel.

Obviously, I will need to add a couple 1” (1.5” before sewing) coping strips alongside each of the bat blocks to get everything to line up. The panel was 22.5” wide and I need 24.5” width there for accommodate all the 12” blocks. No problem - I knew this from the start of the project. The four blocks for the bottom row will get the same treatment. Hopefully I’ll have a finished flimsy to show next week.

I also layered and pin basted three more quilts this week, but didn’t get a chance to quilt them. Here they are, ready to be quilted. 

And that’s all I have this week. The next several weeks will be intense for me as far as our HOA goes. We are underway in the budget planning, and next week I have three meetings - our regular Board monthly meeting, our weekly Budget Planning meeting, and an evening community-wide input meeting. I’m getting through it only because there is an endpoint in sight for me - the end of the year. Actually, nothing much happens after Thanksgiving, so it’s really only three more months. I keep thinking about how much free time I’ll have (to sew and relax) when this is all over. But for now, I’m straight-jacketed into the commitments I made. Breathe, Cathy, breathe. 

xo, and make it a great week!