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!

Fall Was in the Air. Actually, it Was in the Courtyard

Last Monday, around noon, I was rushing off to our monthly HOA Board meeting around noon. I usually walk the two short blocks with my armful of reports and binders and…. Well, I was be-bopping through my courtyard and tripped (on a cement seam? On air? Yes, I am capable of tripping on air). Landed face first on the cement and everything went flying. Bruce had just gone into the bathroom to shower and didn’t hear me yell for help. My phone was in my pocket, so I called my neighbor Andy, who was already at the Board meeting, and he and another guy hopped in a car and were with me in 2 minutes or less. Long story short, I ended up at the emergency care clinic with a face full of bruises, lacerations, punctured gums and a possibly fractured right knee (the two doctors reading the X-rays disagreed about whether it was fractured). My face looks like I went a couple rounds with Rocky Balboa. I’m in a knee brace and using a walker until I can get in on Tuesday to see my orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Nikolaus, who did my hip replacement in 2023. I’m pretty sure I won’t need surgery and that I can just wear the brace for awhile and avoid putting weight on it, but we’ll see. 

But other than that it’s been a good week, LOL. Seriously, you never really know how much people care until you injure yourself. Flowers, cards, food, errands, visits and gentle hugs. I’m staying upbeat, and Bruce has really been there for me all the way. He took one of our collectible teddy bears (our favorite) and “fixed him up” for me, complete with bandages and a “leg brace” (sock). My sweet kitty Darla has been with me all night every night, giving me IPT (Intensive Purr Therapy). How lucky can I get?

In the meantime, I had luckily finished all my purple Rainbow Scrap Challenge sewing on the weekend before the fall, so I do have things to share today. And after a couple days of total rest, I was ready to try some sewing with my left foot on the foot pedal. I can do it, and I have a small footstool on which to rest my gimpy right leg. I got the last two blocks for my Halloween quilt sewn, but I’ll save those for next week. Let me show you the rest of the purple scraps for July this week. I’m linking up to Scrappy Saturday at Angela’s So Scrappy blog.

Here are nine crumb blocks that will finish at 6”. They’ll be put away for next year when we once again work on purple, because I need 15 to make a set for QFK. 

And then I sewed five Paint Chip blocks, which finish at 8”.

Notice how the columns are randomized between the darks and lights? I do that on purpose to vary the ups and downs. Here’s a picture from back in May with only five of the colors. It gives an idea of the look I’m going for. 

When I finished the purples, I only needed one more Paint Chip block to complete the set.. So I whipped out my aqua/teal scraps and made the very last block. 

So, these are all done and will join my RSC block collections to be sewn into tops. Finishing up all the RSC block sets will be my focus for the remainder of this year. Well, that and the QAL (more on that below) and starting on a wedding quilt for my grandson. 

While I had my aqua/teal scraps out (hopefully Angela will announce it as the August color of the month) I found about three dozen little squares of a pale aqua fabric with pandas on them. So I decided to use my teal and aqua 2 ½” strips to make Happy blocks. I did have to add a few 7.5” solid green squares and strips in to round it out. That green shows up - minimally, but it’s there - in the panda print. 

I’ll get it webbed and sewn, and a backing made this weekend. Then it can be added to my ever-growing group of tops to be pin basted and quilted. I had hoped to start on those this week, but it’s hard to stand one-legged for too long. Plus I had to elevate my right leg for several days. But the quilting will all happen in time. 

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I’ve mentioned in the past, and talked about to many of you as well, Kat Scribner (Scrapbox Quilts) and I are going to be hosting a house and neighborhood-themed Quilt-Along beginning in mid-September. We’re calling it A Quilter’s Cove QAL. We will each have a post and a joint linky party every Saturday. We plan to run it through the fall, then break before the Thanksgiving and December Holidays. We anticipate having another few linkups in January to round things out and present our finishes and/or progress. 

Kat created this delightful logo for us. Isn’t it adorable? Feel free to add it to your sidebar. Both Kat and I have the linky on our blog sidebars that you can copy. If you click it, it’ll take you to our A Quilter’s Cove page on our blogs. Once the QAL goes live, we will house the links to all our QAL posts there. Additionally, we both have our A Quilter’s Cove joint Pinterest Board, where you will find hundreds of ideas, photos and links. Our Pinterest Board link can also be found on our blog sidebars. 

So, start thinking about what YOU would like to do, as this will NOT be a one-size-fits all. Do you want to make a full-sized quilt? A wall hanging? Rows or medallion-style or free-form? Will you buy and sew an existing pattern? There are so many cute patterns out there! Or would you rather use a favorite block pattern to sew and build your own neighborhood?  Do you like improv style? Traditional piecing? Appliqué? Or a combination of all of them? The sky is the limit! And, speaking of the sky, it can be any color, time of day or night, or season you choose! 🤣 

If you have questions, do write to us! We’ll have more details for you as the time draws closer, and we hope you’ll join us in this fun Quilt-Along!

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Have a great week!