A Bit of Cabin Stitching Time!

This past weekend there were a few moments when I could step away from the unpacking of “stuff’  the hanging on the walls of “stuff” and all of the settling in and simply go through the motion of stitching pieces together with machine and thread.

When I sit down to sew, even in the midst of upheaval and chaos – albeit planned upheaval and chaos – my soul finds its happy place.

What’s not to love about stitching away with Annie Get Your Gun playing on an old laptop saved for its Cd player capability?

This is another one of those reasons that I love having my projects cut out and kitted up so that I don’t have to travel with yardage.  Just grab a couple of prepared baggies and sit down and sew.

This project has been ongoing for many months now, built as one unit at a time as I found time.  

There have been times when it has sat idle for a couple of weeks while I was doing other things, but I always came back to it.  I've been captivated by i t!

Laid out and waiting for cornerstones!

It was at this point that folks thought the yellow WAS the cornerstones.  But it wasn't really yellow -- this was the effect of the yellow overhead lights on the floor.  And no, I didn't want this to be anything but a two color quilt.  Straits of Mackinac is all about the water around Mackinac Island, Michigan.  Turquoise it was going to be.

Stitching the last seam for the top!

It's busy.  I know it's busy.  I LOVE BUSY.

Busy is what I do best, and I love this for the riot of activity it contains.  And I believe there are other busy-loving scrap quilters out there who would endeavor to make this, so you will find the full pattern in my next book down the pipeline.

Catching some mountain air off of the deck rail.

I did a little video collage so you could see the breeze.

A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Mar 25, 2017 at 1:34pm PDT

Now on to borders.  Maybe this weekend.

This is also growing!

How is your Hourglass Leader & Ender challenge coming along?  I've seen photos of completions or tops on our Quiltville's Open Studio Facebook group!  As usual, I feel like I am taking up the rear, but these yearly challenges are not a race, just a do it as you see fit kind of thing.

You'll find the pattern and info under the Free Patterns tab at the top of the blog.

I was finally able to add the green round, and follow it with the next neutral spacer round:

Time for the next color!

It was supposed to be aqua, but I'm feeling rather aqua'd out at the moment!  Maybe more of a periwinkle?  I need to go through the strip stash and see if there is enough variety in that color.

I'm headed out in a bit for the dreaded THING removal. Thanks to everyone who has had Mohs surgery for skin cancer and took the time to send me encouraging messages letting me know it's "no big deal."  That helps.

The biggest thing is the amount of time it can take to get this all done.  They remove a bit, test it to see if the margins are clear, and if not, they remove a bit more, and test again,  rather like peeling an onion.

I've downloaded some episodes of Frankie and Grace from Netflix onto my tablet.  I've got my bluetooth headset.  I've got my busy bag in case I feel like doing handwork.  I've been told it's chilly in the surgery suite so I've got warm socks and shoes, and my favorite fleecy jacket to keep me snug.

And while my head takes its time going from numb back to normal this afternoon, you'll likely find me in the quilting studio cutting out either the next round of hourglass units, or border units for the Straits of Mackinac quilt, or both.

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

Vintage ocean waves quilt shared by Siobhan.

Sometimes we've got to work through our fear until we come out the other side. 

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