Back to the New Norm.

This happened yesterday.

It didn’t happen as early as I liked – but it happened.  I am quilting the Shoo Fly Shoo, Version II!

And I smiled the whole way remembering the fun I had while attaching these borders – the conversations, both funny and thought provoking.

Good people – wonderful people.  They touch your lives and leave a bit of their life experience in your heart.

I decided to take a bit of extra time – the slow lane through Tuesday – by tackling the batting scrap bin to piece a batting big enough from trimmed margins to fit this puppy.

I usually do this for smaller quilts – because then it is only a seam or two and the batting is big enough to do the job.

This time?  The quilt is 73‘’ x 92’’.  A real Frankenbatting experience!

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A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Jun 23, 2020 at 9:47am PDT

It made a dent.  But not a big enough one.  I will continue to piece battings until that pile is BYE BYE.  Really.  There is a lot of money thrown away in batting scraps.  So yes – it took time, and thread.  That is it.

Some may ask why I just don’t FUSE it.  Because This batting is 80/20 and the heat required to fuse it will melt the poly in the batting for one thing.  Another reason is that I’m just not a fan of hot melt glue inside my quilt.  I don’t know what that will do over time.  Maybe I don’t need to worry about it, really – but I do not know.

I also didn’t HAVE any fusible stuff, the zig zagging is easy – and I wasn’t about to run out and go shopping anywhere (the nearest quilt shop is about an hour away.) and I just wanted it done. 

I had the batting pieced in the time it would have taken me to drive to the nearest town.

If you want to try this – make sure that your batting is all the same kind.  Trim all edges straight.  I overlap BARELY just to make sure I am catching both pieces with my widest zig zag set on the longest stitch possible.  

You may have to loosen your tension a bit if things are curling.  Do not PULL or stretch the batting – just let the feed dogs take it for a ride.

Close up of all the whackadoo fabric combinations!

Everything.

It’s all in here.

And I love it!

All in all I gave this quiet yesterday a B+!

It could have been an A but you know - MORE rain.

AND. I went to check on the laundry at Quiltville Inn to find the washing machine had been break dancing while spinning on high.

That machine can move! (Blankets!) These will now spin on MEDIUM.

Fedex also came with a delivery of a dozen MORE woven cotton blankets (Because women of a certain age need to breathe while they sleep!) and I will move on to pre-washing those today.

These wash up so nice, and have a great weight to them.  They are listed as hospital blankets – but I love that they are 100% cotton so there is no static as with fuzzy poly blankets. And no sweaty poly heat.

I have added them to the In the Bedrooms section of the Quiltville Amazon Affiliate Store.

I’ve also had questions on how I’m handling the bleach situation with both the Inn and the QPO sharing a septic tank.  Easy.  No bleach.

Safe for all my laundry.

OxiClean is safe for the environment and safe for septic systems. It breaks down into harmless compounds like water and soda ash. (plant ash.)

This is also great because some folks are very sensitive to bleach, and my laundry won’t smell like ANYTHING as I am using fragrance free/color free products for the inn.

(I know – boring – but folks asked so there you have it!)

Binding is ready for when the quilting is done!

I hope to have it on by tonight for hand stitching.

Zoey Jo – supervising!

I came across this yesterday.

Even while embracing the weekend, and loving the quiet aftermath of yesterday – Sometimes I feel like I just can’t take in a full breath emotionally.

As I read through all of these things (Because you know, being a woman is like having a brain with 2,000 browser tabs open AT ALL TIMES) I realized that this brings together ALL of the things I have been feeling over the past several months. Sometimes the big parts change places with the things in the little areas – and they are constantly moving like thoughts and feelings in a blender.

This also explains why TIRED is at the space at the top.  So many of us are feeling this way.

All of these things are where I am as a whole. I just want to say that if your mind and heart are occupied by any number of these things in any combination (And it doesn’t have to be all of them at one time!) that I get it.  I understand.  I feel it.  You are not alone.

Some days we fail miserably.  But the next day we can look at the sunshine and the new day ahead of us and realize that we are strong enough to love each other hard again for one more day.

Sometimes we can’t get the words out because they are all wrapped up in the feelings.

And that is where we just go to the fabric, the rotary cutter, the sewing machine or needle and thread and we stitch out all of the hurts and confusion.

And we start where we are.  To check in with and love your inner self.  That 3rd grader who is still inside of you.  And we extend that to our immediate and extended families.  And our friends and their families, and out into the communities where we live. Recognize the inner child that resides in all of us.

And before you trigger on the “Knowing WHY Black Lives Matter.” and without thinking and really understanding respond with a knee jerk reaction of ALL LIVES MATTER – or you pull your religious and/or political views into it, just stop, okay.  

This is a time for thinking, for trying to understand deeper. We need to listen to understand, not listen to reply back in a way that stops the conversation.

You know me – you know my heart.  One person’s response yesterday was “Let go and let God.”  Okay – that does NOTHING because we are God’s hands.  Where did we miss that message? To do nothing? We have been told to love our neighbors as ourselves. Love is an ACTION WORD.  Doing nothing and expecting God to take care of it is a cop out.

Flippantly replying with ALL LIVES MATTER just means you haven’t looked deeper to understand that until black lives matter as much as your own, that NO lives matter equally.  Saying Black Lives Matter makes you feel that your life matters LESS. And that’s just not true. You are replying from a place of discomfort and uncertainty.

Another reader started pulling Bible quotes into her defense of All Lives Matter – and my reply was that Jesus left the 99 in search of the 1.  Not because the other 99 didn’t matter, but it was the 1 that needed help.  The one mattered just as much as the 99 – but required immediate attention.  That’s all.  Before we can be ALL, we need that 1 included.

I have lost a lot of readers on all platforms in the past many months – but that’s okay.  There are those who will say “But this is a quilting blog” and I will say – no, it’s not.  This is my life.

At the end of my life when I look back at all of the messages I tried to share through this medium, I hope the one that stands out and I am remembered for the most is that “She loved deeply.” Not the message of “She gave really great free mysteries.”

Which one makes my life that much richer?  The one that brings us together. 

Thank you for your continued desire to do better, to be better, to love one another – and sew up a storm while doing it!

Quiltville Quote of the Day

There is no skipping ahead - start where you are!

Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone!