Mostly A Desk Day!

Yesterday was MOSTLY a desk day.

There were a few things I needed to take care of at the inn - the last of the laundry, the making of towel baskets for incoming retreaters, the recovering of pressing stations.  Routine.

I kind of like that routine when the house is quiet and I am the only one there.

But once that was done it was time to get down to business.  Except:

Instead of being able to draw the graphics for our upcoming Crackers & Jam pattern release (Happening Friday! YAY!) someone in particular kept jumping up on the desk to chase the curse across my screen as I was trying to draw.

So let's put on Cat TV on YouTube instead??

Funny? Yes!
Aggravating?  Also yes!
Maybe the better idea would be to just put it on the WALL TV in the studio instead of on the big desk monitor tv in my office?

And there were other shenanigans as well.

Begging for a Cat Scan?

Okay, I just can't!

There will be more time today to do what needs to be done, but to keep her off of my desk while I'm sitting there is going to be a challenge.  I think I need the water spray bottle trick.

Remember when I was making these?

And then they turned into these?

And it became this?

Be watching for Crackers & Jam to release in PDF pattern format on FRIDAY along with a Gift-Away!

The "Cracker" blocks are paper pieced.  It's the easiest way to do them unless you want to rotary cut really odd sizes for the diagonal rail strips to get the job done.

I dug into my strings for the skinny inner rail pieces - as long as they were wider than where they were ending up it was super easy with paper piecing.  Sew first, trim second.  I love paper piecing!

The alternate block was "traditionally" pieced with rotary cutting, but I'm thinking of including paper piecing templates for that one too - just because the little triangles can be a bit tricky and I know there are some that love to paper piece like I do.

Friday is the day!  Don't miss it!

In other quilt news:

Emerald City is on its way to Iowa!

July 7th - October 8, 2026 is the 10 year anniversary of the opening of the Iowa Quilt Museum and I am participating in a celebration of quilts that have been exhibited at the museum over the past 10 years.

Find out more about this exhibition HERE.

It was hard to decide which quilt to send - I chose Emerald City from String Frenzy as it combines my love of string piecing along with traditional units such as half-square triangles and checkerboards.

I love incorporating string elements in my trandional quilts.

And it floors me that Emerald City is almost 10 years old herself!

Has my piecing changed at all?

Nope!

My fabric stash is still foraged, found, gifted, gathered and gleaned.

I mostly work by color family or scrappy everything.  It doesn't matter who the designer of the fabric is, the genre, the style, how old or new the fabric is.

Fabric is fabric and I will find a place for that little piece somewhere.

A wide variety of neutrals is still my love!

And if it's "still" ugly, you just didn't cut it small enough!
This block pile was sitting on my cutting table from before I left for Idaho - I added 4 more blocks yesterday after giving up on the desk work. 
I need so many more blocks I'm not even counting other than to pin blocks in sets of 10.
Today- back to desk work!

I want to share a promotion I received by email so I can pass it on to you!
When you reserve any new Craftours tour by Sunday 5/17/26 you may enjoy $250 off your booking. Please be sure to mention the “Mother’s Day” discount when making your reservation.

 
Click to my travel page HERE.

Only a few days left to reserve your spot for India!

Our Christmas Market tour sign ups will be finalizing soon - so don't miss out on this one either!

This is the week you can save $250.00 when mentioning "Mother's Day" at registration, but it is only good this week.

Visit my travel page for more info and come along with me!

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Be gentle with yourself today!

Take the weight of the world off your shoulders and rest a while.

You are doing the best that you can!

Have a terrific Tuesday, everyone -