It’s been a while since I’ve joined a block-of-the-week quilt along. I do love making sampler quilts, especially when there are different blocks and techniques to try. But I also know how easily these projects can end up sitting unfinished when life gets busy or when I ends up with a mess of mismatched blocks (my own mistakes).

So I wasn’t really planning to start another one… (I thought so…)

Then I watched the Moda Blockheads 7 launch video, and well…the promo video is fun and good! so here we are!

I loved seeing all the Theme – Friends & Neighbors! I love a good neighborhood quilt.  Before I knew it, I was already pulling out fabrics and thinking about which ones I could use.

So yes, I’ve decided to join in! And I’ve already finished my first block, which I’ll share with you below.

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If you’ve been here a while, you know that I jump from projects to projects, and I basically have many projects going all at once. Yup, I have a squirrel mind. Many projects, many tabs open, many things going on at once. I know that about me, but this week, something clicked, and I’ve found the way to really embrace and make the best of it. 

The Week That Started It All

First, a little peek behind the curtain. There has been a whirlwind happening on the backend of this blog. I’ve been working on moving my courses to a new platform… ugh, all the technical things I have to do and the things that just take away my time from my sewing room. Well friends, it is a big project. The platforms where I put my courses these days are charging so much, and I refuse to pass those costs on to you. I want to keep my courses affordable and alive and organized, because I know they help so many of you. So I’m fighting for it, one late night at a time.

I still have a long way to go, and yes, a good chunk of my weekend went into it. It’s the kind of heavy, brain- stretching work that leaves you a bit wobbly by Saturday evening.

Which brings me to the funny revelation part. Read on…

My Designer Mystery 2023 Quilt Top Is Finally a Flimsy!

Well, quilty friends, it’s done… the top is done, anyway! My Designer Mystery 2023 quilt has officially reached flimsy stage, and I have to tell you, getting here took a little more grit than I expected.

If you’ve been following along, you’ll remember I shared the progress of this quilt back in my Block of the Month post. This quilt is the Fat Quarter Shop’s long-running Designer Mystery program, and for this in particular is the one for the year 2023 with that gorgeous Camille Roskelley fabric collection. The blocks have been sitting pretty for a while, but the part I’d been quietly avoiding? Sewing all those rows together.

Why I Was Stalling (Confessions of a Reluctant Row-Assembler)

You walk into a fabric shop, or more likely, you open a browser tab at midnight…. and something happens in your brain. A little light switches on. Your pulse picks up just a tiny bit. And before you know it, you are adding things to a cart with the quiet confidence of someone who absolutely has a plan.

Do you have a plan? Sort of. The plan is joy. And honestly? That counts.

The Feeling That Starts It All

Here’s what I think is really happening when we buy craft supplies: we are buying hope.

Not in a sad, desperate way though, it is in a genuinely beautiful way. Every bundle of fabric, every skein of yarn, every new set of embroidery hoops represents something we are going to do. A future version of ourselves, sitting down with a cup of tea, fingers busy, heart full.

When I pick out fabric, I can already see it. I know where that print will sit in the quilt. I know how it’ll play against the other fabrics I have in mind. My brain has already started designing before I’ve even hit “checkout.” That visual in my head imagining the finished project or even the thought of playing with the fabric is so real to me that buying the fabric almost feels like starting the project.

Is that a little bit magical? Yes. Is it also a tiny bit of a trick my brain plays on me? Also yes. But I’m choosing to lean into the magic.

The Stash Is Not a Problem. The Stash Is a Gift.

Let’s talk about this. Read along…

It All Started With a Magazine

Remember waiting for your quilting magazine to arrive in the post or when we get to enjoy browsing them on the newsstand while we do grocery shopping? Flipping open those pages — the scent of them, the weight of them — and just… sitting with it? No scroll, no algorithm, no one trying to sell you a fake pattern. Just beautifully curated stories, project ideas, technique tips, and the quiet joy of a community that took the time to put it all together.

I still have a collection of older magazines, and I genuinely love browsing through them. In fact, I had the loveliest thing happen a few years back, a dear reader sent me a collection of vintage 1980s issues, and OH MY goodness. I feel like the luckiest person ever! I talked about this in my previous post HERE> 

I have been slowly working my way through them, page by page, soaking up every bit of inspiration. The quilts. The styling. The way they wrote about quilting, and the stories… It’s a different kind of nourishment altogether, and one I didn’t realize I’d been missing.

Those magazines weren’t just content. They were curated. Someone who is chosen for their job through their experience in the quilting world thought carefully about what you needed to see, what would inspire you, what would teach you. That intention matters. It still matters somehow. At least the process of the curation is a filter in a way. These days we do have more originality but we also have to filter lots of noises around it too. 

Read on and I’ll tell you what I mean by this…

You know that feeling when you finish a project in one day and it just immediately makes your sewing space happier? That’s exactly what happened with my Pretty Pockets Sewing Machine Caddy.

Let me introduce you to my newest sewing room addition. This cheerful, scrappy sewing machine caddy has been sitting on my machine for a couple of weeks now and I am absolutely in love with how it brightens up my whole sewing space. It came together so quickly!  I made the whole thing in a single day — and that kind of quick win is exactly what I needed!

My finished Pretty Pockets Sewing Machine Caddy sitting pretty on my Janome Horizon Memory Craft 8200QC. Those “good vibes always” pockets are making me so happy!

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I’ve Always Known Creativity Gives Me Energy

For as long as I can remember, creating has always made me feel more alive. And ever since I have started this blog and quilt, I have always been inspired and super excited when I think about what I get to do. About the time I get to quilt. 

Even during busy seasons, creativity brought me back to myself. What changed recently wasn’t the realization that quilting gives me energy. I’ve always known that. What changed is that somewhere along the way, I stopped prioritizing it.

Let’s chat about this…continue to read below.