One of the ways I’ve maintained a shred of sanity throughout a year of being out-of-work and home with the dears is by retreating to my sewing room and creating. The side bonus here is that periodically I have had to take quilts to my long-arm friend, thus keeping her in a little extra work as well.

And so, in no particular order:

Prairie Churn Dash was made using fabric scraps from garments and projects made for Conner Prairie. I pieced it over my quilting weekend with Libby and Christine, and finished it later. Just about everything in here, I can tell you who it was for and what era it represented.

Quarantine Cabin is a log cabin-based quilt using mostly reproduction-style prints. Many were purchased at Quilts Plus before they stopped carrying the historical-style fabrics I like so much. These fabrics are also Libby’s fault. Most things are. The backing was purchased for this quilt, but reminds Tim of “grandma’s dishes,” which seemed like a very good fit. This image is of an extra block that I had left, that I made into the label.

This quilt hasn’t really gotten a name yet, but when my sister in law in Minnesota asked her son what someone should name this quilt, he tilted his head, looked, and said, “Maybe Jennifer?” That’s pretty funny. So whatever it’s called, I’ll always think of it as Jennifer. It’s yet another stash-buster (I could bust my stash for years…), and I loved the triangles here because I am a Tri Delta. Bring colors should always be expected when I’m picking, and the bright blue flannel backing makes it cozy.

This Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt was the first time I’ve ever done a “quilt along” with people online. Bonnie Hunter is a well-known and respected quilter and designer, and this quilt was a riot of new techniques, tools, and fun. My good friend Suzy was doing it and encouraged me to join her and boy am I glad I did. I had NO IDEA where the individual blocks were taking me, and when the author unveiled all the final steps, I was *delighted.* This quilt was a mix of things I had in my stash and things I had to buy to fill the supply list (given before the cutting started). The color palette was pretty zany and not necessarily something I would have come up with, but I do love it — and love that it’s the largest quilt I’ve ever made. It is currently waiting for delivery to my quilter, who moved and needs to establish a place for her long arm before she’s back to doing all my quilts again.

Decided I needed to practice with new techniques, and this one caught my eye a long time ago in one of my books. This Starry Night quilt is a small wall-hanging and isn’t perfectly squared, but it was a fun (and sometimes frustrating) project. All from my stash, and the blue and gold colors with stars bring to mind Tri Delta and the sisterhood and friendship I share with women from many generations and from many different places. I can’t wait to be able to see my sisters soon as we get closer to safe travels and stuff.

Just because summer is warm doesn’t mean it doesn’t need a bright quilt. This one was a kit I bought (for a gazillion percent off) at Joann years ago and then hadn’t gotten to. It was very easy, all the fabric was there, and the instructions were easy to follow. I love the bright colors in this — it’s a “Jenny Quilt” for sure.

This is my current project, using paper piecing and instructions from the book Showstopping Quilts to Foundation Piece by Tricia Lund and Judy Pollard (from Christine’s book stash). The original pattern includes only five of the main block (the pinwheel) with partials around it to make a 40×40 ish quilt. I like things bigger than this, so I just added more. We also developed a design wall in the hallway outside my sewing room by tacking a piece of cotton batting to the wall — a more permanent way of attach it and maybe some backing board will be nice (so I can pin to the wall and not into actual wallboard) but this is a good temporary solution.

This isn’t finished — it needs some more borders — but I like the look.

Sorry, dear friend (because there’s probably only one person who reads this…) for going quiet. I’m also training for another Big Bike Ride so stay tuned.

There’s a lot I can’t control during this time of isolation for me and my family. My kids and their schooling? Good luck. I just did my best to keep them on track. What’s available at the grocery store? Forget it. When things get really frustrating and overwhelming, the best thing I can do is work on a project — and best is if I can work on something I can finish.

For this quilt, I wanted to use my stash of super bright colors — to make something my quilting besties would call a “Jenny Quilt.” This one also came out of my stash of quilting books — wise to use these investments occasionally.

We started with these lovely piles of cut pieces. Actually one set is the wrong size, but I didn’t waste them; I used the dark rectangles for something else. Oops. Measure twice, cut once, don’t they say?

I realize that you don’t REALLY have to mark every square with the diagonal for stitching… but it does make it easier. And when you’re binging the Appendices on The Hobbit movies and staying at home in isolation, you have more time to use. So I marked them. All.

I love these so much. I love the colors. I love the patterns. I love them. And I love how bright and happy this is. Oh yes. It may make Christine blind while she’s quilting it, but I love these colors forever and ever.

As my poor computer tells you, this day I had no internet. Fortunately, it was just a problem in my part of the house — the router had fallen off a shelf and everyone else was close enough to still get a signal. But fiddle-dee-dee, I had Appendices to watch and a quilt to sew, so who actually needs internet? Not me, THAT DAY.

These are the larger squares, which are going to be made into even more triangle pieces.

This quilt was not so large that I needed the whole living room floor — the kitchen table worked fine for this. Have I mentioned that I love yellow? My “lights” stash for this quilt was actually all yellows. Yellow has been one of my favorite colors. In high school I had the brilliant idea to paint my bedroom yellow. This, while so cheery, was a mistake, because when the sun came up, that yellow would start to GLOW, and that meant I’d be awake — at it was EARLY in the summer. (The good side of this was that after I moved out, mom used that as her sewing room and it stayed bright in there late into the night!)

My points are not perfect on this beauty, and I guess that’s okay. Don’t look too closely at anything I sew, if that’s okay. I’m not going to competition, just fun.

But what to do about a border? My first row was a set of “lights” strips that I found in my stash — part of something, I guess, but I don’t know what, and enough to go around my quilt. But I had these mis-cut rectangles — maybe I could use those? Of course I could. I made another set of half-square blocks for the border, and it worked out pretty okay. A mostly-solid for the outer border made it just right.

The back of this quilt is a turquoise flannel, because if anything can improve on a bright-colored quilt, it’s a SOFT backing.

I posted something about finding a name for this quilt. In my quilts, there’s usually a name. “It’s All Libby’s Fault” — “The Sun in all its Brightness” — “Quarantine Cabin” — “Chunky Churn Retreat” — they all have a reason. So I posted this on Facebook and asked.

And this is where it gets funny. My sister-in-law Brenda asked her son, “What should this quilt be called?” He squinted at it and looked at it for a while, and said, questioning, “Jennifer?” She said he didn’t know whose quilt it was. I’m not sure why it looks like Jennifer, but… Maybe?