I know some of you noticed my website/blog has been out of commission for the last few weeks. Today I’m so excited — and celebrating — that everything is up and running again and I can, once again, share some of the projects I’ve been working on.

I won’t bore you with all the details about the blog being down and what it took to get back online. The big picture is that my hosting provider shut down my site (and others) for reasons I’m still not sure of. Trying to get information about why and how to get back online was not fun, especially when it felt like I was speaking one language and they were speaking another. To be honest, it was probably as frustrating for their technicians as it was for me. At one point, one of them even told me to just call my web people. Uh, hello?? I’m a one-woman operation here. The response I got when I told them that was ‘oh.’ LOL

Thankfully, I did have someone I could call on for help. Many, many thanks to Lindsie and her team for all their work on getting the website up and running. I maybe (probably not) could have done it on my own, but not in the timely manner that she was able to, and certainly with a lot more hair-pulling and stomping of my feet than there actually was! Lindsie is the genius behind my blog redesign and pattern shop. If you need anyone with her talents I can wholeheartedly recommend her!

So, what have I been working on while the blog was on vacation? Let me show you a few things.

First, I did a minor sewing room reorganization (pics to come later). While sorting projects and moving furniture, I found a project bin with a completely cut out quilt top! Pieces were labeled and sorted in Ziplock bags. Holy smokes! I guess at some point in my life I was more organized than I thought I was. 🙂 So, I got right to it and starting sewing blocks together.

I love how these fabrics look together. Since cutting is one of the things I dislike the most about quilting, I’m really enjoying being able to get right to the piecing. If only there was a cutting fairy that I could call on! Do any of you feel that way? Anyway, I work on the blocks whenever I have a few minutes and I’m making really good progress. Hopefully this will find its way to being a new pattern soon if all goes well.

January was a busy month for customer quilts. One of the brightest and happiest quilts I had the privilege of working on was this fun one from Kit:

Isn’t it fantastic!? It’s a simple patchwork quilt made using bright, beautiful Kaffe Fassett prints. I love so many of the wonderful pieces I get to work on, but this one really spoke to me. I told hubby ‘I’ve never stolen a customer quilt before, but this one just might make me do it!’ Okay, so I wouldn’t really take a customer quilt, but….. 🙂

These bright colors are just the ticket for all the dark dreary days we’ve been having.

Kit initially thought she wanted custom quilting. But after talking with her and seeing the top in person, we decided a pretty edge-to-edge design was all that was needed. Any custom quilting would just blend in and not be seen.

The design Kit chose is called Marmalade, and I purchased it from Urban Elementz. It has a fun vibe to it that is just perfect for Kit and her quilt. It was a fun design to use and I can’t wait until the next perfect quilt comes along so I can stitch it again.

Another top I quilted took me out of my comfort zone a little bit, and taught me a very good lesson. Connie pieced this top using a pattern called ‘Star of the West’ by Red Crinoline Quilts.

I think this quilt is so beautiful. I would love to make one for my own bedroom. Connie assured me the blocks aren’t that difficult to piece, and there isn’t a single Y-seam! So this will probably become my 2020 long-term project.

Connie likes her quilts to be minimally quilted. That was the push outside my comfort zone. I saw this top and all kinds of quilty ideas started flowing. I let them flow for awhile and then I scaled them waaaay back. It was challenging. I wanted to be sure there was enough quilting, but not too much. I just had to find the middle of the road and stay there! (Stay in your lane, Beth!)

The blocks got an easy stitch-in-the-ditch treatment with loops on the inside around the stars. Continuous curves on the star points was just enough to stabilize the center of the block. The sashing was quilted with a continuous curve design that I think fits the tone of the quilt perfectly. Two-inch piano keys were stitched in the wide border, and that was it.

I was so happy that I had to restrain myself with the quilting, and I’m very happy with the way it looks. Better yet, Connie was happy as well. I love when customers are excited about their finished quilts!

I have a quilt loaded right now that is the total opposite of Connie’s quilt in regard to the quilting density. I’ve been working on it for two weeks, and am only about 80% finished. Here’s just a glimpse:

See what I mean? This one has a gazillion pebbles and lots of fun details all over. I can’t wait to finish it up, get it back home with its owner, and share the quilting with you. So stay tuned – you’re gonna like this one!

I am so happy to be back online and writing this post. I’ve felt a little lost lately without the blog, and now everything feels whole again. LOL

I’ve decided to bring back Main Crush Monday beginning the first Monday in March. So look for the linky party in a couple of weeks – I hope you’ll link up!

This week I have a super-busy schedule but plan on trying to find a few minutes here and there to do some personal sewing. It helps save my sanity on these kind of weeks. Do you feel that way?

Have a great quilty Monday!