Crossing the Pond

 Hello Everyone,

I have been so bad about posting anything this month.  I can't reveal the project that I'm working on yet, but I can share some good news.  My Crossing the Pond quilt is going to be in the May/June edition of QuiltMania magazine!

I still need to machine quilt this beauty, and I must admit I'm a little afraid to begin.  Now with my feet held to the fire, I'm going to have to decide how I'm going to quilt it.  I'll have to dig in after Christmas, put on my big girl panties, and just do it!  

Those of you who follow my blog know that my longarm is in the freezing garage.  I do have a heater I can use, but it is the equivalent of heating a barn.  I'll be like the little kid in A Christmas Story who got his tongue stuck to the light pole.  My hands will be stuck to the handlebars of my longarm.  I've thought about sending the quilt to a professional, but I want to take ownership of the entire, quilt-making process. Between wanting that, and my procrastination, I've managed to get myself into a pickle.

I wish, really wish, I could show you the gorgeous images of fabrics that are on the table right next to me.  I've been asked to design a block of the month for Marcus Fabrics using a new reproduction line designed by Judie Rothermel.  This is one of the prettiest lines I've seen!  You, my readers, are going to LOVE it as much as I do.

In my mind, the design had to be jaw-dropping gorgeous.  I've been working, and working, and working some more on it.  I designed three quilt in EQ8 software.  Three very different designs using different techniques.  I didn't think the quilts I designed had the "WOW" factor.

One afternoon this week, our main water line sprang a leak.  The whole time I was outside helping Mr. Joe dig, and repair the leak, I was thinking about the new design.  After the water line was fixed, and I got cleaned up, I sat down at the computer, and bingo, the break, away from the computer was just what I needed.  My jaw-dropping-wow-factor-quilt came to life before my eyes.  The next day I sent an image of the design to Marcus Fabrics, and received immediate validation that this was IT!

Now I'm pattern writing, and shop guide writing, which isn't a trivial undertaking.  I think, and hope this BOM is going to go big, and be in major quilting catalogs. Fingers crossed!

On another note, our son with Covid has finally turned the corner to feeling better.  It was such a worry!  He's a big, strapping 44-year-old man who goes to the gym daily, rides his mountain bike constantly, and goes hiking almost every weekend. He was reduced to total exhaustion for 16 days.  He called us the day he walked outside to the back yard and mowed the lawn.  That was a red-letter day!  Thank God for family, and his girlfriend delivering meals.  We spoke with him daily, but I got the real scoop from his girlfriend and daughter about how he was really feeling.  He put up a good front to us, but he was totally unconvincing.  

We knew he was feeling better when his sense of humor returned.  He said he lost his sense of smell and taste.  He prefaced that by saying he lost his sense of taste when he got married!  Insert grimacing face here.

Soon,

Lynn