Making Room

The New Year has arrived and new (okay, old) projects have surfaced (okay, re-surfaced!). Down with the Hexagon Blocks from the design wall, make room for Hexie Garden. This pattern, from Atkinson Designs, has been on my list to finish for three years. I am happy to report that it is now, officially, a completed TOP. Yes!! What accounts for this sudden burst of productivity? A retreat happened. There is nothing more satisfying than to sit and sew, and see results, when you are surrounded by like-minded friends with similar goals.

Yep, last week I packed up enough projects to keep me busy for an entire weekend (maybe for an entire year, if truth be told!) and off we went! It was bitter cold outside but the twelve of us who clustered together in the activity room at the retreat center kept warm and comfortable with non-stop snacks for sustenance and the hum of happy conversation and sewing machines for atmosphere.

Hexie Garden ~ 56" X 60"

This happy guy is the third block that I have finished from Nancy Halvorsen's "Be Attitudes" pattern; he certainly had the right idea last weekend! I am stitching these with raw-edge machine applique and hand embroidered embellishments. At the rate of one a month, I should be done with this in October. This is yet one more of those projects that were all neatly organized (fabrics, buttons, floss, pattern book; in fact, all of the background blocks were stitched together-- and labeled!) years ago; before being stashed in a dedicated bin and promptly shelved. Don't ask why, I do not know the answer!

😉

The Hexie Garden will now take her turn waiting in the "to be quilted" queue; those already waiting will move over, making room. The "Be Attitudes" bin will make room for a new frosty friend as another would-be block comes to the top of the pile and this quiltmaker is energized and making room for lots more finishes in 2018. 

Life is Good!

...and sew it goes...