craftygoals: March 2026

I am so tired of reporting that I was sick and it affected my ability to move forward on my crafty goals each month, but alas, such is what I need to report. Yet again. Ugh. February kicked my butt, but that’s pretty normal for this time of year EVERY SINGLE YEAR, so I’m not too terribly upset about it, just annoyed. I caught that nasty flu that was going around and that took me out for two weeks. And then, because I was lying around for two weeks, my back spasmed once I got back on my feet and I was down and out with that flare-up for ten days. I finally got to moving around somewhat normally, enjoyed a couple days of productivity, and then BAM(!) migraine for two days. Then another migraine for six days that require an ER visit to shut down. ARRRRGHHHH. So, y’know, basically four weeks of no real progress on anything. I remain optimistic that my luck will trend upwards in March. Always optimistic…

Debrief: February #craftygoals:

  1. Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: Can’t quilt when you’re sick. Sigh.
  2. Secret Project: I’ve made a lot of progress on this, but it’s not ready to unveil.
  3. Penguin Party Quilt: Did make progress here and there.
  4. Rachel’s Graduation Signature Quilt: I’ve gotten a few of the blocks signed, and am in the process of getting the blank blocks sent out to various people. I am killing this.
  5. RBD Block Challenge: I am almost done with Block #1. Let’s just ignore the fact that SIX of the blocks have been published. Progress is progress.
  6. FQS Sewcialites 3 Sew Along: I am done with the first block! Yay me! I’ll get to working on the second block this weekend. I haven’t photographed it yet, sorry.
  7. Jingle Bell Socks: Coming along nicely in the stolen moments.

March 2026 #craftygoals:

Time-Sensitive Things That Need Working on ASAP:

Guild Show & Tell Quilt: I’d still like to finish the Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt to show, and I’ve got the Sew Many Stars BOM Christmas Quilt on my list for March. I’m so far behind, so I have only the faintest glimmer of hope to get both of these done, but hope I will!

Secret Project: I had to push it back a couple of weeks due to the illness and injury, plus I grossly underestimated how much behind-the-scenes learning I was going to have to do to pull this off, but it should be ready to unveil sometime in March. So excited!

Things to Work on After the ASAP Projects:

Machine Stitching:

  • Penguin Party Quilt: I’m going to commit: I want to finish the top for this THIS MONTH.
  • Easter Say-It Sew Along Banner: Easter is April 5 this year so I want to sew this up in March so everything is ready for the big day.
  • Renaissance Graduation Quilt: Hoping to make more progress on this. I’m still waiting on some signatures, so I’m doing the best I can.
  • Rachel’s Graduation Quilt: I don’t know if I’ll get to touching this, but it’d be great if I could get some signatures back so I can start assembling the blocks. It’s largely dependent on others’ efforts/timeliness, so I’m keeping my hopes low so I don’t feel disappointed if nothing happens this month.

Hand Stitching:

English Paper Piecing: It’d be good to get work done on Smitten. It’s a weird time of year, whatwith the weather changes and garden needing more attention, so I have no idea how this will shake out.

Knitting: It’d be great if I could finish the Jingle Bell Socks.

Embroidery: I don’t have anything in the works for March.

There’s a lot of stuff to get caught up on in regular life before I can really get into the craft room, so this might be a low achievement month. However, sometimes things come together easy and then I get to do lots of crafty stuff, so we’ll see. Gardening needs to start happening too…it’s that time of year! So much fresh goodness coming our way with more light and sunshine as well. We made it through the darkest part of year, friends! Good job! Enjoy the upcoming spring!

Sorry there’s no pictures to go with this post, but if I take time to do pics, it takes up time to craft. I’m going to get caught up eventually and then it’ll be Picture City ’round these parts!

Scrappy Thursday: Clementine Quilt Month #3

It only occurred to me now, as I sat down to write this blog post, that this isn’t actually a scrap project. BUT…it was in my scrappy project bins for some reason; I’m thinking I threw the blocks into whatever bin was handy as I packed up my craft room three years ago, and I didn’t think beyond “What’s in the scrappy project bins?” when deciding what projects to put into the Scrappy Thursday rotation. Oh well. It’s been a long time that this has been waiting, and this is the way I’ll be able to get it done the fastest, so I’ll just go forward with it.

Of course, just because I put some of the fabrics into the project bin didn’t mean I put all of the fabrics into the bin, so I spent a large portion of my sewing time trying to locate the background fabric for this quilt. It was tucked away with a completely different quilt I was working on when we had to pack up, and those two quilts were jammed into the back of a Christmas drawer, despite not being Christmas-related quilts whatsoever. (I never want to move again.)

Alright, Month #3 is the Peaches & Plenty block, and geez…these blocks took forever to make! I don’t know if I’ve gotten extremely slow or what, but I think I put at least six hours into these. Not my favorite pattern, but it doesn’t matter anymore because they’re DONE and now I’ll move on with my life. Woo hoo!

It was nice to revisit this project and look through it again and start getting excited. It’s an interesting-looking finished quilt that is different from anything else I’ve ever made, and I’m looking forward to the completed project…which should hopefully happen in May. Slow and steady…

Month 3 blocks are the ones on the right. Building up a collection!

I was supposed to get these done last month, but it didn’t work out that way. I’m hoping to get onto the Month 4 blocks this month as well, but we’ll see how well that pans out.

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Finishing Instructions

We made it to the end of the sew along! We’ve made it to the end of 2020! When I volunteered to take on this task at the beginning of the year, I didn’t imagine in my wildest dreams how this would end up going this year. But I’m glad we at least had this little block of the month to keep us connected. Thanks for going on this journey with me, and thanks for the little texts and Facebook messages with pictures of your blocks! I love seeing them!

So here it is, the finishing instructions for this quilt:

I hope your quilts come together with ease and I look forward to seeing them in actual real life AT SOME POINT when all this craziness has passed us. Pat yourself on the back for finishing this up! Good job!

As always, if you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing! (And thank you!)

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 9: Martha Washington Star

THE LAST BLOCK! WE MADE IT!

When I volunteered to do this Block of the Month, I don’t even think I’d heard of COVID-19, and we got a late start on it because of quarantine and not knowing what the heck was going on. But here we are, nearing the end of a very long year, and I’m so glad to have been able to offer this little spark of light to you throughout it. Hopefully your quilts are looking good, and I hope that the time when we can finally gather in-person to see each others’ blocks arrives sooner than later.

I left this block until to the end because I didn’t know how I was going to be able to “draw” it in the PDF. I gave up and just threw in some actual photos on the second page of the pattern. If the directions are a little unclear, this block has a lot of pattern explanations all over the internet…I did my best.

You can download the instructions for the Martha Washington Star block here:

Good job, everyone! Keep sewing and look for the bright side in these murky times!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 8: Rail Fence Star

OK, let’s see if my blog is finally going to let me publish an actual post…it’s being weird this week, and coupled with how lousy I was feeling yesterday, I decided to just wait out the bug. A few hours late shouldn’t hurt anyone’s plans, I hope…

We are getting so close to the end, you all! How exciting!

You can download the pattern instructions here:

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 7: Shoofly Star Block

We’re starting to get close to the end of our sew along! School has started, and hopefully that means a little extra time in your sewing rooms! Alright, this month’s block is the Shoofly Star Block:

You can download the pattern instructions here:

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 6: Friendship Star (in a Star)

CQ BOM Main

Welcome back for the sixth block of our sew along! [insert confetti here]

This month’s block is pretty easy, which I find I need during the summer months because there’s not a lot of time for indoor sewing when the kiddos are quarantined at home with no distance learning to keep them entertained. (Oh my word, this year…)

Friendship Star within a Star:

Friendship Star block

PLEASE NOTE: If you’re following the original pattern’s color choices, the star points have been red up until now, but as of this block they are now the lime green color.

Download the instructions here: Sew Many Stars BOM Pattern_Block 6 Friendship Star

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 5: Checkerboard Star Block

CQ BOM Main

Happy July, everyone!  Yay, we made it to the point where we’ll only have a new block every month now!

This month’s block is another easy one, the Checkerboard Star:

Checkerboard Star Block EQ8

Download the instructions here: Sew Many Stars BOM Pattern_Block 5 Checkerboard Star

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 4: Broken Dishes Star Block

CQ BOM Main

Block 4, using a Broken Dishes block for the center of the star is now available!

Crystal Quilters BOM Block 4

Download the instructions here: Sew Many Stars BOM Pattern_Block 4 Broken Dishes Star

Block 5 will be available on July 3rd, and then we’ll go to one block a month.  (Whew!)\

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block #3: Variable Star

CQ BOM Main

It’s time for our third block, the Variable Star block.

PLEASE NOTE: Because these blocks will be set on-point in the finished quilt, any fussy-cut center fabric will rotate.  I’ve pointed it out in the cutting directions in the pattern, but thought it’d be a good idea to wave a red flag in front of your faces from the beginning: You have to cut the original fussy-cut square on-point.

Crystal Quilters BOM Christmas Variable Star

Download the block pattern here:  Sew Many Stars BOM Pattern_Block 3 Variable Star

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

 

Happy Sewing!