English Paper Piecing quilt blocks that look like red, green, and white peppermint candy discs

Christmas Stitching in October

October 19, 2025October 25, 20252 Comments

I’ve written a little bit about the Peppermint Blossoms EPP Quilt and the Christmas Alphabet Embroidery Sampler, but haven’t shared any actual info or pictures about them. We shall remedy that today!

Meet the Peppermint Blossoms EPP Quilt:

This one’s going to take a very long time. I spent some time in the past week figuring out numbers for it and I think I’m going to end up needing 50 full blossoms and 10 half blossoms, plus whatever insane number of background triangles and diamonds that I’ll math out later. As of today, I have 8 red blossoms and 7 green blossoms complete. Only 35 to go…

Red, Green, and White Peppermint Blossoms English Paper Piecing Quilt units

This project is my current crafting-in-the-van project that gets worked on whenever I’m waiting for kids’ practices to get over and when I’m sitting at church during Mutual because I don’t want to drive back home just to turn around half an hour later to come back and pick them up. Progress is slow on this, but I can usually knock out a full blossom a week now that I’m working on it during Mutual.

I also need to cut out more white jewel pieces for this quilt—113 more, actually. Yikes.

And here’s the Christmas Alphabet Embroidery Sampler:

The Ziploc bag that it’s stored in says it’s from ~2005, so this project is pretty ancient. I think I bought the pattern shortly after we bought our first home and before I got pregnant with Renaissance. I was leaning towards a primitive and folksy decor look, but decided later that it really wasn’t for me. (That, and my house was decorated in “homeschooling chic” out of necessity for the stage of life we were in, lol.)

Christmas Alphabet Embroidery sampler in rustic colors

I’ve been granting myself some “Whimsical Days” each month to work ahead on upcoming holidays and celebrations when my heart desires it, and I found myself wishing I had a slow stitching Christmas project to pick up on my Christmas days, so I unearthed this and have been putting in work on it while watching movies. I’m not worried about when this will be finished; it’s just fun to work on. Maybe it’ll be ready for this year’s Christmas, maybe it won’t.

But I like to keep track of progress, so this guy is at 12 blocks out of 26, which is ~46%, and we’ll subtract 5% from that to account for the border that will need to be stitched at the end, so 41% done.

"Yuletime" #210 Alphabet Stitches embroidery sampler, pattern by Once Upon a Vine (Kim Goodrich), stitched in primitive and folk colors of DMC embroidery floss

And I just noticed that the pattern itself has a 2006 copyright, so I imagine I actually started working on this in 2006. I do love that fabric and yarn will wait for you!

Hopefully you’re able to find some slow stitching time on this beautiful Sunday! The weather is blustery here and so perfect for some down time with needle and thread.

Linking up with:

#craftygoals Check-In: July 2023 #3

July 28, 2023Leave a comment

Not the most productive week, crafty-wise, but I did get some stuff done.

Last week’s goals were:

Finish the Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt and get it in the mail!
Possibly start on the Farm to Table Baby Quilt.
Scrappy Thursday: Either keep working on the Mixed Berries quilt or start a scrappy Christmas gift. (I’m pretty sure the Leaders & Enders quilt is not going to be happening right now.)
Use music lesson time for EPP and not phone scrolling. (I can’t really make a more specific goal for this quilt each week because it’s so dependent on so many different people’s schedules lining up.)
Possibly finish Nilla the Unicorn.

Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt: Not finished, STILL. Everything except the label is done, and the label is even created, just not attached to the quilt. Sooo close, but…summer evenings just don’t induce me to do a lot of sewing.

Farm to Table Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt: Not officially started, but I did pull out the fabrics at some point this week to take a picture of them for some reason.

Scrappy Thursdays: I decided to keep going on the Mixed Berries Quilt because I’ve been waiting to work on this one for FOREVER and I’m not feeling any of the other quilts right now. I cut and sorted all the blue fabrics for the large blueberry blocks, got one block’s worth of purple fabrics cut, and started on red. It turns out that I don’t have a lot of purple scraps, which is weird because I know I’ve bought a ton of purple fabric over the years because it’s Rachel’s favorite color…hmmm, methinks I need to go dig out the box of fabrics that Rachel curated for the quilt she was working on during the pandemic. I’m thinking there might be some purples hiding in that box.

Smitten Quilt: I was so good and used all 2.5 hours of music lesson time to stitch away on my EPP and I finished up another combo block of small hexies.

Nilla the Unicorn (Knitting): She’s done! Time to write up a blog post about her!

Alright, let’s talk next week’s #craftygoals:

Get the Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt out of my house
Start sewing like a mad woman on the Farm to Table quilt
Keep plugging away on the Mixed Berries quilt.
Find the Rachel box and see if she’s hoarding purple fabrics.
Keep using music lesson time for EPP. It’d be good to get another combo block done.
Knitting: I have no idea! I was going to order yarn to make a Little Cotton Rabbits pattern, but then the yarn was going to be $85 and that just gave me pause. I could knit from my stash…ugh, so boring. Or I could start moving forward with some Halloween decorations I have on my mind, OR I could start moving forward with designing and knitting a hat I have on my mind. We’ll see…

Well, that’s it for the #craftygoals July 2023! Still getting my feet planted beneath me for a solid crafty foundation, but I have high hopes for a more productive August! See you next week with a new month’s list of projects!

#craftygoals Check-In: July 2023 #2

July 21, 2023Leave a comment

Hello again, my crafty lovelies! I missed a couple beats on the crafty check-ins, but I’m trying to get back into it again. I do this every year: I think that summer vacation will mean lots of downtime and I’ll use that downtime to sew and knit and embroider and paint and all the happy creative things that make my heart sing, when in reality summer vacation is doing a lot of stuff with the Brookelets and trying to get the house cleaned up and ready for the next school year. Not an actual lot of time for crafting. AND THEN I think, “OK, well, just wait until autumn and when the kids go back to school because then you’ll have time for crafting.” But nope! That’s when pep band, drama practice and everything else starts. The teenager years are busy, busy, busy!

The Big Declutter 2023 Project is still going big in our house, so that’s cutting into crafty time tremendously. Also, the kids have become obsessed with spending time together as a family in the evening, and I had scheduled the bulk of my sewing time for the evenings because they normally do not want to spend time together after dinner…so…yeah…even less crafty time happening because I’m choosing to spend time with my kids when they ask for it. It’s weird and I don’t know how long it will last, but I’ll show up for every minute until it ends.

Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt: I officially started and finished quilting it today, so major progress finally happening on this project! I ran into a lot of problems getting my new machine set up, and the craft room was a disaster that needed some decluttering, and then blah, blah, blah…took a while to get going on the quilting. After I’m done writing this post I’m planning to head back into the craft room and trim it and hopefully get the binding done today. I’d really like to get this into the mail on Monday.

Scrappy Thursdays: I started working on my Farm Girl Vintage “Mixed Berries” quilt this week! I have background squares and stem squares cut for all sixteen 12-inch berry blocks.

Going forward, I think I need to boot the Clementine Quilt out of the Scrappy Thursday line-up because I simply don’t show up to work on it when it’s its turn. I am not gelling with this quilt right now, and I think it needs to be back into hibernation so I can get some actual work done on anything else. Clementine’s time will come, eventually.

Next week I’m supposed to work on the Leaders & Enders quilt, but that might change because I have no plan whatsoever for it and I’m eyeing Christmas on the horizon and I’d really like to start on some Christmas gifts. We’ll see…

Smitten EPP Quilt: I pieced my first of many of the small hexagons into a large hexagon filler block, and started working on the second one. I need to cut some diamonds for the filler blocks. I work on this while I’m sitting in the car at my kids’ music lessons, so it limps along in the summer due to last-minute cancellations and the like. It’ll pick up steam in the autumn when lesson schedules are consistent again.

Nilla the Unicorn (Knitting): I’ve made it a goal to knit for thirty minutes after lunch most days. Renaissance bought a cross stitch kit on one of our excursions in recent weeks, and so she joins me outside each day as well and we stitch in the sunshine together. It’s one of the best parts of my day!

Since my obsession with the Little Cotton Rabbits has not died down, I decided to do a test run with knitted animals and dug out a knit unicorn kit that I bought four or five years ago for Rachel at the Madrona Fiber Festival that she never got around to knitting up and I’ve been working on that. My family has named it Eeyore and insists that it’s a donkey because it turned out that I had no yellow worsted-weight yarn scraps to make its horn and I’m waiting for my KnitPicks order to arrive so I can do that.

So that’s it for the last two weeks. #craftygoals for the upcoming week are:

Finish the Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt and get it in the mail!
Possibly start on the Farm to Table Baby Quilt.
Scrappy Thursday: Either keep working on the Mixed Berries quilt or start a scrappy Christmas gift. (I’m pretty sure the Leaders & Enders quilt is not going to be happening right now.)
Use music lesson time for EPP and not phone scrolling. (I can’t really make a more specific goal for this quilt each week because it’s so dependent on so many different people’s schedules lining up.)
Possibly finish Nilla the Unicorn.

Keeping Track of my Year has Made Me More Grateful

November 24, 2021Leave a comment

I started using the app 1 Second Everyday last year when quarantine started up because I wanted a historical record of a historical event. As a result, I take more little snippets of video, which are so fun to watch of my kids. (I’m more of a still-image person, so video is a reach for me.) And the video at the end of 2020 with a one second snippet from every day of that monumental year? Amazing. So I’ve been keeping up with this year, too.

I was hardcore into some self help books at the beginning of 2021, because you know…2020 kinda whomped on all of us, and I noticed that a lot of them kept mentioning the importance of looking for things to be grateful for, trying to have a positive attitude, trying to frame things in a more positive light…all those rose-colored glasses suggestions that make me want to punch people, basically. BUT…I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try for a bit. Just an experiment. Watching the 1 Second Everyday video at the end of 2020 had helped me to remember a lot of good things that came out of that year…what if I also made an effort to write them down as I went along?

So I downloaded a handful of journaling apps and whatnot, started using them, and slowly uninstalled them as they annoyed me until I was left with one called Delightful. It’s a simple little app that asks you to write down three good things twice a day. I have reminders that go off in the morning and in the evening, and if I can’t think of anything, there’s questions to think about and answer. And if it’s a really terrible day, I don’t write down anything at all.

All of these Thanksgiving posts about gratitude had me feeling the pressure to write something similar, but I don’t really like writing those posts because they can come off as being boastful, and I’ve realized that I learned somewhere along the way that saying what I’m grateful for out loud is boastful and arrogant and show-offy. But I’ve also learned that’s not entirely true. Don’t get me wrong, I hate a humble brag, but being thankful and saying it out loud isn’t boastful.

I sat down with my Delightful gratitude app today, and it looks like I started recording my gratitudes on March 11, 2021. I’m rather hit-and-miss, but I do have 107 entries as of today, which is ~321 different things I’ve been grateful for this year. So, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are some random things I’ve been thankful for this year:

Michael is a thoughtful dude
My Zoom tea party group and my Sunday Zoom knitting appointment
Quesnel, Charlotte, and Marshmallow do so many little things that make me laugh
Watching people succeed
Gaining strength through so much physical therapy
The kids got to go back to regular school and not have to do distance learning anymore
When Emms found out about the college they want to go to and got all excited that such a place existed
Nathaniel’s first time trying to play the trumpet
Nathaniel’s first baseball practice in the spring, when I got out my EPP kit and just started crying because it had been two years since I’d stitched at a baseball event. That that little normal thing was back.
So many things about gardening make me happy.
Playing Mario Kart with the kids
Free time
When an unexpected rainy day happens during a busy time in the garden and I’m forced to stay inside all day and I get to do extra sewing or knitting
Every time another member of our family was officially fully-vaccinated against COVID-19.
Michael made me a porch swing
Rachel’s newfound love for full, poufy skirts
Reading an article in a magazine about a town I’d never heard of and how fun it was to discover a new place I’d like to visit someday
Conversations with James and Denise
My neighbor planted a new species of grass in his yard and it was really delightful to listen to him be excited about it
Michael helps me a lot. Often.
People being really kind about my need to rest and heal after my foot surgery.
The drive to my kids’ schools has beautiful scenery, especially in the autumn
Renaissance’s work on her witch costume for Halloween
The kids like to cook and bake

This year has felt stressful and overwhelming almost every single day, but when I read back through these little entries I’m reminded of how much good there has been that I’m apparently blind to after the fact. I’m glad I embarked on this little experiment. And I’m not trying to pressure you into doing the same, because I always dislike it when the shiny, happy people give life advice. (And no, I’m not what I would classify as a “shiny, happy person.”) I’m just glad that a little experiment turned out well and that I have a way to see the good a little easier now. Life is always full of difficulty and good, and I appreciate any little trick to help me focus on the good a little bit more.

I hope you and yours have a lovely weekend. Given the international nature of my friends reading the blog these days, I wish my American friends a happy Thanksgiving, and my Celsius friends a fantastic end of November. Whether or not you have a holiday tomorrow, I hope the end of this week, and the rest of this year, treats you kindly. Thank you for being here and reading my words and writing your comments. All of those bloggy things bring little sparks of happiness into my world throughout the year, too, and I’m grateful that you allow me to experience them.

^{Also–I’m not affiliated with 1 Second Everyday or Delightful.}
^{I just use those apps and like them a lot, so I wanted to share a good thing.}

Bed Rest, Weeks 1-3

December 1, 20161 Comment

Sooooo…

…had some surgery in November, which wasn’t supposed to take that long to recover from, but then, at the one-week follow-up appointment, my doctor broke the news that I needed to stay in bed for another five weeks. So I went from expecting one week of lying around to SIX WEEKS. DURING THE HOLIDAYS.

The six-week follow-up appointment happens during the week before Christmas, so I’m pretty much stuck in bed, drooling over all the gorgeous Instagram posts of beautiful Christmas quilts and lamenting that I can’t finish all the stuff that I promised myself that I was going to finally finish up this year. 2016 has not been a banner year for me, people.

BUT…I do not want to be one of those people who mopes about and whines about their difficulties, so that has meant trying to stay “busy” despite the bed rest.

Week #1:

I spent the days leading up to my surgery frantically finishing up a quilt to the point where I’d only have the hand stitching of the binding left to do. During my first week post-op, I finished hand stitching the binding. Then I designed some alterations for a dress I own that’s too short on me, and, inspired by the idea of sewing clothing, I read Couture Sewing Techniques, which then had me researching Christian Dior-everything for a few days.

Week #2:

After receiving the very unexpected news of another five weeks of bed rest, I panicked and decided to start a Christmas EPP quilt, but after finishing two of the blocks I realized that I didn’t actually want to make it and abandoned it. I’ll keep the blocks for something else in the future.

Then I decided that the quilt label for the quilt I’d just finished binding could use a little extra pizazz, so I opted to embroider parts of it, which took the rest of the week and little of the next. (There is a lot of napping happening during my day.)

20161119_113949

I also read The Art of Manipulating Fabric, and Draping: The Complete Course. I’m seeing some garment construction in my future, and I’m excited. I have three daughters who are about to embark upon their teenage years, and I’ve always thought that one of the funnest parts of having girls would be making their party and dance dresses, and it’s always good to practice a skill before you actually *need* it, so maybe next year will see me venture into that arena a bit.

Week #3:

Thanksgiving, which had to be delegated to my kids and they did a pretty great job of it. A friend from my quilt guild saw my SOS Instagram post and brought me over a ton of books to read, so I spent most of my third week reading:

A Curse Dark as Gold (very good retelling of “Rumpelstiltskin!”)
Dragonfly (enjoyed very much!)
Once Upon a Marigold (not sure I’ll finish it), and
The Blue Sword (enjoying)

So here we are, amidst Week #4, and I was really hoping that my doctor’s “six weeks” prescription was just overly cautious, but I tried to sew up the swap block for November this week and it about killed me with pain and exhaustion to just do a fabric pull, so I had to send out an email apologizing for the block’s tardiness because it will not be getting finished anytime soon. And, as a precaution, I wrote to December’s swap recipient as well and gave her a heads-up that her block could end up being late as well. Sigh.

BUT…I woke up from this surgery with NO BACK PAIN for the first time in three years, so the future is looking mighty bright! I can rest three more weeks if it means no back pain.

And, for Week #4, I’m feeling the knitting a-calling to me…especially:

Color-Tipped Italian Cashmere Beanie by Churchmouse Yarns (because it’s beautiful in that wonderfully elegant way that “simple” is beautiful)
Honeymoon Cowl by FitzBirch Crafts (learning double knit could be fun)
Botanical Yoke Pullover by Purl Soho (oh, that cabled yoke…will have to wait, but it’s sure fun to stare at it when I can)
St. Brendan by Kelbourne Woolens (I’m making this some day, but not now because it takes some planning), or
Socks! (Because I can do that…)

My son does need a new winter hat…I think my second daughter might need one, too…OH! And I was supposed to mend my youngest daughter’s Hello Kitty hat…bed rest or not, a mama’s work is never done. I cannot wait to get back to making pancakes, and vacuuming, and cooking dinners that don’t come from a box. Resting is a nice change, but it’s sucky to be forced to rest from taking care of the people you love.

I’m Not Quite Dead Yet

June 15, 2015June 15, 20152 Comments

Yes, it’s been rather quiet for, you know, two months, but I’ve been here, stitching and stitching amongst the chaos that has been my life. My kids have been a bit of a handful for the past two months, which has left zero time for blogging. There was a broken foot, then an infected toe that went unreported until it was very bad, a 2 a.m. mad rush to the emergency room for croup…and then all the fun of “end of the school year” happened, and now it’s all about summer art camp, a suspected case of appendicitis for one of my kids this morning (turned out to be a stomach virus from…yeah), and softball all the time. But that’s life with kids, right? It all just kind of caves in on you sometimes, and you just keep your head above the water the best you can.

But the crafting still happened behind the scenes, and I was able to post bits and pieces of it on Instagram, which has garnered a little bit of notice in recent days, much to my delight.

I’ve been working away on my Farm Girl Vintage quilt blocks:

And I’ve gotten a start on my Sleighbell Sampler Quilt from the Winter Wonderland book:

I’m also in the homestretch on the Star Spangled Diamonds Quilt, which hit its first year mark on Memorial Day. Softball season affords me a lot of “sitting around” time to work on it, and it’s growing steadily through each game.

My softball girls!

Here’s hoping that the children have gotten all this daredevil craziness out of their systems so that I can resume with some regular posting, like, NOW. Happy summer!

What Do You Think of When You Hear “Patriotic, American, Fourth of July?”

April 17, 20153 Comments

I’ve been spending more time with the Star Spangled Diamonds Quilt, and I’m running out of white prints for the stars. More fabric cutting was obviously in order, and I am getting rather tired of the white prints I have been using this past year, so I called Miss Junebug down to the craft room to pick out some new, interesting fabrics for her quilt.

You think I’d learn to stop asking for her input…

…although, truth be told, I am rather pleased that she stuck to the color theme this time.

Her reasoning for picking the snowman fabric, delivered with one hand on her hip and the other hand waving in the air as she explained: “It’s my quilt, and I like snowmen. Besides, you’re Canadian, so that means I like snow a lot more because I’m your daughter.”

[Insert image of me making my “I’m trying to look serious while dying inside from laughter” parenting face]

This quilt is ridiculously unique. Just another reason to keep on with the handmades.

She likes it.

Star Spangled Diamond Quilt, Back in the USA

February 6, 2015February 9, 201510 Comments

The Star Spangled Diamond Quilt continues to grow, albeit at a much slower rate than it did in Australia. It’s funny how shaving two hours off of your kids’ school bus commute and having them be in sports again will do that, huh? I’ve “lost” about four hours each weekday now that we’re back, which is twenty hours a week that I no longer have for crafting. I’m glad they’re able to do sports again, so I try not to stew on the topic. Ha ha. My main job right now is raising my children, so it’s all OK. Just think of all the EPP I can do at tournaments in the future, right? 😉

Alright, so I have thirty-six star units attached to each other, and I sewed up a strip of seven more star units to attach to one side in order to make things symmetrical. (No idea why I did seven…I guess I was stressed about the impending move back to the States and it hampered my ability to count?) So, that strip still needs to be attached. Forty-three units right there. My quick counting in my head of how many I’ll need to complete the top, now that I had to add that extra column, is eighty-eight units. Oh, hey, look at that! Almost exactly half right there in that photo.

I did uncover six more completed units, so to date I have made forty-nine of these things, with thirty-nine left to go. Ha ha, I originally thought I would finish this in six months. What an innocent. And let’s not even think about the filler units that I’ll need to pop on the ends of those shorter columns and all the way up the sides, K? Oh, this quilt.

I’m quite pleased with this little unit; Junebug picked out a little fat eighth of the main fabric in Australia and so I think there will only be one that looks like this, and I love it dearly. So cute!

Alright, the rundown:

February count:

50 units made
36 units attached

What I hope to have done by the time I talk about this again in March:

54 units made
Attach as many units as possible to main body of quilt

Linking up with:

Monday Morning Star Count @ Life Under Quilts

Sew Cute Tuesday @ Blossom Hearts

WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts

WIPs on Wednesdays @ Esther’s Blog

Needle & Thread Thursday @ My Quilt Infatuation

Half of a Field of Stars

November 4, 2014February 1, 2015Leave a comment

Last month, I set the goal to finish piecing up the rest of the stars that made up the second quarter of this quilt, AND attach them to the first completed quarter. I knew it was a lofty goal, but the idea of being “halfway done” with such a time-consuming project meant a lot to me. I needed to be able to say it was halfway done…I’ve been working on this since May, which means I’ve been staring at it for five months, which is a very long time to work on something and not be at least halfway done.

Michael’s been gone for two of the weeks in October, with one little week back home in between. Free time has not been easy to find this month, especially with the extra tasks that accompanied getting the girls’ uniforms, shoes, and other necessary items they needed to begin attending school. And then you’d think I’d have buckets of free time once they were off learning elsewhere; but, no, I turned my attentions to cleaning the house…because it really needed some love and attention!

Nevertheless, I made time each evening to work on the quilt after the kids went to bed, and behold:

HALFWAY DONE.

But not really, because I’ve realized it needs another column of stars to be symmetrically pleasing. Ugh. Oh well, it’s not difficult to fix. Just more time.

I hesitate to make any goals for November simply because I’m a little burnt out on this. I’m also a little burnt out on the Peacock Stole, which hit its own halfway mark a few days ago as well. Long-term projects…oi. I really want to make something Christmas-ey, but I have no sewing machine or any real idea of what I’d make anyway. (Oddly enough, I DO have Christmas fabric.)

I think I’ll focus my efforts on my Soothing Socks for the next while, and once I get to feel the high of having a finished project again, I’ll sit down and set a goal for this in the time remaining in November. Off the top of my head, I’d like to finish at least half of the next quadrant, so…six stars. That’s what I’ll shoot for, six stars in November. Then I can attach it and actually see how long the quilt is going to be! Yes, that will do nicely. Enough work to keep the interest alive, but also take a bit of a much-desired breather.

Junebug is very happy that it’s HALFWAY DONE, and could not wait to model her favorite stuffed animal on the quilt. Cute girl. Cute quilt.

My Youngest Daughter

September 29, 2014February 1, 20158 Comments

Junebug, this is how I want to remember you in your grammar school years–missing those two front teeth, face covered in chocolate, and over-the-top excited over this quilt that I am making for you.

You were talking to me two days ago about something and you mentioned this simple fact: “I’m your youngest daughter.” I wanted to cry because you ARE my youngest daughter and you’re in the first grade and losing your teeth and doing things on your own…this quilt makes me think about you and how fast you’re growing up while I’m stitching it together. You’ve always been little, and the past few months have been a big ol’ exercise in realizing that you’re not so little anymore.

I started a quilt for you during your early months of life. It’s still unfinished. Due partly to the disappointment I’ve always felt over that unfinished blanket, I agreed to make you any sort of quilt you desired when I decided to undertake this lofty “handmade quilt for every bed” goal earlier this year.

Of course, you picked out a beast of a design, and it took a bit of self-restraint to not talk you out of the idea. In my mind, since you never had a baby blanket from me, I’ve “owed” it to you (and myself) to make you something truly beautiful. This quilt will be beautiful, and it lies near the edge of the spectrum of my quilt-making abilities. I might sigh over the time-investment of this project sometimes, but at the bottom of it all, I’m really excited about this project and so glad you asked it of me. I’d never have chosen to make something like this for myself, simply because my creative abilities are needed for such a wide variety of projects. Thank you, thank you for this experience.

My goals for September were to sew up ten new star units, and to piece the first quadrant of the quilt. I did piece the first quadrant:

Penguin and you are not on the best terms today, so she wasn’t too happy
about being roped into quilt-showing with you. You’re too excited to care.

And I completed NINE star units, with the tenth ending the month as officially being “in-progress:”

There are eighteen star units in each quadrant of the quilt, so I think I’ll set a rather large goal for October: Finish the needed star units for the second quadrant of the quilt, and also piece that second quadrant. It’d be nice if I could attach the second quadrant to the first quadrant, but I’m not going to make that an official goal…just something to shoot for if I have the time.

This thing could be HALFWAY pieced by the end of next month! Wouldn’t that be awesome?!?! If I keep to the insane schedule, all the star units could be pieced and attached by the end of February. Then there’s some little “filler” units to straighten out the sides, and then it’s attaching a straight border, then quilting and binding the thing. (And no, I don’t know what I’m going to do quilting-wise, yet.)

Hurray for nearly attaining last month’s goals! I burned out a little on this in the last two weeks–I only started that tenth star unit on Friday, after nearly a week’s break. Whatever, it’s for fun.