Category: craft business

Happy National Jelly Roll Day!

September 20, 2025

What are you making with your jelly roll strips today?

Me? I’m finishing up the blocks for my Aloha Mystery 5-0 quilt:

I’m about two-thirds of the way through making blocks. I used a jelly roll and white background fabric from my stash. I purchased the bright blue and green fabrics used as accent squares in each block. The teal print seen in the back stack of fabric will be the binding (and perhaps an outer border once everything is laid out). Backing fabric will be a Lori Holt cheater print that a friend gifted me. My plan was to rent time on the longarm at Tiny Stitches, but available slots are few and don’t mesh with my schedule for the three weeks. I’ll FMQ it on my domestic machine instead since I need it done in time for an event on October 11th.

Bonus Project: If you’ll notice, this quilt pattern required a lot of stitch & flip (a/k/a folded corner) units. I sewed all the of the leftover triangle bits together and trimmed them to yield 1-1/2″ HSTs. Final result: a useful hot pad for my kitchen – instead of adding to the rubbish bin.

Not feeling it

September 15, 2025

I’ve been in kind of a “meh” mood the past week. Nothing seems to be going as it should from quilting projects cut wrong to therapy dog events still in limbo to estimates to repair a leaking master bath shower that are coming in a lot higher than anticipated. I won’t even go into recent events in the news. Makes me want to hole up in my house and not go anywhere. However, I made commitments to certain folks. Sadie & I must appear for those events, but I can opt out of the rest.

At this week’s R.E.A.D. visit with the public library, the librarian’s expression matched mine. I remarked she must not be feeling it either. She agreed. By the time our last reader left 90 minutes later, I was in much better spirits. So were several patrons and library staffers. All due to the simple act of sharing my dog with others.

Thursday morning, we presented a program on therapy dogs as community helpers to a local kindergarten class. Several upper elementary students were waiting in the lobby as Sadie & I stepped off the elevator. Their faces lit up when when they saw us. Everyone had to come say hi. Big Girl was definitely in her element. After the kindergarten class, we found the 2nd grade classroom where many my former Monday enrichment regulars are now learning. It was wonderful to see them again.

Still showing up even when I wasn’t feeling it pulled me out of the funk that was starting to settle in.

I finally figured out where I screwed up on the Aloha Mystery Quilt – and am extremely grateful I had another jelly roll of the same fabric line in my stash. I spent most of Sunday fixing my mistake and getting the different bits color coordinated to make a controlled scrappy version of the Aloha Spirit design. There’s a celebration at the sponsoring quilt shop on October 11th. I plan to be there to share my completed quilt.

Now on to making pillowcase for my guild’s community service program.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

What I’m reading

September 12, 2025

I recently finished The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Both of the titles were selected by my neighborhood book club and I actually enjoyed reading these very different books.

I’ll be back to nonfiction as my local library sent a note that my hold on The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins has finally arrived. I’ll pick it up this afternoon while I’m out running errands. I listened to a podcast interview about the book and was intrigued. It’s rather popular in my local library systems. It’s taken 8 weeks to finally get a copy. I put in a hold request on both the digital and physical copies of the book. The print copy came available before the digital copy via the Libby app. Not surprising.

I love spending an hour or two browsing through a bookstore. I still buy books and magazines on occasion, but only after checking the Libby app to see if the title is available for free through my public library. This saves time, money and reduces clutter in my home.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com