What will we do in 2022?

 I’m not going to choose a “word” for the coming year as I have done in the past. This year needs far more love and understanding than one word could muster. I’m not making any resolutions either. I just don’t want to set myself up for any further failures. 

 They say what you do on New Year’s Day sets the tone for the rest of the year. That works for me since I spent the day planning the borders on “Bird’s Nest Soup”. My initial plan was to applique little toile vignettes onto this lovely Marcus “aged muslin”. I spent many hours making a huge mess before deciding that this was not going to work for me! 

My creative mess 

On to Plan B. 

 I kept the aged muslin and tried adding little stones of color to it instead. There are actually two borders here and I will cut them apart after I quilt them.

Not perfect I’m learning to like it. And, “drum roll please”, I even tried something new.

 Back in May, Barb Vedder (FunWith Barb) and Randy Danto (Barrister’s Block) and I spent a lovely weekend on Plum Island in Newburyport, MA. Randy showed us how she stitches her incredible wool pieces and Barb demonstrated her glue applique technique. She even gave each of us a special bottle of her glue.  I had just finished basting circles onto blocks I was working on so I put the bottle on my sewing table to try later… much later! My friend Gladi (GladiQuilts) posted about how much she enjoyed it when she tried it, and still it sat on my table. (She doesn't sell her glue by mail because it is liquid, but I do hope you will get a chance to take a workshop from her. We are lucky that she is coming to our show in Maine this summer!)

 So… when it came time to baste my little stones onto my borders, I grabbed the bottle. Wow! What a time saver! As they used to say on TV, a little dab will do you. I tapped out a few drops on each piece and pressed with hot iron to set and voila!

There is no stiffness at all so it does not need to be soaked out. I guess old dogs can learn new tricks. Thanks so much Barb! I highly recommend it even for us die hard traditionalists.

 And, just a tiny plug for our dear Barb… She will be a featured artist at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA from January 18 through April 9. I can’t wait to see these beauties in person! Click (here) for more information.

 I also replaced the block with the duplicate bird. You can see where the hole is, the yellow underneath is the back of a quilt this one is resting on.

New bird 

In fact, there are about 40 quilts on this bed (smaller quilts are stored elsewhere). It is in my sewing room annex and it is great for storing quilts - no fold lines! Of course, it means that I don’t have a guest room, but we have lots of hotels nearby – wink! 

 I also spent a few minutes playing with ideas for this year’s sew-a-long with Cecile (PatchworkInspirations) and Corinne. This year’s theme is “sampler quilts”. They are to be 50% pieced and 50% appliqued. Still ruminating!

I hope you all spent New Year’s Day doing what you like. We are all looking forward to a happier and healthier New Year!