Still here!

Does anyone else feel like they are watching a bad Twilight Zone episode this year? One with too many farfetched subplots, characters you don't care about, and not enough time for everything to be woven into a neat, satisfying ending in six weeks when 2020 is over? Why, oh why, did we start watching this show?-- and now we can't turn it off! That's me! 

 I mention this, only so you don't think I'm a mindless moron, sewing away unmoved by the suffering going on all around. But enough of you have written to me privately saying that you enjoy reading about my little world-- so I'll keep blazing this path... a little five-minute commercial break from the "2020 Show"... go grab a snack! 

We did have some days in the 70s this week-- it was lovely. But late autumn is now here. We even had a little snow-- so pretty. 

This is the last picture of my eye-popping, 3 ft. tall coleus plants-- the envy of the neighborhood. It's hard to see in this picture, but the "comical stalk" from my new rose bush is still there. (Look slightly to the left of the clump of three birch trees at the top of the photo.) I hauled the plants out last weekend, but I'll take one last picture of the stalk before I cut it down. I've probably now ruined any chance that rose bush has of growing normally-- but it was fun to watch.

For the past month, projects have been started here at a rate never before seen. If I was on the psychiatrist's coach, I'm sure we'd be exploring the reasons for this, but since I do this, I don't need the couch!

This is a Basic Grey pattern (I love them) "Flight Night" I started before Halloween-- it's a really cool. Too cool for my brain-- you would have laughed if you saw me trying to piece the bats together correctly, as shown above! After about three blocks, I finally got the hang of it-- then you had to make a WHITE bat on a BLACK background!! It's a good thing God granted me more than my fair share of sense of humor. I probably would have been cracking jokes and cackling on the deck of the Titanic. 

Then that got put away, and I started a "Double-wide Dresden" pattern-- I spied this on Instagram (someone needs to get this app off my phone) and realized I had the plastic template from a Sew Sampler box a couple of years ago. 

Another really beautiful pattern-- you sew together an entire charm pack and then cut it like swiss cheese-- oddly satisfying in a time of depression. I used "Rosewood" from 3 Sisters. I have a super pretty taupe grunge that I think will look amazing as the background, only we may never find out, because I put that away and then caught up my A Very Coriander Christmas BOM.

This is Month 3-- the most I have been able to keep up with a block-of-the-month is Month 6, so we'll see what happens! All these starts are so much fun for me and make me so happy-- but I have to confess it does make me sad to think I am leaving a bunch of unfinished work when I go, instead of my leaving my entire family warm and happy, blanketed with love. So I'm trying to come up with a 2021 strategy of finishing-- like maybe, I will just pick one thing each month and keep working on it? A lot of what I have is really, really far progressed so it might not take that much to get a number of them done next year. Do you have any strategies on how to drag things across the finish line?

In between all of that, I have a business to run-- so permit me a moment of pride when I say that the November Cottage of the month was added to my collection!

I have also been working hard on a sashing and cornerstone design-- we're almost there.

I'm really happy with the design of this-- I just think the colors need to be very much muted to keep the attention on the blocks. I love the big maple leaf, but I 'm trying to do some others with birds for variety.

This is what I'm supposed to be working on right now--LOL.

So with that, I'll say goodbye for now-- I promise we'll tell more about all of these wonderful projects as they progress, inch by inch. And I hope you can find a little happiness in needle and thread today-- there is always such happiness in little things-- even when big things disappoint us.

xox

Carol