It was on a whim, but we ran away to the Oregon coast at the end of August. For a whole weekend we were able to blank out 2020’s deluge of crap. Adding fires and the death of RBG to the mix dropped the year to one star for me. I feel this quote from Ironman sums up the break we all need, “Sorry, Earth is closed today.”
It’s all overwhelming and hard to process.
The good news, or the bad news depending how you look at it is none of us are unicorns. COVID has changed EVERYTHING FOR ALL OF US. I’m leaning hard on my friends and family, beyond grateful for what I have, and still embracing my mental health strategy of dealing by keeping on with celebrating the small wins.
Like binding a quilt that’s been around for years AND actually getting photos of it.
So as to not waste all that precious van time for hand sewing, I made it a priority to add binding to two quilts before hitting the road. This in itself is a feat since the studio hasn’t held my attention in months.
Reoriented is one of those quilts I might have looked at in the early days of the word ‘modern’ being put in front of everything, including quilting, and thought someone pretty quickly got sick of making blocks and just decided to fill the rest with ‘negative space,’ but I’ve gotta say I actually like it.
I ran out of the shot cotton I was using to surround the blocks and expanded and filled in with a yarn dyed Essex linen. I like the effect it created through all that negative space.
The blocks are a smaller version of how I teach my improvisational strip piecing workshop. My mom taught me how to do my binding corners a bit differently and if you’re interested I have a little tutorial on that here.
I can’t help but think that during our time in Manzanita things seemed kind of… well… normal. Reflecting on this photo from the perspective of a quilt maker reminds me that I love how quilts can place us in certain time/events of our lives.
I’m still pulling fabric for quilt backs from stash. Even though I’ve been bulldozing through stash for them for years it doesn’t seem to be creating a hole or dent.
This quilt got an all over of vertical straight lines.
I finally bought a raised lap hoop. I haven’t gotten beyond placing the quilt in it and I’m not sure I’m so impressed with it for the cost. I’ll let ya know. I also have no idea what design I’ll be quilting yet;)
And actually a quilt finish really is a BIG win;)
We have a saying we use in our house from rafting days, “Take part in your own rescue.” Please, if you need help reach out to your people, talk to yourself like you would talk to those you love, celebrate your small wins, wear your mask (over your nose please), and check your voter’s registration here 🙂 In some states you only have two more weeks to make sure you’re registered, so today’s the day.
xoxo Katie
And of course there’s 
I still quilt, I swear.
I’d certainly like to share all the know-how of straight line quilting I’ve accumulated and I happen to have a closet, a very clean closet 😉 full of quilts to show you as examples. Each of them have their own straight line quilting story.
