What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It is January 1, 2024. First day of the new year - one day to reflect and introspect before the onslaught of work and responsibilities.

A review post is always tricky. What do I include? What do I leave out? And how do I say it? Should it be just quilting? But my feelings are so entangled with the threads of my quilts. Can you really keep your work and thoughts in water-tight compartments?

Unable to separate my feelings from my work

I will try to focus on my quilts and if my feelings seep in so be it. Here are ...

Let me introduce you to Olivia.

Olivia likes the outdoors!

This is such a beautiful collection with a wide range of values from light yellow, through medium red and orange all the way to deep purple. I love these warm colors. Look for Buds and Blooms Layer Cake in your local quilt store.

Here are some more pictures.

Breezy Day

Glowing Fabrics

Gorgeous Fabrics

To make Olivia, you need one layer cake, one focus fabric and ...

This Flower Block will finish at 12" (width) by 10" (height).  It is the exact same dimension as the Leaf Block. I had made an audition/trial block earlier. Based on that experience, I updated the method, which I am sharing in the tutorial. 

Flower + Leaf = Audition Block

These directions show how to make the Flower Block using 2.5" strips. You may use scraps (that can be used to cut the pieces shown under Fabric Requirements).

Flower Block Graphic

Fabric Requirements

Finally, here we are!  The Positivity 2023 QAL begins today.

I am so excited to share this tutorial with you.  

Positivity Grows!

Positivity Grows

Then I had another thought. What if the leafy stems had a flower on the top?  That thought led to this Layout Option - Positivity Blooms!!!

Positivity Blooms

Positivity Grows has 32 Leaf Blocks.

Positivity Blooms has 27 blocks - 23 Leaf Blocks and 4 Flower Blocks. Five blocks are left blank.

Let's discuss each one of these in some detail.

Positivity Grows is simple. It is soothing, has universal appeal and is gender neutral. Green is a neutral color. However, the leaves don't have to be green.  Check out the ...

I had imagined the Positivity Quilt in green. Something like this.

In Pin Dot Floral

But leaves don't have to be green. So I mocked up a few different colors. Here are the positibilities!

In English Lavender

In Juicy Mosaics

In Porcelain Blue

In Modern Opulence

In Sunset Plains

And the big reveal. Drum roll, please...

Scrappy Rainbow (Island ...

Dear Quiltmakers,

Happy Weekend to you! 

I have added a new page - Positivity 2023 QAL. See top left of the blog page. It contains important links and these will become active/live as we move through the QAL.

I am working on the Positivity QAL blocks in preparation for the Quilt Along, beginning on May 28, 2023.

Kaffe Fassett Love!

Here are the gifts/prizes we have secured for the Positivity 2023 QAL. We appreciate the generosity of our sponsors!!! Do take a look at their stores/shops.

Do gun deaths in America surprise anyone? 

No. Because, they have been normalized by one political party. Watch this one lawmaker speak his mind.

Six people including three nine-year old kids were killed in a mass shooting. It is not a surprise that there were protests. It is not too much of a surprise that the Republican legislature was more concerned about the disruption on the house floor than protecting innocent lives.

Instead of listening to the voices of reason, they disenfranchised them. Instead of focusing on gun safety, they focused on removing those who disagreed with them.

Well, at ...

Today, the Positivity QAL comes to an end with the announcement of the winners. 

Here are the winners:

Mari, Lisa T, Katie May, Roseanne, Sue Hoover, Danielle, Cynthia, Sylvia, and Wendy F.

Emails have been sent to all winners. While I wait for your addresses, I am stuffing goodies in padded envelopes. So excited!!!

Sunday Update - Prizes have been sent to Katie May, Roseanne, Sylvia and Sue. Mari and Lisa have received their prizes ...

Just stopping in to thank all of you for such a successful quilt along. Mercyful Quilts now has another batch of fresh, gorgeous quilts on the way. I am always looking for ways to keep the shelf full for their Palliative Care department and all of you are a huge part of that.

Many thanks to Preeti (Sew Preeti Quilts) for heading this Positivity QAL up for the second year in a row. Preeti designs the quilt, writes up the instructions, keeps the timeline and answers many questions from quilters needing a little help here or there. Without her, this ...

Who has finished their 2022 Positivity Quilt for Mercy Hospital in Sacramento? Visualize me with my hand up in the air and a huge smile on my face! Whether you are finished, or still working on it, know that Mercyful Quilts is so grateful to you for your time, creativity and generosity. These quilts give comfort to families as they say goodbye to a person very special to them. Anyone who has lost someone dear to them knows how difficult this is. For us to be able to provide some support to these people is a gift.

Good morning everyone! I wanted to pop in and let you know the names were drawn for the prizes for this link up. Mercyful Quilts is truly grateful for both the quilts being made as well as the sponsors who have donated gifts for these quilters! The next time you are looking for just the right pattern to make, please check the shops for our sponsors. You will surely find just what you are looking for!

Here we go:

Mari H – won a pdf pattern from Storied Quilts

Sylvia – won a pdf pattern from Twiggy & Opal

Katie – won a pdf ...

Someone said ‘every finish line is the start of a new race’ but for me it is the start of a new quilt. I am now allowed to work on 2022’s Positivity Quilt! As well as all of the other little distractions that pop up along the way.

This quilt doesn’t have nearly as many blocks as Preeti (Sew Preeti Quilts) called for but I decided it was a large enough quilt at this point. All of the pluses are either a shade of blue or yellow and with one exception, all backgrounds are various grays. The blue ...

Paul's Covid recovery has been much slower than we'd like. I noticed that the cough syrup was almost gone.

Picnic with Paul

Good morning all! Hope you are having a lovely weekend. Believe it or not, it is time to link up a progress shot of your 2022 Positivity Quilt. This might mean sharing a couple of blocks with us. Or maybe you have actually stitched a few rows together. Maybe, like me, you are still in the earliest stages and have been cutting your pieces out. Wherever you might be, let us enjoy your progress so far.

I started cutting blocks for mine. Before leaving California, my friend Stephanie gave me a stack of leftover fabric from a western themed quilt ...

This Block Tutorial post marks the beginning of the Positivity 2022 Quilt Along.  Although I shared the Sponsors & Prizes, the QAL Schedule and the Fabric Requirements earlier, this is the post where you can actually get started!!!

I am so very excited. But first - a disclaimer. 

I am thrilled to announce the generous sponsors for the Positivity 2022 Quilt Along to make Mercyful Quilts. There is a lot of information here, so you may want to bookmark this page.

If you are new to the Positivity QAL or have not heard of Mercyful Quilts, you may have some questions. Well, I have answers :-)

Hello quiltmakers,

I am back from my trip to India. Mom's surgery went well and she is on the road to recovery. I appreciate your kind thoughts and warm wishes. 

Although my visit wasn't a vacation and I stayed home (near the A/C) due to the heat, my friends (Ruby and Savita) visited me. I felt spoiled with spicy food and sweet mangoes. 

Happy to see you :-)

Veggie Delight (Don't ask me the English name)

Vanilla icecream with fresh mangoes

The Indian street food that I loved would most certainly kill me now. So Meetu recreated ...