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Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Fabric... Welcome to the Patriotic Quilter where I like to share all things quilty as well as red, white, and blue! Please feel free to look around and enjoy yourself! I would love to hear from you.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Hi Everyone!

I'm still here!  I decided to take a bit of a break from blogging in the summer.  I did this for a couple reasons--the first was that I felt like I was only mostly blogging about quilts I was making and then showing the finished result.  I know that that seems like the whole idea of a quilt blog, but I was thinking I wanted to do more, but didn't know what.  In other words, I was feeling a bit stagnant.  The other reason was that I was wondering if the time I was spending writing and reading blogs, etc. was really distracting me from getting more quilting done.  I'm here to say that the jury is still out on that!  I did just as much quilting as I always do, so I decided to come back join in again.  I've been trying to figure out just when to write again, and the weeks slipped by.  Yesterday, though, two things happened:  a memory post from Facebook reminded me that it was a year ago yesterday that I resumed after taking a break to move in the house and get settled, and I heard from a follower in an email that she was concerned and missed me.  (And I've heard from a few more in the past month or so, so I decided the time was right.)

I hope you all are doing okay.  Are you ready for the holidays?  I'm struggling this year.  No presents are wrapped, I still have a few to get, I've baked no cookies, and the cards are still sitting here.  I still have a few days, though, and have plans to get really organized the next couple days.

I've been doing quite a bit of quilting and I do have big news to share to catch you up, but I will do it in later posts.  One thing I just finished was the Temecula Quilt Co's We Wish You A Mini Christmas quilt along.  Each day for 12 days Sheryl provided directions for a cute, tiny block.  On the 13th day, she had three finishing directions.  The blocks were so fun to make--it took maybe 15 minutes and everyone has 15 minutes each day to quilt, right?  Haha, not me.  There were a few days when I got the block done, but there were also days when I had to get caught up by doing 3 or so.

I decided to do mine in Christmas colors, and mostly pulled pieces from my 1.5," 2," and 2.5" scrap squares.


This is my finished quilt.  I ended up sort of combining some of the setting options.  Sheryl had diagonally set the blocks into a runner.  I loved the look of the diagonal set, but didn't want a runner, so I made more of a "quilt" shape.




Here are some of the individual quilt blocks.  I shared the photos on Instagram.

I remade this one.  After it was done I looked at it and thought it looked like a bandaid.  A used, bloody bandaid.  Once I thought that, it was doomed!

I'm also working away on Bonnie Hunter's mystery this year, Allietare.  I have the first three clues done and will be back to share more on that.

I hope you have a wonderful day!  I'm off to wrap gifts.
JoAnne

10 comments:

  1. Glad to have you back. As much as we love to see finishes, we also like to see 'in-progress'. Love your little mini - well done.

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  2. JoAnne, I don't read that many quilting blogs, but I always read your posts. You write beautifully, and it is very obvious that you spend a great deal of time expressing your thoughts. I very much appreciate that. I am so glad that you are back.

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  3. I looked you up a couple of days ago to see if you were doing the Mystery and saw you had slipped off to Instagram. Good to have you back.

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  4. Yay! I'm glad you're back. I've been watching your quilting progress on Instagram, but there's nothing like a blog posting to get the full story of what's going on with your quilting. I look forward to future posts. Merry Christmas! (and good luck with all the tasks that need to get done before next Friday. I'm right there with you!)

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  5. I'm so glad you're back. I was missing your posts and was hoping everything was well with you. Merry Christmas

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  6. Welcome back! Congrats on finishing the Temecula quilt a long. Love the ruler table you have photographed in the background! I keep meaning to see if I could make one of those... some day! ;-) Merry Christmas!

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  7. Nice to have you back on Blog land !

    Like you I find it less time consuming to post on IG
    but try really hard to post n my blog at least twice a month.

    Congrats on finishing your Temecula quilt ! Wishing you a very Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year !!!

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  8. I did the same setting for mine! lol Yours turned out really cute. I have my top together, but now need to quilt and bind it. Hopefully within the next few days.

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  9. Your quilt turned out very cute. : )
    Good to have you back.

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  10. Hi JoAnne, I'd wondered how you were and it is nice to see you back again! That balance between blogging and sewing is a tricky one isn't it? I made the Temecula blocks but haven't joined them up yet.... good on you for finishing your cutie!

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