New Year, New Quilting Adventure

~ After closing LeafLady Quilts at the end of my last show in November of 2025, I needed a project to keep me at my machine and distract from the increasingly shitty world we are forced to endure. I found it, even before I officially retired from selling - A mystery quilt. I had recently run across Bonnie Hunter's postings on Threads and learned she is of a like mind when it comes to the current political landscape and makes no bones about it in her personal posts. I'm certain she has lost some of her audience as a result but did she really need them? ( I had followed her on social media back in the 2010s and stopped because she was way more productive that I could be and I was feeling bad that I couldn't keep up with her.) Anyway, I am in the midst of trying to catch up on the clues for her Lupine & Laughter Mystery Quilt. It's a scrappy thing, just what I need to reduce my holdings. I'm halfway through Clue 4 and have happily managed to use some of my Deb Tucker Studio 180 tools to complete some of the clues. A new clue drops every Friday and if I'm really diligent today, I will only be 3 clues behind when that happens tomorrow. And 2 of the next clues are mostly assembly of previously constructed/cut pieces so they should be quick. I ran into a bit of a bog with the half square triagles for clue 3 and had to re-sew the seam and rip out the previous seam on avout 1/3 of them. (Still not completed yet but I have enough to keep me moving forward. It's a joy to not have to make any decisions on this save for which fabrics to use. I'm sticking fairly close to Bonnie's suggested color palate, some scrappy, some not. Not even sure what the finished size will be. I plan to have it professionaly quilted (Probably Lynn at Whippersnappers) and will likely donate it for a raffle somewhere. ~ Other than that, the tree is down, the house undecorated. The outside lights are still in place due to the snow load but today promises a break in the frigid temps so there might be a chance to grab those lights by Saturday. There has been some shovelling and baking and decluttering taking me away from the sewing machine. ~ I have several runners designated as gifts for friends in appreciation for their years of support for my little business. I need to package up the ones to be mailed and write little notes for all. Get those out of the house. And I'm collecting things for donation to GoodWill, so they will get a box ot a bag or two. We need a new vacuum cleaner. And I could use a new chair for the studio - the current one slowly sinks over the course of the day to where it is too low to be comfortable. (What did I expect for $10 at the State surplus sale?) I also need to print off forms for the 3 throw quilts I'm donating to Hopes and Dreams for thier ALS challenge. I donated several previously, a couple of Judy's UFOs that I finished and one of my own. ~ Tai Chi starts again the last week of the month. ~ We had a nice dinneer out on Christmas Day at Otto's on the River in downtown Augusta. I finally got the prime rib I'd been wanting for months.