Sorry I’ve been quiet the last couple of weeks. I’ve been a bit uninspired. I did start to write about being uninspired, and wasn’t inspired enough even to finish that. LOL But I think I’m back, and ready to chat with you once again. Let me just say this – COVID-19 can certainly suck the inspiration from you every once in a while. No, I haven’t had the dreaded virus, but I realized last week that my biggest problem lately is that despite being an introvert and enjoying my time alone, I am missing those brief interactions with others I’ve taken for granted up until now. Things like my monthly LQS meeting. I really miss going to the shop for $5 quilt Saturday.

Anyway, I’ve been working on the Bee Patriotic quilt by Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet. This is the first Lori Holt quilt I’ve made, and I have to say that it isn’t precisely what I expected. I am by no means a miser, and I know that sampler quilts do tend to be a bit wasteful in their construction compared to say, a nine patch quilt. But I am very surprised by how much fabric I’m being instructed to “discard” as I make these blocks. I have quite the pile of pieces, mostly triangular in shape, that I’m “trimming” off my piecing. I’m so surprised, I’m not sure I will attempt another Lori Holt quilt.

Now before you get all mad at me and start fussing, keep in mind that I’m not a huge fan of samplers in general for this reason. I find them to be slow and a bit wasteful with fabric. But most of all, I’m just not enjoying this quilt construction as much as I enjoy other types of piecing. Before I started this quilt, I had decided that I was going to do something a bit more simple and quicker than a sampler, because so many of my recent projects have been samplers. Then I saw this quilt and decided to sew along. Granted, I’m a bit behind, but you know … I march to the beat of my own drummer. Maybe it would have been best for me to skip this project, but I did it anyway, and now I’m five blocks in and committed to finishing it.

I know they aren’t the best photos, but it’s what I have right now. I do think the final quilt will be beautiful, even though every time I look at it, I will probably remember how much fabric was wasted making it. And yes, I know I can use the scraps for something else, at least in theory, but some of them are so small, it’s unlikely they will ever get used.

At least most of my points look good.

I’ve made four of the blocks this week, if you can believe it. Working at home definitely has its advantages. When things are slow at work, I can use my lunch hour to quilt, and without the hour plus commute each way, I have more free time to spend in my studio, quilting. I never want to go back to the office to work, ever again. OK, I could agree to work in the office one or two days a week, but more than that just seems like overkill. And I think I’ve proven I can sufficiently do my job from home without anyone standing there watching me.

I am full of hope that I can maintain my sewing mojo and get this quilt top finished by the end of next week. And then, I would really like to get Prairie Life quilted and bound, and do the same with this quilt as well. In fact, I have several quilt tops made that I would like to get finished this year. I do believe I’ve found my quilting mojo; it was buried under the commute back and forth to work. It took me some time to locate it, dust it off and clean it up, but it’s running like a dream now.

What are you working on? Anything interesting under your needle?