As I write this post on Thursday, the forecast for the Houston area this weekend is cold, wet and mostly full of rain. As a true Southeast Texas girl, these weather conditions are not calling me to go any further than my front door. Fortunately for me, I have lots to keep me busy without leaving the house.

First up, I need to make the quilt block for the $5 Quilt Block my local quilt shop is doing. I started to make it a couple of weeks ago, and screwed up the whole thing so bad, I planned to go by last weekend and just buy a second kit. Sadly, they were closed due to a COVID case in the store. Fortunately for me, though, I have a kit in a different colorway that I can put together this weekend so I’m ready for next week. If you complete the block, you get your next block free. I signed up to do two different colorways, so I have to pay for one block each month. At least I don’t have to pay for one of my blocks this month once I get one of the blocks put together.

Secondly, I really need to make Penny a quilt. Who’s Penny, you ask? She’s our new Miniature Schnauzer. We adopted her in December.

As you may remember, we lost our sweet Dean in November. We miss him so much, but Penny helps to fill the void. She’s such a sweetie, and she LOVES to chase tiny tennis balls.

She’s been a true blessing over the last couple of months, and we just adore her.

Anyway, she is quite tiny, at just about 10 or 11 pounds, depending on the day, and she is always trying to burrow under blankets and quilts. So this weekend, I want to make her a small quilt that she can use for her very own.

As I was writing this, a new toy showed up at my front door – the Free Motion Quilting kit for my Brother Persona PRS 100! I’ve been thinking about buying this for a while now, but it’s sort of expensive – it runs between $500-600, depending on dealer and if there are any specials. I was also toying with the idea of buying a sit down quilting machine, so I decided to give this a go because if it works, it’s the cheaper option AND it will then be a multi-function machine. If I can throw together a quilt or two this weekend for Penny, quilting them on this will be a great way to test it out. To be honest, this is a “faith” purchase. I could not find any reviews from anyone who’s actually used their PRS 100 in this manner, so I’m a bit nervous. I keep telling myself it’s going to be great, though, and to have faith. Thus, the “faith” purchase.

I am going to set up the machine and give it a go, hopefully today. I really hope that this works, if not exactly like a quilting machine, then at least better than a domestic machine. Time will tell, but it’s something else I plan to tackle this weekend.

Those things will probably keep me pretty well busy, but if not, I have a new project I’m getting ready to start – a Dr. Who TARDIS quilt. I’ve taken some inspiration from Pinterest for this one, specifically from caligirl_78 on flickr, and a couple others.

This is a rough idea of what I’m aiming for, but it’s not set in stone just yet.

So, as you can see, I have tons to keep me busy this weekend, even if we get snow (!!) and we can’t possibly get out to go anywhere. Really, some weather that makes me stay indoors will probably be a good thing, because at least then I can focus on staying busy in the studio instead of running all over Hell and half of Texas!