Let There Be Light!

My wonderful neighbors have helped me with the light situation in my house. The original lights were/are so, so, so dim–which meant that my upstairs quilt studio was really suffering from the lack of good light. Both rooms!

But, LOOK! See all the light in this room (no windows here) with this new light? I don’t have to turn on the longarm light bar now unless I am actually quilting with it.

We put the same light in the adjacent room where my sewing machines, cutting tables, and design wall live. When dusk happens, that room goes really dark despite all my added floor lights. I am so happy and grateful to my neighbors.

I’ve ordered more of the lights–these big ones as seen above and some flat ones that will just replace the very dim lights in other places in the house. Son Bryan is also on hand to help with this big replacement project–and all the new lights are now here and ready to go.

Below see my very FIRST Tilda fabric–bought for the Dancing Diamonds (third in my half-rectangle triangle block series) that is draped over the longarm in the picture above. (And which is now being quilted.). ***(I finished the quilting on Sunday late afternoon–post to follow soon.)

I love this fabric!! I love the print, of course, but I love the texture and heaviness of it. I am sick and tired of all the quilting fabrics that are so thin that it is difficult to work with them. At the same time, the quilt fabrics are more and more expensive. Quilters now are having to use starch to even cut straight lines on these thin fabrics. Bad Quilt Industry! Go Tilda! Go Kona solids.

I’ve got the center of the scrappy long cabin project done. Recall, this January sewalong is the work of Rachel Hauser’s Stitched in Color blog. Rachel Hauser is a VERY creative and fun scrappy quilter. I’m working on that awesome border now–the corners are all made.

At first I thought the blocks with really strong colors had to be maybe balanced with softer blocks–but I’ve changed my mind. The strong blocks are what are making this quilt sing. AND, this whole project is eating up a ton of the fabrics in my scrap bins. I’ve even had to cut some strips from fabrics in my stash to get the colors I wanted. ***(Now I’m making blocks for the awesome border.)

Tara Faughnan sent us a picture of the block for month 5 of our ongoing Blocks2 online class–along with the new fabric palette. I am so excited about this next block and can’t wait to start working with it. I have the fabric palette assembled, washed, and ready to go. February 1st came in due time, of course–and I’ve got all the materials organized, printed, videos watched, etc. But I will curtail my anticipation until I wrap up a few other projects.

I continue to love my air fryer–especially for french fries. Here, the fries, baby bok choy and some red peppers and carrots (also cooked in the air fryer), and some leftover meatloaf. The air fryer works with only a tiny bit of added oil.

Have a great week everyone!