A Celebratory Season

My math-minded husband informed me last week that we are now closer to 2026 than we are to 2024. That is hard to believe. The last three months have flown by and have been filled with fun activities. We kept two of our grandchildren for a week each and celebrated Ruby’s 4th birthday (a month late), Henry’s 3rd birthday, and Finn’s 2nd birthday. We cheered on the Husker baseball team at most of their regular season games and were in Omaha when they won another Big Ten Championship. And we had the whole family together to celebrate Tom’s induction into the Nebraska Eight-Man Football Hall of Fame.

With all of that celebrating, did anything get accomplished in the sewing room? Even though the answer to that question is not much, I was able to check one project off of my to-do list - the kit from Connecting Threads called Every Which Way. It was a fun and challenging quilt to piece as there was a bit of matching needed in the blocks. I was particularly pleased with how the quilt finished because of the thread that I used for the quilting. I had at first considered stitching it in yellow but opted for teal instead which also matched the polka dot backing - a much better choice. I donated this quilt to the Panama Quilt Guild’s charity.

I also got started on the dinosaur quilt that I am making for my grandson, Henry. I rummaged through my stash to find some of the 36 fat quarters I needed as well as the white and black accent fabrics. Then I headed to the fabric store to find the rest of the fat quarters as well as the background fabric. I now have the main pieces cut from the fat quarters and will cut the background fabric as I need it to construct the blocks. I’ve started on the first set of blocks - 18 ferns that finish at 3” each. They didn’t look that small in the pattern!

In addition I have been working on the stamped cross-stitch embroidery blocks while watching my Royals baseball team in the evenings. I sure wish they were having as much success as I am! I finished the last six blocks for the Circle of Flowers quilt and now need to design the quilt and purchase the fabric for the sashing, border, and backing.

I also finished one block for the Purple Flowers quilt. Only 24 more blocks to go!

The final project that I worked on was making postcards while our granddaughter Ruby was staying with us. She wanted to “make a quilt too” when my group came to sew Quilts of Valor so I thought making postcards would be just the right project for her. She picked out strips from my stash and we sewed them onto a 6” x 8” piece of batting and then added an index card to the back. She sat on my lap while I sewed and had all kinds of questions about what was happening with the sewing machine. She then sat on a stool by the ironing board as I pressed each strip open before adding the next one.

During the week that she stayed with us we made six postcards - two for her friends Meyer and Adonis at daycare, and one each for her mom and dad, grandpa, and neighbor Leon because he took her for a ride in the big truck to see the cows. I can’t wait until she is old enough to do the sewing herself and we can make a quilt together.

I also worked on 17 quilts for customers and six Quilts of Valor during the last three months. I’d like to think that I could get a few more of my projects done in the next quarter but I’m not sure that is going to happen. Nevertheless there will still be lots of fun things happening in the Hottovy household - in or out of the sewing room!