Tag Archives: 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

Purple Improv Log Cabin Mini Quilt • 8 Comments

sarah • December 18, 2020

As I reached the end of my 100 Day Project (July - October 2020) I realized that my series of mini quilts was one color short of a rainbow. Therefore, I had no choice but to make my final improv log cabin purple. There weren't many days left, so I opted for quick and easy. I hadn't made a quarter log cabin yet, so that's what I created, alternating black and white prints with purple prints.

I chose two filler motifs for the free motion quilting.

In 100 days, I completed these five mini quilts, start to finish. Each is 16 1/2" x 16 1/2".

And the full 2020 series:

I chose the log cabin due to the ubiquitous nature of the traditional log cabin. I love the variety of styles achievable with the log cabin. I feel like this series could continue indefinitely.

You can read all about the other quilts in the series here:

This is day 18 of the 31-Day Blog Writing Challenge with Cheryl.

100 Day Project: Week 5 Update • 2 Comments

sarah • December 17, 2020

We are five weeks into Quilting the Countdown 100 day project. There are 63 days left until QuiltCon. I'm spending at least 15 minutes a day working on my Patchwork City blocks (a project I started in 2015!)

I finished 9 blocks this week. Nine! This brought me to 47 out of 75 blocks complete! The finished blocks shown feature Kona Bluegrass, Coral, and Grellow.

I've been avoiding this block, but it's the only one I have (mostly) cut out. I've already finished the other two in this color.

And the next color to cut out is my Kona Charcoal blocks. I use sharpie to label the names of the colors on the selvage edge of my solids. Since most of my solids are Kona I just put the color name on those, and on other brands I include the brand name and color.

I'm getting excited to see all my blocks together. I also want to figure out what fabric I'm using for the sashing so I can start putting the trios of blocks together. The block of the month came with a dark grey Essex linen, but when I pre-washed it... it became a crumpled mess and I vowed not to use it for this project. Right now I'm leaning toward a light grey Kona solid.

I'm participating in Cheryl's 31-Day Blog Writing Challenge.

Thanks for visiting!

Hanukkah Traditions • 26 Comments

sarah • December 16, 2020

I was invited by Bernie from Needle & Foot to join in her Holiday Tales & Traditions Blog Hop. Be sure you visit the other participating bloggers listed below to read about their holidays.

Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is a minor Jewish holiday. The traditional story is that in response to the suppression of their religion, Jews rose up and rebelled, eventually taking back control of their land and re-sanctifying the Temple in Jerusalem. The legend is that when the Temple was re-sanctified, there was only enough oil to burn for one day, but the oil miraculously lasted eight days, just long enough to resupply the Temple. This "miracle of the oil" brings us to our traditions of lighting candles for eight nights and eating fried foods.

My favorite part of the holiday is the lighting of the hanukkiah (often mistakenly called a menorah). This is done nightly for 8 nights. As a family, we light the candles while singing the Hanukkah blessings. These two photos are from the 6th night, yesterday evening. The kids are each holding a shamash (a helper candle), used to light the candles in the hanukkiah. The first photo above was taken at a community celebration years ago, a lovely event where we typically come together for lighting the candles and celebrating at our synagogue.

One of the by-products of being at home 24/7 for 9 months is that my husband has started to cook more often, developing a wider repertoire of skills in the kitchen. Saturday evening he made latkes from scratch for the first time. They were delicious and perfect! (I like mine with sour cream and applesauce.)