Bright Future

Bright Future, August 2026

If you need a quick quilt, this modern design is a great choice. Random brightly colored remnants are paired with a white & black squiggle print.

Half rectangle triangles went together quickly, stitched on Bogie, my Singer 99. The backing is a black & white weaver print. I used white thread to quilt vertical lines in a scallop stitch.

Simple, fun, colorful: Bright Future is 49” square. I love how seemingly unrelated fabrics from different decades come together so well. Keeping remnants gives me a wide variety of choices, and scrap quilts are my favorite!

Side note: I did some shopping over the weekend, adding another 88 yards to my ever growing collection of material. Hive Mind Quilt Consignment is a well organized sale of fabric, notions, quilts & quilt tops, sewing machines, books, and patterns. It’s held twice a year (spring and fall) in Cookeville, Tennessee. Who knows, maybe next spring I’ll put some things in to sell.

Accuquilt dies used:
55411 Half Rectangle Triangle 3” x 6”
55017 Strips 2” binding

 

Flower Fantasy

Shades of lavender and blue floral prints were the perfect choice for this quilt, and the vintage block is one of my favorites that I requested from Blue Wren.

In this color palette, they look more like flower blossoms than fans. The little yellow center is a bit tricky to stitch, but I took it slow and steady. The larger curve is a breeze. Even the y-seam at the bottom went together nicely.

I added a narrow 2” border in lilac before pinning and quilting. I used light gray thread and a quilting ruler (Which Way border) to quilt the allover design. Flower Fantasy is 53” square. 

There's a story behind the backing/binding. The blocks were finished and on my design wall. My sweetie and I went out to run errands last Wednesday morning. When we grabbed a quick coffee & biscuit at McDonald's, I spied a pop-up $10 per bolt fabric sale on Facebook. At his urging, we made the 30 mile detour to Smart Art in Nashville to check it out. Yes, he is a wonderful enabler and I know how lucky I am to have him.

Oh my, bolts and bolts stacked on shelves. I ended up with 30 bolts of excellent quality quilting cotton, each ranging from 5 to 25 yards. It worked out to be about $1 per yard. I also snagged 15 large cones of thread for a dollar each. We left quite a bit behind, because I am running out of storage space! It's a great store, the inventory is all donated and changes often. I will definitely go there again.

Anyway, one of the fabrics was the exact color match for these blocks so I used some of it for the backing/binding. 

The moral of the story is: 
Always make time for detours and adventures!

Dies used:
Blue Wren 6981 Abaniko 12” finished block
Accuquilt 55017 Strip 2½”

Pieced on Singer 404 Elizabeth
Quilted on Janome 9450 Janelle

Eleven Notes For November

Good grief, it's already November! My year has been wild and definitely out of the ordinary. I'm aiming for this month to be a little more normal, so here's my list of eleven things to help make that happen.

Buy a sassy pair of boots

Stitch up a few holiday gifts

Pull out winter clothing

Savor a caramel apple smoothie

Curl up somewhere and read a novel

Browse online for bargains and for splurges

Bake mini pecan pies in cupcake pans

Take a walk in the crisp fall air

Spend a day (or a couple of hours) alone

Capture fall leaves and scenes with a camera

Schedule time with family and friends

Slow down and enjoy life.  It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.  Eddie Cantor

Paying More But Getting Less

I just got home from grocery shopping, one of my least favorite tasks, particularly on a pretty Monday morning. I've been noticing that food packaging seems to be shrinking more and more. Nearly everything I purchased today was smaller than the same product a year ago. However, the cost of food is rising significantly.

A large can of coffee, originally three pounds, is now only two pounds, two and a half ounces. The small package, which used to be a pound, is now only eleven to thirteen ounces, depending on the brand. A pack of bacon isn't a pound anymore, and a half-gallon of ice cream is long gone.

Canned goods, cereal, cookies, cleaning and laundry products...most brands have cut the size of their packages. Unfortunately, their pricing has stayed the same or increased, so the cost per ounce has gone up.

Downsizing may be popular, but I really don't like this trend. Especially when the redesigned packaging boasts “NEW LOOK, SAME GREAT TASTE” or “VALUE SIZE” on the label. They just pretend nothing else has changed and hope shoppers don't notice. But we do notice when we run out of something that used to last all week because there aren't as many servings included.

Even with coupon clipping and shopping sales, many folks on fixed incomes have been feeling the pressure of rising food costs for a while now. Some switch to store brands to save money, but those can be even smaller sizes with fewer servings. To get the most value from their ever-shrinking dollar, people today have to spend more time looking for bargains.  It's a challenge, and sometimes it's fun to score a great discount.  But I'd rather be doing something else!

Useful Notion:  Here are a few ideas to help combat the higher cost of food and household items:

• Don't buy it if it isn't on sale – it will likely be on sale later
• Plan your weekly menu around what's on sale this week
• Clip and use coupons – and don't forget to take them to the store
• Compare cost per ounce or serving, not just item price
• Buy extra of sale items when possible – use the freezer or pantry for storage

Inflation is taxation without legislation.  ~Milton Friedman