Cheddar & Coal + Weekend Away

The first day of fall is almost upon us again, and I have been diligently preparing with Pam Buda’s Cheddar & Coal line by Marcus Fabrics. The fabric line made up of beautiful cheddars, blacks, and beiges is launching next month (October 2021)! Here is a sneak peak of what I have been up to:

On Instagram I posted a picture of a cute little homemade pumpkin postcard, and due to popular demand, I plan to write a pattern for it and share the pattern here, on the blog, the first week of October!

It’s Monday morning, and I am recouping from a busy weekend away of camping and kayaking with a coffee in hand. I just love road trips, especially when they allow for a dedicated period of time for hand binding (my favorite part of quilting)!

Well, I think that is all the updates for now. I hope you all have a great week!

Spring Fever

My oh my, I have a huge case of spring fever! The weather has been so nice in the northeast that I am having a seriously hard time “adulting”. Work hard play hard they say? Beautiful days means quilting has been put somewhat on the back burner, but it’s still happening…slowly!

I just realized I haven’t told you about Third Thursday Thread Sisters (TTTS) on the blog, only on Instagram. Well, I was invited to join an exclusive group my momma is a part of, TTTS, which is a small group of ladies (primarily in the midwest) who take turns choosing a small quilt every month. This year, we are working through “A Prairie Journey” by Kathleen Tracy. Seeing others’ work and motivation is inspiring, and it’s so fun to see the different variations of quilts created from the same patterns. Here is my progress thus far:

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  Welcome Home

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  American Crossroads

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  Barn Raising

Aside from quilting, my weekends have been spent outside: hiking, camping, and kayaking. Pure bliss!

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Six More Weeks of Winter

Six more weeks of Winter, yet I was blessed to spend Valentine’s Day outfitting kayaks, on the water, and with good company! My friend Lindsay has graciously let me borrow her Mamba every time we’ve been out, and now we have twin boats! We bundled up and froze slightly, but had a great host (thanks, Cody!). Warmer weather can’t come fast enough; I’m ready to get on the river, learn more, and get to know this new-to-me boat!

It was nice to finally get out for a bit! We’ve had some cold weather lately, and I’ve been reading under a heated blanket or quilting with a cup of tea, coffee, or hot chocolate. I hope you are staying warm, or fully embracing the cold weather as well!

The week before Valentine’s Day, I decided to get in the spirit with @suznquilts’ Bitsy Hearts pattern. Bitsy Hearts is such a cute small quilt, and the perfect project if you are looking for a small gift to complete in a day. My finished Bitsy Hearts top, originally posted on @rendandsew, is below. I’m still deciding if I want to turn it into a pillow or wall hanging. What do you think?

2021 UFO Challenge

My oh my, 2021 is moving full speed ahead. I decided to join the All People Quilt’s 2021 UFO Challenge this year, and am off to a good start! My local quilt shop is also doing a similar challenge, Spring Water Designs, so I put two projects to complete next to each of the 12 numbers on my list. It’s going to be a busy year! Is anyone else participating in a 2021 UFO Challenge? If you would like to see my progress, follow along on Instagram, @rendandsew.

In some non-quilting news, this weekend we finally got snow in the DC metro area! I spent the time curled up under quilts finishing This Is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home by Lauren Sandler. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend doing so. The book is written by a journalist who reports on the life of a young homeless Latina single mother attempting to navigate through New York City’s red-tape stricken assistance programs, while balancing poverty, school, and relationships. This Is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home highlights the story of a young women who faces continuous disappointment, but is determined to create the best life she can for her son. The facts intertwined in the pages of this book prove an abundance of systematic failures in the need for change, and it’s important to note that this is just one case of sixty thousand people sleeping in New York City-run shelters every night and one case of the 2.5 million infants in the United States on the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program. If you have any non-fiction book recommendations, please let me know! For now, I’ll continue to search the New York Time’s Best Seller list each month.

*Editing this post, as a Facebook friend just shared with me that there is a Girl Scout Troop specifically designed to serve girls in the New York City Shelter System, Troop 6000. I donated to them this morning (as well as a couple boxes of cookies to New York City Food Banks), and you can too by visiting their website.