What a crazy couple of months it has been. My calendar was full of quilt classes to teach at quilt shops and guilds, and I was looking forward to participating in the Spokane area shop-hop in April (for you non-quilters, a shop-hop is when you and your buddies pile into a car and drive to every fabric store within 200+ miles to collect free gifts and buy more stuff than you don’t have space for in your sewing room). I had just joined a new quilt group and attended my first get together and was looking forward to the next gathering. In May, I was scheduled to teach at the Martin County Quilt Guild outside West Palm Beach, Florida! I was so excited because I’ve never visited Florida. And then everything started getting cancelled…

Cancelled

So now I’m quilting from afar. I’m trying to help my quilting students finish their quilts via phone and email. I created a Facebook group for my new quilt group so we can share what we’re working on. I FaceTime with my quilting buddies, and it’s been fun seeing their work spaces. My Florida trip has been rescheduled to September (just mention COVID-19 and all your non-refundable, non-changeable reservations miraculously become flexible).

And then there are the masks. Not exactly quilting, but sewing for the greater good. I’ve watched 5,000 videos and read innumerable mask patterns. My favorites are by Leah Day and Riley Blake. Who would have thought that 1/4″ elastic would be such a hot commodity in 2020? Not to mention my roll of machine embroidery Poly Mesh, pipe cleaners, and paperclips.

The day before our county shutdown all non-essential businesses, I went to my local quilt shop to pick up fabric for a baby quilt I needed to make. I wasn’t sure what I was going to make, but I knew I better get some fabric while I still could. I grabbed a few charm packs and some coordinating fabric and hoped for the best. I’ve never used a charm pack (5″ squares of a single line of fabric). When I grabbed it, I thought it was mostly pinks and teals, but when I got it home I discovered a lot of dark gray and navy, non-baby girl colors. I was also counting on having two of each print in each charm pack because I wanted 4 squares of the same fabric for each block in the quilt. Well that wasn’t the case, so I ended up making scrappy blocks and I’m happy with the result. (Fabric: Zen Chic’s A Day in Paris)

I also had fun making super hero capes for Violet’s big brothers (ages 3 and 5). I was lucky to have some cute boy fabric in my stash that I had purchased a while back with the intention of making Christmas stockings ( I rarely use Christmas fabric for Christmas stockings). Race cars and space ships! For the linings, which I forgot to photograph, I found some checkered black and white to go with the race cars and blue stars to go with the rockets. (Free pattern: Create Kids Couture)

Super hero capes

But here is what has been keeping my quilting mojo going. Moda Blockheads 3. In January, Moda designers started releasing a new block pattern every Wednesday. You can follow on Facebook and Instagram. It’s fun seeing how quilters all over the world interpret the patterns and select the fabrics for their blocks. The blocks are a nice combination of traditional piecing, paper piecing and applique. I look forward to Wednesday morning, knowing I will have a new mini-project for the week.

So what have you been doing to stay inspired while staying home?

P.S. Most of my blog posts on KristinLaura.com will be quilting and sewing related in the future. I will continue to blog with my husband, Shawn, on our homestead website SpringCreekIdaho.com. I hope you’ll join us there for our adventures in raising our own food.