I don’t know how much wildlife we’ll capture this time of year but Chris got my cameras set up at a big Canoe today. My main purpose in adding them is just to be able to watch the wildlife that comes to visit both when we’re there and when we’re in Florida but an added benefit is having one focused on the driveway and the walkway. Kind of good to know if someone is coming or going!

Chris spent a long time today setting up the system and 5 cameras! I wanted one out front by Keith’ office window because so many of the deer walk through the yard there but that wall is stone so we’re going to try this location.

Rae walked around the back and checked out the other 3 for me, stopping to say hi at each camera.

I’ll continue with the strips and strings log cabin blocks and the hearts but I’m starting to pack up for our time at Big Canoe. I’ll have a a couple tops to assemble, some pinwheel blocks to make, and I might get to this little doll quilt so it’s packed too. I feel so good when I’m using my leftovers … the batting, backing, and top are all leftover from other quilts.

I don’t talk about it every day but I’m keeping up with my walking too. I caught a pretty sunset the other evening but I went out too early today. It will be more of a challenge at Big Canoe because I have to drive a short distance to one of the trails. That’s one thing that was very convenient about the Big Canoe townhouse, we could walk out the door, up a hill and were right at one of the trailheads. Overall, I much prefer the house to the condo but I did really like that. Keith and I still share a single car so I have to coordinate with him. Not terribly difficult but not always easy to time a walk between the time in the sewing room and fixing dinner. I could always get up earlier but that’s not likely to happen!

And just because I’m loving this little heart project … I’ve got more blocks up on the design wall and tonight I prepped and appliquéd more hearts. I’m betting my stolen time in the sewing room this weekend will be spent working on this one. It will not go to Big Canoe with me and I’d love to get all 35 blocks done before we leave but we’ll see how it goes. They are quick to stitch once the hearts are done.

I thought a lot today about my hopes for our country, that kindness and compassion will replace hate and anger and as I pray for that and work on letting go of my own feelings of anger from the last 4 years, I will be working on my Hopeful Heart quilt. Hand stitched appliqué hearts surround by strips of different shapes, size, and color. The hearts represent my hopes and the strips represent the melting pot that makes up America.

I’ve already cut and fused and started stitching more hearts.

I’m still making my strips and strings log cabin blocks too – can you tell I’m having fun playing in the string bins?! There are 105 blocks made so far.

I’ve got one more week before we head back to Big Canoe and my goals in the sewing room are:

• Make blocks for the Hopeful Heart Quilt
• Piece a camouflage bedspread and quilt it
• Make Strips and Strings log cabin blocks
• Cut HSTs for my twisted pinwheel quilt
• Finish the Crochet ripple Afghan.

Ok, I’m not sure exactly where I’m going with this but I decided at 1:30 am that I needed to make some appliqué hearts. It’s one reason I like to have all the sewing supplies on hand – I never know when I might need something in the middle of the night. Some red and neutral scraps, my GO heart die, fusible web, perle cotton and a chenille needle and now I have 4 little hearts. They will become the centers of log cabin blocks made with my strips and strings so I’m still working on my 365 block challenge with these.

My blanket stitch by hand is a bit rusty but after the first one, it was pretty easy. I thought at first I’d make all the hearts red but now I’m debating whether to make them in different colors. I don’t know what size blocks these will become or how many I will need for a quilt. I’ll have to experiment with them tomorrow or rather later today!

I think the timing of a project with hearts is perfect as we try to focus less on our differences and more on unity and caring and compassion.

I love that Google photos shares photos from years ago … like this one that popped up tonight. Eight years ago I was working on strips and string log cabin blocks too! I miss my sweet Chesty.

When I went looking for the book that my pink Heart quilt was in, I came across the one that inspired this quilt. I was thinking about making a courthouse steps version of my strips and strings log cabin quilt and hadn’t remembered that this quilt was made from different size strips. It was from our first family challenge. We all made a block – actually 5 of the same block and then we all made a quilt including a block made by each of us. This was my quilt and I called it All Roads Lead Home. Mom’s block was the schoolhouse one at the end of the quilt and she got my quilt in our exchange – one day it will come back to me.

In one of our moves, I lost the album I’d kept of my early quilts before blogging and I had forgotten about a couple I’d made from this book – in fact, this book inspired 4 of my early quilts. Including another scrappy Heart quilt that I might make again.

I also made that cover quilt but substituted hearts for the stars. I’m sure I have a photo of this one finished somewhere but here’s the top.

It’s fun to take a trip down memory lane!

I feel like we got our country back today.

There was a time that I could put my hands on any book with any pattern I’d seen. Tonight I was looking for this quilt … I thought it was from a Sandy Bonsib book. I don’t have the year I made it logged but I can tell from the photo it was taken in Marietta so it had to be between 2002 and 2006. I’m pretty sure Mom made a green version too. Moving so often has turned into kind of a blessing in that I can remember things based on where we were living at a specific time that I otherwise might not be able to pin down.

I have a bunch of pink fabrics pulled and I want to make a heart quilt so I think I’d like to remake this one and I went looking for the book I thought it might be in. No success … but in looking through my books, I found a bunch that I hadn’t looked at in a while that I want to page through ….

I can remake the quilt without the pattern but it would have been nice to have the heart template!

What a day, first I had about 2 hours of cleaning and organizing in the sewing room just to clear up some space to put the final border on this top of Mom’s. I don’t really have the space to lay out something this big but I can spread about half the quilt out on the floor and do one side at a time. Then I got it loaded and ready to quilt. I haven’t decided what pantograph I’m going to use so I’ll think on that some tonight and I’ll be ready to start quilting it tomorrow.

You might remember seeing these blocks when Mom was visiting about a year and a half ago. I decided it was time to try the Hunter Star die and when Mom saw my blocks, she wanted a bedsize quilt but didn’t want to make all the blocks … so I gave her my blocks and we made the other ones before she left. She assembled the top adding all but the last border which I volunteered to do and now I’ll get it quilted for her too.