If You Need Me, I’ll Be In The Sewing Room. Sewing.

February 20, 2026 Elizabeth E.21 Comments

This is the fantasy I had envisioned.

Our prompt for SAHRR Round Five is a two-color whatever: block, decoration, embellishment, anything quilty. And I wanted words.

I’ll explain the words when I present the quilt on its final QuiltFinish post, but suffice it to say they have meaning for me at this point in my life. Lots of words, it looks like, and how to get them there? I didn’t want to cut them all out and appliqué them, so I decided to take the Lori Holt approach, that I made in one of her quilt designs:

I checked all my notes, and cut the bias. I’m using the Dritz Bias Tape Makers, but first I do a test:

The one on the right is a 12. The one on the left is a 9. I’m pretty sure the Bee Happy is like a 7, which is why the curves are so smooth, and not bumpy like these. Obstacle #1, and in the spirit of the 2026 Italian Winter Olympics, can she get around it while slaloming downhill, looking at a deadline in 4 days? I did notice that the Linky party had NO entries until this afternoon, so maybe others are also swamped?

Obstacle #2: the printer. Why is it always the printers? It kept printing on both sides, even though I clicked the little box. I soon learned I had to click to Single in the Output, then the Tile Option, then race back and click the little box. Let’s just say we replenished our stack of scratch paper. Then I had to line them all up, by that I mean figure out where the center line was, the top line, the baseline, the x-height, yadda yadda…here ya’ go:

Yes, some are in black and white. Don’t ask.
No, I won’t be mimicking the typeface. I’m just using it for a general guideline.

Let’s just say I have a lot of work ahead of me as I have a lot of curvy letters. Do I use the monofilament-machine-zig-zag method of appliqué? Do I hand appliqué these? Do I switch to a narrower bias strip? Do I forget it all and just make some nine-patch blocks?

Do you ever get discouraged? Couple that with one of those weeks of too-many doctor appointments (or, as my sister calls them: tune-ups), planned events, and Other Complicating Factors, so that whatever time I did have is now greatly diminished, and I wondering whatever possessed me to think I could make a quilt from scratch (albeit with prompts) in six weeks? Is this state of crazy also part of the Stay at Home Round Robin?

Well, I’m linking up to the Linky Party, but my quilt and I are in states of duress, and I’m wondering if I’ll make it over the finish line in one piece, like the wonderful downhill run of Mikaela Schiffrin. Or the glorious freeskate of Alysa Liu in Women’s Figure Skating? I can only watch…hope…and sew.

The SAHRR schedule:
*January 14: Center Blocks, led by Gail and shared by each co-leader
*January 21: 1st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
*January 28: 2nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
*February 4: 3rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
*February 11: 4th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
*February 18: 5th Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail
February 25: 6th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
[An asterisk* means that prompt has been posted.]

Final Quilt is to be revealed March 25 (if I get there in one piece, that is).

300 and Beyond · Carrefour Quilt Show · European Patchwork Meeting · Free Quilt Pattern · Quilts · SAHRR 2026 · Sewing

Curves take Stay at Home Round Robin #4 by Storm!

February 16, 2026February 17, 2026 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

This is where I left Round Three of the Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR 2026), our last round. The new prompt for Round Four was “curves.” I’d been writing up my posts from the quilt show I attended in France last year, the Carrefour European Patchwork Show, and kept seeing some curvy eye candy from 2025 and 2024:

And I’d also been working on a new quilt (my Blossom pattern):

And these two borders (from earlier quilts) were running around in the back of my mind, too.

And if you can throw a rainbow in somewhere, why not? This was the sketch I drew up.

I am a fan of cutting my leaf/petal shapes out of freezer paper, putting the shiny side up, then ironing the seam allowance up over the edge.

Sometimes, if I cut the paper too liberally, I have to shave off the points to get them to fit. You can see the cuttings from this pair. I learned that it’s easier to sew all the background squares together, then appliqué the shapes.

Finished, and putting away my recent birthday present from my husband: red scissors. I often carry around a small image of what I’m working on, as I sew in many places. This round it was my son’s home, a long car ride, and a doctor’s office where invariably someone asks what I’m doing.

SAHRR Tip Sheet Round Four Download

Here’s the handout from this week, with the size I worked up (3 3/4″ petals) and a 3 1/2″ size (more common). Click on title to see the handout, and click on download to get one for yourself, free.

Even though I measured and measured, I still had to add on a coping strip on two edges. I think it looks okay, though. (Update 2/17/26: a daytime photo, plus two detail shots.) Dimensions: about 43″ square.

Making Curves is the theme for Round Four of the Stay at Home Round Robin. I’ve seen some pretty terrific curves this round,

Many thanks to the hosts and organizers of this fun experience. Only two more prompts to go!

The SAHRR schedule:
*January 14: Center Blocks, led by Gail and shared by each co-leader
*January 21: 1st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
*January 28: 2nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
*February 4: 3rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
*February 11: 4th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
February 18: 5th Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail
February 25: 6th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
[An asterisk* means I finished that section.]

Referenced Posts

Carrefour European Patchwork Show Index/Main Page

Sunny Flowers Quilt (Blockbase+ Launch)
Sunny Flowers Quilt: tips on making a leafy/petal border

Twilight Garden

300 and Beyond · Free Quilt Pattern · Quilt-A-Long · Quilts · SAHRR 2026

SAHRR 2026 • Border Two

January 31, 2026February 4, 2026 Elizabeth E.18 Comments

We Stay-At-Home Round-Robiners are now on Border Two, and the prompt, from Kathleen McMusing was ““Make It A Double.”

I carried this fully into my life when we decided to rip out the ceiling in the main bathroom and get rid of the fluorescent lights (replaced with LEDs) AND, making it a double, decided to revamp the garage laundry room. Here’s the before and after. We also ripped out the linoleum flooring, and I kind of like the rough, crazy pattern, so we’re leaving it for now. I can only do just so much doubling in one week.

So while hammering, sawing, sheet-rocking, mudding, painting, electrical stuff was going on, I was trying to concentrate on the week’s SAHRR prompt. Kathleen suggested blocks with the word or idea of double. So I created a double block border:

I was inspired by Yvonne’s border last week, with how she spaced out the hourglass blocks, and decided to try something similar. Just sort of simple: a double-block spaced out with low-volume strips. And then I made up a PDF Tip Sheet for you all. Underneath this illustration is a PDF file to download:

SAHRR 2026 Tip Sheet Border Two Download

Click to download the PDF file. Note: the original post did not include the correct Tip Sheet with the trees. This one, that has the word “Two” at the end, does. Please download it again if you don’t have the complete handout.

But, yeah. Not quite happy with stopping there, and I remember that Kathleen DID say to make it a double, so I went on to think about a second border — a doubling up on this round.

I worked up a little sketch in my Affinity Designer program (free, from Canva), kind of thinking about the idea of round robins and going around the neighborhood. I used to teach at a lot of Quilt Guilds in Southern California (where I live), from Before Covid Time and Through Covid, and taught this pattern to a lot of guilds:

I pinned it up on my design wall, and kept it there while I worked on the houses. These are slightly bigger than what’s in my pattern (but the instructions are all in there, plus a version of Far Away Doors). But this version needed a tree, or four. So in the free tip sheet above, are instructions for some of the trees in this border, too.

I have a climbing tree, and a nesting tree, and a pine tree in the Tip Sheet.

In process. Remember last week when my husband said it was wild, and I said it was going to get wilder? Yep.

Here’s where I left it (approximate size: 38″ square). I will sew the neighborhood to the slender green border, but I’m missing something for that upper corner. I had an idea (see the sketch at the top of the post), but after a week of double-construction and double-double borders, I was ready to let it rest, and see what our prompt is for Week Three.

The schedule:
*January 14: Center Blocks, led by Gail and shared by each co-leader
*January 21: 1st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
*January 28: 2nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
February 4: 3rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
February 11: 4th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
February 18: 5th Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail
February 25: 6th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
[An asterisk* means I finished that section.]

Two remaining thoughts:

I was also thinking about neighbors and neighborhoods and was impressed with how carefully and quickly the Minnesotans came to stand by each other as they are going through these difficult times. And we were asked to take dinner to a friend whose husband grabbed the business end of a live 220-volt electrical wire; they are also going through difficult times. I’m trying to be a good neighbor where I live.

Lastly, l’m looking forward to reading all of your posts in the next couple of days. Can’t wait to see what you all are doing.

300 and Beyond · Quilts · SAHRR 2026

SAHRR — I’m in!!

January 20, 2026January 20, 2026 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

This is an Emergency Post of the Eastmond Quilting System (with apologies to the radio emergency broadcasts we get occasionally). But I just realized that the deadline for the:

Stay At Home Round Robin

is tonight, and I had to get this posted so I could link up here. I first read about this last year, on Janine’s blog, Rainbow Hare, and loved following along on her progress. She’s doing this again.

And then Yvonne, of Quilting Jetgirl, put up her center block, and it is perfectly wonderful — an Yvonne block through and through.

Just last night, as I was wandering into walls, thinking I should just give the quilting all up and become a geneologist or something, this morning, JOIN THE SAHRR! came as a flash of lightning. Or something. Here are my two options:

— OR —

One has a vision for the future, clear, crisp, with the color scheme decided upon. It’s like a supersonic plane flying through the clouds into the distance, or to quote Buzz Lightyear: to infinity and beyond!

The other one is slightly misshapen, duplicating shapes and colors, with a mix of prints that actually might just allow for more freedom. It’s more of a meander through the meadow, the woods, and possibly, the shopping mall. And it will allow me to interrogate (in the academic sense), the orphan block box:

Sadly, I have another box of orphans, too.

So I’m going with the second one, the four blocks made in a Jen Kingwell class. (Well, started in the Jen Kingwell class and finished at home on my sewing machine.)

Thank you to the hosts and organizers of this Stay At Home Round Robin. It’s the best of all worlds, where we meet new friends, create our own bits for our quilts with their prompts, and no trips to the Post Office. Gail, of Quilting Gail, has more details on her post.

The details, from Gail’s blog:

Here are my blogging co-hosts in the order of what we will be doing and the linky parties we will be hosting each week. (There will only be one linky party each week … and we’ll direct you to it …)

January 14 Each of the co-leaders will be sharing their centre blocks (you will have to visit each of their blogs to see them). I will host the first linky party where you can show your centre block.
January 21: 1^st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
January 28: 2^nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
February 4: 3^rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
February 11: 4^th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
February 18: 5^th Round: ME!!! @ Quilting Gail
February 25: 6^th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
March 25: Parade: showing all of your finished SAHRRs!

Now that I’m decided, I’m off to link this up to the beginning post, The Centre Block for the 2026 SAHRR. Deadline is today, Tuesday, January 20 at midnight Pacific Time.