What is your favorite part of the quilt-making process?

Is it the part where you get to handle beautiful fabrics? Try out different color and pattern combinations? Soak in the delightful art of another, grateful for the chance to make it part of your world?

Or is it the design part? Do you enjoy sketching out new ideas for quilts? Erasing and redrawing until the paper wears thin? Are you in love with the endless creativity that can emerge through an old and practical medium?

Perhaps it is the sewing itself that you love best? Is it the way that your mind can rest when you settle into the stitches? Whether accompanied by the whirr of the machine or quieted by the pace of hand stitches, do you crave the peace, the time to process, or even to grow?

And let’s not forget the outcome! That’s something I adore - witnessing the transformation of basic materials into charming shapes. When the cloth becomes quilt blocks - is that the part you love best? When your dream of fabric + pattern becomes something excitingly tangible?

Sometimes my heart smiles, “Oh, yes, this is my favorite part!” But do you know that happens at every single one of these steps? And also when the quilt if finished. I do adore the satisfaction of a finished object and thinking of its future spreading warmth and beauty in the world.

These Orchid flower blocks make me wonder if this is the part I love best. I’m so happy with how they’re turning out! I originally resisted the hand applique approach, but now I’m so glad that I chose it. The seeds are attached securely and invisibly so that each flower displays the fabrics so well. That’s nine flowers and just three to go! My Nineteen Thirty quilt is coming along swimmingly.

I feel so lucky to get to work with this fabric collection - Bramble from Rifle Paper Fabric Co. It is truly a work of art.

I’m hearing from those eagerly awaiting Nineteen Thirty quilt kits. Good news - it is already available for my European friends. Find it at Kleinkariert, shipping from Germany. In the USA, Sojo Fabric has a limited amount of Bramble bundles and has ordered the solid background fabric. You may want to snap up a bundle before they’re gone, and include a message in your order about interest in the solid background fabric as well.

I’ll keep sharing my Nineteen Thirty progress week-by-week. We’re heading toward a finished quilt mid-February and a pattern release on February 20th! Care to join us for the 4-month sew-along? Then subscribe to stay in the know. We start in March!