I brought some panels back with me to Poland - and as a way to ease myself back into full throttle, I’ve been sitting at the computer and working on some designs. Let me show you.

First of all, I did bring back 5 of these panels - as I want to make one for each of the 5 girl cousins who are constantly at the shop. Well, it was also because I noticed that we had a lot of these beautiful panels. And it seems like everyone loves these colors! - So why not?

If you want to get a panel - they are here. This particular panel is by Chong-A Hwang for Timeless Treasures. If you haven’t heard of her as a designer - well, she does spectacular work!

I managed to scrounge up a lot of fabric that are the colors in the panel - and I hope to do something like this.

I want to make 5 of these - but all a bit different. I am still working on this design. I may tone down the black a bit since these girls are just kids - ages 2 though 8 or 9.

Any ideas to polish up this design to make it appropriate for children? I’m not against using black for kids but I don’t want them oppressive.

In the meantime, I’m trying to spend some time each day in my sewing room which had become a huge pile. It was bad before I went to the states, but after my husband put in 6 lights in the ceiling, it is wonderfully bright in there, but in doing so, he piled everything everywhere. Literally. I’m not blaming him for that, though, as he HAD to do that to work on the ceiling. It is a great reason to work in there and do a long-needed clean-up and deep cleaning/organizing.

So, I’ve started - I’ll work in there a couple of hours a day. It is a good reminder to deep clean in the room anyway, as I have things in there from two years ago that I brought back LAST time I went to the states….

You know, it so many ways, it feels like I just missed the year 2022. I know why - as it was devoted to helping Ukraine - but nevertheless, it does feel like that. I hardly did any sewing and just used my room to pile things in (we had people staying in the guest rooms where some of this stuff had lived.)

I did get the long arm and have started working on using it and getting some charity quilts done, however, so that is a huge plus.

The next quilt panel I decided to work with was this peaceful garden church panel. I thought maybe it would help me get in the spring mood. I worked through several design ideas, but this is the one I’m working with now.

I’ve also been working on several for the Loralie panels - but her panels are made up of blocks - so working with them is different though I’ve got 2 I really do like (so far). I wanted to come up with several designs for each panel type that she has in order to give people more options when it comes to using her panels.

Here is one of the the panels I’m working with right now. Each of these blocks is 7” so I’m working with that number.

So, besides making baby steps in getting life back in order here and getting over jet lag, I’m getting back into my sewing room (and long arm room! - though that just amounted to bringing up a couple of charity quilts that need to be trimmed to the main floor).

It does feel good. My “baby steps” included today’s goal of getting the suitcases put back in the attic storage area. OK, you can laugh - but sometimes they just sit around and don’t get put back for a couple of weeks. However, we got that little task done today.

And now you know what I’ve been up to.

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!

Feel free to browse the site.