And we move forward...

Hello –

It has been an interesting couple of weeks in our home. As many of you know, my beloved, Dave was in the hospital for a few days after an emergency. You will have to excuse me if I do not go into detail regarding his

medical information, as that is his story to tell and I want to protect his privacy. I’ll just say it was a scary situation, but he is 100% better at this point and I am forever thankful to have him home.

Figure 1: Here he is! Healthy and scruffy, just as I like him.

From my own point of view, I will say that I am not sleeping completely well and have had a little anxiety this past week. It has made me realize that when a loved one is ill, those closest to them must walk through their own recovery. Yesterday, on Sunday, I started to feel more like myself and as we watched an old sci-fi film from 1951, I snuggled up next to Dave on the sofa and took a little nap. When I woke-up, I felt a lot better and laughter has returned. Neither Dave or I had laughed in a week and that is not normal for our home, but laughter has returned, and it is sincere laughter, not nervous laughter. Again, I feel thankful.

I was also able to start working on all of the fun projects, videos and lessons that I have planned for Sew In Common. It feels good to work again without total fear and anxiety. And as Dave is home this week, we are working our way back into a normal routine. That leads me to tell you that I am going to be making a couple of bonus videos. One is a mini, Viewer Request video on how to download digital files for your embroidery machine. This is such a great request, and I should have done this vi

deo a while ago, especially as we have so many new quilters joining us. I’m sorry that I assumed that everyone would understand this process. The second video is a full video on my tips for fast binding of a mini quilt or quilted project. If you want a sneak peek, then watch the #shorts video from Sunday 4/2/23 on our YouTube channel – Quick Quilt Binding Tips. This is my favorite method of binding small projects. I hope you all enjoy it.

Figure 2: One small project using the Quick Quilt Binding method.

This month in April we are taking a journey through

gh the world of Eight Point Star blocks. There are so many that we could probably make a block a day throughout the month, but we will work on 3 or so of the most popular. All of the information to get you started on the Ohio Star V.1 is available on the website in the Free BOM Design Set – https://www.sewincommon.com It seems that several of you have already started as I can see that several of the design sets have

been downloaded. That is fantastic!!! The fun part of making these blocks is that you can make them with just two squares that you create in the hoop of your embroidery machine. This creates a

very efficient process for making quilts and we will discuss this more in the April BOM Week 2 video. I am really looking forward to making these blocks with you all. The blocks we make this month will be perfect a for a quilt all by themselves.

Figure 3: Ohio Star Block V.1

Well, my friends, I would like to leave this blog post here, but I want you all to know that your support during this past week has filled me ways I cannot explain. It is not quilting that helps us heal, it is the people that quilt that does the trick. What a lovely bunch of healers you all are.

Sew Life Beautiful…

Diana