Stay Flexible! Change, Bend, or Pivot So You Can Keep Quilting!

Flexibility is key!

This week I’m feeling extra flexible as I’ve decided to make some big changes to our upcoming Dream Big Quilt Along and Mini Block Monday monthly patterns. When things aren’t working, it’s easy to feel pressure to stay the course, but a flexible bend, change, or pivot is often a better choice. Do whatever you must to keep quilting!

Post renovation UPDATE: No, it turns out nothing in our front yard nor any thing to do with the gutters was at fault. We were going on bad and pushy information from an aggressive individual with ulterior motives. The problem was water entering through our house along the foundation wall when the water table rose during sustained and heavy rainfall. A Drypro system that allows the water to seep in during these high rain conditions and then collect along a drain and direct to a sump pump has taken care of this issue. NO amount of raised dirt or sloping would have contributed in any way to keeping the basement dry. In fact, we wasted hours and days of time ripping out our front garden and adding fill dirt. Very frustrating in retrospect but certainly a learning experience. Always get two opinions from professionals in the proper field and take nothing as gospel from anyone who acts as if they have all the answers. Thank God we didn’t let this guy go to town on our property with a bobcat and other heavy machinery like he wanted to do. The claim about chicken dust bath basins as a contributing cause was completely absurd. – Josh

Lots of Flexible Decisions this Week!

I’m cutting out Dream Big Panels on my kitchen table through this week’s podcast. This is a bit slower with a smaller table, but I had a lot of fun cutting and folding these.

Dream Big Quilt Along – I’ve decided to make this an official quilt along! We will begin on March 13th and a new video will be posted every Friday for 6 – 8 weeks (still planning the number of videos). I’m focusing on ruler quilting for the designs and quilting entirely on a home machine… because my longarms are inaccessible right now!

We will be using rulers from the Basic Ruler Kit and Shapes Ruler Kit to quilt the Dream Big Panel.

Mini Block Monday – I’m continuing to share super cute spring-themed quilt blocks in March! Be looking forward to piecing a Four Leaf Clover and Leah’s Carolina Lily.

Easter Basket Pattern coming soon – On March 1st, the Easter Basket Pattern will be available at LeahDay.com/Basket. I’ve decided to offer the Mini Monthly Patterns on my website.

If you are a member of the Quilt Friends Club, you will still get the Mini Monthly patterns as part of your membership!

I’m also working on a book, Mini Book of Mini Blocks, which will be ready in the next few months. I’ve had many (MANY) requests for written patterns for the Mini Blocks and decided to be flexible about my writing schedule to make this happen!

Basement Renovation Update

Just in case you missed it – Click Here to tour my recently flooded basement.

This past week we ripped out walls between the den and kitchen and laundry room. We’ve decided to rebuild the walls to shrink the den slightly so Josh’s fish tank will be framed in the wall. This will put all the ugly / messy fish tank bits on the back side of the wall, in the laundry room where it will be easier to maintain.

The wall in the kitchen (now officially my quilting studio since it’s no longer a kitchen) is punching outward into the laundry room to give me more space for sewing.

My longarm room with my Qnique 21 and Continuum frame is currently taped off to protect the room from construction dust. I’m really missing quilting on my longarm machine! But I’m also enjoying quilting more on my Eversewn Sparrow 20 too.

We spent a good deal of time checking out the yard this week and we THINK the flood was caused by landscaping issues and clogged gutters. Yes, big disasters can be caused by easy-to-avoid issues! We’re getting the gutters fixed this week as well as new soil brought to reslope the yard so water washes away from the house.

But then again, this may not be the only cause to our flooding issues. We have called in some contractors to check out our basement and see if we need to make bigger changes inside the house. It seems like each week we learn something new and have to adjust our perspective on this whole renovation!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day

Check out our latest podcast episodes:

• #131 – Don’t Wait to Create!
• #130 – Epic Flooding Disaster
• #129 – Stitching Myself Out of Jail
• #128 – Keep it Simple Sweetie!
• #127 – Crafting Through a Limbo Time
• #126 – What will change in quilting in the next 10 years?
• #125 – Studio Tour 2020!
• #124 – My Word of the Year for 2020
• #123 – Living Without Regrets and Making a Memory Quilt
• #122 – How to Design a Goddess Quilt
• #121 – Experiences vs. Stuff
• #120 – Working Through the Messy Middle
• #119 – Stitching Myself Back Together
• #118 – Pros and Cons of Precuts
• #117 – Make Your Dream Achievements Come True
• #116 – How Much Time Will This Quilt Take?
• #115 – Ten Steps to Finishing Your UFOs