Looking for Tranquility on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well last week was jam packed...an appointment or engagement every day...and while none of them took up the entire day, by the time I got home I was pooped and not very motivated to get stuff done... so I didn't. Still dealing with family members health issues and saying prayers that things resolve themselves... and I'll admit to being anxious about the upcoming election... so I decided to look for some tranquility... and it turns out,  it was both a literal and a figurative search... 

Trying to stay off social media to improve my mental health and be more tranquil... BUT I spent a lot of time online shopping which may have dented my finances... oh well... 

How it started... I was making my bed Monday morning and thinking I LOVE this Fall quilt with Sandy Gervais fabrics...

BUT it has been on my bed since September 1 and wouldn't it be nice to have another bed size Fall quilt with Sandy Gervais fabrics? ... of course it would!

It has to be simple, and I want it to show off the fabrics and what popped into my head was the quilts I've made with the GIANT Disappearing 9 Patch pattern done with layer cakes.  So far I've made 3 of them.... 

However, the first  didn't use a layer cake. This one I made for Nick with woven plaids left over from a quilt I made for his brother, Chris, when he went off to college... when asked, Chris will reply that his favorite color is plaid.. I know it makes no sense but we just go with it.... this is Nick's quilt.

Next I made myself one using a hoarded layer cake of my favorite collection from American Jane, Potluck... I love that I didn't have to cut up those chickens and tape measure prints....

Then I made one with another hoarded layer cake of my favorite collection from Momo, Wonderland... I love the prints with the scissors and the birds...

And now I want to make this quilt with a layer cake of my favorite Fall collection from Sandy Gervais... as far as I can tell it was printed in 2008 and I've used up most of what I had from the collection in other quilts  like my Fall bird quilt...

and this table runner...

and the quilt that is on my bed right now.

The collection is called...wait for it... Tranquility... so I went online searching to see if I could find any fabric from this 16 year old line ... and lo and behold I did!!!  I found a layer cake of Tranquility and Hello Fall (I have no clue when that one was printed) from the same seller on eBay and she only wanted $39 each for them, which I pretty sure was the going price when they first came out... so that was a deal...I know Tranquility is an old old collection because Moda now uses the style of the label on the Hello Fall layer cake for all their packaging. 

But before I found Tranquility I also saw a newer Fall collection ...Sandy Gervais  has moved from Moda to Riley Blake and this one is called Fall's in Town... and it jumped into my cart...LOL... you can see it here. As of typing this on Saturday it hasn't hit my mailbox...

Then while I was trying to research the print date of Tranquility I found ANOTHER seller with a layer cake of it, again at a reasonable price... so I bought it too... for someone who is trying to use up at least a fraction of the fabric she has in her stash, I am not doing a very good job... deep sigh ... I just can't resist some of the older collections ... there were just SO GOOD!   and they make me HAPPY!!  They are cheaper than mental health therapy and I have something to show for my money ... right? right?

Soooo with my new/old goodies I went to my sewing studio (the basement) and started laying out  a Sandy Gervais Fall GIANT Disappearing Nine Patch... and so far I'm LOVING it !! I need to cut some more of the 5' x 10" pieces and I'm hoping the second Tranquility layer cake I purchase comes on Monday. I'm also using some fabrics from the Adel in Autumn  and the Hello Fall collections and stuff in my stash that I have no clue what collection they were from. 

Have half of a top tentatively arranged here... definitely want to see the other layer cakes I ordered as I'd like to add more of the teal and more oranges and use as many different fabrics as I can.  Now even though I can probably get this sewn together pretty quickly, I know that it will take Delinda a couple of weeks to get it quilted, so it isn't going to grace my bed this year... but I also got to thinking about a Christmas quilt with the GIANT Disappearing 9 Patch done with my stash of Basic Grey Christmas collections... I have 4 layer cakes here, 2 of Peppermint Bark  and 1 each of Winter Village and BerryMerry ... I also have a good size bin of partially used FQs from the Jolly Good collection so I have a lot of fabric to work with... 

Perhaps I should play with these first as there is a chance I could get it sewn and quilted before Christmas... decisions, decisions....a quilt dilemma... and to add to my dithering I just saw a video from FQS that gave me another idea for the layer cakes... you can see it here. They did this with fat quarters but I think it could be adapted to layer cakes. 

Meanwhile, I only got a a little stitching done on  WTNT Every Opening Flower...

Those flowers have lots of stitches in them...I  love Brenda Gervais' cross stitch style and her newest Christmas patterns popped into my mailbox yesterday...

And I've seen a couple of new releases from other designers that are Christmasy  and  they are enticing me to move on to Santa stitching... one can never have too much Christmas decor in my opinion. 

The upcoming week looks much quieter than last week, but you never know what will happen... right now I just have Elliott on Tuesday and a meeting with a lawyer/financial guy to hash out some issues on Friday... should have lots of time to sew and stitch... fingers crossed.

The weather has been lovely... temps in the 70's and sunny... we did have a bit of rain on Halloween evening, of course. But we still had a decent amount of trick or treaters. I got  2 BIG bags of candy at Costco and we went through all of one and half of the other. I wasn't paying close attention when I bought the candy, and  was disappointed that there were no Almond Joys or Mounds in either bag... was reduced to eating Twix... such a sacrifice...LOL... weather pattern should continue next week and it is having repercussions for my garden beds. Remember I cleaned them all out in September, and we've have virtually no rain for weeks and weeks... however my dahlias that I cut back to the ground have somehow decided that it is March, not November and they are growing again...ackk!! They are up about 10 to 12 inches... I'm going to have to cut them back again before I can get Dan to mulch which he usually does for me in November. A good hard freeze would make the job easier but we haven't even had a bit of frost yet... Mother Nature is annoying me... 

And another issue that is annoying me is the semi-annual time change...did you think I forgot??  Fall back one hour starting this morning... and while this is easier to deal with than the Spring forward one I still HATE it!!! Leave the clock alone... I've signed petitions to stop the time changing but like so much of the federal government no progress has been made on the issue. Many tell me to just roll with it... and I should... that would make me more tranquil... but it ain't happening to this old gal...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and with Quilting is More Fun than Housework... hope your week ahead is a good one... and that you find tranquility too in this crazy world. 

happy stitching-

carol fun