Final clue in the Luau Mystery 5-0

April 4, 2026
Sewing Clue #4 (cat’s cradle blocks) at home since the library is closed for Good Friday

I’m about a week behind on the clues. I bought the wrong size specialty ruler and had to wait until the correct size cat’s cradle ruler arrived. It was well worth the wait! Making 48 cat’s cradle blocks with the ruler was so much easier than making them the traditional way! Good to know: if you buy the pattern, you will need the Creative Grids Cat’s Cradle XL ruler. You will also need an extra 1/4 yard x WOF for Fabrics 3 and 5 to be able to make the blocks using the ruler.

Each M50 Mystery quilt offers two layout options. The “Big Reveal” was on Wednesday. I chose the Torches layout, which is a 3×4 block layout with two borders. A partial row showing one of each block is below:

One of each block in the Torches design so I can get a feel for how the finished quilt will look.

The fabrics are from Ruby Star Society and were curated by Sew Senoia specifically for this event. I purchased the fat quarter bundle during the Middle GA Shop Hop. As much as I loved the FQ bundle, I’m not so sure about the pepto pink. The borders should calm it down a good bit. I’ll reserve final judgement until the entire top is complete.

Finally – a finished quilt!

March 31, 2026

One of my CraftLAB students gifted me the candle at Christmas. I waited until I completed my first quilt in 2026 to light it. Totally worth the wait. It has a lavender and spicy vanilla scent. Smells REALLY good.

The pattern is Clippings from Thimbles and Needles out of Australia. It’s the first project quilted on my new Elna 782 using the stitch regulator. I’m still learning how to tweak the settings to best fit my hand movements. I’ll try a spiral variation on my next quilt.

Life is happening. My instincts told me not to plan any major travel for 2026. I’m glad I listened. I’ve had my medical drama for this year. Sadie currently has an indolent eye ulcer and we have a visit with the specialist tomorrow. My father-in-law recently lost his battle with Alzheimer’s and I’m helping with some of the more complicated estate stuff. My husband has his big appointment at MD Anderson at the end of April. Surgery is a very real possibility. His last surgery meant two weeks in Houston followed by a 2-3 month recovery period. We *might* be able to go somewhere in the fall. I have several itineraries on standby.

Meanwhile, I didn’t enter a quilt in the June show and I’m okay with that. However, my CraftLAB students have completed their blocks for the show. That’s even better! I’ll be working at the kid’s exhibit booth during the quilt show, plus I get to spend one day working the jurying side of things before the show. Looking forward to it.

The next two months will be spent winding down the school year with regard to therapy dog visits, gearing up for the quilt show and doing what we need to do to make sure all three of us (Sadie, hubby and me) are healthy and engaged in doing what we like to do best.

One year after the Joann’s closure…

March 30, 2026
Former Joann store in Alpharetta, GA is still vacant nearly a year after closing.

I stopped by Sewingmachine.com on the way home from a recent pet therapy visit. A former Joann store sits next door it – still vacant. The bankruptcy case is ongoing.

While I occasionally miss Joann – sorry Michael’s, no amount of Knit & Sew Shop is going to fill the void for me – I’ve found Hobby Lobby and the sale section at 2-3 local shops can generally fill in what my stash lacks. Fabric swaps with friends and the guild’s free table round out any needed items for community service projects. I’m pretty sure my overall spending on fabric & notions has gone down since Joann closed.

Quilt shops and sewing machine dealers in my area simply aren’t marking things down to sell through as in the past. At the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in mid-March, a local dealer was offering classroom use Janome 9480s with the ASR for $5,799. This special price was so secret that the classroom machine price wasn’t even listed on the tag. You had to ask. It was only $300 less than the show price of $6,099 on a brand new model. Two weeks after the show, the dealer is advertising the same classroom machines in its email blasts – without a price. Why all the secrecy?

Joann helped keep sewing machine prices in-check. If I needed to replace a kid-use sewing machine, I knew I could get a decent machine for about $250 the very same day. Can’t do that now! Even sellers on FB Marketplace aren’t discounting things very much. I’m not willing to pay $650 for a used sewing machine for CraftLAB. We’ll continue touse the ones we have.