Bessie: And So It Begins

 

Last year at this time, I was knee-deep as well as head-over-heels with the Lancaster Diamond Quilt. I loved every frustrating insane challenging minute of it. My friend Polly was/is also making a LDQ and we messaged back and forth almost daily for months and months and months as we approached yet another seemingly impossible block. Christmas In Lancaster was finished in August of '23 and made her public appearance at the Oaks Mancuso Show in September.

Of course I've sewn and quilted and bound since September and finished a couple of projects while I looked around for another tedious long-term project. And nothing appeared for such a long while. And then, in January, just in time to start a new year, a friend cited a shop on her blog, and when I visited (virtually), I felt as though I'd found a new home. Treehouse Textiles is in Australia and the website is very attractive and the patterns are beyond appealing!

Our home is ranch style, which I love, and my studio and the laundry are downstairs in our finished, open-to-the-outside basement (I prefer to call it the lower level). That's where my Bernina and design wall and stash all live. It's an excellent set-up; I put a load of laundry in the washer and sew until it's time to move it to the dryer, back and forth.

My problem, which perhaps I've mentioned before, is that when Himself and I watch television in the evenings, I need something to occupy my hands. I just can't sit in front of the screen with nothing to do. Binding, hand-piecing Halo blocks, even stamped-for-embroidery baby bibs have filled my evenings. 

And now there's Bessie. The designer tells us that Bessie Creek Road was the route she traveled when going to visit her grandmother. I personally don't see the connection between the title and the gorgeous pattern, but what does that matter? I ordered both the pattern booklet and the optional set of templates (there are template patterns included in the booklet) and they came quickly. 

I started to make a color scheme on the whatchamacallit page in the book, but was too impatient. I needed to get started piecing. And I've pieced and pieced for a few weeks now and I'm about ready to start to share my progress.

Stay tuned.