Hey stitchers! Congratulations on making it through another busy week! Friday is upon us once again, which means that so is the next block release in the Twilight Stars Quilt-Along! People sure aren’t kidding when they say that time flies fast when you’re having fun… It’s hard to believe we’re only four short weeks away from the finish line, but if you’re up to speed with the QAL schedule, the proof is definitely in the pudding in the form of an impressive stack of finished blocks accumulating in your sewing room. Let’s go ahead and add to it with Week #46’s contribution of block numbers 39 and 63!

Have you won one of Heidi’s famous charm pack prizes for posting photos of your finished blocks yet? If the answer is no, don’t give up! You still have four opportunities left to go… All you have to do to for a chance to win is post a photo of your completed blocks for the week along with the required book, Triangle Gatherings and Primitive Gatherings Triangle Paper included in the picture. You can post it on either our Facebook or Instagram pages, or both! Just remember to also include the hashtag #TwilightStarsQAL in the photo as well. The winner for Week #45 is Lennie Chin-Duncan! Nice work Lennie!!! Not to mention, I can’t help but notice the familiar looking sticker giving some excellent words of advice… “Progress, NOT perfection.” Story of my life!

Since the end of Twilight Stars is so close, I’m sure many of you are probably thinking about what your next project adventure is going to be. If you’re having trouble deciding, let me dangle a sweet little suggestion in front of your nose for a minute… Those of you who like the idea of a quilt-along to keep you on track will be happy to hear that as promised, the Primitive Gatherings “Monthly Minis Quilt-Along” quietly launched last Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024. Its debut just so happened to be simultaneous with Hanspeter Ueltchi’s visit to The Gathering so needless to say, the majority of everyone’s attention was focused on the King of BERNINA himself being in our presence. Unfortunately, that meant the “Monthly Minis Quilt-Along” didn’t get the quite the excitement that a new QAL deserves, but that’s ok! Now that the dust has settled and things are starting to calm down a bit, we can give it %100! Here are the details…

In a nutshell, the Monthly Minis QAL is a monthly quilt-along that runs April 23rd, 2024 through March 23rd, 2025. It will feature 12 mini quilt projects over the course of 12 months.

• Patterns will be released on the 23rd day of each month by 5:00 p.m. Central Standard Time unless that day falls on a weekend or holiday. In that case, new patterns will be posted on the next business day by 5:00 p.m. CST.

• Each mini quilt pattern is $5.00 to release to download for one month (printable PDF format). If you prefer a printed pattern, they are available for $8.00 each. When the next pattern releases, past patterns will still be available to purchase for $12.00 each.

• A video tutorial will be release for each pattern the same day it is released. You can find them on the STITCH with Lisa Bongean YouTube channel under the “Videos” tab by clicking here! https://www.youtube.com/@StitchwithLisaBongean. Details on my fabric and color selections, along with links for the monthly pattern downloads can be found at http://www.lisabongean.com under the “Quilt-Alongs” tab. Pretty simple!

Now that Twilight Stars is wrapping up, do you plan to start another project right away, or wait for a while? Let me know in the comments! Never know… You could land yourself a nice little prize just for give me a status update. Easy-peasy! In fact, Terri C. and Hazel W. will be happy to know they have happy mail on the way for their comments last week (if you think you are a lucky winner, please check your email for a prize confirmation letter from Heidi)!

I hope you all have an excellent weekend! I plan to keep chipping away at my “to-do” list so I can continue to get that much closer to accomplishing my goal of being six months ahead of my design schedule by this time next year. Think I can do it? I KNOW I can! Just watch… In the meantime, take care, and be sure to make time to stitch every day! It’s good for ya! See you next week. ~Lisa