Hey, everyone! Friday is here and you know what that means! Good vibes, fish fries, and if you’re like me, BIG plans for your sewing machine over the weekend. As you probably already know, the highly anticipated 2025 Unity Quilt-Along officially launched yesterday during my LIVE show on YouTube (CLICK HERE to watch – Short on time? Start video at 18:05), so I’ll definitely be busy with trying to get ahead on that. Then add a mountain of other projects and loose ends I’m trying to tie up before my flight to CA on Sunday for the 2025 Road to California Quilter’s Conference and Showcase, where I will be teaching five separate classes over the course of next week.

If you’ve never been to this annual gathering of quilting fanatics, you’re really missing out! Road to California Quilter’s Conference and Showcase is a nationally renowned quilt show and conference, usually held every January in Ontario, CA. It offers classes for quilters of all levels that cover traditional to modern techniques, and various quilting and fiber art skills. I’m proud to say that I will be teaching classes on my “Dear Santa” and “Sam the Snowman” panels, my “Fort Mackinac Mini Quilt,” the “Black Star Flower Farm Punch Needle” project, my “Spring at Mission Point” table mat, and my “Log Cabin Star” rug punching project at this year’s event. In fact, there are still a couple of openings in some of these fun classes, so if you’re in the Ontario, CA area and looking for something quilty to do this week, I encourage you to sign up. I’d love to meet you!

I always have a blast at this conference so I’m super pumped to be making the trip. Plus, something about the fact that the temperatures here in WI are supposed to hit record lows next week makes it that much easier to jump on a plane and get the heck out of here! I mean, we’re talking below zero (ba-zero!!!) with windchills in the negative 30’s and 40’s! 🥶 Take a trip to California, you say??? I’m in! Not only will I be teaching, but I will also definitely be doing some “retail therapy” while I’m at it. Check this place out – it looks nuts, doesn’t it!? In a good way, of course…

So what are you doing with your weekend? If you’re in the path of the arctic blast headed our way, please be safe and stay home if you can! What more reason do you need to spend the next couple of days hunkered down, cozied up, and stitching next to the fire? In case you and your machine are still twiddling your needles trying to figure out what to do with yourselves (and you’re nowhere near Ontario, CA), I have a solution in mind that might just take care of the issue. Remember the 2025 Unity Quilt-Along that I mentioned earlier??? If you haven’t already started, now is the perfect time to take the plunge and jump on board! I know many of you are already quilting along with me, but if you’re still on the fence or just hearing about it now, consider this your formal invitation to join the fun!

The Unity QAL is a year-long project that is designed to keep your machine humming and your creativity flowing week after week. It is a free block of the week that will run for 50-52 weeks total, starting NOW! The final result will be a super scrappy masterpiece, packed with light and dark half-square triangles that’s bursting with color. The best part of all, is that the Unity Quilt is also one of my famous “mystery” quilts, which means that aside from me telling you that the quilt will be 98″ x 98″ when finished, you will not have any idea of what the finished project will look like until it all comes together at the very end!

Sound like your kind of fun? Let’s do it! All you need to do to get started is head over to the official Unity Quilt-Along Information Page for all the juicy details by clicking HERE! After that, join me LIVE every Thursday at 1:00 p.m. CST on my YouTube channel, STITCH with Lisa Bongean where I will show off my progress and announce the weekly prize winner because… We can’t have a PG Quilt-Along without prizes, now can we??? Find out all about how you can win a prize just for quilting-along on the Info Page! Then tune in for my LIVE show each week by clicking the STITCH button below!

Well, stitchers. With the deep freeze rolling in over the weekend, my plan is to stay home, keep warm, and get some serious stitching done until I have to fly out on Sunday. Wherever you are, I hope you have a safe and enjoyable weekend and that you have a chance to stitch every day… It’s only right! See you soon! ~Lisa