Rff1010

All stash. My first major FMQ. My first applique. My first pieced border. And seriously larger than originally planned. Final size 72 x 72.

The story. I'm a teacher and when we first closed \ went remote for the spring 2020 a colleague became my life line. She and I leaned on each other so hard ... I don't know if we could have made it without each other. I had epic Covid Anxiety. And my sewing machine is...well "This I can control. I will do this...alot of this."

My Covid Anxiety has moved into the Covid Blues and there are some days I feel so hollow. Everything is a charade. But the sewing machine: "This I can control" and my work friend continues to support with kind words and funny memes.

So I pulled some FQ from stash and some beige that I thought would work as background. I had bought the border as "I need to support my LQS!" And decided to match everything to that. The paws came together so easily. But I looked and had a ton of scraps and then decided to make a border. And then it needed another. And how is my sloppy piecing going to match in the corners? I decided to add the bear applique...which meant I needed to LEARN applique.

Then I did the straight line quilting in the sashing and decided it needed more so then I decided to just *go for it* and FMQ the borders and blocks.

It was supposed to be a nice little couch quilt. But like my friend's huge heart....it grew.