Week in Review 2026 – 09/11

Joy

Write a few sentences about sounds that bring you joy. This was my assignment for the week in Grandmother’s Storybook. These story books became all the rage to gift grandparents several years back. So, it wasn’t a major surprise when the SEDOSO (Senior Executive Director of Studio Operations) and I both received one for Christmas 2024. My first thought, not being the most gracious gift recipient, was now I will have to add another major project into my life. The SEDOSO got right on the job. He answered all 100 prompts and questions in a few months. Not me. However, I realized this gift was more about passing it forward. In other words it gives my children, grandchildren and perhaps their progeny a glimpse into who I was, what I thought and even what it was like a century back.

What brings me joy is listening to the crickets sing as I write my morning pages.

How did I convince myself to tackle this major project. The same way I cope with making a quilt. I am writing a response to one prompt a week. Miraculously, I should be done before we joyfully celebrate Christmas 2026.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Someday I might manage to take a simple quilt I am working on and keep it simple. I doubt it though. It seems I can never resist just adding one more tweak, resulting in hours more work.

If you look closely, you can see the vines I stitched in the black settings.

My original plan was to quilt cat paw prints in the black settings. I played with that idea and opted to discard it. Instead, vines made more sense to me. After hours, yes hours of experimentation off quilt, I settled on how to stitch the vine stem and then over stitch with leaves.

Detail from Cats in the Attic

Once I finished stitching the vines, I could start quilting the blocks. Two of the cat blocks are done. Just 10 more to go. The finish line is in sight.

Question of the Week

What sounds bring you joy?

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By Gwyned Trefethen

I am an artist who uses fabric, thread and miscellany to create designs gifted to me by my imagination.

24 comments

    1. Sara, you always say the nicest things. The vines just made sense. We have so many ivy covered buildings here in the northeast. Although the name of the quilt is Cats in the Attic, it feels more like cats in the windows of an apartment building to me.

  3. We gave my dad a book like that many years ago – sadly he passed away before he could do much of it. So, don’t put it off, Gwyned! 🩷 The vines between the cat blocks are so fun – great idea! What gives me joy is watching the birds at our window feeders, chatting with my husband over morning coffee, walking by water, a good book, my daily sewing time. The list is long!

    1. Let’s just say I if my Grandmother’s Storybook was a quilt, I am hand stitching the binding at this point.

      I love that you have a long list of things that bring you joy. What struck me about the list was how you get joy daily and what brings you and others joy costs little to nothing. We are so fortunate.

  4. I like the vines with leaves and string would have been a fun look too. I get it about adding one more tweak which adds hours to the project! Stitching, spending time with friends and family bring me joy.

  6. The storybook looks like a fun gift. 100 prompts might be a lot for you but I’m looking forward to read about them each week! Your cute cats and mice quilt brings me joy, I love seeing all the details in the quilting! I love listening to the sound of the waves gently crashing against the shore, it’s a very relaxing sound. It reminds me of my life as a sailor and my everlasting love for the sea. Thank you for sharing and linking up, I missed you last week!

    1. Today I completed prompt #89 in my Grandmother’s Storybook. It is basically the same question as last week’s, but substitutes things for sounds. Reminds me of the song, “These Are a Few of My Favorite Things” from A Sound of Music. I’m not a sailor, but I do like to go on cruises, both small and large. Nothing like listening to ocean or waves on hitting the shore. So soothing.

      Glad to hear you are enjoying the mice and cats.

  7. Yes, the quilting decisions take time. Usually, for me that is days. What brings me joy is Fridays. When we were working we had Fridays off, attached to the weekend. I still feel like it is a day to do anything I want or nothing at all. A Freedom Day. I do actually feel the joy on Fridays.

  8. See that is my problem, I don’t have the patience to spend hours experimenting. Those vines are great. I can just see the kitties batting at them with their paws. I love this quilt.

    1. I don’t think of it as patience, Cathie. When I am experimenting it is scratching the “what if I tried this?” itch. Not that different from Googling something I am curious about.

      I’m delighted you are enjoying watch Cats in the Attic come together.

    1. Those Grandmother Storybooks are a big ask. I wonder how many people receive them and don’t ever complete them. My guess is most don’t. Some of the questions can feel very invasive. I have no idea how many hours I have spent. Probably not as much time as it feels. Still, I am grateful to be nearly at the end.

      Thanks for the encouragement with my quilting.

  10. It really doesn’t matter how much time you spent on a quilt as long as you enjoy the process;) Pretty vines.

  12. Oh….sounds that bring me joy? Crickets chirping, birds chirping or singing, a cat’s purr or meow, crashing ocean waves. So many things!

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