Christmas Cactus Star

If last week’s finish of my Kaffe Fassett Blue Moon Quilt was my “Oh Wow” finish for October, the two quilts made this week will be my “ooooh” finishes, thanks to the MMMaster MMManipulator, Sandra, mmmquilts. When I was at the GP House several weeks ago, she sent me a photo first, then a pattern after I mentioned that she didn’t send it to me, of her upcoming pattern release Lilac Love, a beautiful quilt which was featured in the July/August 2019 issue of McCalls Quilting, but with an updated version. Being one of her mmmany mmminions, I made a wall hanging and then a baby size version. Christmas Cactus Star is the wall hanging version which was the first one made and not quite surprisingly, I didn’t follow the star pattern, for reasons I’ll explain.

When I first saw the Lilac Love pattern and possibly influenced by the name, I was thinking of using purple fabric but nothing in my stash sang out to me. I did happen to purchase while on our Yosemite vacation in September, a charm pack and yardage of Lori Holt’s Hometown Holiday fabric line and thought I could use this for Lilac Love. I wanted to use the lovely red floral print for the rectangles surrounding the Star and thought to emphasize it, I would make it with more green fabrics and accents of red and that how I thought of Christmas Cactus Star. It took me some time to finally figure out how I was going to make the star and that I needed to purchase additional green fabrics from this collection and from the Calico and Autumn collection. I was only expected to make a cushion but I rather make a wall hanging,

The Star in the Lilac Love pattern looks three dimensional but I opted for a two dimensional look and for the angle challenge quilter  that I am, it took me three tries to get the star right. The first photo on the left, I thought only the red points in the fifth row were pointing wrong and once it was ripped out and resewn, I realized the green points in the sixth row was also pointing wrong so again the seam ripper was used, rip-it, rip-it. I think it’s ironic that the middle star looks like a frog star. Because of this, there was a possibility that I was going to rename the quilt Sailor Star because of all the salty language I used when realizing my mistakes. Thankfully the darling Granddaughter wasn’t around.

I had no problem sewing the corner stars and I used a yellow square from the charm pack which was just enough for the center. I think I may have finally learned my lesson to not deviate from Sandra’s patterns.

I added a 2.5” strip for the border to make this a 28” wallhanging. I machine quilted with white Aurifil thread with quadrant straight lines which is one of my favorite ways when a small quilt with a star in the center. It’s very easy and fast with just quilting an “X” in the center and then using that as a guide to quilt 1” apart. The binding is a plaid print from the Autumn fabric line.

I just love my Christmas Cactus Star Quilt and am looking forward to hanging it up in December. The Master Quilt Holder was not needed to hold up Christmas Cactus Star Quilt thanks to the nifty green wire hanger with the red mini clothes pins hanging from the flag pole bracket. He seems to be taking lessons from Texas Quilt Gal’s Hubby of wearing coordinating clothes when presenting a quilt. He will be needed to hold up the second quilt which is almost 40” square made with the Lilac Love pattern but will be behind the scenes because I'm pretty sure he doesn’t own a pair of shoes in Citronickle. I will post this very lovely and fun quilt when Sandra releases the pattern hopefully later this week. I will say with the second quilt I did follow Sandra’s pattern; it looks more complicated but was way faster to sew and lives up to her style of making complicated quilts sew easy. Now with these two quilts, I can resume machine quilting the Halloween quilt which is needed sooner than later.

My Kaffe Fassett Blue Moon Quilt is Finally Finished

Even though it’s early in the month, I’m pretty sure my Kaffe Fassett Blue Moon Quilt is going to be my Oh Wow finish for the month of October. Although the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge was discontinued for 2024/25, Mary Etherington is still giving me a number each month for my 2024/25 Project List which I compiled sixty-five projects. Last month, Mary drew number four and one of the projects I had listed was to finally finish the Blue Moon quilt which has been a flimsy or a “top” since 2005. I was really happy to work on this quilt since I’ve been spending many hours watching Kate Jackson/The Last Homely House videos on YouTube on a daily basis ever since I discovered her. Kate is also a big Kaffe Fassett fan and the colors in the Blue Moon quilt reminded me of the quilt she made for her granddaughter.

Here is the top which has languished for almost twenty years, partly because of my indecisions on how I wanted to quilt it. Around ten years ago I read an article in one of the English magazines by Jo Avery on doing big stitch quilting and instead of batting, flannel was used. I intended to do that but never got around to purchasing the flannel. I’ve listed this top on my UFO Challenge list for the past several years and still never felt like quilting it. I finally was inspired to finish it after watching The Last Homely House videos and was planning on hand quilting since it was only 48” x 62”, almost the same size as my Smitten Quilt which was hand quilted by me. As soon as we returned home from the GP House last Saturday afternoon, I was revved up to work on Blue Moons and went downstairs to my studio, ironed both the top and the already made backing and pin basted the quilt. Then the doubt of whether I really wanted to hand quilt struck. There was a possibility I could hate Kate Jackson halfway through the hand quilting and I couldn’t let this happen. I then considered quilting in the ditch around each block and doing some hand quilting but that didn’t excite me neither.

When I made the Blue Moon top back in 2005, I also made another version of it in red fabrics and named it Red Moons. It only took me seven years after the flimsy was made to have it machine quilted. When I was hemming and hawing on the Blue Moon quilt, I pulled out the Red Moon quilt to remind me on how it was quilted and thought the machine quilting looked nice over the appliqued Moons. I seemed to have a hesitation when quilting over applique but am getting over it now.

While I was thinking about hand quilting Blue Moons, I thought of machine quilting it with wavey horizontal lines but t dismissed it as being something Kate wouldn’t do. I got over that notion and decided that although Kate saids that it okay to take five years to finish a quilt, I think twenty years is a bit too long although I have several quilts finished in this time frame.

It only took me around four hours to machine quilt wavey lines 1” apart in CT Essential Threads, teal for the top and a light teal for the bottom. I decided to use the light teal for the bottom since I already had five bobbins already wound and only need three. I used a Pellon Bamboo batting and the combination of this and the machine quilting gave Blue Moon such a nice soft, snuggly feel.

I did hand sew the blue Shot Cotton binding down while, of course, watching a Last Homely House video and it was a relaxing sew. I am quite proud that within 48 hours of coming home Blue Moon is a finally finished but really embarrassed that it took me only eight hours to accomplish this once impossible to finish flimsy of nineteen years. I can imagine hearing Kate still saying it’s brilliant and lovely.

I seem to make two quilts around the same time when I really love a pattern or fabrics. Here’s a pic of the fraternal twins: Blue Moon and Red Moon which is slightly larger by four inches in width and height. The Red Moon flimsy was finished first and the Blue Moon was made as a wedding quilt for one of my Peep’s daughter but then told she rather have a quilt made with gray and taupe fabrics. I glad Blue Moon wasn’t gifted now. You wouldn’t think these quilts are almost twenty years old; there’s something timeless about Kaffe Fassett fabrics, isn’t there. Now that my September UFO project is finished, I have another great project to start for October and it involves applique also. It’s nice to be home for at least ten days before leaving for the GP House again.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

September’s Seven Year Stitch Surprise:The Farmhouse Baby Boomer Blankie

With vacation traveling and trips to the GP House, I was resigned to having only one finish for September which was the Scrapffiti Quilt finished earlier in the month. When I was home finally on the 26th and had a few days before leaving again for the GP House, I saw on the Fat Quarter Shop Facebook page, a simple rail fence quilt made to celebrate National Sew a Jelly Row Quilt Day. I figured this would be a surprise quick make and knew I had the perfect jelly roll and background sitting in my stash for way too long.

Way too long as in seven years + and I know this because my then six-month darling Granddaughter took a photo with it and other jelly rolls when she visited me during the week of National Sew A Jelly Day. She is now 7.5 years old, so this was another impetus for me to finally make something with the jelly roll.

The Farmhouse Jelly Roll is on the right of the photo with the darling Granddaughter and was design by Fig Tree & Co. When I purchased this jelly roll, I also purchased a yard of the text print which I used for sashing. The black and white gingham print is from Moda’s Essential Line and was used for the cornerstones and binding.

The flimsy was a fast make with the 10” rail blocks and only twenty strips were used. I removed any black prints and some of the ditsy print. The Farmhouse BBB measures 46”x58” which is a nice size to keep the lap warm.

I knew this could be a quick make if I backed the flimsy with a piece of plush fabric and I had the perfect size  and color which was a leftover in my stash, but not for seven years, maybe five. I did simple grid and diagonal machine quilting in a polyester lime green thread.

The Farmhouse Baby Boomer Blankie was the first surprise make for September (you can see the second surprise quilt Here.) I didn’t want to Post until we were at the GP House so that I can take a photo of the darling Granddaughter with the finished blankie so I could do a collage with her as a baby holding the jelly roll and finally after seven years which went by too fast, holding the finished quilt. She was quite co-operative with taking photos and I hope she doesn’t think it’s for her. I’m still deciding who I will be gifting this to and one of the possible recipients just so happens to live in a farmhouse.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Another September Surprise: Star Shine Prism Break

I thought I would do a quick and hopefully short Post about Star Shine Prism Break, my third and last finish for September. I will be posting my second finish later, which is the first surprise, since I need to take a photo of the quilt at the GP House which we will be there in a few days.

Sandra, MMM Quilts, gifted me her latest pattern, Orinoco Flow as a thank-you but truthfully she gave me another heart attack moment. While I was on vacation several weeks ago at Yosemite, I received an email from Sandra with pattern corrections. My initial reaction was a “Whoops, I did it again” and forgot to do a pattern test but it turned out that Sandra forgot to send me the pattern after I meekly asked her if this email was sent to me in error. This pattern comes in two sizes, cushion and throw and I added a third size, Wall or Table Topper.

It wasn’t until September 26th when we returned home from vacation and then a three day stay at the GP House that I finally had some time to work on some projects. After I finished my second quilt on the 27th, I realized that I had time to make Star Shine Prism Break. I just love this pattern and the best part is that it only took around eight hours to make this lovely wallhanging. I initially was going to use some new fabrics purchased while on vacation but once back home and in the studio, I found these four fabrics in my stash. I think this was the quickest pull for just four fabrics. The multi-color print, second from the top, is from Hoffman Fabric line, Zookeeper, and is the Prism color way which helped me to finally come up with the quilt’s name. MMMagical Stars II was another name I thought of and can be considered it’s formal name since Sandra always design such wonderful Star quilt patterns.

Once the patches were quickly cut because of their simple measurements and segments made, this quilt was a fast sew. I decided to add a border with the Zookeeper print since I rather have a wall hanging for my door instead of a cushion. Any excuse to use this wonderful print, right?

The Orinoco Flow pattern can be made with a plain background to allow for exquisite quilting which I don’t do but I am happy with the background, an unnamed Andover print just purchased in August to make up for the possible lackluster machine quilting. I am happy with the straight line quilting inspired by Sandra’s quilt. After the diagonal quilting of 1” apart was done, I thought the quadrant quilting would be perfect. I used a CT Essential Thread in Violet.

I think it took more time to hunt for the  perfect piece of purple fabric for the backing and glad I did a little digging to find the Peace print. I was going to bind Star Shine Prism Break with the Zookeeper print but I had just enough of the purple Grunge left which I thought would better accent the quilt. Of course, when a small quilting is made, I have to hand sew the binding down.

One last photo with the Master Quilt Holder skillfully holding the quilt behind the front porch post. His leg is almost camouflaged by the plant. He won’t be needed for the second quilt photos, but the darling Granddaughter will be and hopefully she’s learned from the best.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

A Sweet Start to September-Scrapffiti

I’m having a good start to the month with my first quilt finish for September, Scrapffiti, which happened to be a DrEAMi. I found a few new inspirations while taking a scroll in social media lane during the past few weeks and I am happy to share in this Post.

The Scrapbooking pattern appeared on my IG feed and I fell in love with it immediately. I just love simple patterns with large patches which are perfect for the large focus prints in my stash. I purchased the pattern as a download on August 21st, (spent a few days auditioning fabrics and five days at the GP House) and eleven days later it is a Finally Finish. I named it Scrapffiti, a play on the pattern name and Graffiti since that came to mind with the use of the black and white Splatter print.

I first auditioned Tula Pink fabrics but didn’t have the right blender and accent prints and then Ravel by e bond which I would have used but the colors were not strong enough against the black and white Splatter print. I decided to use the lovely group of fabrics above which had the right saturated colors and have been quietly residing together in the same bin for several years. All of these prints were designed by a lovely group of ladies and am listing them in alphabetical order by first names: Karen Gillis Taylor, Keiko Goke, Kitty Yoshida, Katie Pasquini Masopast and Libs Elliot. Some of the fabrics shown were eliminated and more Libs Elliott fabrics were added. After pairing them, I had a group of ten combinations (some prints were used twice) to make the blocks.

I love all of the combinations but have to mention that I was very happy to use once again the citronickle Dance Moves print by Katie Pasquini Masopast which I used for my Kharma Khameleon Baby Boomer Blankie. I used this print in two of the combinations.

….and here are the other nine. The blocks sewed fast but laying them out was more of a challenge which I changed the layout at least ten times before I was satisfied that the colors and prints were spread out nice and even.

Vertical, soft wavey lines were machine quilted with CT Essential Threads with a variegated Gray for the top and Silver on the bottom. I had planned to use a wide back from the vault but remembered that I had a stash of the IKEA black and white leaf print designed by Paulin Machado in 2013. I had planned to use a marble black print for the binding but was inspired to used the Splatter background print which I will explain later. Scrapffiti measures 64” by 80”. The Scrapbooking pattern was a fun and quick make but you do have to pay attention to sewing the patches together in the correct orientation. I hoping to make another one with the right fabrics and background.

Am I the last person in the world to be introduced to Kate Jackson/The Last Homely House YouTube channel? I don’t know which feed I found her in, either Pinterest or YouTube, and am wondering why it took seven years for the algorithm to decide that I might be interested in her, especially Pinterest, since I have numerous quilting boards, a Kaffe Fassett board and a British board. I ignored her on Pinterest first but finally noticed her when the mention of a Lime Green Sofa came up and you know it’s my favorite color which I call Citronickle. It’s in one of Kate’s videos where she was making a top with optical illusion blocks and said that she planned on binding the quilt with the same sashing fabric and thought that was a great idea that I could use for my Scrapffiti quilt. I normally like my binding to frame my quilts and never would thought of using a background print but the Splatter print really makes the blocks looking like they’re floating. I should mention that I have already pulled out a Kaffe Fassett scrap project which has been in the makings for over five years. According to Kate, five years is a reasonable time to finish a project. It’s a nice change of pace for me to listen/watch Kate while in the studio; I love listening to anyone with an English accent.

I mentioned in my last Post that I found a wonderful road project for our upcoming road trip which was the Quilt As You Go Rectangle Bricks, tutorial by Stitch with Rachel.

My first collection of Tilda fabrics was purchased, thanks to good quilt friend Carol who was mentioning lately that she was making quilts with Tilda fabrics which I had forgotten I gifted her first Tilda fabrics several years ago, the special templates to make the bricks received and thin batting and backing found in the stash. It’s a good thing I made some test blocks because I realized that it’s too fussy to sew these in the car and I rather make a different type of quilt with the lovely Tilda fabrics. These blocks are a nice hand project for  when I’m at home and have an idea to use them individually rather than in a quilt which means I don’t have to worry if the blocks are sewn accurately and are all the exact size. I have to come up with another road project and may take leftover paper pieces from my Smitten quilt since I had a lot of leftover. I am bringing plenty of knitting with me so I should have enough to keep my hands busy.

I’m closing this Post now with some exterior photos of  Scrapffiti and one of I wish there was a graffiti wall by my house so PicMonkey helped to make this possible. It was a little bit windy but the Master Quilt Holder handled the quilt with his usual finesse. Hope everyone is enjoying the last holiday weekend of the Summer.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

A Pokey Post for August

I consider the Squirrel to be my Spirit Animal for quilting but it seems the Sloth may be it for my Blog. I had two finishes since last week and was in no hurry to post about these two quilts despite being very happy with their finishes. Both of the quilts were listed in my 2024/25 Project List and had similar types of fabric designs with the appearance of birds, critters, fauna,etc. In my quest to write shorter Posts with brief descriptions, here’s a quick rundown:

What I really liked about both of the fabrics were what I thought were squirrels in both of the focus prints and they were definitely present in the Bluebird Park designed by Kate and Birdie Paper Co. for Moda fabrics. I had yardage and a charm pack of this collection for well over five years (I did include leftover yardage of the tan trellis print which was from the Autumn Woods Quilt made around seven years ago) and perfect to make another Fat Quarter Mixer which is one of my favorite patterns at the moment.  I previously finished one in May and you can see it and find details of this pattern in this Post. I did slightly modify this pattern by making the blocks smaller and making some of the blocks with only the large blue floral print since it was so pretty.

Once I determined and cut the fabrics, this quilt was a quick and simple make, a total of four days from start to finish. The machine quilting of wavey lines with CT Essential thread in Stone was a breeze. The pieced backing was made with yardage of the focus and solid green fabrics. I also used the solid green for the binding.  Can you see the cute squirrels and hedgehogs? Bluebird Park measures 60”x84” and is already hanging on the hallway bannister until next month when the Fall quilts will make their appearance. I just love the happy colors and prints and will happily display this quilt again come next Spring. It seems a bit early to be saying this but Fall is coming.

The second quilt, a door hanging for inside the hallway front doors, is the one made with a fat quarter bundle of the Sketchbook prints designed by Shauna Scicluna for Leutenegger.au purchased within the past five years and I’m pretty sure I bought it for the “squirrels” crossing the telephone wires

The focus print came in three colorways which I call morning, high noon and evening and it was hard for me to cut this print up. I decided to make a small quilt with large patches of these prints. I didn't use all of the prints shown which are background grid prints and used only the prints of leaves and fauna.

I first laid out the patches in a symmetrical layout and thought it looked too boring and then opted for an asymmetrical layout which is way more interesting.

In keeping with the asymmetrical layout, I only added a thin border of the lilac/gray mini check print on only three sides of the quilt to keep it 30” wide to fit on the door. I machine quilted with what I call telephone phone poles with straight vertical lines along the seams for the poles and wavey lines for the wires with silver CT Essential Thread. The binding which I hand sew down in the back because that’s what I like to do for for small quilts was the same check print as the border. I named this quilt G’Day which I thought was appropriate for this quilt. It measures 30” x 44”.

When I first purchase the fat quarter bundle I did not know these were Australian prints but came to the realization after seeing the .au after the Leutenbegger name and looking closely at the “squirrel with the funny ears”  and birds on the telephone wire. I couldn’t find any info on the inspiration for these fabrics so after the flimsy was made, I emailed my wonderful downunder tormentor Sue, PatchworknPlay to clarify what the birds and critter were so I could write an intelligent post and I’m glad I did. She said they don’t have squirrels in Australia so that is a common brushtail possum  along with magpies, sulphur crested cockatoos and maybe kookaburras, which they are. She thought the leaves would be Eucalyptus/gum trees and the sketches of fauna was too abstract for her to determine. Being the retired educator, she suggested I do further research on the Possum/Opossum names but being the rebel student which I am, I chose to discover the Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree song and there are gum tree leaves in some of the prints. 

I mentioned in a previous Post, that the Master Quilt Holder and I were taking pics of quilts made before I started blogging and never taken because they were too large. Before blogging, photos were taken inside and were not so great.  I sent a photo of this quilt to Susan while communicating about the G’day quilt and told her I made this twenty years ago and the pattern was the cover quilt for the book Fabulous Quilts from Favorite Patterns from Australian Patchwork & Quilting Magazines published in 2003. When I first started quilting it was always a treat to buy these magazines which may explain that I have an infatuation with anything Australian since I followed Kathy Dougherty and Sarah Fielke then and do not have a Jen Kingwell obsession. I like to mention again, Susan was one of my first Blogland friend and so fitting she lives in Australia and is living up my moniker for her as a downunder tormentor, who introduced me to Jen Kingwell. Susan said that I should post this photo of this quilt and sometimes I do listen to her. 

I thought I would close this once again a chatty Post of my two August quilts taken outside. September will be a busy month of traveling but I hope to be able to post my latest quilt still in the makings and my wonderful road trip project before we leave. But, dilly dallying seems to be in my Quilt DNA now with the help of the Studio Squirrels because I keep finding wonderful projects and forgotten fabrics in the Studio.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT