A Sew Nice November

It was a very productive November with four Finally Finishes and one Flimsy made. Surprisingly, only one was planned and the other ones were inspired by the scraps and leftover blocks found in their respective bins. At the beginning of November, I was still under the influence of the Dear Tula #2 Scrap Vortex Quilt and kept finding more projects in the brown/tan/black scrap box. I made a wall quilt and a twin size flimsy which I would have quilted if I didn’t realized that it was the middle of the month and I had to start making a Christmas table runner needed for the living room. I like to start decorating by December 1st and it was arriving quickly in my head. It turned out that even more inspirations were found in the Christmas stash to make two additional quilts with the leftover blocks and scraps from previous projects.

The first project completed and unplanned was the Taupe Baskets wallhanging/table runner. While I was preparing the fabrics for the Dear Tula II Scrap Vortex quilt, I came upon leftovers or block remains from past projects and a fat quarter of the basket print which I don’t remember purchasing. 

I had set aside these fabrics several years ago not knowing what I was going to make with them. I knew that I did not want to cut up the basket print and thought now to use a 16”x18” cut as the main focus for a table runner. I ended up eliminating some of the lighter prints on the left and found some replacements stashed in other bins. A story for another day is I was needing one more dark print, preferably a Japanese Homespun, and remembered that had received some unexpectedly from Mary Etherington six years ago. I made my Scrappy Sixpatch Quilt from the scraps Mary had sent and still had some left. I now have much more which as I mentioned before will be a project for next year.

Here’s a close-up of the basket print which is from the Taupeism fabric line. I did do a search online to find out more about the print but nothing was found. Really, I was hoping to purchase additional prints but in the end I was happy with what I had. Initially, Taupe Baskets was going to be a table runner but is now a wallhanging in my hallway where it is hanging around the other wall quilts made with similar fabrics and colors. It measures 28” x 50” and was a quick and easy make with the meandering machine quilting.

Also found alongside the Taupe Basket fabrics were leftover blocks from the Disappearing 9 patch quilt I made for a Grandniece eleven years ago. I decided to make a number of patches needed to make 35 blocks  or a 65”x91” twin size quilt. Fortunately, most of the scraps in the brown/tan/black bin are from this quilt. I would have finished this quilt if I hadn’t realized that I needed to start on some Merry Makings.

I am pretty pleased with myself for having completed these three during the last half of November which involved a lot of non-quilting busyness. Can you guess which one was machine quilted and bound several days while the darling Granddaughter was staying at our house, a wallhanging made from a block which was at least seven years old and a table runner made from a fabric collection purchased last year?

I won’t keep you in suspense. This table runner was made with Dashwood Studio Candy Cane line along with Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society fabrics using a modified version of Villa Rose Designs Clover pattern. I mentioned in previous posts how much I love this pattern and how easy it is to modify it in order to use the fabrics you already have. The table runner measures 22”x38” and is needed for the living room which during Christmas, all the quilts were made from Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star fabrics. The only holdout was the table runner on the coffee table and last year I made plans to finally make a new one this year.

Of course, while combing through the Christmas stash, I came across the 12” Tree block made in 2017 and was designed by April Adam, Janda Bend Quilts for that year’s I Wish You a Merry Quilt Along. This was one of the few blocks I made from this quilt along and had planned to use it with some other orphan Christmas block which I never got along to sewing. Divine inspiration to make it a wall hanging finally struck and I just needed a few strips and squares from other projects to make it a 23” square. April named this block Christmas Tree Farm, which is appropriate since she owns one and I did play Taylor Swift’s Christmas Tree Farm while hand quilting. I just love how this turned out and this will be hanging up in the hallway at the GP House.

Last, but not the very least, is the Reindeer Lane made possible with a past Christmas quilt and fabric purchases.

I was surprised when I realized that this Hoot and Loot Quilt was made five years ago. My original plan to make this with only the eight patch rail blocks and the Hoot and Loot fabric but decided to add the pinwheel blocks which meant 24 rail blocks were not needed. Most of these were made from Me and My Sister Red Dot and Dash fabric line and I thought if I ordered additional yardage from their fabric line this year, Reindeer Games, I could make just a Christmas bed quilt of rail blocks for the darling Granddaughter.

Normally, I like to include a pic of all of the fabrics gathered for the making of a quilt, but in my haste to finish it before the month ends, I forgot to take one. These photos show the new Reindeer Game fabrics purchased, the red ribbon weave, green diagonal stripe, red and green plus, and the Reindeer dot. In order to make this a 56”x72” quilt, I needed to use additional fat quarters of Kate Spain’s Merry, Merry fabric line along with a Robert Kaufman Sloth Christmas print, a Basic Grey text print and some other red and green prints found in the stash. I wanted to include some plain 8” blocks with the rail blocks but decided a pieced block of two coordinating 4”x8”(f) rectangles would worked. Rather than a random layout, I thought a controlled layout with two rows of the Reindeer block, top and bottom,and one row of the rectangle blocks with the Kate Spain houses in the center would work with the fabric I had. Rather than alternate the  red and green rail blocks individually, they are set in vertical rows, creating a lane effect which is why I names this quilt Reindeer Lane. I thought it was also a nice address name for the row of houses in the Kate Spain Print.

Since the Kate Spain and Sloth prints had some gray in it, backing it with a light gray chenille plush was perfect. This is a thin plush, not so luscious, which the Pellon soy batting was used to add some weight. The flimsy was finished right before we left for the GP House to bring back the darling Granddaughter to spend Thanksgiving with us. I didn’t think I would be able to machine quilt it while she was here, but wonders happen during the night when she is sleeping. I usually don’t sew at night while at the GP House but maybe I will now. Machine quilting and binding went well, no problems, the darling Granddaughter should come to our house more often.

I thought I would close this Post with the darling Granddaughter, the Novice Quilt Holder holding up Christmas Tree Farm. It did not go well. Thanks to three photo app and along with the experience of creating graphics of Sandra, mmmquilts, I was able to photo edit this pic. Maybe I should learn AI.

I only have one project to complete in December which is to machine quilt my secret project. Once that’s done, I’m sure I can find other projects which are always popping up in the studio. Now that Thanksgiving have been enjoyed and now over, we will be traveling back with the darling Granddaughter and her father to the GP House tomorrow. Unfortunately, we will be driving after our area has been under a Winter Storm Watch and hopefully the roads will be cleared. I am so not ready for Winter weather and the only way to enjoy the cold and snow is to be inside and happily making quilts.

October SewFest

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If you can see from this collage, I had a very productive October with six Finally Finishes; three large quilts and three small quilts. It seems that I still wasn’t done sew-lebrating Halloween with one large and three small quilts made. Also, I machine quilted two recently made large flimsies. Out of the six, only one was made with very recently purchased fabric less than a week old which is something I don’t do very often. One was an UFO, well over ten years old and the others made from simmering stash and scraps. Even though there are several days left in October, I decided I had enough for a Post and will try to be brief in explaining these howling makes.

In my last Post, I had mentioned the darling Granddaughter did not have a Halloween quilt for her bed at the GP House and was contemplating if I should bring the Minnick & Simpson Scary Cat twin sized quilt. But I remembered that she loves her bed quilts backed with plush and decided to make her another Eerie Unruly Quilt, made over four years ago and used in the living room at the GP House during Halloween. Since I had enough scraps from this quilt as well as other fun prints from the stash which would go well, the bed quilt was quickly made. I think I’ve mentioned in the past, My Quilt Infatuation Unruly Pattern is one of my favorite patterns for fun fabrics as well as a fast and easy make.

Here as some close-ups of Eerie Unruly II and my favorite plush was used. Sadly, I only have a few small pieces of this wonderful gray plush left which I will definitely use for future Baby Boomer Blankies. Eerie Unruly II measures 56”x 75”.

Here’s some pics of the Darling Granddaughter snuggling with her new bed quilt and a photo of the two Eerie Unruly Quilts together on the front porch. I have to mention that the three nights she spent at the GP House, the darling Granddaughter slept an average of 10+ hours each night.

I purchased a fat quarter bundle, during the beginning of October, of Ruby Star Society Good Spirits. I had to make a modified version of Villa Rosa Design’s Clover pattern which is wonderful for either a wall hanging or table runner. This measures 22”X 33” and is hanging in the hallway.

While doing some tidying up in the Studio and being in the Halloween mood, I remembered I made a Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) wall hanging flimsy maybe fifteen years ago while I was still working at the local community college. I had planned to give it to the Latinas Unitas group but sadly never finished it. I was lucky to find just enough strips of the purple swirl fabrics for the binding. This quilt measures 29” square and hanging up at the GP House.

While looking in my Halloween stash for the Eerie Unruly II quilt, I happened upon this cute Indygo Junction Trick or Treat Vintage Workshop print which I had forever and other fabrics which I thought I would use to make four quilt as you go table mats. I came to my senses quickly when I realized I didn’t want to use these fabrics for table mats and decided instead to make a quick 20” square wall hanging. I am very proud that I made bias binding, although way too much and finally glad to have finally made something with ths cute Halloween print.

Back in August when I had an awesome month of making flimsies from stash sitting too long on my shelf,  I made the Birds and the Bees from a collection of yellow, gold,, black and gray prints inspired by the Joel Dewberry Aviary 2 prints.

A simple rail quilt was made from twelve fabrics and the bars were cut 6” x 20”.

I would have loved to have used a plush fabric for the backing but didn’t because I had yardage of an Anna Griffin gold and gray print which was saved together with the other fabrics for the backing. Since this quilt will be given to a good friend of the youngest son, the binding was finished by hand. The Birds and the Bees quilt measures 60” x 80” (approx.). I still have some fabric left to make a small wall/door hanging, Clover style, for me.

In August, I started making a Scrap Vortex quilt which was an easy project to sew while at the GP House. It was still in the panel stage when I brought it home so I could hang it up on my design wall since there isn’t one in the GP House.

The panels were hung on the window blinds which worked in the beginning. When the last panel, the bottom center was ready to be made, I needed to take it home  so the panels could be laid out properly to determine the size and fabric scraps to use.

All of the fabrics for this Scrap Vortex quilt was made from these six quilts, especially the Dear Tula Pink Quilt (top right) made over eight years ago. I had made forty-one duplicate blocks and used them in this quilt which I now named Dear Tula #2. 

The first quilt measures 54” x 70” (approx.) and Dear Tula #2 60” x 80”. For this quilt, I finally used my roll of Pellon Soy Batting purchased several years and avoided using since it looked like soy sauce sprayed on it instead of the clean batting I’m usually use. But I am now fond of this batting, it was just the right light weight (similar to Quilter’s Dream) and the machine quilting was smooth. I did have a few puckers but was caused by late night heavy pedal speeding and not paying attention. I did wavy lines in a CT Variegated Brown Thread on the front and Sandstone for the back. Would you believe after sewing hundred of patches together, I was really procrastinating on the backing. I really wanted to use yardage but I channeled my Kelly Young, My Quilt Infatuation, Perfectly Pieced Quilt Back energy and made my pieced backing I call Iron and Lace. It does feel good to finally use fabric from the stash which otherwise might not ever be used.

Here are some pics o the Two Dear Tulas together. I still love these fabrics and still have lots of scraps left. I do have blocks left from the other quilts made above so another quilt could be made. Also, I’m thinking another Terry Rowland scrap quilt would be nice in these colors. It looks like I can bring back the brown bin back to the GP House but maybe after a little break since this second quilt made this year with these colors. I have some Christmas runners/wall hangings planned—can you guess the pattern?

If you’re wondering which one is my favorite make for the month, it might be the one I had the perfect song to sing while making it. Afterwards, I mentioned to The Master Quilt Holder, he should sing it with his band mate when performing at the retirement homes. I think the kazoos are a wonderful accompaniment to The Birds and the Bees song.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Sew Sew September

Most of September was spent on my secret sewing project for the upcoming Holiday and I was able to have a flimsy finish by the last week. This gave me a few days to finish two UFOs started last year which was needed since I was falling behind my goal of having two finishes each month.

The first Finally Finish was a patchwork blankie for the darling Granddaughter which I thought would be needed at her main house. She really enjoys sleeping under the one at the GP House and I made plans to make her one last year but only got as far as cutting and laying out the 4.5” patches. I wanted to make sure this would be finished this year before the cold weather begins. This patchwork blankie measures 56”x72” and was backed with a wonderful pink plush with a tiny rose texture. Wavy lines were machine quilted along the seam lines with a bumble gum pink polyester thread. The pink mini gingham check was found in the binding drawer. This really was a quick make and finish and just what I needed to sew after the secret flimsy was finished.

The second Finally Finish was this Halloween table runner made with mostly Minnick & Simpson’s Scary Cat fabric lines which has been in my stash for at least ten years. The pattern is a modified Villa Rosa Designs Clover pattern and is one of my favorite patterns to make when a table runner or wall hanging is needed. Machine quilting was quick with straight and cross-hatch quilting with black Aurifil thread 40wt. The citronickle dot binding was already made and I must have scrounged up whatever I had left in the stash since most of the strips were only 10” - 18” long. Hand sewing the binding was just finished this afternoon. This table runner measures approximately 24” x 44” and just the right size to cover the ottoman in the family room.

Here’s a pic of the twin sized quilt made over ten years ago from the same fabric collection except for the border which is now gracing the quilting rack in the family room. I’ve forgotten how big this quilt was and a fat quarter bundle of this fabric line must have been purchased. I still have enough scraps and chunks left to make another table runner and I have to say these fabrics still are fun to look at. Maybe I should bring this to the GP House so the darling granddaughter could have a Halloween quilt on her bed for once.

While at the GP House during September, I’ve been sewing a lap size Scrap Vortex quilt with scraps and leftover blocks from several quilts made with brown, black, tan, gold, taupe and light fabrics. I just need to make a middle panel for the bottom and will still have plenty of scraps left. I should plan to make a scrappy backing with the yardage.

I’ve been needing a hand sewing project to do during the evening while watching TV and once again have started working on what I call the messy hexie project which was started before the darling granddaughter was born. Several years ago I realized that I may have sewn the hexies together wrong by sewing flowers together and after watching Kate/The Last Homely House videos, the hexies should have been sewn together by rows. I’ve been taking apart flowers and laid them into rows so I finally have an a rectangle. I’m thinking and hoping that the flimsy will be finished by the end of the year.

Here’s a pic of my fabric fun for September. My Quilt Peep Mary vacationed in the Northwest and brought back requested bundles of fabrics from the Stitching Post in Sisters, Oregon. The bottom fat quarters are Valeri Wells Findings collection and I’m thinking would make either a door hanging or table runner. The fabrics on the left is Rashida Coleman-Hale’s Washi Tape II which I am so excited because I’ve been forever wanting her to reissue her Washi Tape print. This is one of the two prints on my list that I’d wished I had bought when it was first released and every time when I communicated with her I would mention this. Unbeknownst to me I did not know this fabric was being released so I made sure to buy a fat quarter bundle and yardage of this collection. And yes, I did send Rashida a comment thanking her and I already have a pattern in mind; maybe another Clover pattern?

Or maybe I will find a project from her latest book I received before knowing her Washi Tape II fabric was being released. BTW,  none of the products mentioned in this Post are affiliate links.

Next week after we return from the GP house, I will be prepping the secret flimsy for machine quilting. I will need to first sew the backing which the fabric was found in the backing vault. Once this is finished, it will definitely be one of my Top 3 finishes for 2025 but I can’t reveal it until next Spring. I will say that Fear of Jen Kingwell or Faint of Elizabeth Hartman patterns are no more.

One last thing, I almost wasn’t going to have a September Post because Blogger once again was  acting weird. Prior to my last prior, I re-added my subscribing box which I had inadvertently removed and thought I must have done something wrong since the traffic/views was too heavy. Normally, I have at least 100 views but in the past four weeks there has been over 4,500 views. According to Google, nothing to worry about,  it may be something to do with increasing blog traffic  and YouTube.

It’s time to end this Post now because my iPad is acting up. I’m still waiting for Demando to help me purchase a new one.

August Finishes and More

Even though there are a few days left in August and the possibility to sew-queeze out another finish, I decided I’ve done sewn enough to call it a month. It does seem like August is lasting forever especially with it having thirty-one days like July. I thought I had jinxed it by mentioning in last month’s Post that I was looking forward to having an awesome August but it started out awful because I forgot I was scheduled for dental implant surgery on the 1st. Then I had back spasm pains the next day but thankfully with the help of some OTC pain medication (Aleve), I was ready to start sewing by the 3rd. I thought I would feature my Frisky Quilt  which I just finished several days ago and a very fitting to end my month of awesome sewing. I also like to mention the Master Quilt Holder provided his invisible assistance in holding up the quilt.

Two years ago while vacationing in Colorado and celebrating my birthday at my favorite quilt shop in Granby, The Fabric Nook, I fell in love with Zen Chic Frisky fabric line and purchased a layer cake and yardage. And I must have loved it so much that I later purchased a fat eighth bundle of the collection from The Fat Quarter Shop (FQS) and then sat on my shelf waiting for the perfect project. Last November, FQS released their Fat Eighth Flip Pattern and I knew it was just the perfect pattern for my fat eight bundle of Frisky. I have to mention it is one of those patterns which I plan to make again. I created a modified version of it for fat quarters and used it for my Kaffe Fassett Fat Quarter Flip Patchwork Throw which was just finally finished this year. My Frisky flimsy was made during the last week of December and has been waiting to be quilted all these months.

I think part of the reasons for procrastinating in machine quilting was because I didn’t know if I wanted horizontal wavy lines, cross-hatch or straight-line and didn’t decide until after it was pin basted which I enjoyed this time, since it allowed more time to gush over the fabrics again. Straight vertical line quilting it was, 1” apart, not too wobbly thanks to my quilting guide, using CT Esssential Thread in Marigold.

I used a gold homespun yardage which for some reason I had over ten yards for the backing. I may have a secret fondness for gold fabric. A teal/navy dot print from the Frisky fabric line for the binding which was hand sewn, something I seem to be enjoy doing now. As I have mentioned in previous Posts, when buying pre-cut bundles, be sure to buy yardage for the binding which I did but wished I had bought another print instead. Frisky measures 56”x70” (approx.) and the pattern can easily be adjusted to make it larger.

One last pic of Frisky and I think the colors are a wonderful segue from Summer to Fall. One Finally Finish, although lovely as it is and kicking myself for waiting so long to finish it, does not make this an Awesome month but the following does.

Eunice and my Studio Squirrel were all revved up with some reorganizing, looking through a lot of the bins and shelves for “lost” fabric which then prompted me to make these five flimsies.

Prompting meaning I was tired of seeing some of the fabric bundles laying on my shelf or having “accidentally” finding them while looking for something else. I also should mention these flimsies are almost twin-size and not lap because I was trying to use up as much of the fabric for less scraps but it didn't always work out. Also I was also in a flimsy making mood since I needed a break from machine quilting. I’m naming the top two, the Citronickle Couch Quilts and maybe used for the future quilt retirement hotel suite , Pieceful Wendy and I are envisioning. Still, there was more to be made for it it to be an awesome month.

My iPhone case has been broken for more than three months and I was really mad and disappointed that the new one ordered did not have a circle bracket but was just decoration. (Insert salty language) I was tired of having to prop up my iPhone so I finally did some research on how to make an IPhone pillow.

At first I made three, one for Hubby and I to use for the kitchen table and one for the upstairs studio.

But then I decided to make more since I wanted them to be strategically located in both our house and the GP House so I needed twenty (none of them are located in the bathrooms). I also asked my boys if they would like some and ended up giving ten to them. I made several for friends and neighbors, so I made over forty of them and only have ten left. After making fifteen of them and compiling the features of three of the tutorials I looked at, I came up with a faster way to make which I will share later. I like to mention that all of the fabrics were from my stash, mostly from my wonderful novelty print collection and I didn’t think plastic pellets were that expensive. I’m calling these Phone Plops.

Rather serendipitous, during one of my searches I found six of these slow stitching mats made last year which were the right size needed to make Phone Plops, fancy ones I think. This one is sitting on my Studio desk.

These are the last three I made and I’m saving one for my Blog Buddy, Roseanne, Homesewn By Us. (Insert Big Laughs here because she’s a big Packers Fan).

Last, but not least, is my Asian Butterflies PatchBox Quilt, the flimsy of which was made well over ten years ago. I thought this was going to be my only Finally Finish for August. Hand quilting was  done using a variegated #20 cotton thread and it is one of the causes of mentioning the reorganizing, fabric hunting and binding in this Post. I could not find the binding in the designated binding drawer and was going crazy because I think I see the border print every time I’m in the studio but could not find two strips of it anywhere. I did make some lovely fabric reacquaintances but I settled for a Debbie Mumm stripe for the binding. I ended up reorganizing the binding drawer and also have ten new projects.

Would you agree that I had an Awesome August? I thought I spare the details of two new scrap projects, rug punching and resurrecting two Thirties Reproduction projects. I’m ready now to do some secret Holiday Sewing during the Labor Day Weekend. I’m also thinking I may be putting out my Fall Quilts/Decor next week, because some of foilage like the Hostas are changing and we’re having some cool weather now. 

Wishing you a happy, pieceful and sewful Labor Day Weekend.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT