Kaffe Fassett Red Row-ver Patchwork Throw

October seems to be the month of my “O” finishes with an “Oh Wow!”  and “Oooh Finishes” so my Red Row-ver Patchwork Throw is my “Oooh-La-La” finish to end the month.

I seem to have rekindled my “in-Fassett-uation after watching so many The Last Homely House videos  and also one of my projects listed for 2024/25 was to sew something with my Kaffe Fassett scraps. I’ve done a good job of keeping them contained in one of those vinyl suitcases leftover over from a mattress pad purchase. In this case were 123 four patches, which you can see clipped on the bottom of the left photo, made well over ten years ago for a wedding quilt and these blocks were rejects. In early September I grouped similar blocks together and there were either two, three and four or more of them made in the same/similar fabrics.

I decided to sew these group of four patches together  in rows and lay them vertically rather than horizontally. I got this idea from Mary Etherington, Country Threads who made a Bonnie Hunter’s Bitcoin quilt which has various rail blocks in different lengths. As you can see, I used my trusty graph paper to figure out the layout to see if I had the right amount of blocks and only had to make one more. I just love how this looks and you would think this was a St. Louis 16 Patch quilt sewn wrong.

While making Red Row-ver, I had an idea I wanted to back the quilt with red wide wale corduroy but settled for a double plush with a wonderful texture and feel. I also planned to machine quilt with vertical straight and wavy lines but realized after I was halfway through, they were horizontal lines. I was alright with that since the red plush had horizontal lines…Whew, salty language avoided. The binding was a Kaffe Fassett Madras stripe which has been in my stash forever. Red Row-ver measures 54” x 80”.

This isn’t the first time I backed a Kaffe Fassett flimsy with a luscious plush. The Zig Zag Patchwork Throw was finished in 2018 and sewn with a wonderful quilt memory. I am looking forward to snuggling with them when the cold weather or El Niño Winter arrives but not too soon because I’m enjoying the wonderful Fall we’re having.

I called Red Row-ver a patchwork throw because of the size but maybe I should call it a Bench Blankie or a Baby Boomer Blankie for two. What do you think?

Summer Spin Star

Sandra, mmmquilts released her Lilac Love pattern today and I loved it sew much that I made two small quilts, aka wall hangings. While I was on my Yosemite vacation last month, I was made aware that this pattern was forthcoming and was asked if I would like to make a wall hanging. The first one made was Christmas Cactus Star and in typical rebel style, I modified the star pattern from using three fabrics to two and it wasn’t easy for an angle-challenge quilter which I am. I decided to make Summer Spin Star as a challenge to myself to see if I could follow Sandra’s pattern and I can say it definitely was a much simpler sew.

You wouldn’t think that the simpler Christmas Cactus Star made my head spin but the Summer Spin Star would since it looks complicated and seems like it’s spinning. If I wasn’t set on the name Spin Star, Snappy Star would have been my next choice because this star sew much faster and was much easier. I do like the two versions I made, one looking more traditional and two dimensional with the two fabrics for the star points and the other one more modern with more fabrics used and a three dimensional look.

I have to admit I spent some time choosing fabrics again but happy to use the colorful Zookeeper print in the Summer color way with the citronickle text print which is from Laura Heine’s Happy Chance fabric line along with various colors from Basic Grey’s Grunge collection.

I was planning on making Summer Spin Star a small wall hanging like Christmas Cactus Star but when I added the Citronickle border (bottom left), I thought it needed more. Thankfully, Sandra mentioned that the Lilac Love pattern would include a baby quilt size which I then added the additional borders which I think energized the quilt. Also, I had the additional fabric and couldn’t pass up the chance to use the Zookeeper print for the final border. Summer Spin Star is a nice segue from being a late Summer to an early Fall wall hanging, don’t you think?

Here’s a closeup of the machine quilting in Aurifil thread in natural and like Christmas Cactus Star, I did quadrant lines. The binding was the same fabric as the final border. Summer Spin Star measures 39-1/2” square, a nice size for a wall hanging, a floor quilt for a new grand baby or a lap quilt.

Here’s a pic of the two quilts together; I love them both. I already have an idea for another one for a larger wall hanging and know which Star I would be making. I’ve learned my lesson and a Snappy Star it will be. 

I have to mention a little Master Quilt Holder humour; while he was holding up Summer Spin Star, I was saying that lately he’s been showing more fingers and somehow his middle two fingers in both hands popped out. You have to take my word he did that since I was too busy laughing to take a photo.

Do check out Sandra’s post and the pattern which will be offered at a special price (not an affiliate link). Sandra designs such wonderful star pattern that are “mmmagical” and are easy to sew. It’s not too late to make one for the upcoming Holidays (big wink here).

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

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