My AMAYzing May

It’s always nice to begin a Boast Post with a pretty pic of my last finish for the month and to say that I had an aMAYzing May with five Quilt finishes and six flimsies. It always seems to me that there’s more time to sew when a month has thirty-one days. It also helps that I can finally sew more while at the GP House with the darling Granddaughter being a little more independent these days and who finally reliquished my cutting table back to me. This could be a long Post with all the activity this month but will try to show more pics with a little details to avoid this becoming a short story—this is what happens when you mostly post once a month.

Two of my Finally Finished quilts were the first and last quilt finished for May, made with my new favorite quilt pattern Fat Quarter Mixer by Material Girl Quilts and both using fabric collections by Bari Ackerman, Emmy Grace on the left and Country Lane on the right.

The first quilt finally finished was the Emmy Grace quilt which was bequeath to a friend who had shoulder and hip replacement surgery last year and I was late in finishing it. My excuse was I was waiting to see if she was going to have knee replacement surgery so this quilt could be a three-for-one present. All kidding aside, the Emmy Grace quilt was supposed to be my April finish for the 2023/24 Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge but was replaced with my Spectacle Squaretangle Quilt instead. I decided to finally finished this quilt because I was going to be seeing her since our hubbies are band mates and would see each other at a gig. Much to my surprise and it’s a good thing I checked was I did not take any of the customary photos of this quilt finished so I only have outside photos of this quilt outside the venue. I had already given to her and for some reason I checked my photo library on my iPhone and realized I never took studio or outside photos because of the weather so I quickly took it back. I really wanted to take Emmy Grace back home but thought it would be tacky but I do feel guilty about not having nice pics. Anyways, as I was machine quilting Emmy Grace I couldn’t believe how I could have forgotten about fun the Fat Quarter Mixer pattern is which is a free downloadable pattern and how easily it could be modified which I did for Country Lane. This quilt measures 60”x75” and I followed the pattern cutting instructions.

Because I didn’t have any nice pics of Emmy Grace, I decided to make Country Lane to make up for my photo lapse, which is a good reason, don’t you think. The Country Lane quilt is my favorite finish for May for a number of reasons. First of all, I finally used up my fat quarters and yardage of my Country Lane stash which I had since 2010 and has been on my list to use it up.  I’m glad I waited for the Fat Quarter Mixer pattern. As I mentioned before it’s a pattern which can be easily modified which I needed to do because the pattern called for fat quarters with 2l" of useable fabrics so two 10.5” squares can be cut but there was only 20.5”so my squares needed to be cut 9.5” (not 10” so I thought and it has to do with .5” seam allowance and the squares are cut 5” but the rectangles are 5”x9.5” cut, a little confusing for me but understood). It’s a great pattern to use for the large focal prints with accompanying accent prints and, best yet, you can make globs (a term I used when the same prints are next to each other and I tend to avoid but not with this pattern) which makes it look sew interesting. And lastly, it’s going to look wonderful in my Family Room since these are the colors for this room.

I have to mention the pieced backing which was made with the yardage of the Pepto Bismol pink print which I was saving for the backing. I ended up using some of it for the top and used up a little too much since I knew I had to used some leftover blocks/scraps for the middle section but realized I had to add a section for the bottom right. I was resigned that this would show after the quilting since I have already sewn a few “I Got A Secret” backing. But, boy was I surprised. As I was taking pics and not seeing the strip on either side, wonders of miracles and good quilting karma, I didn’t need the extra fabric. I bet though if I was quilting chicken and didn’t sew the extra width, it would have been needed and found out only after all the pin basting was done. And yes I did check the center of the backing to make sure the strip didn’t magically migrated to the center. Country Lane measures 54” by 81”. I would have liked to have made it wider but I didn’t have enough fabric. 

I am loving the Fat Quarter Mixer pattern so much, like I did the Turning Twenty pattern by Tricia Cobbs and Yellow Brick Road by Terry Atkinson of which I couldn’t stop making, because I have much loved fabric stash which would be perfect for this pattern. For my 2024/25 Dirty Dozen Challenge, I am adding a project list for just Fat Quarter Mixer quilts and I already have my fabrics lined up including my only other Bari Ackerman stash of Art Journal fabrics. I don’t think or hope I could ever get tired of how different these quilts will look with each of the different fabrics. It gotta be the globs. And the perfect quilt to make for giving especially with the horizontal wavey line quilting.

In other finishes to mention, the top quilts were made from one of my favorite patterns for baby and now baby boomer quilts to make which is a rail fence using 3.5” strips. The top quilt is Phoebe, fabric line by Wendy Slotboom with the wonderful floral used for the backing. This quilt is my May project for the CT Dirty Dozen Challenge. After it was finished, I remember I had the Woodland flimsy on the bottom which I wanted to finish because it was going to be gifted to a teacher aide at the Darling Granddaughter’s school who is due to have her first baby next month. Both of these quilts measure 40”x45” and were machine quilted with a combination of wavy and straight line. I do love this pattern and yes I made a flimsy with this pattern which you will see later in this Post.

My last finish is my 24” wallhanging made with Aneely Hoey’s Hello Petal fabric which I only had a charm pack and used a Cotton+Steel print for the outer border/binding and an American Jane navy/white print for the inner border. The flimsy was made last February after I came across it on the shelves under my big cutting/basting table, which is a story for another day about forgotten fabrics. Hello Petal is now finished and hanging nicely on the front door in the hallway. The little girls in the print is a nice reminder of the darling Granddaughter.

A quick rundown of the flimsies since I’m now bordering on writing War and Piece:

These two flimsies happened because I was looking in my American Jane for a precut bundle which I still can’t find.

I made these two 84” long flimsies despite this being the year of making small quilts.

Another rail quilt after finishing the other two and a small wallhanging with foundation pieced blocks using vintage Piece of Cake fabrics.

I’ll write more about these flimsies after they are finished and made possible with some sewing at the GP House.  They will definitely be on my 2024/25 Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge which this past week, I’ve been compiling. I’ll be sending the last few hours of May getting my Wensleydale quilt ready to be sent for some wonderful machine quilting by Nancy/Grace and Peace Quilting. I will need to confirm a confidentiality agreement with her about not disclosing my “I Got A Secret” backing for this quilt. Let’s just say that I wasn’t going to spend time matching seams. We’ll be heading out to the GP house this weekend and I have my project ready. But come June, my must have finish will be machine quilting my MMMagical Stars, aka Luminous Layers QAL quilt and I think the stars say there will be horizontal wavey line quilting. The Parade begins on June 15th, the Famous Canadian’s, aka   MMMquilts’ Dad, birthday. This definitely is going to be a fun parade of all of the wonderful quilts being made.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation/NTT