An Awesome August It Was

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

Jolly July

It's usually a good month of quilting when I have two Finally Finishes but I surprised myself with three. Late last night I finished hand sewing the binding of one of these--can you guess which one? I think it might be my favorite finish. Looking at my past July Posts, it seems that it’s a very productive month for me despite it being very hot and inhumid and doesn’t prevent me from using my Plush stash again. I’m numbering these quilts in the order that the flimsies were finished which means the top two made with Marcia Derse fabrics are #1 and #3 and the one in the middle on the bottom is #2. All of these were made from scraps and stash, all new projects, no UFOs and inspired by the Squirrels and Eunice who live in my Studio. There are similarities between them either by size, fabrics or pattern. Hopefully, I can be brief in providing details of my Jolly July.

The only plans I made for July was that I couldn’t use any Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics, so I decided to spend some time with my Marcia Derse stash. These two, #1 and #3 are Patchwork Throws since they are backed with Plush and both finished by the third week in July.

Since I had a lot of strips and HSTs in my Marcia Derse scrap box and enjoyed making my KF String Quilt finished last month, I decided to make another one using the same QAYG technique.

This time, I QAYG HSTs on 15” squares of batting with one side sewn with mostly black and white fabrics with a color HST and the other side with color fabrics and a black/white HST. Once sewn, they were trimmed to 14.5”. I made twenty-four HST and they were set to create either a black/white or color diamond and they were much easier than the HRTs I made with the KF fabrics. Normally when I back with a plush fabric, there isn’t any batting in between but since these are QAYG blocks, I used a very thin plush with lines to make it less heavy but this definitely has a weighted blanket feel. I machine quilted with straight lines along the block seam lines with a steel gray polyester thread. For the binding I had hoped to use a Vanessa Christensen Ombré Stripe in Citronickle but sadly did not have enough. Fortunately I found another Citronickle print in my Marcia Derse stash which accented the quilt quite nicely. This quilt #1 measures 56” x 84” approximately. This will be my throw for me in the Family Room as I found when I was spending a lot of time there while my Hubby was recovering from his two back surgeries that there was only one Patchwork Throw and it belong to him and was using it.

I thought I share a before and after pic of my Marcia Derse scraps and as you can see String Quilt #1 hardly made a dent.

Earlier in July I had a dental appointment which meant I could go to a wonderful quilt shop near there which carries modern fabrics and they had the latest Marcia Derse Sketchbook fabric lines. I picked up a few fat quarters and yardage with the idea of making another quilt, like my Cicada Colada made last year and given away, by adding it with the other black, brown, taupe, and gray prints from my Marcia Derse and Lonni Rossi stash.

After I made the #2 Flimsy which you will read about later, I decided to use the same big block pattern since I thought would showcase the prints better, especially the focus print which you can see I used for the plain blocks.  These blocks also measure 14.5” square and I needed 20 squares to make a 54” x 70” Patchwork Throw.

The size of this throw was determined by a wonderful piece of Plush which has been in my stash for several years and been wanting to use. It is thicker than the other Plush in my stash, has a wonderful feel and geometric design and what I now call Plushcious. This may be an instance where the back came before the flimsy. When I ordered this Plush online, I don’t know why I only ordered two yards which for a tall family, we need our lap quilts to be at least 80” long. Because of this, I now always purchase Plush at least 2.5 or 3 yard lengths. Since I already had my sewing machine set up to machine quilt for plush with the #1 Strip Quilt, #3 was finished before #2. I machine quilted with both horizontal and vertical lines with the Steel Gray Polyester thread and this time I was able to use Vanessa Christensen Ombre Stripe in Black. I have now used her Ombre Stripe for binding in three of my Marcia Derse Quilts and they seem to pair well with each other.

While I was sewing the #1 Stripe Quilt, Eunice, my Quilt Tormentor who lives inside my head and likes me to sew the right thing which is usually an UFO but this time she was reminding me of a ten year old stash of French General prints, mostly Petite Odile. These fabrics were released in 2012 and I remember buying yardage of these prints at a July Sidewalk Sale at least ten years ago. I really love the focus print on the right side and somehow found a Charm Pack back then. I love the children print and the colors have a vintage vibe. This stash has made an appearance on several Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenges but I never made a cut. I thought maybe I could make a wallhanging to satisfy Eunice but once I started playing with the stash, when I should have been focused on my #1 Stripe Quilt, I decided to make a larger quilt to use up more of the stash. I realize that sometimes my quilts are large because I want to use up as much stash as possible. 

Since I had yardage and a charm pack, I thought I could make a modified version of Quilting Jet Girl’s Bundle Buster Pattern which is one of my favorite patterns. I think I made at least five quilts using this pattern and thought I knew it well….which it turns out I didn’t. After the flimsy was made and thinking the construction of the pieced blocks were sewn like a log cabin block, I realized I forgot to add another charm square plus row. But I still liked the way it looked and it accented the plain blocks with the focus print nicely. I liked it so well that I decided to use this big block pattern for the #3 Marcia Derse quilt. These blocks also finished 14.5” square and twenty-four blocks were made to make a 56”x84” quilt.

We were at the GP house this weekend and didn’t think I would have time to machine quilt #2 but as luck would have it, I forgot there were 31 days in July so I spent Tuesday and Wednesday finishing it. There was no problem in choosing the backing since I already had a six yard piece of the Button print. As for the thread for the vertical wavy line quilting spaced 1” apart, I knew I wanted to use my recent purchase of Star Thread in Mother Goose, a golden tan, which is a favorite and used it when I first started quilting. I had run out of this thread and saw in an online chat quilt that this thread is still available so I purchased two spools.

 I always like to use either a stripe or mini check for binding and remember I had this print in my stash. It used to be in the French General bin but I had removed it years ago when I saw it wasn’t a French General print. Fortunately I found it and thought it was special enough for me to hand sew the binding down. I still have quite of bit of French General fabric left and this time I do have a plan to make a wall hanging.

Yes, this is my favorite finish for July mainly because I finally used my French General stash and the colors are perfect for the Family Room where most of the red/blue quilts are located.

Since I mentioned that #1 and #2 quilts are for my Family Room and if you’re wondering where #3 will be going, it’s for the Family Room also. I gifted it to the Master Quilt Holder who is recovering quite nicely from his two back surgeries—I thought he was Plushcious worthy. He uses his Big Blinky Bill Blankie a lot in the Family Room and it’s almost five years old so he deserves a new one. Plus, I will enjoy looking at it whenever I’m in the Family Room.

I’m pretty sure that there will be no more finishes left in me for July and the only plans for August is not to use any Marcia Derse or Plush fabrics. As for my KFC hiatus, it may end because the August Collective is being shipped out next week so I am looking forward to receiving twenty new fat quarters. But then I’m ready to do some Holiday sewing since I’m pattern and stash ready. There was a time for many years that I absolutely hated August because we could never take vacations then because I worked for a community college and we had to prep for the new school year and also for the many years I had to get the boys ready for school too. I’m enjoying August now with it’s 31 days which means an extra day for quilting. I’m hoping it’s going to be an Awesome August.

Two More Kaffe Fassett Finally Finishes

I'm being a little old school here by referring to these two finishes as Kaffe Fassett and not KFC but I didn't want you to think this Post has something to do with me eating two buckets of fried chicken.  Despite there being less than a week left in June, I decided I would end this month with these two lovelies. The bottom right String Quilt was a new project started at the end of April and the one on the upper left corner was a flimsy made last Christmas Day. Both of these are what I call Patchwork Throws since they are backed with plush but one of them had batting in the middle which technically would be considered a quilt. The crazy thing about these two is that they were finished during the past few days right in the middle of a heat wave. Thankfully, I sew in the lower level (basement) and it’s quite cool down there.

Kate/The Last Homely House had posted a YouTube video of her making a String Quilt and when I first saw it I thought I’ve already made several during the past few years so “No.” But after I was organizing the scraps leftover from my Kaffe Fassett Dazzling Diamond Quilt, I changed my mind. I did pull other strips from the KF scrap stash and did cut more strips from KFC fabrics purchased recently. I made my string blocks differently than Kate by sewing them or QAYG onto scrap batting rectangles measuring 6.5”x9.5”. I sewed 84 rectangles in two diagonal directions to make 21 diamond blocks measuring approximately 18” x 12”. This was a great way to use up scrap batting plus using half-wound bobbins which I have quite a few. This was a traveling project which I could work on during our few and far between stays at the GP house as well as at home.

I decided my diamond block layout would be horizontal, much like my Wensleydale Quit. When sewing each block together, I considered color and fabric distribution. Once all of the diamond blocks were sewn and ready for layout, I separated them into two piles, one warm and one cool for color to make sure one fabric or color were not concentrated in one area. I didn’t want to sew a pieced backing with my KF stash and since the width was only 54”, I thought the cheddar butter yellow Minky in my stash would be perfect. I still was able to do light straight line quilting along the block edges because of the QAYG method and, yes, the combination of batting and Minky makes for heavier quilt which I’m sure would be extra snuggly during the Winter. I used a yellow polyester thread for machine quilting and the binding is the red KFC caterpillar stripe. 

The KFC String Quilt measures 54” x 84” (approximately.) I should mention that I still have a lot of strips and scraps left as well as scrap batting. Oh well, that’s the circle of Scraps.

I briefly mentioned the making of the KFC Fat Quarter Flip Flimsy made on Christmas Day in this Post. The pattern is a variation I made of  Fat Quarter Shop Fat Eighth Flip Pattern which is a free pattern available on their website and is perfect for the large scale prints.

I received the February 2024 Kaffe Fassett Collective Fat Quarter Bundle on Christmas Eve and the next day the flimsy was a finish. Of all of the KF projects made since last Fall when I discovered Kate/The Last Homely House, this is the first time I used exclusively KFC fabrics which are recent releases. The other projects I used stash  and some were collected over twenty years ago. I did have a brief hiatus when I did not purchase any new KF fabrics so I was unaware of it now being called KFC fabrics. I am slowing building up a nice stash of KFC fabrics now. My favorite steel gray Zig Zag double plush was used, no batting, and simple straight line machine quilt 1” away from the block edges using a gray polyester thread which is truly a Patchwork throw. Brandon Mabley’s black/white stripe fabric was used for the binding so it may not be official KFC. My KFC Fat Quarter Flip Patchwork Throw measures 56” x 76” (approximately).

These two definitely were not made for a Summer Day but lovely to look. I am in no hurry to wrap myself up and snuggle in them; I can wait at least six months for cold Winter days. I now have made five KF/KFC projects so far this year and may need a hiatus from the KFC stash. Should I refer to my other fabrics now as De-Kaffe? Big laughs here….

The Master Quilt Holder had his second Kyphoplasty surgery for his spine yesterday and is recovering quite nicely so we will be visiting the GP house this weekend. This means I need to clean up the studio, return comments and organize my next projects. I really would like to take a break from sewing but the KFC and De-Kaffe fabrics are calling my name.

Linking up with Kathleen McMusing/TGIFF

Ravel Hearts/Glowing Hearts Quilt Along

Hoo-ray! The Parade I’ve been waiting for is finally here and I am ready to participate. You may think by looking at my Ravel Hearts quilt that I’m in the wrong parade, but I’m not. I did make the nine hearts as in the mmmquilts Glowing Hearts pattern but as I confessed to Sandra, after participating in last years Luminous Layers QAL with the eight Sawtooth Stars made, I was still starstruck and couldn’t pass up making another one.

I tested and made two Hearts last March, one in a light colorway and one in a dark colorway and then sent Sandra a mock-up of how my quilt would look. I have to admit the dark 6.5” HST reminded me of Cat ears, which I thought was funny and will explain later in this Post. The plan was made to make four light blocks and five dark blocks and I did not start sewing the remaining blocks until mid May. It was when I was placing the light blocks on my design boards that I realized a Sawtooth Star could be made by changing the orientation of the heart blocks.

Since I hadn’t made the dark blocks yet, I play around in PicMonkey to see how this would look first with the light blocks forming the Sawtooth Star and thought it looked better with the dark blocks. This meant I would have to cut more patches to make one more Light Block but it was worth it. I really love the way this layout looked and pondered if I should warn Sandra that rebel mode has struck. I did and was glad when she responded with “You Go Girl” or could it be Canadian for “I’m Gonna Get You”?

Here’s a pic of the Free Spirit E Bond fabrics I used for Ravel Hearts, which the name was inspired by the Ravel Unravel Ink Text print. The top gray print was what I had planned to use for the sashing. I’ve had this fabric in my stash for several years and was hoping I would be able to use it for this year’s QAL and the pattern made great use of these wonderful prints. I looked up the definition of Ravel and it means a cluster which is serendipitous since the Sawtooth Star does look like a cluster of Hearts.  

I added a two-inch black border to Ravel Hearts making it a 40” square. I machine quilted it with my favorite quadrant straight lines in CT variegated gray thread on top with a steel gray on the bottom. The Black backing was found in my stash. This was such a nice and welcomed change from all o the larger quilts I made so far this year.

Along with making my Ravel Hearts quilt, I also had to plan my annual collage of quilts made for Celebrating a Famous Canadian Birthday which includes designing a logo. Since this was going to be Sandra’s ninth QAL, I thought the theme should be a Black Cat since it has nine lives, just like the nine Hearts in this quilt.

When I was searching online for a Cat image, I happened upon this one—it was too perfect and so mmmeow since this looks like Sandra, doesn’t it? This reminds me of the mmmicked logo I made for the Rainbow Neighbor QAL with Sandra as MMMaleficent which I don’t think you will find online…yet.

From the bottom of my nine Hearts, I am once again thanking Sandra for hosting another fun QAL. It was another great pattern and weren’t the Hearts such a clever make? When I was gathering my notes for this project, one of my thoughts when deciding to make this quilt was naming it “What Heart Thou” and list nine attributes I aimed my heart to be; Happy, Strong, Sweet, Brave, Big, Healthy, Tender, Kind and, of course, Rebel. This could be a someday project and I would make each Heart in different shades of one color. I think Sandra already did this as a Scrap Challenge. As I’ve done in my past QAL Posts, I like to mention looking forward to next year’s QAL and suggesting a pattern—I think a MMMystery Quilt would be fun and a great possibility for me to follow the pattern—-mmmeow!

You can view the parade of Glowing Hearts Quilts and Pattern Here!

UFOs with Eunice

Eunice is my Studio Tormentor who in my head tells me to sew the right thing which usually means an UFO, a very old UFO. I put Eunice in time out last year plus Country Threads did not have a 2024/25 Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge so there was no project list  and my output this year is lower than normal. Usually at this time of year I had 10 Finally Finishes as opposed to only six so far this year. I pretty much enjoyed making the quilts made and wanted to continue but Eunice had other plans. This week I have two Finally Finishes and two Flimsies from the UFO pile and also one flimsie made several weeks ago before I finished my quilt for mmmquilts Glowing Hearts Quilt Along.These UFOs include one flimsie made over twelve years ago and two which the blocks were sewn last year but felt longer. I thought I’d do a short recap in the order of when they were finished.

If there’s a UFO which bugs me, it’s the one with the blocks made and ready to be made into a Flimsy. I finished three flimsies and this Heather Ross Hexie quilt was the first one. For some reason because I quilted my QAL quilt, I wanted to work on this one because the Hexies and Triangles were die-cut  for what felt like were years but to my surprise I did this last year. Speaking of Tormentors, Susan, my Downunder Tormentor made a Heather Ross hexie quilt last year and I was inspired to make one after I saw hers. After all I had wonderful prints in my Heather Ross stash which has been sitting in my stash for too long and large hexies were perfect. I’ll write more about this quilt once it’s a Finally Finish and I need to ask Sue’s permission to include her wonderful quilt in my Post.

My two Finally Finishes are these two door quilts; the Marcia Derse on the left and the Asian Cranes on the right.

• Marcia Derse aka Rose quilt (can you see my name in the center using the letters from her Alphabet panel) was a flimsy I made over four years and I was tired of seeing it hanging from one of the cabinet doors in my studio. I wanted this to hang this on the hallway door leading to the lower level, aka basement, studio. I did a combination machine and hand quilting over the past few months and the binding was sewn down this past weekend. The Rose Door Quilt measures 22”x38”.
• The Asian Cranes was a flimsy made over twelve years ago and would have remained a UFO if Demando had not requested I make a door quilt to cover the hallway electrical panel at his girlfriend’s house. His request was to use colorful fabric and something Asian and I knew I could use this flimsy by reworking it to fit the needed dimension. It helped that I knew his girlfriend’s favorite color is purple. I did simple straight grid quilting using a CT Essential Thread in Violet. Asian Cranes Door Quilt measures 22”x 36” and I’m hoping it’s the right size. It might be a 1/2” too short and I know how fussy Demando can be.

This is the one UFO which bugged me the most as the blocks were started around ten years and there are several reasons why I don’t like the pattern which I’ll explain when I write a Post after it is quilted. This is the Jack and Jill pattern inspired by Missouri Star Quilt Company and most of the fabric is Marcus Bros. Aunt Grace Ties One On. Although I had more fabric to make a larger quilt, I decided to make only a 40” square.

I have to say this is my favorite flimsy finish since it is the Fresh Air Quilt pattern designed by Mary Etherington/Connie Tesene of Country Threads. This is one of the great patterns featured in their Fresh Starts Quilts book, 2022. I cut the patches in 2022 but did not sew the blocks until December 2024. The fabrics used were Amanda Herring’s Jane Austen and Brenda Ratliff’s One Room Schoolhouse. This flimsy measures 64” square.

While Hubby is still recuperating from his back problems, my late night downstairs sewing/TV time has been curtailed, so I’ve been spending time in my upstairs Fiber Room which is where my wool stash is kept. One of the things I wanted to work on was reducing my wool stash so I’ve already made quillies (wool circles) and thought I would try rug hooking. I finished my first piece which measures 14”x16”, die cut most of the strips and I still on the fence if I’m “hooked”. My first piece looks like it was punched rather than hooked which has neater lines. I finally improved, as you can see on the very tiny lower right rectangle. I didn’t like the backing I used, it may have been tufting instead of Monks Cloth plus still have a lot to learn about the hoops and needle. I do know I don’t plan on hooking large pieces and will stick to small projects. 

I do like making the quillies but there’s only so may mats and pincushions to be made. There’s always Wool Applique.

I am looking forward to the Celebration of a Famous Canadian’s Birthday parade feature the many Glowing Hearts Quilts made. See you on Sunday, June 15th!

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT