Citronickle Canyon

I’m having a good string of Finally Finishes since the beginning of June and my Citronickle Canyon Quilt is the tenth one in seven weeks. So far this year, it’s my twentieth Finally Finish and my sweet sixteen UFO-I guess almost weekly travels to the Grandparent House helps me to stay on task. The Citronickle Canyon was an UFO from last year and finished in March around the start of the lockdowns. I thought I share the idea behind this quilt and the influences of good quilt friend Wendy/Pieceful Thoughts.

If you read any of my past posts, you will remember that Citronickle is the name Wendy came up for the yellow green color which is a combination of Kona’s Pickle, a beloved color, and my liking to call any yellow green Citron. You can see in the quilt that Citronickle makes an appearance. The Canyon portion of the name is from Violet Craft’s Palm Canyon fabric line which Wendy and I both received a mini roll of 20 strips in a Fat Quarter Shop Sew Sampler Box. I can’t recall the conversation which transpired between us that prompted her to send me the remaining strips she had left after making a lovely bag with her roll of Palm Canyon. It wouldn’t surprise me if I had mentioned that I very rarely use any of the fabrics included in the Sew Sampler Boxes which I’ve been receiving these since the beginning of this wonderful program and, yes, I have a wonderful collection. In order to make this quilt I needed to buy some fat quarters and yardage of the focal print of Palm Canyon plus I added some Michelle d’Amore Contempo prints which I purchased during a Colorado vacation in 2018 along with (not shown) a Art Gallery print and a gray and white Pick up Sticks print which I purchased after seeing this in some of Wendy’s quilts.

The pattern is a variation of my Staggered Strips and Squares Quilt Pattern and the Big Cat Crossing Quilt  shows larger patches of a focal print and vertical rail blocks used in this quilt.

The Citronickle Quilt is made up of 8”x16” patches of the focal print, 8” rail blocks set vertically and various sizes of strips sets made of 2.5” strips and 4”x8” rectangles. One difference with the strips is that some of them were sewn with diagonal seams to complement some of the angular prints.

Here’s a close-up showing the focal print which shows the wind turbines with the rail blocks and strip sets and you can see the all of the fabrics I mentioned above. I like to mention I really love the focal print and it was hard for me to cut which is why these patches were 8” x 16”.

Upon my return home last week from the Grandparent House and with a few days in between before we left again, Citronickle Canyon was quilted with diagonal straight line quilting 1” apart and some spots a little wonky which I thought would work  since this quilt seem to have an angular look. I quilted it with a 50wt Silver Aurifil thread and the binding is the gray and white Pick up Stick print dutifully saved in the binding drawer. The quilt measures 56”x72”. I forgot to take a photo of the backing which you can see on the left side of the fabric photo above. I mentioned this print in my June Unexpectations Post as it was the backing used for the Zingy Zebra baby quilt.

Here’s another photo of the Citronickle Canyon hanging around the fence at the Grandparent House. It’s too bad there are no canyons around.

Last of all, I want to mention that I’ve finally switched to Follow.it after reading so many posts from other bloggers who recommended this as a way to advise followers when I publish a blog post. At first I was hesitant and stubborn about making the switch but I really like this site not only for announcing new posts from me but also for reading other posts from my blog buddies, the news and other points of interests. I’m still learning how to navigate this site but so far no problems and I can’t say enough about their customer service. It’s so nice to communicate with a person in real time and am so thankful they converted my subscriber list. It was so easy and I am amazed that I was able to do this. Thanks Suz, Janine, Nancy and Sandra for writing such great posts about this new service and helping the poster child for being technically challenged on Blogging to finally go with the flow.

Last night after returning from the Grandparent House and enjoying the start of a six-day hiatus from the darling granddaughter and before I started quilting another 2020 UFO, I thought I “treat” myself by playing with the Alison Glass fabrics I been accumulating/purchasing lately. I decided that I am going to make another Ernie Express Quilt but only using two fabrics instead of four fabrics in each block. This is the start of something fun and will be doing a “somewhat” tutorial on the making of these blocks. They do sew fast or as I am saying during the month of July “freakishly fast.”

If you’re looking for inspiration or need something to get your sewjo sewing, check out to see what Wendy is doing. You might see some Citronickle.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation\NTT

The Big Cat Crossing Quilt: A DrEAMi and a Finally Finished for the End of June

Last January, when I made my Staggered Strips and Squares Quilt,  the Hinto Minto, and posted the sort-of tutorial, my plan was to make another one showcasing the black and white Cotton + Steel Neon Snow Leopard print and some of my fun prints in my stash.  During the past six months, in between QALs, projects, etc., I only managed to cut and sew the strips for the first round and only found time this month to work on the quilt to finally finish it in time for the June DrEAMi link-up hosted by Sandra of mmm Quilts.

I modified the pattern for the Big Cat Crossing Quilt by:

• cutting the panels of the "Cat" print 8-1/2" x 12-1/2" because I really wanted to showcase this fun print 
• the 4-1/2" x 8-1/2" accent blocks were set vertically along with some of the 81/2" square blocks
• the quilt measures 54" x 72" (approx.)

I machine quilted wavy, organic lines with a variegated gray thread with white thread on the bottom and much to my surprise turned out better than I expected.  I love how these quilting lines look on the "Cat" print; it really gives them some movement.

Once again, there was some indecision on my part as to the backing.  I had some 60" wide black and white print from IKEA which I wasn't completely happy with using and finally made up my mind that I would. But then I decided to take one more look in my stash and found the black and white Cross fabric which I thought would be perfect since the quilt is called Big Cat Crossing. I didn't have enough of the Cross print so I had to make a pieced back, which is not my favorite thing to do, by sewing another black and white print on the sides.  Luckily, since I don't make pieced backs very often, I managed to  center the quilt top  evenly with the backing which I didn't think of doing when I was basting.

The Big Cat Crossing Quilt was bound in the Cotton + Steel black and white Netorious print.   I'm beginning to become a fan of machine binding, not because it's faster than doing it by hand but I like it's another way to accent the quilting by using the same color thread for the binding.

What a wonderful way to end the month of June with a DrEAMi!  If I can toot my own horn, this is a great pattern for the 2.5" strips you can find in your stash.

I'm one of the twenty-two Quilt Bloggers who will be participating in the Fabulous Freebies Blog Hop hosted by CalicoJean of MooseStash Quilting. The Blog Hop will be from August 20-24th and Bloggers will be posting their favorite online free quilt patterns.  I will be posting my Staggered Strips and Squares tutorial on Thursday, August 23rd and will include my Big Cat Crossing Quilt and another quilt I have in the works.  Details are still being worked out and there may be sponsor giveaways.

Finally, I like to give one last shoutout for June which is sadly ending too soon.  I am amazed that I was able to finish this quilt in the wonderful month of June which started very busy for me with the projects completed earlier in the month.  I celebrated my Golden Anniversary of my Sweet Sixteenth birthday (another way to say I turned 66), went on a eleven day road trip  and visited my friend Mary Etherington in Iowa, went to the Quilt Museum in Lincoln, NE and finally ended up in Granby, Colorado where I discovered, The Fabric Nook, a gem of a quilt shop where I indulged in several fabric purchases.  We also made several side trips to Steamboat, where I met up briefly with a fellow Bee Blogger,  from 2017 and FB friend, Nancy Bekedam of Grace and Piece Quilting, visited the Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, where I was able to photograph my two "Colorado" quilts: Whitewater River Rafting (Regatta) and my Modern Neutral Jelly Roll Charm Chase next to a flowing river on a fence with barb wire--ouch, don't think that will happen again and a visit to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden.  Soon after we arrived home, my darling granddaughter, Micah and her mother came for almost a six day stay.  So I think I did pretty well with finishing the Cat Crossing Quilt and my June Quilt, my UFO finish for this month.

There's been enough excitement this month to hold me over for the next couple of months.  I'm looking forward to staying home and planning on finishing up some projects on my never-ending list such as quilting my Plus Playtime Quilt in which the link-up is in early July. Stay cool and dry since we Midwesterners having been experiencing too much rain and heat lately which is good inside sewing weather for me.

Linking up with: mmmquilts, DrEAMi June Linky Party, Cooking Up Quilts, Main Crush Monday, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Oh Scrap!, My Quilt Infatuation, Needle and Thread Thursday and Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop Friday