First Finally Finish for 2025-Kaffe Fassett Tumbling Block Quilt

For a month with only 28 days, February seem to last forever with all of the busyness, i.e., the usual visits to the GP House, two wellness doctor visits, chiropractor appointments, an unexpected oral surgery involving a tooth extraction, a visit to immediate care for hubby’s sore back, a return to the fitness center, etc., I did manage to find time for my first Finally Finished Quilt which to me is epic. It’s been a month since my last Post, which you may not have seen which I will explain later, and I only had a flimsy finish for January. Although I have been having thoughts whether to continue blogging, I thought I should write a Post about this quilt since I like to use my Blog as a way of keeping track of my Finally Finishes.

I started the KF Tumbling Block Quilt in late November after seeing the one being made by Kate, The Late Homely House with Liberty Fabrics. I’ve become fond of Tumbling Blocks after making some from leftover EPPs from  my Smitten Quilt during our road trip to Yosemite last September. I thought I would make mine with my stash of KF fabrics which I have been collecting for over twenty years and it would look really nice if my diamond pieces were big to show off some of the large scale prints. I die cut my own diamond paper pieces with the sides measuring 4-1/4” which made 9-1/2” (approx.) Tumbling Blocks. A total of 50 full Tumbling Blocks, 8 half blocks along with half diamonds for the top and bottom borders were handpieced together with a dark gray polyester thread. The flimsy was finished by the end of January. 

My plan was to hand quilt the KF Tumbling Block quilt even though I wasn’t looking forward to hand quilting around each diamond. After basting with big stitches, I realized that I could hand quilt with just straight lines, 1” apart which would be much easier. I used several different needles, darners, embroidery, tapestry and found the Sashiko needles the best for me and didn’t use a thimble until half of the hand quilting was done. I used Aurifil, 12 wt., Marakesh thread, purchased from The Last Homely House shop and three small spools were enough. I love how this variegated thread blended in with all of the colors. The backing was the Geranium print designed by Phillip Jacobs and has been sitting in the backing vault for at least eight year. I purchased yardage of the  red Square Dance print for the side borders and binding.  (BTW, none of the purchases mentioned are affiliate)

The KF Tumbling Block Quilt measures 52”x70”. I’m calling this an epic finish considering all the die-cutting of the paper pieces, cutting the fabrics and  basting the diamonds, hand piecing, hand basting hand quilting and hand sewing the binding, all done in three months and a day. There were lots of  TV and YouTube watching with the quilt spread out on my counter height, 4’x5’ kitchen table which helped the hand quilting—I am amazed that it took only three weeks. I like to mention that removing the hand basting was a pain and took me 3-4 hours to remove. I am experiencing hand quilting withdrawal pains after this epic finish and have now found another project to handquilt.

I did take a break several times from the KF Tumbling Block Quilt to finish a flimsy, Daydream Dicey Log Cabin which I started right after the Tumbling Block Flimsy was finished. I’ll write more about this quilt after it is finished which will be soon since it will be for the darling Granddaughter in celebration of her eighth birthday later this month.

While at the GP House, I work on the Terry Rowland 3” blocks and so far have sewn 650 of the 1000 blocks needed. I really only need 900 but I like to make extra. These blocks were fun to sew and I can’t wait to assemble them for a 90” square quilt.

There’s a new animal sharing my headspace with the squirrels; a Wooly Mammoth. (Thank you Pixar’ Ice Age for this graphic)  One of my 2025 goals is to work on wool projects since I have a fairly nice stash thanks in part to one of my Peeps, Linda. I found time during this month to reorganize the bedroom formerly belonging to Demando and now known as the Fiber Studio since it is where all my wool, yarn, roving, non quilting fabric, etc. is located. I’m thinking of starting to do some rug hooking and now have all the necessary supplies to start.

Would you believe after the Fiber Studio was reorganized, Linda gave me more wool, two bags full. I spent Saturday die-cutting and rotary cutting 1/4”, 1/2” and 1” strips for quillies and rug hooking. Thankfully I have some projects planned and one of them is to make a quillies Christmas tree. I need more since I hope to put a dent in the Wool stash.

I mentioned earlier in this Post that some of you may have not seen my January Post because at the time I changed my Blog from public to private with a custom reader list. I was trying to decide if I wanted to continue blogging and I am always wary of the high volume of overseas bot and crawler traffic on my blog. Unfortunately, the custom reader list I created did not work and only a few were able to read my last Post. I finally came up with a solution which I thought of last year and now remembered because I was procrastinating writing this Post. I have now changed my Blog back to Public again but the Posts may be fewer and farther between. I decided that I can keep track of my Projects and Finishes under the 2025 Quilts and Projects tab and will write a Post only for certain finishes. I have to confess that there was less Blog pressure when I switched to private. Hopefully, with fewer Posts, there will be less bot and crawler activity.

I almost made it through February without having purchased any new fabric. The darling Granddaughter’s father had given me a $20 gift certificate for the local quilt shop and I needed to pay an additional $10 for the four yards of fabric purchased. I mentioned to my Son that next time he gives me a certificate that he needs to add an additional zero at the end.

I hope you’re having an enjoyable Sunday.

A Nada Tada January

With just a few hours left in January, I’m finally writing a Post. This is the first January since I started blogging in 2016 that I do not have a Finally Finished, Nada, no Tada, but I was busy. The three projects in the above collage were all inspired by Kate/The Last Homely House which I will provide some details.

I was thinking that Jinny Janome, my sewing machine, would not be turned on in January but today, the last day, I decided that I would finally sew the side borders to my Kaffe Fassett Tumbling Blocks so that I could have at least a flimsy finish. I started the EPP quilt in late November after seeing the Tumbling Block quilt Kate was making with Liberty fabrics but mine was going to be made with Kaffe Fassett and larger EPP blocks. I’m pretty proud that I finished this flimsy in less than three months. I also sewed the backing today and plan on basting it this weekend so I can start hand quilting which I am pretty sure it is going to take longer than three months since it measures 58”x72”. 

It took me awhile to finally wrap my head around making the Terry Rowland 3” scrap blocks but once I started, they are addicting to sew. Normally 3” blocks are just too small but I am finding these to be rather sweet. The first batch of blocks I made were first rotary cut which definitely is not my favorite thing to do and my second batch of strips were die-cut, much faster. I sewed these blocks when I’m at the GP House and have sewn 250 of the 650 blocks needed to make a 75” square quilt.

When I was looking through my 2025 The Last Homely House Calendar in December, the photo for November caught my eye which had a mat for a teapot. Even though Kate is offering a tutorial, I couldn’t wait until November, so I went through a rabbit hole trying to find out what these mats were called and found my answers on YouTube and Pinterest. These are called standing wool mats or quillies and was just a project I needed to fulfill one of my 2025 goals to use up some of my wool stash. Last week, the Peeps and I spent a lovely day making these with 1/2” or 1” strips cut. I have to mention that most of my wool stash was gifted to me from my Peeps. The quillies are also addicting to make and I am so glad I’m finally using my wool; I’ve been checking out rug hooking on YouTube and Pinterest.

I am pretty proud that during January, I did not purchase any new fabric and hope to continue doing this, especially this is one of my 2025 goals. Also, I decided to limit my social media presence by only viewing FB and IG posts and also making my Blog private. I have a core group of twenty-five readers and have created a custom group so they can continue to read my Posts. By doing this, I am finding that I have less pressure and feeling more freer to sew whatever and not focus too much on finishes this year.