May’s Makes

Before the start of May, I already had plans to work on two of the above finishes and it was serendipitous when the project number for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge was announced since I already began working on it. As for the other two, I’ll provide the details later in this Post which give you an idea why these Finally Finishes gave me a mixed bag of feelings.

The first quilt, American Jane Wheels, is the one Finally Finished which has the most “splaining” was started in 2014 and was my #4 for the UFO Challenge. I saw a Wheel Block on Pinterest and thought this would be a good road project since I just retired and planning to do a lot of traveling by car. My favorite road project is EPP and maybe knitting. At that time, I had a lot of American Jane fabrics in my stash which weren’t being used so I thought these fabrics would be perfect. I first purchased a package of Coffin paper pieces which I thought were more interesting than Dresden Plate blades and ended up making my own from index cards which were the same size and just needed the corners trimmed. My plan for this quilt was to make it with all wheels but I must have lost interest soon after I made only five Wheels which measure approximately 15”.

This project has been on my UFO lists for the past several years; the Wheels have been stored in a new pizza box carton which a friend purchased from a restaurant supply store on top of a shelf marked as “AJ Wheels”. It bugged me every time I passed under it which would be every time I was in my studio and let’s say the Studio Squirrels finally threw it down. I hated to waste the Wheels and finally decided on a  quick and easy finish just using four out of the five wheels appliquéd on a plain square and cutting 3.5” squares from the American Jane stash for the alternate block.

As simple as this quilt looks, there was a lot of preparation for the appliquéd blocks which is why I started working on this quilt before it was announced as the one I would work on in May. First, I had to remove all of the paper pieces from the five Wheels. Then I had to decide on how to make the circle for the center in which I made a simple block with a center square which would fit underneath the Wheels and then appliqué was ready to sew. BTW, this is the one block that I did not use for the quilt. At first, my intention was to trim these squares down to 18” but didn’t like the empty areas and decided to trim them down to 15” to make a 45” square quilt instead. Also in my plan, was to use all five Wheels, with one being in the center but thought I wanted this quilt to be easy machine quilting and didn’t want to machine quilt over the appliquéd blocks so four Wheels are only on the outside edges.

For the centers of the Wheels and the binding, I used a recently purchased yard of a current American Jane print navy blue plaid and glad I had it in my stash to finish this quilt. I like to mention that one of the problems with making 45” square quilt is having to make the backing which is a wee bit larger than 44/45” width of fabric. I used a blue Debbie Mumm print from the backing vault along with a leftover strip from the American Jane scraps. I have mixed feelings about this quilt as to the machine quilting and whether I should have not trimmed the appliquéd blocks to 15” as it looks a little too close to the alternate blocks. For now it’s a wall hanging but later can be a table topper or maybe a floor quilt once the newness wears away. I am just glad that there is no more danger of a pizza box being thrown at me and I have a new road project with the leftover Coffin paper pieces; I think there maybe at least a hundred. Coincidentally, before I found the leftover pieces, I saw a quilt on Pinterest using these pieces and didn’t realize I had the makings. It seems like an American Jane year with the Wheels quilt being the third quilt made this year with her fabrics. No worries about running out of American Jane fabrics because several years ago, Mary Etherington gifted me with all of her leftover American Jane fabrics, some of which appears in the alternative blocks.

Speaking of Mary, I had plans to finally finish my Fresh Air quilt; the flimsie was made almost a year ago. The reason why the American Jane Wheel Quilt wasn’t made a 54” square to hang in the Kitchen dining area because I wanted Fresh Air to a hang there instead.

A little background on my Fresh Air quilt which is a pattern from Mary Etherington and ConnieTesene’s Fresh Start Quilt book published in 2022. I briefly mentioned the Flimsy in this Post and can now provide a few more details. Twenty-five pieced blocks were made using mostly Amanda Herring’s Ardently Austen fabric line and Brenda Ratlif’s One Room Schoolhouse and Pie-Making Day fabric lines along with various low volume prints from my stash. I pre-cut all of the blocks and packaged them individually. It was my favorite flimsy finish from June/2025 and I was so looking forward to quilting it with straight horizontal lines like Mary did.

My Fresh Air quilt is my saddest finish for May as the machine quilting did not go as planned. I ended up machine quilting wavey horizontal lines and had several problems doing this for reasons entirely my fault, I forgot to check the bobbin tension and remove the walking foot guide once I decided not to sew horizontal straight lines. This caused some distortion and  I ended up removing twenty-five lines of machine quilting but should have removed all of them. Lesson learned; you may not want to machine quilt horizontal lines if the quilt has sashing and just stop once a problem is first notices as it doesn’t quilt away. I ended up purchasing a new walking foot after this quilt was finished. I did hang it up even though I was sad looking at it first but  now have accepted the wonkiness. It’s what a call an “Izzy”, it is what it is and can make me happy or sad. My Fresh Air quilt measures 64” and like the American Jane Wheels quilt may someday grace the floor or ground.

To save the month of May’s mixed feelings was the unexpected Finally Finished of my Simple Smitten quilt which were leftover paper pieces of my Smitten Quilt started and finished in 2017. I started sewing the leftover papers as a road project for our Yosemite vacation in September, 2024 and made only a few blocks. I resumed this project in March of this year, pieced thirty-two blocks and fourteen side blocks and finished the flimsy several weeks ago. I can’t believe I made this within two months and it just proves that I watch a lot of TV or worked on it while at the GP House.

My plan for Simple Smitten was as the name suggested, to make a simpler version of Smitten with just simple hexagon blocks made with diamonds and equilateral triangle and a scrap vortex layout. If I wasn’t set on naming this quilt Simple Smitten, Smitten Skelter would have been  appropriate  The other blocks were leftovers from Smitten. I did not want to make another Smitten quilt which is what I call fancy with the hand quilting but a functional quilt with vertical machine quilting and I am so glad this went as planned.

I knew I could make Simple Smitten a Finally Finish sooner than later with finding the perfect backing of a red/dark pink and navy blue ticking stripe in the backing vault. Better yet, was finding the navy dot print used for the binding in the Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society stash. Vertical straight line machine  quilting, 1” apart with an Aurifil silver thread went smooth, especially with the brand new walking foot. Simple Smitten measures 52” x 76”, a nice size throw to snuggle with no worries.

I have to show the leftover block from the Smitten quilt which I thought best represented my long friendship with good Quilt Friend Carol and thought of making a small wall hanging commemorating this but instead used it in Simple Smitten. Would you believe in no less than 48 hours after I put away the paper pieces and fabrics, I am starting another quilt which I’m calling Smitten Says. I will be using some of the leftover diamond pieces from Simple Smitten and maybe making only hexagon blocks using three diamonds. I am cutting new Damond patches from Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society scraps. I’ve grown fond of EPP and hand piecing while watching TV plus we’ll be on a road trip in September.

All of the three quilts were finished with still ten days remaining in May and I thought I could  sewqueeze another Finally Finished and made the ginormous backing but then decided to take it easy since I had to prepare for leaving to the GP House. I know upon my return I have to get ready for the mmm quilts Lyra QAL parade and need to finish my two Lyra Quilts. I have one flimsy done and the second one, which is Lyra pattern #2 and commemorates Artemis Moon Mission still needed to be sewn. I decided it would be less stressful if the flimsy was finished before I left. I just love this version and look forward to finishing it. I’m going to be busy in June with my upcoming Parade Post plus the revealing of last year’s secret sewing project.

I’m ready to call May a month now with a FB PosI saw: “I just realized why this month is called May; It may rain, it my snow, it may be 70 degrees  or it may be 20 degrees.”  I still haven’t switched over to my Spring/Summer bed quilts and decor yet. Maybe I can finally switch over when we return from the GP house; it’ll be June and this is the longest I ever had to wait for the warm weather to arrive.

Awesome April

I was surprised as I am writing this Post, that I never used the Awesome April title  before during my almost ten years of blogging. Maybe because I never had such a busy April involving both quilting and personal activities, such as, Hubby and I celebrating our 52nd Wedding Anniversary, Hubby’s hernia operation with subsequent doctor visits, a dexa scan for last year’s back issues (good news is his monthly injections for his osteoporosis is working), a wedding shower for a Grandniece who received my Folklore Prairie Rambling Rows & Bars Quilt, just one visit to the GP House, band gigs, etc. My other title choice would have been “Why the Tip of My Right Thumb Hurts” which I am happy to explain with the three Finally Finishes (two UFOs and one DrEAMi), one Flimsy, 30+ Simple Smitten blocks,, etc.

My main focus for the month is always the project for Country Threads 2026 Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge and my Glitter quilt is the one I listed for April.

This is a Jen Kingwell pattern (insert my trembling here) which I started almost five years ago with my good quilt friend, Carol. The. Glitter quilt was featured in the Quilt Lovely book published in 2015. I already have made a Flutterby Quilt in  2016/17 from this book and after relooking at it I am thinking there are other quilts I  would like to make but only the ones with simple patches. There were 96 blocks for Glitter but I only made 40 because I was getting tired of sewing together the EPP patches. Plus, since I was using Jen Kingwell fabrics, I needed them for my Wensleydale Quilt finished in 2024. 

I made plans to make a wallhanging with the forty Glitter blocks with sashing and cornerstones which would have measured approximately 36”x72” to hang on one of the bedroom doors and it sat on the shelf for over a year. Once I knew this was my project to finish in April, I made a layout change because I didn’t want the wallhanging to be so large since I had another wall in the house in mind for it. I decided to skip the sashing and corners to make it only 21”x56” wallhanging.

I have to give a shout-out to my dear Downunder torMentor, Susan,  PatchworknPlay, who I knew made a Glitter quilt years ago and she spent several hours looking for a pic to send me for inspiration. There was no way I could duplicate what she did with her beautiful quilting.

Once  the blocks were trimmed, laid out and sewn together, I  finally liked the blocks and maybe wished I had made more. For the backing, I used the Crazy Mom’s Radiator print which I originally planned to use for the sashing. I machine quilted with straight lines along the block edges using CT Essential Thread in Parchment. The binding was a black tone on tone stripe found in the binding drawer.

I love seeing this quilt when I walk from the kitchen to the front hallway; it reminds me of a stain glass window. It was a perfect size for this wall and I need to remember this measurement so I can make future wallhangings for this space. BTW, Carol finished her Glitter quilt and also made a small wallhanging.

Since I finished Glitter by the end of the first week, I decided I would finish another project from my UFO machine quilting list and it was the Primrose Inn Bundle Buster flimsy made last year. 

A quick recap here is that the fabric is Blackbird Designs Old Primrose Inn fabric line and was sitting in my stash for well over five years. I had a Designer Packet from Fat Quarter Shop of twelve fat quarters along with a charm pack and yardage and the perfect pattern to  use  was Quilting Jet Girl Bundle Buster.  I made ten quilts with this pattern using both modern and traditional fabrics and is easy to modify. Last year, I made four Bundle Buster quilts but two of them were made incorrectly. I had assumed I knew the pattern well but realized after I made two of them, I left out a strip from each block. So, I made two more correctly and both have been in a flimsy state since last August. Old Primrose Inn was one of them and measures 72”x90” because I wanted to use up as much of the fabrics as possible and I was not looking forward to finishing it. But, I persisted, sewed the large backing from yardage found in the backing vault, cut the batting twice (first one was cut the wrong size) and spent hours pin basting it. I’m happy to say the machine quilting horizontal wavey lines,spaced 2” apart,  with Star Thread in Mother Goose went well. It took way less time than preparing Old Primrose Inn for machine quilting. I had the foresight when I purchased yardage of the fabric to include some for the binding which I needed 5/8 yard of the teal mini check. I learned that when you decide to make a large quilt it should include how you want to bind the quilt, by hand or by machine. I sewed the binding down by hand and maybe the final straw as to why the tip of my right thumb hurts. This quilt was the last of the three finishes so I need to show the other makes which came in between the first and last Finally Finishes.

Right after I finished Glitter, I received an email from Sandra, mmmquilts, about her Lyra QAL. I look forward to participating in her annual QALs honoring her late father, the Famous Canadian and knowing me as the Rebel in her QALs sent me the pattern to “test” it. I will write more about my flimsy which I have named Gammma Galaxy on my June 15th Parade post and there will be a confession and thoughts on participating in all of Sandra’s QALs and more. I also would like to mention I will be providing “proof” soon that I can absolutely follow a pattern without making any changes.

While my studio was in an uproar twice in finding fabrics which would be perfect for the two (now three) patterns for the Lyra quilt, I came across the leftover fabrics from my Frisky Quilt and now have a DrEAMi quilt which I’ve named Frisky Business. The Frisky Quilt finished last August was made from a fat eighth bundle of Zen Chic Frisky fabric which I did not use any of the light fabrics. Also leftover from this quilt were approximately 2” wide strips of the dark prints used.

Looking through my pattern files, I found Emily Dennis, Quilty Love, Cake Dash pattern which was perfect for the leftovers.  I also had a layer cake of Frisky and used only the dark prints for the plain blocks offsetting the Cake Dash blocks. This was a fast and easy make but is a little bit more on the light side as I would have liked but I do love this fabric line.

Like the Frisky quilt before, I was unsure as to how to machine quilt Frisky Business. Once I got over my trepidation in machine quilting horizontal straight lines over the vertical rail blocks, it was a breeze with the 1” inch lines spaced apart with the same CT Essential Thread in Marigold. I used the same gold homespun fabric for the backing as with the Frisky Quilt. I didn’t have enough of the fabric used for the Frisky binding and used instead Zen Chic Spotted Zebra print in Orange Cheeky.

Both Frisky and Frisky Business measures 56”x72” and make quite a cute pair to hang over the high back chairs in the living room. Would you believe I still have enough leftover fabrics to make a wall hanging for a certain wall in the hallway. I have to say it again, I really love the Frisky fabric line, especially the large focus print.

Along with hand sewing the binding down on the three quilts mentioned above, I hand pieced 30+ Simple Smitten blocks and have started sewing them together to make another Smitten Quilt.

And if the Simple Smitten blocks weren’t enough hand stitching, I also have more hexie blocks and slow stitching an Asian cheater print during my GP House and doctor visits. All of the projects mentioned here and above are the reasons why the tip of my right thumb hurts but it’s a good hurt, right?

And now to finally end this rather long Post on a funny note, if you remember my making of Spider Balls in 2023, I came up with an idea of making Big Balls with the leftover trims from batting and fabrics. They’re the size of an orange or baseball and definitely not pet friendly. I am using one for a pin cushion  and the rest are looking cute in a black metal basket. I might come up with a better name for these but rather like telling Hubby that I have big balls. Also, I do have the supply to make more of these and can do it while I’m watching TV—like I need another project to keep my hands and right thumb busy. We’re leaving for the GP House tomorrow which is why my April Post is a few days early. Really, I can’t write another thing for April.