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.

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

Graphix Galaxy

Graphix Galaxy is my third Finally Finish quilt for 2025 and has unexpectedly bumped the posting of my second quilt finish which  is the birthday quilt for the Darling Granddaughter. Our plans to be at the GP House now was interrupted by the Master Quilt Holder (Hubby) continuing back problems and his needing to see the Orthopedic Surgeon for a possible Kyphoplasty procedure on his spine. The soonest he could be seen was on the Darling Granddaughter’s birthday which meant we needed to stay home for that and because he was in no condition to make the trip.  There is no way I could post her birthday quilt without a photo of her with it so hopefully there will be a joyful Post next month.

Graphix Galaxy was inspired by the Braque Quilt Pattern by Melinda Lin and I was made aware of this pattern by Kate from England. If you read my previous Posts, you will know that I have been inspired by Kate of The Last Homely House and I’m being a little cheeky here by saying not this Kate, but Smiles from Kate who inspired me to be a participant in the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers. When I saw Kate’s quilt on IG, I had to ask her if this was a pattern and she said this was the second quilt she made from the Braque pattern. My favorite quilt to make after strips and squares are ones with HSTs especially since they  can be neatly die cut. I really used my Art History Degree to good use by misreading the pattern name as Baroque which made be wonder why there were no curves in the quilt but then realized it was named after Georges Braque, a contemporary of Pablo Picasso, both of whom were pioneers in the Cubist Art Movement. A little embarrassment for me since my area of concentration was Modern Art and Architecture but in my defense my degree was earned over fifty years ago.

I knew my stash of Marcia Derse fabrics would be perfect for the Braque pattern and I’ve been wanting to use them especially since I’ve been buying her somewhat latest collections—Marble Run, Spotted  Graffiti, Random Thoughts, etc for the past years. I also added a Lonni Rossi black tone on tone print which I later decided to remove all the blocks using this print. There are four different HST blocks and I have to mention I really love making the large block on the upper left. 

My plan for making the blocks was to use the blacks, grays and lights for the large HST blocks and the bright colors for the small HSTs. I did not use the layout in the pattern because I thought my layout of just rows of HST blocks would be easier than sections of HST blocks but after multiple layouts I ended up with HST sections which made my angle-challenged mind spin or explode. My working title for this quilt was Kaboom since it seems some blasting is involved but I knew there had to be a better name which kept me up thinking what could it be. The flimsy was finished on March 15th and the plan was to maybe machine quilt it later after other flimsies and taxes were done.

It was decided the day before we were to leave for the GP House that the trip would not be made so I wanted to quilt my disappointment away by machine quilting Graphix Galaxy, even though there were other flimsies waiting, but this fit my mood. I did quadrant machine quilting which is what I call it by drawing an X across the top and then straight line machine quilt 1” apart using #2605 Steel Gray Aurifil thread. I think the diagonal quilting lines accentuate the prints and blocks. The backing was a distressed tone on tone gray print from the backing vault and the binding was a V&Co black and gray ombré stripe which I used the same print but in a different color for another Marcia Derse quilt.  Graphix Galaxy measures 64” square and the plan is to hang it in the second floor sewing studio.

Here’s some closeup pics of the wonderful prints in Graphix Galaxy. I knew I wanted this quilt to have a name referring to graphics and thought of names with comics but then remembered Demando calls them graphic novels and then thought of graphic artists having a paint ball fight. Before I chose the name Graphix Galaxy today,  I was going with Supernova which was what I wanted to call my Magical Stars quilt made last year for mmm quilts Luminous Layers QAL. Once I found out that a Supernova is not a super duper pretty star but an exploding star so I changed it to Magical Stars. I thought it was funny that I remembered the name Supernova and maybe came up with it because Sandra must have been ESPNing me since she later sent me an email alerting me of this year’s QAL and asked would I like to “preview”the pattern. Of course, so I sewed two test blocks before machine quilting Graphix Galaxy because I had some leftover quilt guilt from last year’s QAL. (I didn’t realize that I was supposed to test her pattern, just “preview” it until she announced it in an IG Post I’d made the blocks and I almost fainted in front of the Master Quilt Holder.) I understood the assignment this year and I tested the blocks with another fabric stash I’ve been collecting. I can tell you it’s another fun graphic print line and also a fun mmmake. Sandra will be announcing her new QAL on April 3rd which also happens to be her birthday.

Here’s hoping that someday I will finally make a Supernova quilt. I’m still sad that I will miss celebrating the darling Granddaughter’s birthday but it’s important that the Master Quilt Holder gets better. You will see that I only had indoor pics because I couldn’t ask MQH. Besides, it’s also very windy and cold today so maybe outdoor pics would have not been possible. And yes, I will be working on the taxes now.

Joining Kathleen McMusing/TGIFF

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

The Tell Tale Blues Quilt

I thought that my Tell Tale Blues quilt, which was one of the eight flimsies made since July, would be the one I would finally finish. This quilt was made with a Jelly Roll, last Saturday was Sew A Jelly Roll Day and I seem to be sew-lebrating with making quilts with 2.5” strips this month since The Kitty Corn Mix quilt was a finally finish earlier this month and another flimsy made which you will see later in this post. I mentioned this quilt in a July post when it was a flimsy and called it a dream/scream project: I’m thinking a better name for a project of this type would be a daydream since I worked on it for one day and then set it aside.

Like some of my quilts, I wasn’t planning to make my Tell Tale Blues quilt. Every day, I receive a memory photo feed from either Apple or Amazon, and I just so happened to receive the above photo of The Opposites 2.5” strip roll taken in October, 2020 which was when I purchased it. Of course, it prompted me to make another Staggered Strips and Bricks quilt like my Celestial Moonrise Quilt.

After pulling additional fabrics from The Opposite collection from my stash of Marcia Derse fabrics since the roll was not going to be enough, I decided to use the yardage of The Blue One which was a nice accent against the black, gray, white and natural tones of The Opposite fabrics.

Here’s a photo of my yardage of The Blue One before it was cut up into 4.5”x16.5” bricks, both horizontally and vertically.

Lessons learnt from the making of The Celestial Moonrise quilt on the right was applied to The Tell Tale Blues quilt. I wish I had more of the blue fabric since I think it almost gets lost against the black, grays, white and natural and not liking it too much after the flimsy was finished. It sort of looks “spooky” doesn’t it, which how I came up with the name because thumping sounds and Edgar Allen Poe came into mind as I was sewing this late into the night.

I had the perfect backing for The Tell Tale Blues quilt which was my last piece of IKEA’s 2010 Beckmans of Design print which fits the spooky feel. Even though the backing was 60” wide, I still had to sew additional strips on the side to accommodate the width of this quilt.

I was happy with my choice of using #4060 Aurifil thread for the top since it blended nicely with all of the colors and silver was used for the bottom.

Here’s some close-ups of the fabrics and the machine quilting of straight and wavey lines. For the binding, I used leftovers from The Blue One along with additional blue prints from the Marcia Derse stash. The Tell Tale Blues quilt measures 60”x80”(approx.). 

It was just a little bit windy this morning when an outside photo was taken and the Master Quilt Holder had no problems holding it up. It looks so pretty in the morning light.

Before The Tell Tale Blues quilt was a finally finished, I worked on another daydream project for several days with my 2.5” strips leftover from previous Staggered Strips and Squares quilts. Once this is quilted, I’ll have more details but wanted to show you a pic of the Master Quilt Holder and the Apprentice Quilt Holder who both were needed to hold up this 80”x92” flimsy. The Apprentice Quilt Holder is leaving the Nest which means he may not be around much to help hold up the quilts. I don’t think this was an incentive for him to finally move but it sure is nice for me to have his old bedroom for another creative space. BTW, this quilt will be for the bed which will still remain.

We’ll be heading to the GP house tomorrow where the darling Granddaughter will be babysitting us for a week. Trips to the Zoo and Pumpkin Patch are planned and maybe a little chance of some sewing and knitting.  Upon our return, some home reorganization and makeover will definitely keep Hubby and I busy.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Postcard from Sweden sQALrrel

I started the New Year off with having no set plans or projects; just to continue participating in the 2021/22 Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge and the yearly mmm Quilts Celebrating a Famous Canadian Birthday QAL which usuallly starts in April. Apparently now, I’m participating in two of Sandra’s QAL this year having just finished my Postcard from Sweden quilt. This one was really done under the auspices of a sQALrrel lead by madammmenabler my latest name for you know who.

I had just finished my flimsy for January’s CT UFO Challenge and had a few days to make another Brown Bear quilt for the darling Granddaughter before we left for the GP House, but what did my wondering eyes happened to see on IG on January 10th that Sandra was hosting another Postcard from Sweden QAL starting on January 16th. For a brief minute, I sort of shrugged it off having participated in the first QAL and thinking I didn’t need another one since I’m not a big fan of making quilts with solid color fabric. (You can see and read the details from the first PFS quilt Here.) But then my mind got to thinking of other possibilities this quilt could be made with like, Grunge or other tone on tone fabrics which I’ve amassed during the last months of 2021 but then realized that the latest Postcard from Sweden (PFS) quilt would be so interesting in Marcia Derse fabrics which I’ve been collecting for over ten years. I still had the pattern, fabric cards I made of the Kaffe Fassett Shot Cottons and Peppered Cottons used for the first PFS quilt and the extra HSTs leftover which came in handy so rather than waiting to start on the official start date, I wanted to start right away to see if my idea of using prints would work. 

The color cards helped in in choosing which Marcia Derse fabrics were similar to the Shot Cotton/Peppered Cotton used before and I did not limit my selection to just solids but also included prints which I thought would add an interesting look to my second PFS quilt. (I might add thatI did this when I should have been working on the Brown Bear II Quilt of which I’m saying I took a brief “Paws”.) The original PFS quilt used 36 different fabrics but for PFS II I used 46 different fabrics since there were some Marcia Derse fabrics which I didn’t have enough of and used Shot and Peppered cotton HST leftovers of the same color number and mixed it with that. I did have to resort using one Lonni Rossi print for the one color I still didn’t have enough so there is one color number which uses three different prints which makes PFS II so interesting.

Even though the QAL did not officially start until January 16th, my blocks were finished by the 13th, right before leaving for the GP House with the Brown Bear II quilt in tow. I made my blocks one at a time to make sure the correct fabric was in the right place and the seams were pressed in the right direction. I normally walk over to the ironing board which is a few feet away to press but decided to purchase a TV tray to make an ironing station next to  my sewing machine in order to keep my blocks straight and to save time—what a difference.

Sandra “egg-couraged” me by saying that my PFS quilt would probably be finished by the 18th but only the flimsy was. It could have been done if we didn’t go to the GP House and although it would have been tempting to stay home it wasn’t enough for me to give up seeing my darling Granddaughter even though she had a cold/cough. Fortunately, we returned home with our health in check and the PFS II quilt was a finally finished on the 20th.

Like the first PFS Quilt, machine quilting was done with wavey lines, 1” apart and a CT Essential Thread in Magenta was used. While sewing this quilt, I was worried about the binding since I knew I did not have any yardage of a Marcia Derse fabric I could used but fortunately last year I inadvertently ordered a yard of V&Company ombré woven fabric in Magenta which worked well with this quilt.