Up To Sew Good In December

Even though there there is more than a week left in December, I am ready to call it a month since we will be leaving for the GP House to spend Christmas the darling Granddaughter and her father whose birthday is the day after. In my last Post,  I mentioned that the only goal I had for December was  to finish my secret sewing project which I did. I also finished the two wall quilts, which were an unexpected make, plus a BFF (Big Flimsy Finish).

First up are the two wall quilts made using MMMquilts Arabesque Pattern which Sandra recently released. Back in mid November, Sandra had asked if I would like to test this pattern but I was unable to with the upcoming holidays plus needing to finish my secret sewing project, so I said I would be available to sew it in January. She did find other Testers so she could release the Arabesque patttern and sent it to me in early December. What caught my eye was she mentioned that a smaller version could be made with fewer rounds which I knew I could make if I had the right fabrics. Several days later,  I made the two wall quilts with fabric found in the Holiday stash. At first I was tempted to use traditional prints, Robyn Pandolph’s Cottage Rose Christmas but I already had a quilt made with these fabrics and wanted to use more modern prints with the Arabeque pattern

The first quilt I made, not surprisingly, was with Halloween prints. I already had made two Halloween quilts in October and would have made more if I didn’t need to make Christmas quilts. When I was putting away the Halloween fabrics, I found two Ruby Star Society Halloween prints which I wished I had used and remember them and thought they would work well with the Arabesque pattern.

I will mention that I did make a few changes with the pattern by using strips of a colorful print instead of making pieced rows. I based the colors used for this quilt on the Lil Monsters print by Melody Miller. I do love the Pumpkin print from the Spooky Darling fabric lines designed by Alexa Abregg and used it twice by adding a border. I named this quilt Happy FAlloweenGiving since I thought this could be hung up until after Thanksgiving and I wouldn’t mind seeing these little monsters around my dinner table. The only fabric which isn’t a Ruby Star Society print is the black and white stripe used for the binding. I machine quilted with my favorite quadrant straight lines using #2600 Aurifil Silver thread. Happy FWG quilt measures 34” square and was a very fast make.

I enjoyed making the Happy FWG quilt so much that I made another one using mostly Basic Grey Christmas prints.  I named this one Wild Winter and is more seasonal than just Christmas and could hang on the wall until the Valentine quilts are hung. It’s already has a place in the Family Room wall.

I found two prints, the red deer and black stripe multi color dots from the Jovial fabric line, which I now wish I purchased more than the 1/2 yardage, since I love the other prints from this line. I thought these would work along with other Grunge prints plus the multi-color Hoffman Zoo Keeper print. I made it the same way as the Happy FWG quilt but machine quilted it differently with diagonal lines in two different directions and in the ditch. I used #6001 Aurifil Yellow/Gold thread. (On a side note, when I was in my black fabric bin looking for a backing, right underneath the metallic gold/black fabric I chose, was the black print I was searching for mentioned a few post ago—spooky and no salty language used) Winter also measures 34” square. I really like the Arabesque pattern and planning on making more seasonal wall quilts. It’s nice to be able to have a finished quilt in one or two days; definitely easier to machine quilt a 34” square quilt.

As mentioned before in the Post, my secret sewing project is finished but the quilt won’t be revealed until next year. It definitely is one of my Top Three Challenges for 2025.

In my September Post, I mentioned my Messy Hexies project which I have been working on and off for over eight years. I wanted to have a flimsy made by the end of the year and I am excited that I met this goal. I really love it now and I wasn’t planning on making this 75”x85”. This definitely will be machine quilted with straight and diagonal lines since I don’t want to add another eight years by hand quilting it.

I am looking forward to spending the last days of December celebrating the holidays with family and friends. If I do write another Post before the end of the year, it will probably be a recap of my quilt projects and my future plans for 2026. I know I have plenty of projects to keep me busy and hoping my studio squirrels wont find any new ones. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 

A Razzle Dazzle Finish

Let me start this Post by saying how much I love my Razzle Dazzle quilt which I finished just less than two months after the flimsy was made in late July. I love the Ruby Star fabrics and the Razzle Dazzle pattern of 18” blocks with a fun twist on a Churn Dash block. I think this quilt lives up to the definition of Razzle Dazzle which means “noisy, showing exciting activity displayed and designed to attract and impress.”

The fabric and pattern are from the Fat Quarter Shop’s Ruby Star Society Quarterly Club I received earlier this year. I belong to several Fat Quarter Shop Clubs and do have to admit that I love receiving monthly or quarterly shipments of fabric. However, there has only been very few times that I actually have made a project using both the pattern and fabrics. When I received this pattern with the 12 fat quarter bundle of fabric from the Linear Floradora and Petunia collections, I knew I wanted to make this quilt because the fabric was fun plus I love big blocks especially when I can die-cut all of the patches. I did make one slight change to the pattern by not using a solid light as shown but instead I paired the fabrics with other fabrics, mostly lights, I had in my Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society stash. This made for a very low contrast or “mush” as I call it and like how busy Razzle Dazzle looks.

The only challenge I had was making sure all of the blocks were made and laid out correctly which was sometimes difficult to determine because of the many prints used.

All of my fabric combinations for each block were fun but the above two are my favorite. You wouldn’t think that a color combination of gold, red orange, lilacs and pinks would work but it does.

Machine quilting with both straight and wavey lines using a medium gray Aurifil thread went well until I was thinking this quilt was Razzle Dazzle with No Frazzle. Then, of course afterwards, came a few rows have tiny puckers here and there. You can’t see them but I know where they are. The backing is a Robert Kaufman wide back print. Surprisingly, one of my favorite parts of my quilt is the gold stripe binding which is a Ruby Star Society Warp and Weft print and was not my first choice. I was going to use a fuchsia print from  another Ruby Star Society collection but decided it wouldn’t look bold enough against the warm prints and glad I found the gold stripe binding in my stash. Razzle Dazzle measures 54” x 72”.

Now that Razzle Dazzle is my second finish for September, I am ready for my next project. I didn’t realize until a few days ago that September 16th is National Sew a Jelly Roll Day. I thought it wasn’t until next weekend which meant I would be at the GP House. I was already planning on making a Ernie Quilt in memory of  Mary Etherington’s beloved American Farm Tiger cat, Ernie.

Mary Etherington designed the first Ernie Quilt which was made with a Denyse Schmidt Jelly Roll back in 2016. Here is the link to Her Post.

I will be making a variation of an Ernie Quilt called Rambling Rows and you can purchase this pattern by sending a check for $5 with a self addressed stamped envelope to Mary Etherington, 2343 Palm Avenue, Garner IA 50438. (Not an affiliate link). Once I make my version, I already know that there will be an explanation behind my quilt. Hopefully, I will be able to explain next week.