It all started with #7 being pulled for July’s Country Threads Dirty Dozen Challenge which for me was to finish making a Fat Quarter Mixer quilt which I had already cut the patches last year from a stash of Jan Patek prints which I was saving for several years. Somehow I ended up finishing five projects with my much loved Jan Patek (JP) stash and/or UFOs. (I would like to mention for the ease of writing this Post, I’m typing JP fabrics even though some of the fabrics were designed with Linda Brannock up until 2016). I’ve been collecting JP fabrics since I started quilting over twenty-five years ago and have accumulated a bit of a stash which I still dearly love, Thank You working in a quilt shop days. I’ve now made 17 quilts with JP fabrics and also have quite a few of her books and patterns.
As mentioned earlier, my July project was to finish making a Fat Quarter Mixer quilt measuring 72”x 84” with these JP fabrics, a mixture of her earlier and recent collections. I already had cut patches to make 63 8-1/2”x 12-1/2” blocks which is smaller than the pattern which is 10-1/2”x15-1/2” blocks. My plan changed when I realized that I didn’t want or needed a quilt this size to just sit on my shelf.
Instead, I made two quilts; a 56”X72” lap quilt which is my official #7 finish for the Dirty Dozen Challenge and a 24”x72” chair runner. Both of these will be for my family room and will be perfect for Fall. FYI, this is the fourth time, I have made a Fat Quarter Mixer quilt which I find perfect for the traditional and modern fabrics I have in my stash. I still have four bundles waiting to be made with this pattern. It is a free pattern available from Material Girl Quilts and you can easily modify the block size.
The lap quilt was machine quilt with vertical straight and wavy lines using a Star Thread in Gold. The gold print was found in the backing vault and I was lucky to also find there the red and tan ticking stripe used for the binding.
The chair runner was machine quilted with straight lines spaced 1” apart using Star Thread in Mother Goose. The same backing and binding used in the lap quilt was also used for the chair runner which makes sense since they are a set. I like to mention that I love how the machine quilting looks with Star Thread which I think is a 30 wt (not an affiliate link) and sadly I can’t seem to find any more colors.
After finishing the first two JP projects, I was tidying up a shelf and found two more JP projects, one forgotten and one on my Dirty Dozen Project List for several years; can you guess which is which?
The chair runner, on the left, measuring 24”x48” was made with leftover patches from the Pinwheel quilt made in 2007. The chair runner was a flimsy made well over ten years ago and I had forgotten making. This happens when it was neatly folded under a piece of JP fabric which has been sitting in a basket for awhile. Since I was putting away my JP fabrics I thought it was time to put away this piece of fabric and voila’, there was the flimsy. I thought it would be nice to finally finish it, so the JP fabric, which was sitting on top of it, was used for the backing and the red and tan ticking stripe was used for the binding. I machine quilted horizontal straight and wavy lines using Star Thread Mother Goose. This chair runner will be for the GP House. I have to mention there was a time when I remember all of Jan Patek fabric lines and now I only can name a few. The red border print for both of these quilts were from Linda Brannock and her Porch Swing fabric line and I remember buying a fat quarter bundle. A funny side story is I was hemming and hawing about buying it, so I called Good Quilt Friend Carol to talk me out of buying it and her response was I already bought it so then I had to buy the fat quarter bundle too. There is no guilt in buying fabric when a good friend also buys the same fabric with you.
The Telly Star wall hanging was finally finished after I found the block made two years ago when Mary Etherington’s dog Telly passed away in May, 2024. I’ve met this sweet girl several times and thought I make this remembrance of her. The dog was appliqued on a black Buggy Barn block which was sewn wrong. If you’re wondering why this would be considered Jan Patek, the dog is her pattern. I did use several Sandy Gervais prints for the border which I thought would be okay since back in my favorite days of Moda fabrics which were in the late 90’s and early 2000’s (the same time frame as my working in a quilt shop). Sandy Gervais was Moda’s oldest designer and Jan Patek was the second oldest. I’m talking being a Moda designer and not their age now. Also, another side note, is Jan Patek and Mary Etherington are friends and Jan gave Mary the goat who may have been the father of Susannah, the famous Country Threads goat.
My fifth and last JP project was a surprise UFO and the largest finish of the year so far; I’ve named it the Black Bear Patchwork Blanket which you will read later why this name was chosen. Two years ago, I started making rail fence blocks which ended up 15”x18” (finished) and I made 36 of them in my favorite color combination of Red, Beige, Black and Sage, the official colors of the GP House. This was on my UFO project list and should have finished it in June but a different project was chosen. My original plan was to make a king size quilt measuring 108”x90” for the GP House and I would QAYG like my Gypsy King quilt. As much as I love quilts on the bed, to me, they are not warm and snuggly like what I call Patchwork Throws when there’s no batting in between and the backing is a plush fabric. I decided a patchwork blanket is what I wanted so the 36 blocks were laid out and sewn together. I was prepared to spend $60-70 for the plush backing but could not find anything I liked; I wanted either red or black. I then had an idea to purchase a $25 king size Toasty Warm Blanket in black from Walmart who used to carry my favorite David Textile chenille plush. The blanket was chenille-like with the lines running horizontal like the rail blocks. I was nervous about doing this since the blanket was supposed to be the same size as the flimsy and centering is a challenge for me. It turned out to be 2” skinnier because it was hemmed and since this was a blanket and may be covered by the quilt already on the bed, I was prepared to trim the sides of the flimsy after the machine quilting. It was good that the blanket was longer so the corners, which were bulky, were able to be trimmed. Otherwise the hemming on the sides were not bulky and easy to sew the binding over. I did cut my binding strips 3” and used a red JP print which I had yardage in my stash.
The Black Bear Patchwork Blanket was hung outside the screen room. I am really pleased with how it turned out and I would do this again. I did have some trepidation doing this and I really thought it would not be finished until the 31st but it turned out it was a finish on the 29th. I machine quilted vertical straight lines along each side of the 6” rail blocks with a gold polyester thread. My original plan was to use a black polyester thread but it did not sew well. I’m glad I switched to the gold and wasn’t concerned with how it would look against the black plush.
And here’s the Master Quilter Holder, who would not stand like Vanna White, showing off the beautiful black plush backing. The reason I named it Black Bear because it’s a big blanket, soft and heavy and I called it that after carrying it back and forth from the table to the sewing machine several times. And there was some wrestling or maneuvering during the machine quilting and was glad to have survived. The machine quilting took only around four hours but the pin basting took an entire afternoon and some evening hours. I am looking forward to sleeping under it this Winter, definitely not now with all of the hot weather we’re having.
I still have several JP projects to be made but I think I need to take a break now. I did take some JP scraps to the GP House to make some placemats so they may be made in August when the darling Granddaughter will be babysitting us for a week.
Besides my five JP finishes, I have another finish which was my first one made in July. I needed a Summer door hanging for the GP House and had bundled some Ruby Star Society prints last year. This door hanging measures 30”x48” and I’ve named it True Concessions because of all of the fun and yummy prints.
True Concessions and the Washi Tape Salute wall hanging finished in March are now hanging in the niche in the dining room at the GP House where the darling Granddaughter spends mucho time watching videos and coloring. I am liking that many of the quilts this year are being hung or used and not sitting on a shelf.
With six finishes for July, I am ready to call it a month. But, I am enjoying the last day planning my next quilt which will be, I can’t believe I’m typing this during another heat wave, this year’s darling Granddaughter’s Christmas/Winter Patchwork Blanket. Yes, I ordered more Toasty Warm Blankets, one gray and one pink, and yes, both are for her. But then, another Fat Quarter Mixer quilt might distract me as well as the new number pulled for August’s Dirty Dozen Challenge.
