JEN-mini June

Besides all of the celebrations and participating in the Luminous Layers QAL, my June plans also included finally finishing the two Jen Kingwell Flimsy Mates, Wensleydale and Mazed made last Summer. I thought it would be fun to give a little twist to Jen’s name since these quilts are somewhat twins both made with Jen Kingwell(JK) fabrics, it’s the month of Gemini/June and I do like alliteration in my titles. Looking at these two quilts together, it represents the gamut of my quilting style from time consuming/difficult to fast/easy. No surprise that I’m also a Gemini. I have to mention that the Master Quilt Holder is experiencing some sciatica pain unrelated to quilt holding and the Apprentice Quilt Holder who lives next door at the GP House was able to assist in holding up the Wensleydale Quilt.

With my blessing, you've may have already seen my Wensleydale Quilt on Grace and Peace Quilting Blog since Nancy did a wonderful job of machine quilting. She really put the WOW into this quilt and I appreciate it so much. The Wensleydale flimsy was finished last summer and it sat while I was thinking that I was going to handquilt it like Jen Kingwell and others’ did like my tormentor from downunder, who introduced me to Jen Kingwell’s patterns, Sue/PatchworknPlay. I even purchased bamboo batting but still the flimsy sat on my cart. Meanwhile, I always see the lovely machine quilting Nancy does and finally realized I needed to send her my flimsy. Even though I’m happy to machine quilt with my easy straight line and wavy quilting, my Wensleydale deserved much better since I spent almost nine months foundation piecing it. Nancy already has machine quilted two of my quilts and I knew I could trust her with my labor of Jen Kingwell. As much as I love clamshell and wishbone quilting, I wanted angular lines and was happy to find Diamond Dance pattern on her list. Nancy was even kind to do a test run of this pattern on one of her own quilts. Plus while machine quilting Wensleydale, Nancy found two blocks whose seams were opened, probably from removing the foundation paper, and avoided a major disaster if the foot would have been caught under it.

Here’s a collage showing all of the fabrics used in Wensleydale, maybe a few were added later, which were mostly Jen Kingwell fabrics and a few blenders from my Tula Pink and modern stash.  Wensleydale is the fourth JK pattern (Gypsy Wife (Modified), Flutterby, Smitten) I’ve made and the first one using her fabrics. Just for my record, I’m listing all of the JK fabrics used: Gardenvale, Looking Forward, Low Volume/Behind the Scenes, Lollies, Grainline Woven, Wiki-Pops, Remix, Speck, Circulus,  Fine & Sunny, Beach Road, and Lookout, did I miss a few? I didn’t realize all of the fabric lines I purchased, either by precuts (charm packs, jelly rolls and one fat quarter bundle, can you guess which line) and yardage-I love how well they went together.

Here’s a close-up of some of the blocks which each one used five different fabrics. When planning this quilt, I made sure half of the sixty blocks included black/gray fabrics and that some of the blocks were on the quiet side to offset some of the “show-off” blocks. I considered making more blocks and good Quilt Friend Carol who started making Wensleydale at the same time offered me her leftover foundation paper but I politely declined. I need to find out how many of her blocks she finished since she is part of the reason why I made Wensleydale.

Another collage so you can see the backing, which I will admit I did not match and the wonderful machine quilting using Glide-Nickel. The binding was a black/gray stripe by QuiltGate which nicely accented all of the fabrics in Wensleydale. Of course, I had to hand sew the binding which really didn’t take too long and another way to enjoy looking at the fabrics some more. Another added bonus, when Nancy does the machine quilting, are the lovely photos she take of your quilt on her deck. Be sure to check out her Post so you can see more photos of my Wensleydale, She really helped to make this quilt a treasure which will soon be hanging on my wall.

After my Wensleydale flimsy was finished, I made my Mazed quilting using a JK jelly roll of Fine and Sunny along with a few of her gray and black prints. The Mazed pattern is designed by Running Doe Quilts and I did make it larger by increasing the size to 60”x84”.

I really love the Mazed pattern which can be purchased from Villa Rosa Designs (not an affiliate link), especially because it useds 2.5” strips. It was the perfect pattern to sew-recover after Wenslydale.

The backing used was yardage of purchased in Maine last year and was just perfect for Mazed.  I have been wanting to machine quilt with just straight vertical lines which is what I did 3/4” apart using Aurifil silver thread. I quilted the straight lines using the seam lines as a guide and eye-balling the other lines since my ViviLux laser light didn’t sit right on Jinny Janome, which is why my straight lines are really wonky. The Robert Kaufman black and white pin dot fabric was used for the binding.

I had an epiphany when I was taking studio pics of Mazed that this was the fifth quilt I made with 2.5” strips of JK fabrics, a Kingwell Kollection I would say. I wouldn’t be surprised if I made these quilts after finishing a JK pattern, especially seeing the first Ernie quilt was made after Gypsy Wife. I used the term “Fear of Jen Kingwell” before and now can coin “Recovering from Jen K (say it like Jedi).

I had to do a collage of the four quilts made with Kingwell patterns (three are Jen, Gypsy Wife, Flutterby and Wensleydale and one by her daughter Lucy Carson Kingwell). This brings another realization that I must be a big fan of Jen and don’t quite acknowledge it with making four patterns, one waiting to be finished (Glitter) and five quilts with JK fabrics. I’ve made six different quilt patterns and a total of at least ten quilts designed by Kelly Young, My Quilt Infatuation and I like them because they look intricate but are quick and easy compared to Jen Kingwell with five different patterns, mostly intricate and definitely not fast and easy and almost ten quilts also. These two designers do represent the gamut of my quilting style.

I still have quite a bit of Jen Kingwell yardage and scraps in my stash, enough for another project. I swear the stash keeps multiplying by itself much like my 30’s reproduction stash. I thought I should take a brief respite from anything JK but these fabrics are calling me to do another project. 

I did consider maybe doing Wanderer’s Wife or another Smitten but I’m pretty sure I heard the Squirrels screaming “No” and Eunice announcing me “crazy” so  I chose to do Shooting Star. Foundation paper has been ordered which is the only way for me to sew a JK pattern. I give Kudos to those who can sew a JK pattern with templates. This will be a nice project for the GP House and definitely be slow-sew going and a Rambling Rows Quilt of 2.5” strips is already planned. BUT, I really should finish Glitter first.

It’s only the middle of June and hopefully I can finish three more projects I have planned, one of which is the final project for the 2023/24 Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. I’ve already made my list for 2024/25 and may be having second thoughts. I may be needing a break.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

My AMAYzing May

It’s always nice to begin a Boast Post with a pretty pic of my last finish for the month and to say that I had an aMAYzing May with five Quilt finishes and six flimsies. It always seems to me that there’s more time to sew when a month has thirty-one days. It also helps that I can finally sew more while at the GP House with the darling Granddaughter being a little more independent these days and who finally reliquished my cutting table back to me. This could be a long Post with all the activity this month but will try to show more pics with a little details to avoid this becoming a short story—this is what happens when you mostly post once a month.

Two of my Finally Finished quilts were the first and last quilt finished for May, made with my new favorite quilt pattern Fat Quarter Mixer by Material Girl Quilts and both using fabric collections by Bari Ackerman, Emmy Grace on the left and Country Lane on the right.

The first quilt finally finished was the Emmy Grace quilt which was bequeath to a friend who had shoulder and hip replacement surgery last year and I was late in finishing it. My excuse was I was waiting to see if she was going to have knee replacement surgery so this quilt could be a three-for-one present. All kidding aside, the Emmy Grace quilt was supposed to be my April finish for the 2023/24 Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge but was replaced with my Spectacle Squaretangle Quilt instead. I decided to finally finished this quilt because I was going to be seeing her since our hubbies are band mates and would see each other at a gig. Much to my surprise and it’s a good thing I checked was I did not take any of the customary photos of this quilt finished so I only have outside photos of this quilt outside the venue. I had already given to her and for some reason I checked my photo library on my iPhone and realized I never took studio or outside photos because of the weather so I quickly took it back. I really wanted to take Emmy Grace back home but thought it would be tacky but I do feel guilty about not having nice pics. Anyways, as I was machine quilting Emmy Grace I couldn’t believe how I could have forgotten about fun the Fat Quarter Mixer pattern is which is a free downloadable pattern and how easily it could be modified which I did for Country Lane. This quilt measures 60”x75” and I followed the pattern cutting instructions.

Because I didn’t have any nice pics of Emmy Grace, I decided to make Country Lane to make up for my photo lapse, which is a good reason, don’t you think. The Country Lane quilt is my favorite finish for May for a number of reasons. First of all, I finally used up my fat quarters and yardage of my Country Lane stash which I had since 2010 and has been on my list to use it up.  I’m glad I waited for the Fat Quarter Mixer pattern. As I mentioned before it’s a pattern which can be easily modified which I needed to do because the pattern called for fat quarters with 2l" of useable fabrics so two 10.5” squares can be cut but there was only 20.5”so my squares needed to be cut 9.5” (not 10” so I thought and it has to do with .5” seam allowance and the squares are cut 5” but the rectangles are 5”x9.5” cut, a little confusing for me but understood). It’s a great pattern to use for the large focal prints with accompanying accent prints and, best yet, you can make globs (a term I used when the same prints are next to each other and I tend to avoid but not with this pattern) which makes it look sew interesting. And lastly, it’s going to look wonderful in my Family Room since these are the colors for this room.

I have to mention the pieced backing which was made with the yardage of the Pepto Bismol pink print which I was saving for the backing. I ended up using some of it for the top and used up a little too much since I knew I had to used some leftover blocks/scraps for the middle section but realized I had to add a section for the bottom right. I was resigned that this would show after the quilting since I have already sewn a few “I Got A Secret” backing. But, boy was I surprised. As I was taking pics and not seeing the strip on either side, wonders of miracles and good quilting karma, I didn’t need the extra fabric. I bet though if I was quilting chicken and didn’t sew the extra width, it would have been needed and found out only after all the pin basting was done. And yes I did check the center of the backing to make sure the strip didn’t magically migrated to the center. Country Lane measures 54” by 81”. I would have liked to have made it wider but I didn’t have enough fabric. 

I am loving the Fat Quarter Mixer pattern so much, like I did the Turning Twenty pattern by Tricia Cobbs and Yellow Brick Road by Terry Atkinson of which I couldn’t stop making, because I have much loved fabric stash which would be perfect for this pattern. For my 2024/25 Dirty Dozen Challenge, I am adding a project list for just Fat Quarter Mixer quilts and I already have my fabrics lined up including my only other Bari Ackerman stash of Art Journal fabrics. I don’t think or hope I could ever get tired of how different these quilts will look with each of the different fabrics. It gotta be the globs. And the perfect quilt to make for giving especially with the horizontal wavey line quilting.

In other finishes to mention, the top quilts were made from one of my favorite patterns for baby and now baby boomer quilts to make which is a rail fence using 3.5” strips. The top quilt is Phoebe, fabric line by Wendy Slotboom with the wonderful floral used for the backing. This quilt is my May project for the CT Dirty Dozen Challenge. After it was finished, I remember I had the Woodland flimsy on the bottom which I wanted to finish because it was going to be gifted to a teacher aide at the Darling Granddaughter’s school who is due to have her first baby next month. Both of these quilts measure 40”x45” and were machine quilted with a combination of wavy and straight line. I do love this pattern and yes I made a flimsy with this pattern which you will see later in this Post.

My last finish is my 24” wallhanging made with Aneely Hoey’s Hello Petal fabric which I only had a charm pack and used a Cotton+Steel print for the outer border/binding and an American Jane navy/white print for the inner border. The flimsy was made last February after I came across it on the shelves under my big cutting/basting table, which is a story for another day about forgotten fabrics. Hello Petal is now finished and hanging nicely on the front door in the hallway. The little girls in the print is a nice reminder of the darling Granddaughter.

A quick rundown of the flimsies since I’m now bordering on writing War and Piece:

These two flimsies happened because I was looking in my American Jane for a precut bundle which I still can’t find.

I made these two 84” long flimsies despite this being the year of making small quilts.

Another rail quilt after finishing the other two and a small wallhanging with foundation pieced blocks using vintage Piece of Cake fabrics.

I’ll write more about these flimsies after they are finished and made possible with some sewing at the GP House.  They will definitely be on my 2024/25 Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge which this past week, I’ve been compiling. I’ll be sending the last few hours of May getting my Wensleydale quilt ready to be sent for some wonderful machine quilting by Nancy/Grace and Peace Quilting. I will need to confirm a confidentiality agreement with her about not disclosing my “I Got A Secret” backing for this quilt. Let’s just say that I wasn’t going to spend time matching seams. We’ll be heading out to the GP house this weekend and I have my project ready. But come June, my must have finish will be machine quilting my MMMagical Stars, aka Luminous Layers QAL quilt and I think the stars say there will be horizontal wavey line quilting. The Parade begins on June 15th, the Famous Canadian’s, aka   MMMquilts’ Dad, birthday. This definitely is going to be a fun parade of all of the wonderful quilts being made.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation/NTT  

A Week Down Under

A little fun with the Post title since it doesn’t refer to traveling to Australia but to the time I spent in my sewing space which I named Studio UP (Underground Palace) which is the finished basement where most of my quilt joy happens. One of the disadvantages of sewing done under are the spiders who are not spinning me fabric but instead are annoying me with their nasty webs and sometime appearances. One of the ways I deal with these unwanted studio mates are with “Spider” Balls. After spending this past week down under,  I decided I needed to replenish my supply after I made two flimsies which you will see below. They’re quick and easy to make with the leftover skinny fabric strips made when die-cutting, which I hate to discard, and the never ending batting scraps. I fold a 2” batting square in quarters and then wrap at least a 20” x 1/4 wide strip around the batting square. I do add a spot of glue before and after wrapping to hold the strip in place and trim any fabric frays. They are not round as balls and remind me more of oyster crackers but naming them spider crackers just didn’t appeal to me. Like moth balls, my Spider Balls are repellants once I add a few drops of peppermint essential oil. I could use white cotton balls but these are way more prettier. I put the Spider Balls in glass jars, group them in lids or push one in a water bottle cap which would also make a compact pin cushion. I do have to refresh them with the peppermint essential oils every few days but I see it as exercise since they are placed all around my 20’x30’ studio and it does make my studio smell good. As you can see, my latest batch of Spider Balls  filled an empty oatmeal container and were made while watching TV upstairs. I will admit that the Spider Balls don’t deter the spiders entirely and in which case I have to use my voice activated Spider Man system which is my screaming and Hubby running down the stairs. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work when he’s not home.

The Spider Balls were made mostly from trimmings from Jen Kingwell (JK) fabrics, another reason for the reference to Down Under, used for the two flimsies finished this past week. The top quilt is the Wensleydale pattern designed by Jen Kingwell, the Down Under Quit Extraordinaire, a foundation pieced project, which I started last October and finished sewing all 60 sixty blocks in early June. The bottom quilt was made with a JK’s Fine and Sunny Jelly Roll plus some of her other fabric lines in order to make the Running Doe Quilts Mazed pattern larger which I’m definitely going to make again. Once these quilts are a finally finished I’ll do another Post. And to add to the Down Under vibe is while I was sewing these two flimsies, I was listening to one of my favorite authors, Kate Morton’s latest book Homecoming which is set in Australia.

We’re heading to the GP house where Hubby is finishing the basement and planning a studio space for me. I know when that happens I’ll definitely will make more Spider Balls which I already have the makings needed and way more courage since I still have not gone down under there still after four years. (For those who don’t know, the GP House is the Grandparent House which we purchased this 100 year old fixer-upper and is next door to the darling Granddaughter. It is our second home where we visit every other week. I have avoided the basement after Hubby found some meat hooks hanging around and I don’t like horror movies). I would rather fly to down under and I don’t like to fly despite claims from my menfolk that I fly on a broom, than go down to the GP basement.

Happy Sewing wherever you sew!

FALLing into Piecing

For the past two weeks, which involved the darling granddaughter babysitting us for a week which we recovered nicely and being home this week, I have no finished quilt to post; only some new projects in the beginning stages and a hopeful solution involving fabric.

During the week we were at the Grandparent House, I started making Jen Kingwell Wensleydale blocks with foundation paper piecing after much hesitation but was finally inspired to make them thanks to my down under Quilt torMentor Sue of Patchwork and Play who is doing a wonderful job with her blocks. I won’t give too much details right now but only to mention before finishing the very first block, I was ready to call it quits and was planning an Escape from Wensleydale quilt. After much careful ripping of patches and finally making the first block which took more than three hours due to some fabric patches being too small and some distraction, I decided to do another block but this time cutting my patches larger resulting in some waste but was worth it. I originally precut my patches based on the templates in the Quilt Recipe book and adding 1/4”around. For me adding 1/2” around worked much better. I’m using several Jen Kingwell fabric lines which  include some bright colors and prints and to tone it down, I’ll be making neutral blocks to alternate with these colorful blocks.

Before I can continue with the Wensleydale blocks, I had to decide what I was going to do with the Jen Kingwell Glitter Blocks which I paper pieced last year. After making forty of these blocks, I decided to stop since I couldn’t see making a large quilt with these blocks. I came up with a plan to make a wall/door hanging for the recently vacated bedroom using  the gray/tan Radiator Cover print, designed by Amanda Nyberg purchased several years ago, for sashing with apple green cornerstones. Now that I have a plan for the Glitter blocks, this will free up the fabrics set aside and can now use it for the Wensleydale Blocks which will give them even more variety.

The October Project Number for Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge was Five and in my group of projects for  this number was two quilts using Sandy Gervais fabrics which I am calling them FALLoween #1 and FALLoween #2. I still have a nice stash of Sandy Gervais fabrics and my favorites are the ones she designed for Fall and Halloween. This week, I’ve been busy die-cutting  HSTs and squares plus sewing 2.5” strips together which were die-cut last year. BTW, the skinny strips leftover from die-cutting the strips were used to make what I call fabric marbles seen in the top opening photo of this post. I am hoping I will have both of these finished by the end of the month.

When we were with the darling Granddaughter last week and observing the napkin war she was having with her father who thinks she shouldn’t be throwing her paper napkin on the floor after one use or not using one at all, I decided to make her some fabric napkins. I know when we eat at Olive Garden she uses the fabric napkins and doesn’t throw them on the floor and may take disposable napkins to heart by throwing them on the floor. I remember seeing a post about fabric napkins made with terry cloth so I purchased a pack of 18 for under $7. These inexpensive washcloths are the right weight to go with the fabric. I trimmed the wash cloths to 10” square since the size of each one differed which turned out to be a good idea since I could use a 10” cut x width of fat quarter to make two napkins. After top-stitching around the napkin edges, I also did diagonal stitching on the center to make sure the fabrics stayed together after washing. I have washed the napkins after sewing 18 of them and I can say they are nice and soft, not wrinkly and probably will get softer after each washing. Here’s hoping the darling Granddaughter will use them so I don’t have to hear her father say “Napkin” at least twenty times during meals. In her defense, I will say her father was a very messy eater when he was her age.

Another thing that kept me busy was the slow makeover of the recently vacated bedroom once occupied by Demando along with other rooms. My yarn stash which has been residing in the dining room and the spare bedroom will now be residing in this bedroom since the nice IKEA shelf unit was left behind. And if I didn’t have enough Jen Kingwell during the past two weeks, my Gypsy King bedroom  ensemble was finally laid out this week; the king-size quilt was finished October of last year. So far, there has been no bad dreams sleeping under the Gypsy Wife quilt.

We’re once again heading off to the Grandparent House. It’s nice to know that upon my return I’m going to have some wonderful projects to sew but then again there’s also more room/closet reorganization to do. I need a magic nose.