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! 

Ravel Hearts/Glowing Hearts Quilt Along

Hoo-ray! The Parade I’ve been waiting for is finally here and I am ready to participate. You may think by looking at my Ravel Hearts quilt that I’m in the wrong parade, but I’m not. I did make the nine hearts as in the mmmquilts Glowing Hearts pattern but as I confessed to Sandra, after participating in last years Luminous Layers QAL with the eight Sawtooth Stars made, I was still starstruck and couldn’t pass up making another one.

I tested and made two Hearts last March, one in a light colorway and one in a dark colorway and then sent Sandra a mock-up of how my quilt would look. I have to admit the dark 6.5” HST reminded me of Cat ears, which I thought was funny and will explain later in this Post. The plan was made to make four light blocks and five dark blocks and I did not start sewing the remaining blocks until mid May. It was when I was placing the light blocks on my design boards that I realized a Sawtooth Star could be made by changing the orientation of the heart blocks.

Since I hadn’t made the dark blocks yet, I play around in PicMonkey to see how this would look first with the light blocks forming the Sawtooth Star and thought it looked better with the dark blocks. This meant I would have to cut more patches to make one more Light Block but it was worth it. I really love the way this layout looked and pondered if I should warn Sandra that rebel mode has struck. I did and was glad when she responded with “You Go Girl” or could it be Canadian for “I’m Gonna Get You”?

Here’s a pic of the Free Spirit E Bond fabrics I used for Ravel Hearts, which the name was inspired by the Ravel Unravel Ink Text print. The top gray print was what I had planned to use for the sashing. I’ve had this fabric in my stash for several years and was hoping I would be able to use it for this year’s QAL and the pattern made great use of these wonderful prints. I looked up the definition of Ravel and it means a cluster which is serendipitous since the Sawtooth Star does look like a cluster of Hearts.  

I added a two-inch black border to Ravel Hearts making it a 40” square. I machine quilted it with my favorite quadrant straight lines in CT variegated gray thread on top with a steel gray on the bottom. The Black backing was found in my stash. This was such a nice and welcomed change from all o the larger quilts I made so far this year.

Along with making my Ravel Hearts quilt, I also had to plan my annual collage of quilts made for Celebrating a Famous Canadian Birthday which includes designing a logo. Since this was going to be Sandra’s ninth QAL, I thought the theme should be a Black Cat since it has nine lives, just like the nine Hearts in this quilt.

When I was searching online for a Cat image, I happened upon this one—it was too perfect and so mmmeow since this looks like Sandra, doesn’t it? This reminds me of the mmmicked logo I made for the Rainbow Neighbor QAL with Sandra as MMMaleficent which I don’t think you will find online…yet.

From the bottom of my nine Hearts, I am once again thanking Sandra for hosting another fun QAL. It was another great pattern and weren’t the Hearts such a clever make? When I was gathering my notes for this project, one of my thoughts when deciding to make this quilt was naming it “What Heart Thou” and list nine attributes I aimed my heart to be; Happy, Strong, Sweet, Brave, Big, Healthy, Tender, Kind and, of course, Rebel. This could be a someday project and I would make each Heart in different shades of one color. I think Sandra already did this as a Scrap Challenge. As I’ve done in my past QAL Posts, I like to mention looking forward to next year’s QAL and suggesting a pattern—I think a MMMystery Quilt would be fun and a great possibility for me to follow the pattern—-mmmeow!

You can view the parade of Glowing Hearts Quilts and Pattern Here!

Summer Spin Star

Sandra, mmmquilts released her Lilac Love pattern today and I loved it sew much that I made two small quilts, aka wall hangings. While I was on my Yosemite vacation last month, I was made aware that this pattern was forthcoming and was asked if I would like to make a wall hanging. The first one made was Christmas Cactus Star and in typical rebel style, I modified the star pattern from using three fabrics to two and it wasn’t easy for an angle-challenge quilter which I am. I decided to make Summer Spin Star as a challenge to myself to see if I could follow Sandra’s pattern and I can say it definitely was a much simpler sew.

You wouldn’t think that the simpler Christmas Cactus Star made my head spin but the Summer Spin Star would since it looks complicated and seems like it’s spinning. If I wasn’t set on the name Spin Star, Snappy Star would have been my next choice because this star sew much faster and was much easier. I do like the two versions I made, one looking more traditional and two dimensional with the two fabrics for the star points and the other one more modern with more fabrics used and a three dimensional look.

I have to admit I spent some time choosing fabrics again but happy to use the colorful Zookeeper print in the Summer color way with the citronickle text print which is from Laura Heine’s Happy Chance fabric line along with various colors from Basic Grey’s Grunge collection.

I was planning on making Summer Spin Star a small wall hanging like Christmas Cactus Star but when I added the Citronickle border (bottom left), I thought it needed more. Thankfully, Sandra mentioned that the Lilac Love pattern would include a baby quilt size which I then added the additional borders which I think energized the quilt. Also, I had the additional fabric and couldn’t pass up the chance to use the Zookeeper print for the final border. Summer Spin Star is a nice segue from being a late Summer to an early Fall wall hanging, don’t you think?

Here’s a closeup of the machine quilting in Aurifil thread in natural and like Christmas Cactus Star, I did quadrant lines. The binding was the same fabric as the final border. Summer Spin Star measures 39-1/2” square, a nice size for a wall hanging, a floor quilt for a new grand baby or a lap quilt.

Here’s a pic of the two quilts together; I love them both. I already have an idea for another one for a larger wall hanging and know which Star I would be making. I’ve learned my lesson and a Snappy Star it will be. 

I have to mention a little Master Quilt Holder humour; while he was holding up Summer Spin Star, I was saying that lately he’s been showing more fingers and somehow his middle two fingers in both hands popped out. You have to take my word he did that since I was too busy laughing to take a photo.

Do check out Sandra’s post and the pattern which will be offered at a special price (not an affiliate link). Sandra designs such wonderful star pattern that are “mmmagical” and are easy to sew. It’s not too late to make one for the upcoming Holidays (big wink here).

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Christmas Cactus Star

If last week’s finish of my Kaffe Fassett Blue Moon Quilt was my “Oh Wow” finish for October, the two quilts made this week will be my “ooooh” finishes, thanks to the MMMaster MMManipulator, Sandra, mmmquilts. When I was at the GP House several weeks ago, she sent me a photo first, then a pattern after I mentioned that she didn’t send it to me, of her upcoming pattern release Lilac Love, a beautiful quilt which was featured in the July/August 2019 issue of McCalls Quilting, but with an updated version. Being one of her mmmany mmminions, I made a wall hanging and then a baby size version. Christmas Cactus Star is the wall hanging version which was the first one made and not quite surprisingly, I didn’t follow the star pattern, for reasons I’ll explain.

When I first saw the Lilac Love pattern and possibly influenced by the name, I was thinking of using purple fabric but nothing in my stash sang out to me. I did happen to purchase while on our Yosemite vacation in September, a charm pack and yardage of Lori Holt’s Hometown Holiday fabric line and thought I could use this for Lilac Love. I wanted to use the lovely red floral print for the rectangles surrounding the Star and thought to emphasize it, I would make it with more green fabrics and accents of red and that's how I thought of Christmas Cactus Star. It took me some time to finally figure out how I was going to make the star and that I needed to purchase additional green fabrics from this collection and from the Calico and Autumn collection. I was only expected to make a cushion but I rather make a wall hanging,

The Star in the Lilac Love pattern looks three dimensional but I opted for a two dimensional look and for the angle challenge quilter  that I am, it took me three tries to get the star right. The first photo on the left, I thought only the red points in the fifth row were pointing wrong and once it was ripped out and resewn, I realized the green points in the sixth row was also pointing wrong so again the seam ripper was used, rip-it, rip-it. I think it’s ironic that the middle star looks like a frog star. Because of this, there was a possibility that I was going to rename the quilt Sailor Star because of all the salty language I used when realizing my mistakes. Thankfully the darling Granddaughter wasn’t around.

I had no problem sewing the corner stars and I used a yellow square from the charm pack which was just enough for the center. I think I may have finally learned my lesson to not deviate from Sandra’s patterns.

I added a 2.5” strip for the border to make this a 28” wallhanging. I machine quilted with white Aurifil thread with quadrant straight lines which is one of my favorite ways when a small quilt with a star in the center. It’s very easy and fast with just quilting an “X” in the center and then using that as a guide to quilt 1” apart. The binding is a plaid print from the Autumn fabric line.

I just love my Christmas Cactus Star Quilt and am looking forward to hanging it up in December. The Master Quilt Holder was not needed to hold up Christmas Cactus Star Quilt thanks to the nifty green wire hanger with the red mini clothes pins hanging from the flag pole bracket. He seems to be taking lessons from Texas Quilt Gal’s Hubby of wearing coordinating clothes when presenting a quilt. He will be needed to hold up the second quilt which is almost 40” square made with the Lilac Love pattern but will be behind the scenes because I'm pretty sure he doesn’t own a pair of shoes in Citronickle. I will post this very lovely and fun quilt when Sandra releases the pattern hopefully later this week. I will say with the second quilt I did follow Sandra’s pattern; it looks more complicated but was way faster to sew and lives up to her style of making complicated quilts sew easy. Now with these two quilts, I can resume machine quilting the Halloween quilt which is needed sooner than later.

Another September Surprise: Star Shine Prism Break

I thought I would do a quick and hopefully short Post about Star Shine Prism Break, my third and last finish for September. I will be posting my second finish later, which is the first surprise, since I need to take a photo of the quilt at the GP House which we will be there in a few days.

Sandra, MMM Quilts, gifted me her latest pattern, Orinoco Flow as a thank-you but truthfully she gave me another heart attack moment. While I was on vacation several weeks ago at Yosemite, I received an email from Sandra with pattern corrections. My initial reaction was a “Whoops, I did it again” and forgot to do a pattern test but it turned out that Sandra forgot to send me the pattern after I meekly asked her if this email was sent to me in error. This pattern comes in two sizes, cushion and throw and I added a third size, Wall or Table Topper.

It wasn’t until September 26th when we returned home from vacation and then a three day stay at the GP House that I finally had some time to work on some projects. After I finished my second quilt on the 27th, I realized that I had time to make Star Shine Prism Break. I just love this pattern and the best part is that it only took around eight hours to make this lovely wallhanging. I initially was going to use some new fabrics purchased while on vacation but once back home and in the studio, I found these four fabrics in my stash. I think this was the quickest pull for just four fabrics. The multi-color print, second from the top, is from Hoffman Fabric line, Zookeeper, and is the Prism color way which helped me to finally come up with the quilt’s name. MMMagical Stars II was another name I thought of and can be considered it’s formal name since Sandra always design such wonderful Star quilt patterns.

Once the patches were quickly cut because of their simple measurements and segments made, this quilt was a fast sew. I decided to add a border with the Zookeeper print since I rather have a wall hanging for my door instead of a cushion. Any excuse to use this wonderful print, right?

The Orinoco Flow pattern can be made with a plain background to allow for exquisite quilting which I don’t do but I am happy with the background, an unnamed Andover print just purchased in August to make up for the possible lackluster machine quilting. I am happy with the straight line quilting inspired by Sandra’s quilt. After the diagonal quilting of 1” apart was done, I thought the quadrant quilting would be perfect. I used a CT Essential Thread in Violet.

I think it took more time to hunt for the  perfect piece of purple fabric for the backing and glad I did a little digging to find the Peace print. I was going to bind Star Shine Prism Break with the Zookeeper print but I had just enough of the purple Grunge left which I thought would better accent the quilt. Of course, when a small quilt is made, I have to hand sew the binding down.

One last photo with the Master Quilt Holder skillfully holding the quilt behind the front porch post. His leg is almost camouflaged by the plant. He won’t be needed for the second quilt photos, but the darling Granddaughter will be and hopefully she’s learned from the best.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

MMMagical Stars/Luminous Layers QAL

Today is the day we celebrate the Birthday of a Famous Canadian by participating in a parade of lovely quilts hosted by Sandra/mmm quilts. This is the Eighth year which I have participated and it always happens during a busy month of celebration which includes Demando, Granddoggy Daisy and my birthdays and Fathers Days for Hubby and my youngest son, father of the Darling Granddaughter. The more celebrations, the merrier I think with visions of cake in my head.

My quilt which I have named MMMagical Stars, as explained in this Post is another wonderful pattern  designed by Sandra and as always a fun make. My flimsy was finished back in April so I had almost two months to ponder as to how I was going to quilt. I waffled between doing straight line grid quilting to soft meandering lines and as you can see, the horizontal meandering lines won. My reasoning was to offset the hard edges of the stars and to create a shimmering effect and I have to admit sometimes I like the way it look and other times I wished I had quilted with 3/4” spacing instead of 1”. The machine quilting was with #2123 Yellow Aurifil on the top and #2600 Silver on the bottom.

For the backing, I still had yardage of the black and white paint splatter print which I also used for the 2021 Follow Your Own Path QAL. I was going to used another print for the binding and glad I decided to use the rainbow print which really does accent MMMagical Star nicely. 

While I was preparing my annual collage of my past QAL quilts, I was planning a Magic 8 Ball graphic since this is the Eighth QAL. If I could have figured out how to have last year’s MMMaleficent graphic holding a Magic 8 ball I would have put in the center. While googling eight-point stars for a graphic, the Sawtooth Star popped up which coincidentally is in the Luminous Layers pattern, but then my jaw dropped when I  saw there were Eight Sawtooth Stars in this quilt. How serendipitous. Sandra said “Spooky” but I say she was being “mmmicked”, my favorite word from last year’s Rainbow Neighborhood QAL.

One last pic of MMMagical Stars in the dappling sunlight which the Master Quilt Holder did a wonderful job of stooping low enough to hold up this 48” square quilt. I missed seeing the Aurora Borealis back in May.  I forgot to go outside after dark so the colors in my MMMagical Stars quilt make up for this. I am already looking forward to next year’s QAL and am thinking it would be fun to make a MMMemory quilt with some of the past blocks, especially  the Freefall Leaf blocks which were the ones made for Sandra’s first QAL. But then it will be her Ninth QAL and  Cats have Nine Lines so maybe Bella, the patron Cat of all of Sandra’s QAL might have a pattern designed specially for her..mmmeowww! 

Be sure to  visit Sandra’s Link to view all of the participants’ beautiful quilts!

Luminous Layers QAL

I was late, almost two weeks late for a very important Date!

On April 3rd, Sandra, mmmquilts announced the Luminous Layer QAL and as usual I am participating. BUT, I dropped the ball big time this year due to some mmmissunderstanding on my part. I have pattern tested several of Sandra's patterns as well as been given a heads-up on QALs in the past (something to do with being a QAL Rebel or not QALing well with others). Sandra sent me the Luminous Layer pattern in late February asking me, as well as two others, if we would pattern test. I assumed the other two were being asked to pattern test and I was just being given a heads up which I spent time choosing fabrics, prepared my usual QAL graphics for my Celebrating a Famous Canadian’s Birthday post and planned to follow the Luminous Layer QAL schedule for once. I also was busy working on some other projects like  Villa Rosa Fast and More Fun Blog Hop, March Country Threads UFO Challenge and most importantly the taxes, needed to be finished so I wouldn’t have been able to start Luminous Layers. Imagine my surprise when I read in Sandra’s post that I had pattern tested Luminous Layer and will be have a flimsy to show. I had NADA and was feeling really bad that I wasn’t prepared as I usually have been with Sandra’s QAL.

Last week after coming home from the GP House and recovering a few days from a Cold, I finally started working on my Luminous Layers flimsy. I thought I was happy with my first fabric selection made in February but decided I didn’t like how I was going to make the large star points so that changed the color way. My plan was to use Carrie Bloomston fabrics so I finalized my fabric selection from three of her collections: Found, Color Theory and Colorwash. I was hoping when I purchased Found back in January that I would be able to use it for this year’s QAL. I’ve always said that it takes me forever when I have to choose only ten fabrics and I spent days going back and forth with at least five different groupings/colorways in shades of black, blues, purples and pinks which I found too calm and finally decided on the above grouping since it had a little more punch. I should mentioned that I ended up changing one of the teal fabrics after this pic was taken.

True to my usual QAL Rebel behavior, I was planning on using larger patches like 16”x32” flying geese instead of the smaller HST but after I saw Joyfully Tracie’s version of Luminous Layers on IG with the smaller HST blocks I decided I would do the same. After all, I did have all the dies needed so I was able to die-cut all of the patches, with the exception of the 16-1/2” square on the upper left, using both my Accuquilt and Sizzix systems. I will admit that sometimes being a QAL Rebel is not the way to sew. 

I wasn’t looking forward to sewing Luminous Layers with all of the patches, both large and small, since accuracy sometimes eludes me but I am way happy with the flimsy finish. I think die cutting the patches helped, and the sewing just clicked. I just love this pattern of multiple stars and the fabrics giving the illusion of the center stars mmmagicically merging to create one large star. I thought this would  be considered a Super Nova, but no, there is an explosion with no stars remaining so I naming this quilt MMMagical Stars.

Here’s a close up of the center Star blocks which measures 32” square and could stand alone as a smaller wallhanging. The inner star block with the multiple stars measures 16-1/2” square and this is where I used flying geese blocks and square in the square blocks instead of HST. Otherwise, I pretty much behaved myself. I’m pretty sure when Sandra asks me to pattern test, it’s not to proof her instructions since there are other more trusted testers than me, but it’s to see how I might interpret her pattern in other fabric/colors. I tend to choose prints which will offset my lackluster machine quilting but will have some negative spaces this time with MMMagical Stars.

I wrote in my Rainbow Neighborhood QAL post year that I was looking forward to this years QAL and that I was sure it was going to be “mmmagically” fun and I was right. I am really proud of how this 16-1/2” star turned out and just so very happy the small patches sewed together so well, mmmagical I say. I actually know how I will be machine quilting MMMagical Stars and the binding has already been chosen. It’s nice that I will have two months to finally finish it to celebrate the Famous Canadian’s Birthday.

BTW, just a reminder that the Luminous Layer pattern is free this year and instructions will be given out weekly along with options on such as making flying geese blocks and using dies. BUT, if you can’t wait like a QAL Rebel, this pattern can be in purchased from Sandra’s Etsy Shop. Be sure to check out her post to see all the wonderful prizes to be given this year, unfortunately, her very beautiful cat Bella is not one of them.