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 quilting 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.

Kharma Khameleon, A Baby Boomer Blankie

As mentioned in my previous Post, Karma came knocking via an email from Sandra asking if I would like to be a pattern tester for her latest pattern Sunset Strip.  Like her previous patterns I have tested or made, Sunset Strip was a fun make. The pattern is for two sizes: Throw and Crib and I tested the Crib Size. I’ve proven once again that I can’t quite follow a pattern as I’m always looking for ways to sew easy and quick so maybe I’m a pattern interpreter. Today, Sandra, mmmquilts is releasing Sunset Strip and you can click on these links to read her Post about the making of her quilt and to see the pattern in her Etsy shop with a special launch price of $5.41. You might see how I “interpret” her Sunset Strip pattern.

Before I agreed to be a pattern tester, I had to make sure that I had fabric in my stash already and am happy to have found yardage of a Free Spirit print, Dance Moves, by Katie Pasquini Masopust. I had purchased this fabric earlier this year when I was in Maine and enjoyed a fabric buying spree with good Quilt Sista  Kathleen McMusing at Mardens in Scarborough. I knew I wanted to use this wonderful Citronickle print for the background. When I first saw Sandra’s Sunset Strip which is a wonderful pattern with negative space to showcase beautiful machine quilting, I knew I had to find a background print to make up for my lackluster machine quilting. Happily, I knew Dance Moves would be perfect. 

I’ve always say when I have to choose under ten fabrics for a quilt, it takes me forever like several days which was true for Kharma Khameleon. I wanted to use my Basic Grey Grunge stash and it took three layouts until I was happy with the final fabric choice. I decided to add the black window print which almost looks the same as the black squares in the Dance Moves print and gave it the color punch I needed  to make these circle blocks pop.

As mentioned earlier in this Post, I am confessing that I constructed the blocks differently because I happened to have an Accuquilt die (not an affiliate link) which allowed me to make  the “O” blocks even faster. I did let Sandra know what I planned to do and she approved. This die can be used as a signature block and O and X blocks also known as Hugs and Kisses.

And another way to make Kharma Khameleon a quick make was deciding to back it only with Minky, no batting. I had just the right shade of green and yardage in my stash. You can see above I basted with just long straight pins.

Machine quilting  was quick with wavey lines spaced 4” apart using a lime polyester thread and a ball point Jersey needle. I could say there was nothing but good karma in the making but you can see in the lower right pic I miscalculated how much binding of the black print I needed. I can’t say enough how much I love backing my flimsies with Minky/plush fabric. When I do this, I call it a Throw for an Adult size and a blankie for a baby/child.

I have to mention how I came up with the name Kharma Khameleon Baby Boomer Blankie.  In previous Posts about making smaller quilts, I said that they would be nice to give to friends who are retiring and the size is right for keeping our legs warm when sitting outside or in the car. Let’s say this small size “sits well”. Most of my friends are Baby Boomers, as I am, and being that I like alliteration in my quilt names, I had to call Kharma Khameleon a Baby Boomer Blankie. Kharma Khameleon is what I came up with while I was basting the quilt and admiring the Dance Moves fabric once again and wondering what a chameleon would look like against it. I started singing Boy George’s Karma Chameleon and maybe busting a few dance moves. Despite  already chosen two other names for this quilt, Squircle Alley and Huggsville,  Kharma Khameleon just sang to me. I have a connection to Boy George, being that two of the men in my family have birthdays the same day as famous musician/composers; one shares a birthday with Beethoven and the other with Paul McCartney. I wondered if I shared a birthday too with a famous musician and learned that mine was with Boy George. Am I lucky or what? While I was finishing Kharma Khameleon and Hubby wondering why I was singing a blast from the past, probably thought I was going to ask him to put this song on his Band’s playlist, decided to look it up online and found an explanation for the lyrics. “Basically, if you aren’t true, if you don’t act like you feel, then you get Karma-justice, that’s nature’s way of paying you back.” This message still resonates today and I think I can apply this thought to why I prefer to make easy quilts, if I’m making a quilt I find too challenging or not my style, then my seams aren’t going to line up or my sewing machine is going to act up. I do believe in quilt karma.

Kharma Khameleon measures 38” x 44” which I have to mention again it’s a nice size which sits well.  I am ready to rock my first official Baby Boomer Blankie. This is really a fast make and a wonderful gift for yourself, family or friends, just in time for the holidays. I am finding out that I don’t have too many baby quilts to make anymore but I do have Boomers who might need or want a blankie. Do check out Sandra’s post and you will see the quilts from the other pattern testers, Tish, Carol and Michelle Peet.

Here are the links once again:

Sandra’s Post: https://www.mmmquilts.com/2023/12/sunset-strip-pattern-release.html

Sunset Strip Pattern: https://sandrajanequilts.etsy.com/ca/listing/1626014691/sunset-strip-pdf-quilt-pattern-throw

Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL Parade/Glass Houses

Today is the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL Parade hosted by Sandra, mmm quilts. This is the 7th QAL of Sandra’s which I have participated in and this year’s pattern was again a fun make. I previously posted about my progress on April 1st, which was the start of the QAL and then on April 10th when my nine blocks were finished. It was nice to have 2.5 months to finally finish my Glass Houses Quilt, so named because I used Allison Glass fabrics, although I waited until the last week to finally finish it. 

Part of the delay was due to two vacations and several trips to the GP House and my indecision on whether I wanted to machine quilt with vertical straight lines, my first choice, or horizontal wavey lines. As you can see, the vertical straight lines, 1” apart, was decided. Since Glass Houses is going to be a wall hanging, I thought the straight lines would add a more graphic look but used #3817 variegated Aurifil thread so the quilting wouldn’t look too stark. The binding is the same black Cross Stitch fabric used in the sashing. My original plan was to used the multi-color print as in the cornerstones for the binding but after machine quilting, I realized it needed to be the same fabric as the sashing to better frame Glass Houses.

If you read my Previous Post about becoming a happy pieced backer now, I had to make one for Glass Houses since I had three leftover quilt blocks made with Allison Glass fabrics from my Ernie Express Quilt #2. This is my third piece quilt back and I’m now at the stage in which I feel guilty if I don’t make one. Normally, for a wall hanging I prefer the backing to be the same fabric and light colored too.

Glass Houses was finished four days before the parade and we’re having iffy pic-taking weather besides unprecedented poor air quality with heavy smoke from the Canadian Wildfires both here and at the GP House. The front bench was moved so Glass Houses, Petal Pop and Ernie Express #2 can be taken together as this is going to be the darling Granddaughter’s new bedroom ensemble at the GP House. The Master Quilter Holder was glad to be standing behind the bench so he didn’t have to crouch down to hold the 54” square quilt but he did have to hold it up as high as he could which wasn’t too much easier.

I had fun with this year’s Collage of all the quilts I made to Celebrate A Famous Canadian’s Birthday. While I was making Glass Houses, I was thinking that this would be the 7th one which is a lucky number and Sandra must also have some sort of magical powers for me to participate in all seven of her QALs plus making other patterns of her’s. I like to come up with “mmm” names for her and “magnificent” came to mind which quickly changed to “Maleficent” the powerful fairy in Sleeping Beauty. Note Maleficent is a fairy, albeit a powerful one, and not a witch or as I say magically wicked which makes “mmmicked” a fun word, don’t you think? So, I thought it would be “mmmicked to add a graphic to this year’s Collage which was  easy for me to come up with my MMMaleficent. All I needed was to grab Sandra’ blog photo, which is very nice by the way, then the Maleficent pic with Angeline Jolie, apply a few apps like PicMonkey and Voila AI Artist and then iPhone photo editing to draw the hair and make the lips red on my iPhone. Fun, right? I thought I should explain this so Sandra doesn’t think this graphic was already available on the Web, although I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was.

The Rainbow Neighbourhood theme was very fitting for this year (one last pic of Glass Houses amongst an actual rainbow neighborhood in Allentown/Buffalo thanks to Google and picMonkey). I want to thank Sandra again for another wonderful QAL and if she isn’t going to banish or turn me into a mouse, I look forward to participating again next year.  I’m sure it will be mmmagically fun.

Wishing every one a safe and Happy Fourth.

Linking up with MMM Quilts Parade of Rainbow Neighborhood Quilts

Glass Houses/Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL/My Blocks Are Finished

The Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL hosted by Sandra of mmm quilts was kicked off last week and just like my usual and previous mode of participating as someone who does not QAL well, I am ahead of schedule by having all nine blocks finished but for good reasons. The thought of not having a finished quilt by the June 30th Parade was not acceptable for me since this would be the first time since participating in the past six QALs that I would only have a flimsy finish. Plus, after making the First Block and like Sandra said, these houses are addicting to sew, especially with my Alison Glass stash and the guidelines/suggestions she made by as how you  can make the houses your own, it was hard for me to make only one house a week, especially with the two vacation planned during the QAL. You can read Sandra’s Rainbow Neighbourhood post Here.

I had already made the first block before reading Sandra’s Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL Kick-Off post and was really excited/inspired with  the many good suggestions she made with how the houses could be made. I swear she read my mind or now can forecast Rebel QAL behavior because I already planned on doing some of them by:

• Choosing to make only Type 1 and Type 2 houses since they were the simpler of the designs since I didn’t want to cut up too much of the wonderful Alison Glass fabrics. It was fun putting the fabrics together from the yardage, charm squares and scraps from my Ernie Express Quilt #2. My Accuquilt Die-Cutter (no affiliation) was used to cut the squares, rectangles and HST which was made possible with normal measurements meaning there was not eighths or sixteenths. When working with the large scale prints, I did spend some time fussy cutting which is usually not my favorite thing but I do like the results. I have to admit I sure did use my seam ripper a lot, my error or lack of skills and not the pattern.

• I changed four of the quilt blocks to more simpler blocks. (I really wanted a Heart block for the House in the center.) My earlier problem with the first quilt block not being an accurate 8-1/2” was remedied when I switched from using Jinny Janome to my Juki HZL F600 which has a scant 1/4” foot. 

• I cut and sewed one block at a time just to stay organized but as you can see below, I work in mmmayhem mode. Another good reason for doing these blocks all at once is that this mess can be cleaned up by putting away the fabrics, die, equipment, etc. I do have some bits and chunks which will make lovely crumb blocks one day.

I can’t decide if  I have a favorite Glass House because I love them all. There’s not one that I’m unhappy  with and am glad they all play well with each other as a Rainbow Neighbourhood should. It feels so good to have these blocks finished before leaving on vacation later this week. I have another project that I’ve already started which needs to be finished by June so I’ll be busy upon my return from vacation.

I can’t say enough how fun these house blocks were to make. I’m thinking of making some more to hang on the door in holiday or seasonal fabrics.  If you haven’t already join the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL, it’s not too late and it will be easy to get caught up. The pattern (not an affiliate link) can be purchased Here.

Piece/Peace!

New Pattern Launch: mmm quilts/ Heading North

Surprisingly for me, I did not have a quilt finish for October for a number of reasons from working on reorganizing the house, doctor appointments, vaccination and booster shots, granddaughter time which included catching her cold, Fall decorating which involved hyper-extending my right knee,  but the most important reason of all is that my partner in  Quilting, Juki Junebug, needed to go the Spa for a much needed treatment. This meant there was no machine quilting, only piecing on the quiet sister of my trio of Juki sewing machines, Hazel which is a HZL F600 and used when a scant 1/4” is needed for certain blocks.

As I put it, I was innocently sewing Flying Geese Blocks with Hazel in mid-October, when I received an email from Mmmajor Mmmpetus (Sandra, mmm quilts) asking me if I would like to volunteer to make a quilt from her Heading North pattern which was published last year in Make Modern and would be released as a pattern this week. She stressed that it was not a “pattern test” since it has already been tech-edited. Sandra said it was an easy FPP pattern, which I admit is not my favorite technique, but since I made some Wensleydale Blocks last month and am pretty comfortable with the technique now and after a few moments perusing my stash for the right fabric, I told her I would be glad to make the baby size (36” square) version. As much as I liked the throw version, I knew there was no way I could machine quilt it as lovely as Sandra did.

Usually, I spend way too much time just choosing five fabrics but this time once I found my focus or inspiration print which is a 2013 Jessica Swift/Blend print named Geometriska I was able to find the other four prints, which are #30150 Grunge (white), Marcus Bros. Aged Muslin in Dapple Dots Magenta, Zen Chic Spotted in Citrine and AGF Indie Bohemia (blue). I prefer to use tone on tone prints rather than solids and was glad that these prints all from different fabric lines went so well with each other. Because I wanted to feature the Geometriska print more, I did change my fabric layout for the Heading North pattern by using it for the center, as one of the strip prints and the border. I’m glad to have finally been able to use the Geometriska print which I think was perfect for this pattern.

Here’s a collage of the block making and the Heading North pattern which gives the measurements for cutting the fabric for piecing. For any pieces involving HST I would cut the larger size to give you wiggle room to make sure it fits right. Like Sandra said, it is an easy pattern but FPP can’t be sewn fast. I can see why this pattern is done as FPP because you really need for the blocks to click together to show the lovely angles and lines. As mentioned earlier, Juki Junebug went to the Spa after my Heading North flimsy was finished and she so deserved a tune-up.

One pic of the Heading North Quilt taken outside. For a 36” square quilt, it seems larger, doesn’t it? I’m glad the Master Quilt Holder and I figured a way to hold the quilt up, otherwise he really would have had to do some deep stooping. I think Heading North might me the most enjoyable of the mmm mmmakes I did this year (this is my fourth one) even though it involved a little more time. There are five of us who volunteered to make this pattern and you can check out Sandra’s post to see their quilts. Here is the link to purchase The Heading North pattern which will be 30% off until Sunday evening, Nov. 6th (not an affiliate link). I think this pattern would look absolutely wonderful in Christmas/Winter/Holiday fabrics.

After the Heading North flimsy was a finish, I resumed the innocent sewing of the Flying Geese Blocks for my FALLoween Quilt #1, a flimsy, and is considered my October finish for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. I am loving these Fall colors. I will write more about this quilt once it is machine quilted. Juki Junebug is going to be very busy upon her return. Right now, I feel like I’m FAlling behind.