A Jimminy Gemini Quilter Month

I realized after finishing these three quilts above that my “twinning or dual finishes continued after I posted JEN-mini June. In Basketball, this would be called a Triple Double but for me I’m calling it a Jimminy Gemini Quilter Month which I will show you after I explain the makings of these three quilts.

The one project I had to finish this month was for the 2023/24 CT Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge,The Neighborhood Quilt with the fabric designed with the same name by Monica Lee for Timeless Treasure. I wish fabric manufacturers would include the year when the fabric is printed on the selvedge but then maybe not everyone wants to know how long the fabric(s) have been sitting in their stash.

The fabrics for The Neighborhood project have been cut, labeled and ready to sew for what seemed like forever and was finally listed for the Challenge. Fortunately the project contents included a diagram of this simple pattern which used 5” and 10” cuts. This is another perfect pattern if you have a charm pack and yardage of a fabric collection. I could kick myself for waiting so long to finish it because it’s  so cute.

I did meander machine quilting, 2” apart, in a Silver Aurifil thread. The Neighborhood measures 40”x45” and backing was made from a WOF piece from the Blue Focus print.

Since The Neighborhood quilt was such a quick finish and there was still time left in June, I decided to machine quilt the Vroom Flimsy, made in 2022,with another Monica Lee fabric line called Now We’re Going Places, The thought was I couldn’t finish The Neighborhood Quilt without finishing Vroom and I do like my dual finishes.

I remember buying five one-half yard cuts of five of the prints and one yard of the stripe which was enough to make this rail fence pattern with 5-1/2” strips. These prints were fun and summery so I wanted this to be a picnic quilt measuring 60” square. The backing was a Robert Kaufman/Patty Young Basic print from my stash and was perfect. I did a combination of straight line quilting along the strip edges with meandering in between in a Silver Aurifil thread. Again, this was a fast finish and I still had time to finish a flimsy just made but a DrEAMi took its place.

After presenting my MMMagical Stars Quilt for mmmquilt’s Luminous Layers QAL back on June 15th, I wanted to make another one but this one being called Luminous Layers Lite (L3) because the center star is just a simple 16” Sawtooth Star. In the original pattern, the center is a 16” block with five four-inch finished Sawtooth Star and was a piecing marvel. I was inspired to do this after seeing Wendy/Pieceful Thoughts Luminous Layers Quilt who got the idea from Joyfully Tracie which she used a novelty print for the large background and I thought this would be a perfect pattern for a baby playmat but with a plain Sawtooth Star for the center because we don’t want baby spitting up on the beautiful five star block, do we now, and shared this idea with Sandra during a fun FaceTime call. 

I wanted to use Benartex Baby Genius fabrics which has been in my stash for many years and last used for a darling Granddaughter quilt in 2017–got to love the bright colors and prints designed to stimulate the baby’s mind. I planned to do straight line grid quilting only along the 8” blocks/squares so I chose to use fleece instead of batting. The 60” backing was an IKEA print no longer made and once again I am wishing they would come back with the sheeting fabric line which is perfect for backing.

Using fleece instead of batting makes L3 very soft and snuggly and washes very well as I have done this before. Since it is polyester, I used a ballpoint needle for jersey fabrics and a silver polyester thread; the playmat lays nice and flat. I can’t say enough how fast L3 was made and could be finished in a day.

And here’s a collage of the Triple Double or Twin Quilts for June: Two Jen Kingwell, Two Monica Lee and Two MMMquilt Luminous Layers Quilts. I think these six finishes are enough for  Gemini June, don’t you think? I am tired and so is the Master Quilt Holder.

While I’m on the subject Gemini, the month of Twins, I thought this would be a good segue to respond to Kathleen McMusing’s  comment about my JEN-mini quilts and that I had a Jen Kingwell obsession (which made me shiver from that very thought) with if I had a Quilt Twin, she would be my Good Quilt Friend Carol whom I’ve mentioned many times in past Posts. We worked together at the quilt shop over twenty-years ago, shared love for the same fabrics, laughs and life. She’s also the reason why I used to have a nice stash of Jinny Breyer fabrics and most importantly Carol can vouch that Amy Butler once gave me a pattern.  While pondering the Jen Kingwell obsession comment, I realized I made them mainly because Carol wanted to make them which is why I made Smitten, Wensleydale and Glitter. Gypsy Wife and Flutterby had a Country Threads connection but again was made because someone else was making it first. I said it before that good quilt friends do not let their quilt friends sew Jen Kingwell patterns alone. When I had finished the two Jen Kingwell quilts and wanted to make another JK pattern, I felt that there was a “pull” to do so.  Before this Post, I called Carol since we haven't spoken for a few months and found out that she already ordered JK’s Shooting Star foundation paper, the same pattern I chose to make. We have good “ESPN” with each other. She also gave me a slight dig when she mentioned that she had handquilted her Wensleydale quilt but then again she may have only made twelve blocks. Also during this conversation,  I found out that Carol never made Gypsy Wife and I’m pretty sure she was one of the reasons why I made this quilt. So, I don’t have a Jen Kingwell obsession, just a Quilt Twin who I quilthike with when a JK pattern is involved.

We’ll be heading out to the GP House in a few days and there will be no more quilting. I need to tidy up my studio. My plan is to tally my finishes for the CT Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge and finalized my project list for 2024/25. Mary Etherington mentioned that she is planning to do something different this time and hope this won’t affect any of the 65 projects I have planned.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

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

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!

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  

Spectacle Square-tangle

I had a busy April with the usual visits to the GP House and the Chiropractor but this month I also had appointments with the eye doctor, foot doctor, dentist, bone density scan and bloodwork as well as seasonal allergies/cold kicking in big time,  but most importantly was celebrating my Golden Wedding Anniversary which lasted at least a week it seems. The only quilting I did was finishing MMMMagical Stars Flimsy (Luminous Layers QAL), playing with fabrics (both old and new stash) and finishing my April project for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge which will be my Spectacle Square-tangle Quilt. 

I have to confess that this project is one that I listed in March which I really wanted to do but other projects needed to be finished. The one project listed for April was my Happy Bubbles Quilt which I finished in January so I took a little liberty or que’ sera sera this month with choosing what I wanted to finish for the UFO Challenge of finishing one per month. I had a layer cake of Spectacle designed by Christian Robinson for Cotton+Steel purchased in 2018. I was planning on making the Chain Reaction pattern designed by Purple Pineapple Studio but I didn’t want to do connecting corners since I’m still recovering from the Happpy Bubbles Quilt which had so many connecting corners.

To sew the easy way out or should I call it sewopted, I thought a simple quilt with just 5” squares with the layer cake squares cut in half would be just right for this cute fabric collection. I used Alexa Abegg’s Heirloom fabric line for the red squares and cut additional rectangles from the backing fabric, which will be shown later in this Post, and yardage. This was an easy pattern which took some planning with the layout since there were so many directional prints in this fabric line. I had to first separate the rectangles into two groups for my rows, light and dark, and then making sure the red squares were sewn on the right side. I’ve seen this pattern on Pinterest and did some searching so I could give credit for this pattern and it is the Easy Bricks pattern designed by Amy Smart, Diary of a Quilter. It’s really a great pattern for layer cakes and I already have another one ready to be sewn together.

Here’s the backing fabric which is a cheater cloth of hexagons with the Spectacle prints which was purchased several years ago. I needed to add the back and white print (designed by Michelle Amore) on the sides which went well together and could make this a reversible quilt.

I was not planning on making Spectacle Square-tangle so long, since this is supposedly my year of sewing small, but I really didn’t want any leftovers, sew I say. It measures approximately 60”x90” and looks like a quilt made for an IKEA bed. I did a combination of vertical straight lines with one wavy line on the center of each rectangle/square row using CT Essential Threads in Natural. I was planning on using the red print for the binding but thought the black and white stripe would accent the prints better.

Today was a lovely day to take a photo of Spectacle Square-tangle hanging from the branches of the cherry tree in the back yard but it wasn’t  hanging right so the Master Quilt Holder had to hold a branch up this time. I need to figure out when his Anniversary of being my Master Quilt Holder is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not fifty years. I’m thinking being married is way easier than holding up my quilts since sometimes it’s a teeny, weeny bit stressful. (Insert an emoji winking with a halo here).

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

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.