Merry Finishes and Makings for December

 

‘Twas just a few days before we leave to celebrate Christmas week at the GP House and my two projects for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge are finished. The quilt on the right was my December UFO and the quilt on the left is an extra finish which I will explain later.

Rec-tango is based on Alexa Abegg, Ruby Star Society, Swatch quilt pattern which I saw on Pinterest and I made the flimsie back in March of 2020. This was one of the twelve flimsies I made back then and I now have only three flimsies left to machine quilt.

I really loved this pattern with the simple pairing of two fabrics similar in color vertically to create the stripe look. 

I knew I wouldn’t have any problems finding fourteen fat quarter in my Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society stash and I changed the measurements so I could die-cut the rectangles using my 3”x6”(f) die.

Vertical straight and wavey line quilting was done using an Aurifil medium gray thread. The Waverly gray  print was used for the backing and is one of my favorite to use for modern quilts. I was planning on using the light purple cross print for the binding when the flimsy was made but decided to use the gray strip instead since I thought it accented the prints better. Rec-tango measures 42”x 60”.

 

Since I still had some time left, I decided to machine quilt the Sidewalk Quilt which was a flimsy made in March and was part of my 2021/22 Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO finishes. It was an UFO projects which I had rows of charm squares from Riley Blake’s Sidewalk fabrics and brown strips from Windham/Bari Ackerman Country Lane collection ready to be sewn together for more than five years. My plan was to back this flimsy with a light pink plush since I wanted an easy and fast finish but then I purchased Jinny Janome and wasn’t sure how she would like machine quilting plush fabrics. 

Since machine quilting Rec-tango with the straight and wavey lines went well, I decided that the Sidewalk Quilt would be a regular quilt with batting and backing and quilted it the same way but horizontally.  I knew that I had several prints in my brown stash which could be used for the backing and chose the large daisies which I thought was whimsical like the prints in the Sidewalk collection. Would you believe I purchased four charm packs of this collection many moons ago and I’m pretty sure a Craftsy sales was involved. Like with Rec-tango, I made a binding change since my original plan was to use the brown stripe but changed to a brown check which I thought would accent the quilt better. Sidewalks measures 40” x 52”.

I just love making quilts which showcase the fabrics with simple cuts. I will be adding these two to my ever growing Baby Boomer Blankie collection.

Another Merry Finish was the Chair Runner which in my last post was just a flimsy. Machine grid line quilting with a white thread went well. I am just pleased with how this turned out and the 20” x 72” size fits perfectly on the wingback chair. I know I will be making more of these but not too many since I already drape quilts over my chairs and sofas. Maybe I can come up with something for my Queen Anne dining room chairs.

Here’s a sneak peek of My Merry Making for this month which was making this flimsy from My Quilt Infatuation’s Bubble Bath pattern with Carrie Bloomston’s Happy Collection. It’s a combination DrEAMi and a project listed in my 2022/23 CT DD UFO Challenge. A pieced back is already made and I’m planning on this being the first quilt to be machine quilted in 2024.

And if there was any mischief, it would be coming across some C+S/RSS scraps and wanting to die-cut more HSTs and strips so I can make the quilt on the right even though I should have been finishing my UFO quilt. I was easily distracted this month because I kept finding projects and stash I wanted to sew. I really surprised Hubby by telling him that I didn’t want any fabric for Christmas and just wanted a new cutting mat.

And per usual, when I knit, I need to have three projects going despite one of them being a Christmas present. I had a pretty productive December even with being at home for only half of the month. We already celebrated Hubby’s birthday which marked with some illness and very much sadness with the passing of my beloved Granddoggy Duke. I am looking forward to the remaining days in December with celebrating Christmas, another birthday and, of course, spending time with the precious Granddaughter. In the event of a lull, I will be bringing some sewing and knitting projects with me.

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

Sew-vember

I only had one project that was a must sew this month and thankfully was an easy finish for November’s Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. I already had the strips cut from Lily & Loom’s High Sea fabrics for several years for another strip pattern but since I’ve been on a Rambling Rows kick, I couldn’t resist making another one.

I purchased the High Seas fabrics years ago when Craftsy sold fabrics. I decided to make a smaller version of the Rambling Rows quilt since I also had a three yard piece of the dark blue whale pattern which would be perfect for the backing. I added several Basic Grey Grunge and print fabrics to the mix because you can never have enough variety.

A different variation to the Rambling Rows pattern was to only use the dark whale print for the rectangle blocks in two widths. 

The High Seas Rambling Rows quilt measures 48”x64”. This was an easy make with the usual wavey and straight line machine quilt with the blue gray Aurifil thread. Only two problems, the first one being that I did not follow my rule of always buying yardage for binding when purchasing a precut bundle. I was happy to have found the  triangle check in the perfect shades of blue in my blue stash.

The second problem was that I did not noticed until after I pieced the backing that there were numerous brown stains in several areas. This coupled with piecing the batting which I don’t like to do made me decide that there would be only one person who I would feel comfortable giving this quilt to and who also is my favorite person to bequeath one is the darling granddaughter..and don’t I alway make her a Christmas quilt? I’ll be bringing it to the GP House this weekend so she can muck it up so I can wash it and hopefully these brown stains will wash out. Not an affiliate link but the Dawn Platinum Powerwash Dish Spray is a wonderful laundry tool.

No glamour outside photo High Seas because of the below freezing weather we had for the past few days; neither  the Master Quilt Holder nor I weren’t ready yet to brave the cold weather. I should mention that the High Seas Rambling Rows quilt was finally finished until last weekend due to some other projects not planned or maybe took precedent over like a “Dreamii” which replaced the “NO” in Sew-vember.

First project to interrupt High Seas which I thought would be okay since this is a Mary Etherington/Country Threads pattern is the Baby Bullseye. There were several days of pulling and cutting fabrics and definitely will be a Post for another day. I will mention that the Peeps and I who did the original Bullseye Quilt almost twenty-four years ago are back together to make this one.  We did exchange fabrics again with the rule of modern prints and no calicos even though it’s popular again. I will also say that we were a little bit more “ornery” or loose with the pattern which may be due to the fact we were twenty-four years younger and less experienced than we are now. This is definitely going to take me awhile to finish and I can’t wait to finish this quilt and write a Post about it since I need to “narc” on the Peeps.

While I was sewing my own busy-ness with the Baby Bullseye blocks, karma came knocking with an e-mail from Sandra, mmm quilts asking me if I wanted to do a pattern test which if you read any of my previous posts, I don’t do well but I have a lot of fun. Here’s a sneak peek which I will post my finish once Sandra does the pattern release of Sunset Strip in early December.

Demando reminded me that he needed a Christmas table runner so after High Seas Rambling Rows was finished I spent some time digging in my Christmas stash for prints he would like. I thought I would make him a Winter quilt using Holly Taylor’s Moose, Bear and Pine Cone prints in quiet colors of forest greens and maroons but No, he wanted cheery and bright and really liked the red trees which I think is an Anne Kelle print so I relented by making the above one which measures 18” x 40”.  I love the combination of this print with Stacey Hsu, Victoria Findley-Wolf, Cotton+Steel, etc, all of them scraps which I love plus using scrap batting. I like to mention while digging through the Thimbleberries, Basic Grey and Sweetwater Christmas stash, I now have two more Rambling Rows quilts I want to make.

While I was digging through the Christmas stash, I came across leftover blocks and scraps from the Hoot and Loot Quilt which I thought was made last year but instead in 2020. Is it just me but the last few years seem to blend into just last year. 

I thought I would be making this for the GP House where the Hoot and Loot Quilt resides for Christmas but I realized, unexpectedly, that this would be perfect to hang next to the Tannis Keene quilt. During my sewing blitz, I managed to set aside some hours to take down the Fall Quilts and put up the Christmas/Winter quilts. I had decided that I couldn’t hang the Tannis quilt on the double front doors because I didn’t have another quilt which would complement it in color and prints so I left it out and was going to give it to Demando who was just over yesterday to pick up his Christmas runner. I forgot about offering this to him and glad I did because late last night I realized the Hoot and Loot Quilt would be perfect and it’s the same size as the Tannis Keefe quilt. I don’t have a pic of the two together in the front hallway as the lighting is just too dark. I am so glad my subconscious but conscience Quilt Mind who knows when I need to sew the right thing. I came up with a name for my alter-ego who I’ll refer to as Eunice, a combination of you and nice and means Victory, sew fitting, don’t you think? Oooh, does this mean, I would be refer to as Medieval….sewing Medieval would not be a problem for me.

I thought I would close this post with last night’s flimsy made during the waning hours of my Sew-vember. During the merry decorating in my living room which has several Cotton+Steel Christmas quilts, Eunice decided another Cotton+Steel Quilt but instead a chair runner size was needed. I made this with 4.5” squares from the Cotton+Steel scraps and measures 20”x72” which will fit perfectly on the chair, no folding needed if it were a quilt and a lot quicker to make. I’ll be quilting this upon my return from the GP House unless Eunice and her pals, the Studio Squirrels, decide on  another project.

Another Finally Finish: Rambling Rows and Squares

For someone who until this week hadn’t posted in over five weeks, this is now my second post this week; something I rarely do. I mentioned in my previous Post that I may have another Rambling Rows Quilt finished as long as there weren’t too many interruptions on Halloween. Sadly, the unexpected Snow kept many treaters away; I think we had less than 25 visitors and two snowball fights on our front lawn.

I wasn’t expecting to make another Rambling Rows but I am just having too much fun with this pattern. My stash of Just My Type fabrics by Patty Young for Michael Miller have been calling me for the past several years now. It doesn’t help that I can see the bin containing these fabrics from where I sew. Ever since I made the quilt above and gifted it to one of my Peeps’ daughter as a wedding shower gift in 2017, I’ve been wanting to make another quilt since I still had a nice stash left. I just love these modern retro/organic prints with fun colors in which there were a number of fabric collections which came out at that time and I think I may have purchased most of them. And I do love text prints which is expected for this aptly named collection. I did add some additional gray and solid prints and once again Basic Grey Grunge was happy to be included.

Four block types were used in the making of this quilt. I wanted to use large and small squares since these were leftovers from the previous quilt.  Once the blocks and strip sets were sewn, the quilt was a quick and easy make.

Once again, I quilted with straight and wavy lines with a dark gray Aurifil thread. The binding was the grey and natural crosshatch print which wasn’t my first choice. I wanted a darker print to accent the many prints but I was wrong, the gray was perfect. I didn’t make a pieced backing this time because I had eight yards of the stripe from the Just My Type collection and am glad I finally used it after sitting in the backing vault  for way over five years. The Just My Type Rambling Rows and Squares measures 56” x 80".

It would have been nice to take a photo of this quilt outside in front of a modern building or sculpture but it would take more than this to get me to travel downtown Chicago. I’m sure the Master Quilt Holder would agree and glad I settled for him dragging the ladder outside so I could take a pic outside of the quilt hanging from the gutter. I thought I would close with a collage of the quilt with paintings by, Twentieth Century Artists, Joan Miro and Jean ARP whom I studied in my Art History days about fifty years ago.

I was thinking that I could take a break from the Rambling Rows pattern but the fun will continue. The latest number has been pulled for the Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge and one of the projects on my list already have strips cut and perfect for another Rambling Rows. But I’m not going to stop with this one because somehow I pulled fabric from another stash which I “accidentally”came upon so #5 and #6, here I sew. 

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

The Charming Rambling Rows Duo Quilts

I can’t believe that it’s been over five weeks since my last Post which was about my Scrambling Ernie Quilt. It was a variation of Mary Etherington’s Rambling Rows pattern and I  thought Scrambling Ernie  lacked the randomness and improv look of Mary’s quilt so I planned to make another Rambling Rows quilt.

It just so happened that one of my projects to choose for the October Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge was to use my Basic Grey’s Fresh Cuts stash which included two charm packs and some yardage purchased around 2016.

I thought it would be perfect to do a version of Rambling Rows by replacing the rectangle blocks with the charm squares. I did add some other fabrics, mostly grays, a text prints and the perfect Teal Grunge to ensure there was enough variety/scrappiness to make five different strip sets.

My Accuquilt die-cutter (not an affiliate link) came in handy for cutting the strips and trimming the charm squares to make these two different blocks. Once these blocks were made, the quilt sewed up quick and easy.

Leftover blocks were used to make a pieced backing. I was planning on making this quilt 80” long but since the backing was made much longer than needed, I added another 4” to the top.

Machine quilting with straight and wavey lines was done with Aurifil Dove Grey thread. The binding was the gray and white mini gingham print used in the quilt. The Fresh Cuts Ramblng Rows Quilt measures 56” x 84”. Surprisingly for me, this quilt was not finally finished until October 16th which was late for me as I usually finish my Challenge quilt earlier in the month. I also wished that this quilt could have been made in the Spring as I thought these colors would have been so welcoming then.

But the month was still young for me to make another Rambling Rows quilt since I also had in my Basic Grey stash two charm packs and yardage of the Mon Ami collection which I had for years it seems and these colors were more like Fall.

I added to the Mon Ami stash, several Grunge and Peanut Butter & Jelly prints (one of my favorite collections) along with some other prints for more scrappiness. I decided to add rectangular blocks as well as the charm squares since I thought the red Peanut Butter & Jelly floral print was too pretty to cut into strips. As with the Fresh Cuts quilt, my Accuquilt die cutter was used to trim the charm squares and die cut the strips but poor me had to cut the rectangles myself.

Four different blocks were made for the Mon Ami quilt and once these were made,  the quilts again sewed quick and easy.

Leftover blocks were used to make a pieced backing. This really is a great way to use up the leftover blocks and trimmings.

Machine quilting was again done with straight and wavey lines in an Aurifil Blue Gray thread. The binding used is the yellow stripe from the BasicGrey Peanut Butter and Jelly collection which I’ve used to bind other quilts made from these fabrics. The Mon Ami Quit measures 56”x80”.

The Rambling Rows pattern is really a fun and versatile patterns to use with yardage, scraps and long-cherished precuts/charm squares. These remind me so much of the Staggered Strips and Squares quilts I’ve made and I can say the strip sets are easier to make. I’ve already made another variation of the Rambling Rows quilt using another long ago collection and hopefully will be machine quilting without too much Trick or Treat interruptions. And just maybe I will have another Post by the end of the week.

Happy Halloween! I’ve read that most of the States will be experiencing a colder than usual Halloween and we have a chance of flurries. I’m really not ready for colder weather.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

The Scrambling Ernie Quilt

Last Saturday was National Sew A Jelly Roll Day and my plan was to make an Ernie Quilt which uses 2.5” strips in memory of Mary Etherington/Country Threads late cat Ernie who passed away in late May. Even though I didn’t sew a Jelly Roll which I had a few in my stash, I think my bases were covered by using all Moda prints and Mary’s latest pattern Rambling Rows which is a variation of an Ernie Quilt. What’s especially nice is that Scrambling Ernie only took me six days to finish despite having a busy weekend involving Hubby having two band gigs and  an outing with the Peeps and our husbands.

First, a little background on the Rambling Rows pattern. Back in July, I sent Mary a pic of my FALLoween II quilt which was my July finish for Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge. Several of her followers asked her for a pattern for this quilt which was my own design based on the Sandy Gervais fabrics I had in my stash.

I gave Mary the measurements of the blocks and then she tweaked, wrote and drew up the pattern and she made the above quilt. When she first sent me the photo, I thought it was a Jelly Roll Race quilt but it’s the pattern we named Rambling Rows. I love how scrappy Mary made hers with Denyse Schmitz scraps and how much more random her layout is versus FALLoween II. This pattern really is versatile since you can improvise by changing the size of the blocks/strip sets which Mary did since she ran out of Denyse Schmitz scrap and used other fabrics in her stash. I love how her strips sets are not like the usual Ernie strips which uses only two fabrics,  which contrast with each other by color or value and looks like stripes, but four different fabrics. 

I wanted to make a Rambling Rows quilt using my Moda’s Sweetwater stash of different collections: Authentic, Pure, Hometown, Sew Noteworthy, Make Life, Road 15, Wishes, Branded, etc. and needed some help with the gray and black fabrics which are from Jen Kingwell, Basic Grey, and Blackbird Designs. I love Sweetwater fabrics and they have a special place in my quilt memories since I used their Hometown Christmas fabrics for the Jelly Roll Charm Chase Quilt I did for Moda Bake Shop. I love that their collection always include some text prints and the special green I call Citronickle. I thought I had a lot of Sweetwater fabrics as my bin is full, but apparently I missed buying fabric from forty of their other collections.

After my blocks and strip sets were made, I first laid them out randomly and did not like the way it looked. To me the problem were the red blocks which after looking at Mary’s quilt, I should have used two different fabrics for the top and bottom strips and not just one. So, I was scrambling to make what I had work which meant putting back the red and yellow strips I had taken out and adding more blue and green blocks. BTW, the yellow strips reminded me of scrambled eggs which is another reason for naming this quilt Scrambling Ernie. At first, I wasn’t happy with the layout I ended up with thinking that it was too planned but realized that this is the layout for Rambling Rows. It helps to make the strips sets with four different fabrics instead of two. I already have another one in the works and this time for it to look more random,  I will use four different fabrics in four different for the strips so it will not look like stripes and two different strips for the blocks.

Here are some close-ups of the fabrics from different collections which played so well with each other. The multi-color orange peel print on the bottom right, just above, was what I used to based my fabric selection. Machine quilting using CT Essential Thread in Stone and there was no problem with my usual straight and wavey line quilting. I had wanted to use a black/white mini check by Urban Chix but I did not have enough and was resolved to used another Moda print for the binding which ended up to be the gray and white Pinwheel print by Sweetwater. The backing which is the only print not by Moda and is a print I purchased several years ago from Joann’s. I thought it went well and there’s less yardage now in the backing vault. Scrambling Ernie measures 56” x 80”. 

Here are the three Rambling Rows together where you can see how the layout and fabrics used makes a difference. I can see for myself now that making the strip sets with four different fabrics does really make the Scrambling Ernie fun. I remember when I finished FALLoween II, I wasn’t too thrilled with it and probably because planning and balancing the layout was so tiring. I really love the improv look and randomness of Mary’s Rambling Row. The Rambling Rows patterns can be purchased by sending a $5.00 check with a SSAE to: Mary Etherington, 2345 Palm Avenue, Garner, IA 50438. This really is a fast and fun pattern which can be used with scraps or stash. There are other patterns in her shop and purchasing a pattern helps supports her blog, which I found out fees can be expensive, as well as leasing a copier, etc. You can read about Mary’s blog about “Nothing” Here. This is not an affiliate link, just introducing someone who is fun to know.

I was hoping to take some outdoor photos of  Scrambling Ernie at home or at the GP House but it’s been rainy at both places so I only have indoor photos. Now that we’re at the GP House, I realized that Scrambling Ernie will be staying here in our bedroom where it will hang on the quilt rack directly across from the Sweetwater Road 15 wall hanging. Sweet, right?

Update: Of course the day after I posted, the Sun came out so I could finally take a photo outside.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT