A Pokey Post for August

I consider the Squirrel to be my Spirit Animal for quilting but it seems the Sloth may be it for my Blog. I had two finishes since last week and was in no hurry to post about these two quilts despite being very happy with their finishes. Both of the quilts were listed in my 2024/25 Project List and had similar types of fabric designs with the appearance of birds, critters, fauna,etc. In my quest to write shorter Posts with brief descriptions, here’s a quick rundown:

What I really liked about both of the fabrics were what I thought were squirrels in both of the focus prints and they were definitely present in the Bluebird Park designed by Kate and Birdie Paper Co. for Moda fabrics. I had yardage and a charm pack of this collection for well over five years (I did include leftover yardage of the tan trellis print which was from the Autumn Woods Quilt made around seven years ago) and perfect to make another Fat Quarter Mixer which is one of my favorite patterns at the moment.  I previously finished one in May and you can see it and find details of this pattern in this Post. I did slightly modify this pattern by making the blocks smaller and making some of the blocks with only the large blue floral print since it was so pretty.

Once I determined and cut the fabrics, this quilt was a quick and simple make, a total of four days from start to finish. The machine quilting of wavey lines with CT Essential thread in Stone was a breeze. The pieced backing was made with yardage of the focus and solid green fabrics. I also used the solid green for the binding.  Can you see the cute squirrels and hedgehogs? Bluebird Park measures 60”x84” and is already hanging on the hallway bannister until next month when the Fall quilts will make their appearance. I just love the happy colors and prints and will happily display this quilt again come next Spring. It seems a bit early to be saying this but Fall is coming.

The second quilt, a door hanging for inside the hallway front doors, is the one made with a fat quarter bundle of the Sketchbook prints designed by Shauna Scicluna for Leutenegger.au purchased within the past five years and I’m pretty sure I bought it for the “squirrels” crossing the telephone wires

The focus print came in three colorways which I call morning, high noon and evening and it was hard for me to cut this print up. I decided to make a small quilt with large patches of these prints. I didn't use all of the prints shown which are background grid prints and used only the prints of leaves and fauna.

I first laid out the patches in a symmetrical layout and thought it looked too boring and then opted for an asymmetrical layout which is way more interesting.

In keeping with the asymmetrical layout, I only added a thin border of the lilac/gray mini check print on only three sides of the quilt to keep it 30” wide to fit on the door. I machine quilted with what I call telephone phone poles with straight vertical lines along the seams for the poles and wavey lines for the wires with silver CT Essential Thread. The binding which I hand sew down in the back because that’s what I like to do for for small quilts was the same check print as the border. I named this quilt G’Day which I thought was appropriate for this quilt. It measures 30” x 44”.

When I first purchase the fat quarter bundle I did not know these were Australian prints but came to the realization after seeing the .au after the Leutenbegger name and looking closely at the “squirrel with the funny ears”  and birds on the telephone wire. I couldn’t find any info on the inspiration for these fabrics so after the flimsy was made, I emailed my wonderful downunder tormentor Sue, PatchworknPlay to clarify what the birds and critter were so I could write an intelligent post and I’m glad I did. She said they don’t have squirrels in Australia so that is a common brushtail possum  along with magpies, sulphur crested cockatoos and maybe kookaburras, which they are. She thought the leaves would be Eucalyptus/gum trees and the sketches of fauna was too abstract for her to determine. Being the retired educator, she suggested I do further research on the Possum/Opossum names but being the rebel student which I am, I chose to discover the Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree song and there are gum tree leaves in some of the prints. 

I mentioned in a previous Post, that the Master Quilt Holder and I were taking pics of quilts made before I started blogging and never taken because they were too large. Before blogging, photos were taken inside and were not so great.  I sent a photo of this quilt to Susan while communicating about the G’day quilt and told her I made this twenty years ago and the pattern was the cover quilt for the book Fabulous Quilts from Favorite Patterns from Australian Patchwork & Quilting Magazines published in 2003. When I first started quilting it was always a treat to buy these magazines which may explain that I have an infatuation with anything Australian since I followed Kathy Dougherty and Sarah Fielke then and do not have a Jen Kingwell obsession. I like to mention again, Susan was one of my first Blogland friend and so fitting she lives in Australia and is living up my moniker for her as a downunder tormentor, who introduced me to Jen Kingwell. Susan said that I should post this photo of this quilt and sometimes I do listen to her. 

I thought I would close this once again a chatty Post of my two August quilts taken outside. September will be a busy month of traveling but I hope to be able to post my latest quilt still in the makings and my wonderful road trip project before we leave. But, dilly dallying seems to be in my Quilt DNA now with the help of the Studio Squirrels because I keep finding wonderful projects and forgotten fabrics in the Studio.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Dilly Dally July

I dilly dally almost the first three weeks in July before I finally was able to concentrate on finishing three quilts during the last full week of the month. I have participated in Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge for the past four years and I had been busy compiling my list of seventy-five projects since the middle of June. I only needed twelve but I like to have lots of choices. I was sad and somewhat lost when Mary Etherington announced  at the end of June, that there will be no more Dirty Dozen Challenges. 

Participating in the Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge has given me focus and a commitment to finish a UFO or a current project for the month. These are the forty-eight quilts finished during the past four years and there were some months which there were more than one. I finished at least five UFOs which were over twenty years old and many five years or more. So without a project to focus on in July, I was left with choosing from my list numbering one to fifteen with each number having five categories. I chose #15 which I finished three and you will see them later in this Post.

I have to mention the dilly dally I did which included reorganizing some quilts around the house because Demando gave me a nice bookcase for the upstairs sewing studio, taking photos of quilts made before I started blogging and never took a nice photo of them, probably because most of them were 84” square and larger, some scavenging for fabrics and patterns, even organizing my scrap batting and making the above two 24” square wallhangings. These were another inspiration from June’s Luminous Layers/Magical Stars QAL. Michelle @michelleinscotland, who was one of the pattern testers for the Luminous Layers quilt shared a photo of her quilt in which she accidentally sewed the bottom star points facing the wrong way and I told her it looked like a Mermaid Star but after more thinking if that point was on the top it would be like a Unicorn Star which would be very befitting for her living in Scotland. Of course before I could start doing any serious quilting, I had to see if a Sawtooth Star could be a Unicorn Star. The first one made is on the left and I thought something was missing with just having one point and then the second one on the right was made which I added two quarter points which I think looks more like a Unicorn Star. 

It also helped that I used leftover Unicorn fabrics from the wallhanging in the darling granddaughter’s bedroom and she also happened to need two small wallhangings to flank it. She now has a total of ten quilts in her bedroom now in addition to the new bedroom set of three quilts which I’m waiting until she’s a little bit older to change out, especially since I made the Unicorn Star quilts. She has other quilts in other rooms in the house, enough for a quilt dowry if she had made them herself but why if she has a grandmother who loves making her quilts.

And now to explain these three quilts which were finished last week and will try to be brief as possible with just a few details.

Cicada Colado was the first one to be finished and was rather serendipitous in its making. I missed  another phenomenon this year, the other one being the Aurora Borealis appearing in the Midwest, and it was the emergence of the Cicadas. The only one I saw was a dead one and I did admired its colors and thought since I still had a nice stash of browns and tans I should made a Cicado inspired quilt. Later I found a stash of Michelle Amore/Marcus Bros fabrics which was perfect to make this simple quilt of 4”x8” blocks of strips and plain square blocks. Cicada Colada measures 60”x72” and will be given to someone who happens to love these colors too. I think the Cicadas are now gone but it would be just my luck if I finally get attacked by a swarm of Cicadas.

I always wanted to make a Scrap Vortex quilt with my Basic Grey scraps of mostly PB&J prints and started making scrap panels last year. Since this was one of my projects listed for this month, I finally sewed all the panels together and made it a quick finish by making this a Baby Boomer Blankie and backed it with a wonderful faded denim blue plush purchased several years ago. The PB&J Blankie measures 60”x90”and needed to be hung outside the screen room for the photo. A lot of the scraps were from the Gypsy King Quilt made several years ago and from other quilts mentioned in that Post.

Since there were still days left in July, I decided to finish the Cotton+Steel/Ruby Star Society Broken Dishes flimsy by also making it a Boomer Blankie by backing it with another wonderful zig zag plush in Steel Gray. Most of the 6” HST were leftovers from the Kaleidoscope Krosswalk Quilt also made several years ago and measures 60” x 84”. This is definitely my favorite finish for this month as I just love how the older and newer C+S/RSS prints go together and just makes my heart sing. I should also mention besides the Baby Boomer Blankies being a quick finish, I also wanted them for an upcoming road trip and will be taking these two along as I prefer to use them when traveling. Both of these blankie are so soft and snuggly and making me look forward to the cold days especially after the heat wave everyone seem to be experiencing this Summer.

Due to hubby’s Band  playing three shows out of the four scheduled during the past two weekends, we’ve only been to the GP House just once in July. We’ll be leaving later this week and can’t wait to see the darling granddaughter. I love Hubby’s shirt which was custom made with her lovely face printed all over. It was nice being able to stay home for more than two weeks straight which contributed to my dilly dally days. During these days, I did mull over about how the future of my Blog and if I want to continue writing Posts which reminds me of the pressure of having to write term papers and weekly status reports from my past. I do like having a Blog to keep track of my quilt life and activities and thinking I may just post and provide details with less chatting and showing less processes, i.e., fabric selection, quilting, etc. Also, I should post when a quilt is finished and not waiting until I have several and thus having longer Posts. Since I don’t have the UFO Challenge to keep me on task, do I need to finish a quilt each month? Before blogging, I used to make a lot of flimsies and it was unheard of for me to start and finish a quilt in the same year let alone the same month. I do like creating lists but I like even more not following them. Maybe I need some que sera’ sera’ sewing time and sew whatever I want and ignore my list. I’m sure I can compromise with the Studio Squirrels and Eunice, my Quilt Guilt Queen who resides in my head and tells me what I should really be sewing. I do love all of the projects I listed and maybe need some guidance to help me decide on which one to make next. Mary Etherington/Country Threads did say she would be glad to give me a number each month and that is what quilt friends are for, right? I’ll be spending the last days of July cleaning the Studio because the dilly dally days were messy.

Linking up with My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

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!