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.

A Sweet Start to September-Scrapffiti

I’m having a good start to the month with my first quilt finish for September, Scrapffiti, which happened to be a DrEAMi. I found a few new inspirations while taking a scroll in social media lane during the past few weeks and I am happy to share in this Post.

The Scrapbooking pattern appeared on my IG feed and I fell in love with it immediately. I just love simple patterns with large patches which are perfect for the large focus prints in my stash. I purchased the pattern as a download on August 21st, (spent a few days auditioning fabrics and five days at the GP House) and eleven days later it is a Finally Finish. I named it Scrapffiti, a play on the pattern name and Graffiti since that came to mind with the use of the black and white Splatter print.

I first auditioned Tula Pink fabrics but didn’t have the right blender and accent prints and then Ravel by e bond which I would have used but the colors were not strong enough against the black and white Splatter print. I decided to use the lovely group of fabrics above which had the right saturated colors and have been quietly residing together in the same bin for several years. All of these prints were designed by a lovely group of ladies and am listing them in alphabetical order by first names: Karen Gillis Taylor, Keiko Goke, Kitty Yoshida, Katie Pasquini Masopast and Libs Elliot. Some of the fabrics shown were eliminated and more Libs Elliott fabrics were added. After pairing them, I had a group of ten combinations (some prints were used twice) to make the blocks.

I love all of the combinations but have to mention that I was very happy to use once again the citronickle Dance Moves print by Katie Pasquini Masopast which I used for my Kharma Khameleon Baby Boomer Blankie. I used this print in two of the combinations.

….and here are the other nine. The blocks sewed fast but laying them out was more of a challenge which I changed the layout at least ten times before I was satisfied that the colors and prints were spread out nice and even.

Vertical, soft wavey lines were machine quilted with CT Essential Threads with a variegated Gray for the top and Silver on the bottom. I had planned to use a wide back from the vault but remembered that I had a stash of the IKEA black and white leaf print designed by Paulin Machado in 2013. I had planned to use a marble black print for the binding but was inspired to used the Splatter background print which I will explain later. Scrapffiti measures 64” by 80”. The Scrapbooking pattern was a fun and quick make but you do have to pay attention to sewing the patches together in the correct orientation. I hoping to make another one with the right fabrics and background.

Am I the last person in the world to be introduced to Kate Jackson/The Last Homely House YouTube channel? I don’t know which feed I found her in, either Pinterest or YouTube, and am wondering why it took seven years for the algorithm to decide that I might be interested in her, especially Pinterest, since I have numerous quilting boards, a Kaffe Fassett board and a British board. I ignored her on Pinterest first but finally noticed her when the mention of a Lime Green Sofa came up and you know it’s my favorite color which I call Citronickle. It’s in one of Kate’s videos where she was making a top with optical illusion blocks and said that she planned on binding the quilt with the same sashing fabric and thought that was a great idea that I could use for my Scrapffiti quilt. I normally like my binding to frame my quilts and never would thought of using a background print but the Splatter print really makes the blocks looking like they’re floating. I should mention that I have already pulled out a Kaffe Fassett scrap project which has been in the makings for over five years. According to Kate, five years is a reasonable time to finish a project. It’s a nice change of pace for me to listen/watch Kate while in the studio; I love listening to anyone with an English accent.

I mentioned in my last Post that I found a wonderful road project for our upcoming road trip which was the Quilt As You Go Rectangle Bricks, tutorial by Stitch with Rachel.

My first collection of Tilda fabrics was purchased, thanks to good quilt friend Carol who was mentioning lately that she was making quilts with Tilda fabrics which I had forgotten I gifted her first Tilda fabrics several years ago, the special templates to make the bricks received and thin batting and backing found in the stash. It’s a good thing I made some test blocks because I realized that it’s too fussy to sew these in the car and I rather make a different type of quilt with the lovely Tilda fabrics. These blocks are a nice hand project for  when I’m at home and have an idea to use them individually rather than in a quilt which means I don’t have to worry if the blocks are sewn accurately and are all the exact size. I have to come up with another road project and may take leftover paper pieces from my Smitten quilt since I had a lot of leftover. I am bringing plenty of knitting with me so I should have enough to keep my hands busy.

I’m closing this Post now with some exterior photos of  Scrapffiti and one of I wish there was a graffiti wall by my house so PicMonkey helped to make this possible. It was a little bit windy but the Master Quilt Holder handled the quilt with his usual finesse. Hope everyone is enjoying the last holiday weekend of the Summer.

Linking up with:My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

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