Lotta TaDa—The Last Two Quilts Finally Finished

I thought this was a good title for my post about my Lotta Jansdotter quilts. Last August, I observed a”Ya Gotta Lotta” month with the making and finishing of the Lucky Jerry Lotta Quilt plus two flimsies using my stash of Lotta Jansdotter fabric. I’m participating in the 2022/23 Country Threads Dirty Dozen UFO Challenge and have a choice of finishing a project that’s either a UFO or the designated color/pattern of the month. I’ve also included additional choices like a project with a designated fabric designer, scraps or a flimsy waiting to be quilted which is my preferred choice. 

Lotta Jansdotter was my August designer and although my plan was to quilt my Mori Girls flimsy, I was distracted by my Studio Squirrels who were chanting “Ya Gotta Lotta” inside my head so the Lucky Jerry was a start and finish way before mid August. After that, I did finally quilt Mori Girls and then proceeded to make four more flimsies, two of which from the still not depleted Lotta Jansdotter stash. 

Here are details of these two quilts:

The Lotta Love Bundle Buster quilt is a modified version of Quilting Jet Girl’s Bundle Buster pattern (not an affiliate link but one of my favorite patterns for strips).

When the Lucky Jerry Lotta Quilt was being planned and the decision made to eliminate the orange, blue, purple, fuchsia, pinks and lilac fabrics, I still wanted to make a quilt with these fabrics and the Bundle Buster pattern was perfect. This is the fifth time I have made a quilt with this pattern and it’s really easy to modify the size of the strips and blocks.

Here’s a pic of some of the blocks in the quilt and you can see the different colors playing well with each other.

Lotta Love is the third quilt I quilted with Jinny Janome and unfortunately I had some problems with what I call dragging but was soon remedied. Since I wanted to quilt straight vertical lines 1” apart, I used a quilt guide on the walking foot which put some pressure on the quilt sandwich and I should have set my pressure at zero instead of 1.5 which is my usual setting. Lesson learned for the future. I used Aurifil thread in Silver.

The backing was the blue bead stripe which I had in my stash for way over five years and the binding was my favorite stripe in Citronickle. Lotta Love Bundle Buster measures 64” x 80”.

Orangentina, so named way before Argentina won the Soccer World Cup, but I will admit singing the Evita song while this quilt was being made. Since I still had some squares and strips left over from Lotta Love,I decided to make a quilt like my previous Slinky quilts. I used the orange bead stripe as the setting strips on the side but alternated the direction to give it more interest and I like the look. I finished the flimsy before the Lotta Love flimsy which was my reason for quilting it first.

Here’s a close-up  of the quilting; I quilted wavey and straight lines with Aurifil thread in silver with no problems. I have to mention that there is a print that is not Lotta Jansdotter and its the blue stripe print with the gray Seals. I thought it went well especially since I thought the Cat print needed company.

And speaking of the Cat print, I was very proud of myself for using it as part of the backing. Good Quilt Friend, Carol, gifted me with three yards of this fabric, even after I threw her under the bus with Mary Etherington who started the Ernie quilts which were named after her orange Farm Tiger/Cat. Carol has an unique gift of interpreting quilt patterns and I happened to point it out to Mary. When I was given the fabric, I did plan on using it for a backing and may have been a little hesitant at first but decided it went well with the orange stripe. Do you see that organic shadow on the left photo? I hope it’s not bad woo-woo from Carol because I could not figure out what was causing this shadow to appear. The binding is the other navy stripe in the Lotta Jansdotter collection. Orangentina measures 60”x84”.

Here’s a photo of the three quilts together, the Lotsa Lotta Lovelies. These quilts have me thinking of Summer especially with the cold, wet weather we’re having today which is why all the photos were taken indoors. I can see these three quilts laying on porch cots during the Summer but in reality these will be my Summer quilts for the living room. I have to say it’s hard for me to pick which one is my favorite and also that I still have lotsa Lotta fabric left, especially scraps. It was hard to finally put these fabrics away but I really want to work on some new projects.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation/NTT

Jiffy July

I thought the end of my freakishly fast July would be these two quilts but decided that I could do one more Finally Finish with my Flour Garden Table Runner.

All three of these were 2020 Flimsies and also happen to be the last of the quilts in which the color Citronickle makes an appearance. I also decided to switch calling this month Jiffy instead of Freakishly Fast because I like the alliteration of Jiffy July. Here are some deets of each of these Finally Finishes:

Kiwi and Mango Tango (KMT) Slinky

If the prints in this quilt look a little familiar, it’s because I made this from the leftover strips and squares from the Kiwi and Mango Tango Bundle Buster quilt made in 2019. 

The Kiwi and Mango Tango Bundle Buster Quilt was given to the darling Granddaughter’s parents and I always wanted to make a quilt for myself from the scraps.

Usually, only squares are used in “Slinky” quilts but since I had some strips leftover, I didn’t want to cut them into squares which would result in some waste. Plus, some of these strips were my favorite prints of Pam Goecke Dinnorf’s Figment Fabrics. I think the Charcoal Aged Muslin setting strips by Marcus Brothers accents these fabrics nicely.

I machine quilted with a combination of straight and wavey lines in an Essential Thread in Charcoal Gray on the top with a variegated Gray thread in the bottom which I thought would go well with the fun backing fabric. The binding is the same Charcoal Gray fabric used in the top which makes it look like I faced the quilt. KMT Slinky measures 55” x 75”.

Ernie a Go Go (previously named Urban Ernie)

I thought the name Ernie a GoGo fit better with the colorful VeloCity fabric line by Jessica Hogarth, P&B Textile since the focal prints has a few things with wheels that say “Go”. 

I can’t remember the idea behind this quilt which the rail blocks of various widths were paired with plain patches of the focal print and black and white rails which sort of remind me of prison stripes and jokingly thought of renaming this quilt Ernie Goes to Prison. Additional fabrics used in this quilt were from Art Gallery and Cotton+Steel.

My favorite way to machine quilt the “Ernie” Quilts is to combine straight lines with wavey lines and I used Charcoal Gray Essential Thread. The backing is the splatter print which I purchased a bolt of just for backing the modern quilts and it complements this top well. For some reason, I did not set aside any fabric for binding and spent some time hunting the stash to find a print which went with the other other fabrics. I chose a Jackie Shapiro black and white stripe. This quilt measures 56”x72”.

After Ernie a GoGo was a Finally Finish, I thought a photograph with Banana the Bike would be fun so I asked the Master Quilt Holder to take it down from the rafter in the garage. 

I thought I would include a collage of the Master Quilt Holder who thought I should take Banana for a spin but I rather use her as a quilt prop for just the right quilt. Banana has been gathering dust hanging in the garage for the past several years as you can see from the dusty Swifter that’s stuck in the Master Quilt Holder’s back pocket and laying on top of the back seat; sort of looks like a bunny tail, doesn’t it?

Flour Garden Table Runner

If I haven’t already plan for this quilt to be a table runner, it would make a nice bench seat cover, wouldn’t it? I just love the happy color combination of teals, grays, navy and Citronickle.

I mentioned in a previous post that I seem to like collecting the fabrics received in the Fat Quarter Shop’s Sew Sampler box but here is a rare instance when I was perusing through an old quilt magazine and I was inspired to make a log cabin table runner with Linzee McCray’s Flour Garden Honey Bun Mini Roll. I added additional prints from other fabric lines for more variety.

Simple diagonal quilting with Aurifil #2920 thread on top and smoke gray on the bottom went easy-Thank you Hera Marker. Binding was, no surprise, the Citronickle Kimberly Kight print. This table runner measures 24”x48”.

Just two more days left for the month of Jiffy July and I think five Finally Finishes makes it a pretty productive month. I’m going to spend the last days starting on some secret sewing and I’m going to be slab happy. I’m looking forward to an Awesome August which may not involve a lot of quilting since we will be traveling and Hubby with his band, The Fossil Tonez have several gigs planned.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation, NTT

Zingy Zinky is a Finally Finished

It’s a great way to start off a new month with a Finally Finish although I was hoping that my Zingy Zinky would have been finished yesterday for an end of the month finish but had a quilting snafu which I will mention later in this post.

Zingy Zinky was one of the flimsies finished last year and I wrote about it briefly in my Flimsy Frenzy February post which I had at that time named it Zingy Zebra. I decided to rename it Zingy Zinky since this is a version of the Slinky, Pinky and Blinky Bill Blankie quilts and I had to keep the “inky” as a reference to this series of quilts made up of rectangle strips and squares.

Like the previous quilts in the “inky” series, the strips and squares were cut 4-1/2” from mostly Art Gallery prints in shades of pinks, teals, golds/oranges, black&white and low volume prints.  There are almost forty different prints used in the squares. Instead of using one print for the setting strips, I alternated two prints, an Art Gallery multi-color stripe with a Cotton+Steel Netorious in black which is the reason why Zebra was in the original name for this quilt.

Zingy Zinky measures 56”x76”. The backing is an Alexander Henry print from 2011 which I bought last year from Hobby Lobby and been sitting in the backing vault to be paired with the right top— I think it’s perfect for Zingy Zinky, or should I say the ZZ Top. I used the black Netorious print for the binding.

As mentioned in the beginning of this post about my quilting mishap which I have now filed as “what not to do ever again for machine quilting” is never changed your presser foot setting in the middle of quilting unless you want big time puckering nor does 50 wt. Auril in black give quilting stitches enough definition—I should have used the 40 wt.  I had to rip out 15 rows of quilting just for the presser foot setting mishap and decided to keep using the black Aurifil thread because it would have involved ripping out another 25 rows.

You always have to include a photo of your quilt blowing in the wind.

One last photo before I end this post—Zingy Zinky hanging on the garage door since the Master Quilter was unavailable since he was busy planting his vegetable garden. I just love this pattern, it’s simple and a great way to use up scraps, charm packs or a favorite fabric collection.  I already have another one planned but will have to wait since I don’t want to start any new quilts until I finally finish a few more of the eleven flimsies left over from 2020. Plus, my quilt for the Follow Your Own Path QAL need to be ready for the June 15th Celebration of a Famous Canadian’s Birthday.  This month already seems to be going by fast.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation, NTT and From Bolt to Beauty, Brag About Your Beauties

Sweet September SewJo

Despite making four trips to the Grandparent House and only spending fourteen days at home, I have five Finally Finished which makes this a very busy and productive month for me.  Apparently when only having a limited schedule for quilting, I can be pretty focused.  The first Finally Finished for September was my Shine Quilt which I posted on September 8th.  My next four quilts were for the Jelly Snowflake QAL, a Dreami, Country Threads Dirty Dozen QAL and a surprise finish; here are the photos with a brief description of each.

Emily, The Darling Dogwood, and I decided since we already did two of the same QALs this year without us knowing that neither one of us was sewing together, we would do a third one together and we decided upon Fat Quarter Shop’s Jelly Snowflake QAL.  You can see Emily’s beautiful interpretation Here.  I have mentioned in previous posts that I consider myself a QAL Escape Artist and Emily seem to have followed in my sew steps, in that, we did the first two blocks as per the pattern and then veered off with our own  finishes. The Jelly Snowflake pattern was beautiful and made great use of jelly roll strips but I wanted to showcase more of the fat quarters of the Stacey Hsu North Pole fabric which I received several years ago in one of the Fat Quarter Shop’s Christmas Sampler Box. That’s all I’m going to say about the Jelly Snowflake pattern and named my quilt Frosty Flake because of the snowmen on some of the prints and because it is my favorite breakfast cereal.  After the top was completed, I immediately knew how I wanted to quilt it with the straight-line diagonal quadrants with red thread.  Frosty Flakes measures 48” square and it’s going to be nice to have a new Christmas quilt to hang up this year.  BTW, I thought that instead of calling myself a QAL Escape Artist, I would give myself a new name or descriptor: Sewing Rose-gue, it seems to better explain how I quilt.

While searching for the red binding for my Frosty Flake Quilt in my red stash, I came across the Watermelon fabric with the matching large red gingham print and immediately knew I had to make something for the darling Granddaughter.  Since I’ve been spending so much time with her, I’ve become quite fond of the CoComelon videos which are fun and addicting to watch. Even when we’re not at the GP House, Hubby and I are humming and singing many of the tunes.  A simple patchwork blankie was made with some fun green prints from the stash and another red print.  I had the perfect shade of a coral pink Minky yardage in the stash and a quilt was made before the next GP visit.  This Blankie measures 40”x56”, which is a nice size for snuggling for one person but I would have made it bigger if I had more of the watermelon and red gingham print.

The month of September also meant a new UFO finish of our #11 for Country Thread’s Dirty Dozen which was my Flea Market Square. The top was made over seven years ago and it seems that during this time, I made a lot of square quilts and some of them I have committed to finishing for this QAL.  I didn’t keep any notes on the making of this quilt and I was able to ascertain that a charm pack of Moda’s Three Sisters Flea Market II was used along with some yardage.  At first I didn’t remember even what fabric line was used but was able to guess after looking at one of the charm squares which had a Paris map and was able to connect it to one of the Flea Market lines.  I was happy that I found the quilt top with the backing and binding safely tucked away together.  

I’ve mentioned in previous posts how I was inspired by Mary Etherington of Country Threads to do straight line quilting on traditional quilts so I thought since I was finishing this quilt as part of her QAL, it would look appropriate for Flea Market Square.  I quilted it with a very pale pink Mettler thread to keep the quilting  quiet and simple. I usually don’t back my quilts with fabric from the same line, partly because of cost and not wanting to waste it especially for a wall hanging, but I must have purchased the plaid when it was on sale because I had three yards of it.  I do love pairing plaids with florals.  Now that this quilt is a Finally Finished, I have a place to hang it on my bedroom wall since I’ve been meaning to replace the current artwork which has been hanging around for over twenty years.  Sad I won’t see the backing, but I’ll know it’s there.

Since I had a day left before the end of September when I wanted to post, I thought I would squeeze out one more Finally Finish with the Big Blinky Bill Blankie. I made the top earlier this year and is one of the flimsy made during my Flimsy Frenzy February.  The top was inspired by my Slinky and Pinky Quilts which is a simple pattern using squares and rectangles.  When I wrote the posts for these quilts, I mentioned I was inspired to make more and keeping the “inky” in the names.  Good Quilt Mentor Sue of PatchworknPlay offer up Blinky Bill which is an Australian Children Book Koala character.  Since I didn’t have any Koala fabrics I thought the next best thing would be to use my stash of Aboriginal prints which have been sitting far too long in the stash with solid squares of Shot Cotton, Peppered Cotton and Aged Muslin.  I thought this top could be a quick Finally Finished if I made a Patchwork Throw by only backing it with my favorite gray Chenille Plush.  It measures 52” x 82” which would make it a throw according to my rules, but since I love alliteration in my quilt names I’m calling it a blankie, thus the name Big Blinky Bill Blankie.  Since Hubby’s name is Bill, this will be his, especially since with the other patchwork throws I made with the plush for the backing, I’m always telling him how wonderful they are for snuggling and napping.  Now he will have his own to find out how true this is.

I still managed to find time to start others projects and keeping up with my 2020 Color Challenge blocks.  I’m calling this a month now and maybe rest for the remaining few hours left.  But no, I still have 1.5 days left before we leave for the GP House again and the studio here is still where I’m the most productive; probably because I don’t have a sweet distraction beckoning me to play with her.

A Blessed Finally Finish: Women of the Bible Quilt

Even with the absence of a Project list for 2019 and deciding that I would have a take it easy year, I'm still surprisingly have been staying focused on finishing last year projects and making new quilts with the once new fabrics which have been waiting for the right projects.  I'm thinking that the ever present squirrels in my studio have a good quilting conscience who are prompting me to sew the right thing.  In March, after finishing one of the "haf-to-do" quilts on my mental plate, I thought some fun with something new was in order.  But then the mood for me to finally finish the Women of the Bible Quilt hit me, or maybe in this case was divine intervention, and I knew the time was right to sew it all together.

The Women of the Bible Quilt (or I renamed the Bible Quilt) was started at the beginning of 2016 with my good quilting friend Dee and we decided to join a QAL on Facebook hosted by Crafty Threads.  Each week, we received a free online pattern for either a 15" or 10" block which was inspired by one of the women in the Bible. There were forty blocks and the goal was to finish all of the blocks by mid October and to put the top together by the end of the year.  

I chose to make my quilt with bright fabrics since I had purchased a large stash of Crazy Mom's Good Neighbor fabric when it came out in 2015 and also had a fat quarter collection of Emily Herrick's Technicolor fabrics.  I also included some other fabrics from Riley Blake, Moda and Connecting Thread. Since the quilt was all about the Women of the Bible, I wanted to make sure the quilt had a feminine feel and was able to find some multi-color floral prints which tied in all of the other colors.

There were twelve 15" blocks and twenty-eight 10" blocks.  I started the QAL with good intentions but did not finish all of the blocks until the end of 2016. Once again, I did a QAL Escape Artist thing by modifying three of the last blocks just to get them done.  You can read about the finishing of the blocks then here and surprisingly some of my hesitation had to do with Gypsy Wife. An interesting note is that the Bible Quilt was started before my blog and there were name calling for some of these blocks between Dee and I.

I decided to set the blocks, sampler style, most likely inspired by my then recently finished Classic Meets Modern Quilt and laid out the blocks in four quadrants.  In order to do this, I had to sew an additional 10" block.

After adding the 8" borders and cornerstones which made a very large quilt, 85" x 95", my plan was to send this quilt to Nancy of Grace and Peace Quilting in Minnesota.  The top was finished the first week in March but I waited until last week to send it to her because I was waiting for the snow to end which in the Midwest did not stop until early May.  I thought it would be safe but then we had all those tornadoes and my fear of my quilt strewned across the highway from an overturned truck was still very real.  My prayers were answered when my quilt arrived safely both to and from.

Nancy did a wonderful job with the machine quilting, it's either Figure Eight or Wishbone using the perfect shade of pink thread which matched the pink stripe binding. (You can read Nancy's post about this quilt here).  The turnaround from sending and receiving the quilt was just eight days and once I received the quilt back this past Thursday, the binding was hand sewn by that evening.  I haven't hand sewn binding in quite awhile and I thought it was going to take at least eight hours but was surprised that it took less than four hours. The 108" wide backing is also from the Good Neighbor line and I'm glad I purchased it when I bought the other fabrics. 

I was thinking that I was going to have to rely on Nancy's photos of my quilt since she always takes nice photos of quilts hanging from her deck since I was worried that I wouldn't be able to take a full photo of  the quilt because of its size and would have been too much for the Master and Apprentice Quilt Holder to handle. But then I remember hanging the Slinky Quilt from the screen room gutters.  The Master Quilt Holder appreciated that he didn't have to hold up this quilt and listen to my being Quiltzilla and boy did those nine boot clips do the job.  I also had an epiphany while the Master Quilt Holder was standing on the step ladder hanging up the quilt and realized that I don't need a clothes line after all; good news for him since he's been resisting my request, aka whining, for the past few years.

After a little more than three years from the start of this quilt, the Bible Quilt is a wonderful, finally finish. It's seems like it took forever and am glad there's a little less guilt in the studio now. My original intention was to give it to my son and his wife but I've since changed my mind; it's going to be for my beloved and very quilt-spoiled granddaughter's bed when she visits. This amazing technicolor quilt is just perfect for a little girl.  BTW, before posting, I did an online search to see if anyone is offering a QAL or free Women of the Bible block patterns but could only find ones available for purchase.

It seems that more often than not I'm going to mention something about the weather, it's still crazy with lots of rain, warm and days of sunshine are few and far between.  Today, we finally switched our bedding to the Summer quilts and this is the latest we've ever did this.

Linking up with: My Quilt Infatuation NTT and Meadow Mist Designs, Favorite Finish