Author: Pat

I don’t have much to show on the quilting front this week. I did piece the contest blocks into a quilt top that will be exhibited at the South Florida Fair (in January). It’s ready to hand off to the member that will be quilting it at our October guild meeting. I’ll try to get a photo of it then.

I did some organizing of my linen closet, laundry room, and panty closet so I could shuffle things around to make room for holiday decorating, starting with Halloween.

The kits (both quilt shop produced and ones I’ve collected fabrics to make) had to be moved out of my laundry room cabinet to make space for household things.

They’re back in my sewing room so now I have to work around them. Maybe that inconvenience will be good motivation to get them made. Time to move them up the priority list. I re-evaluated each of them and they’re still things I want to make. I have a quilt to make for a family member’s fund raiser and the patriotic strings I’ve already started, but I’ll begin to mix in some of the small holiday kits since none of them will take long to make.

I really like these plastic mesh zipper project bags from Amazon. Temu has less expensive ones but I didn’t want to order more than I needed (trying to be more intentional about not acquiring more things I’ll have to store). I liked getting them the next day too so I could put everything away and move on to something else.

THIS is the “something else”. I came across this six block panel and remembered buying it when the local quilt shop had a sale on all their panels around this time last year. Time got away from me and I never got to making something with it.
I don’t want or need another Halloween quilt so I plan to quilt it as it is, cut it in half, then bind each of the two pieces to make two table runners. One for the top of my coffee table and one for the shelf under it.

I had the perfect orange from that big JoAnn’s liquidation purchase I made a few months ago. I like it so well that I’ll use it for both the backing and the binding.

Last night I put together 96 candy bags for later this month when the little goblins come around threatening to trick me unless they get some candy.

My husband thinks we have enough. Halloween is on a Friday night this year so I’m worried we might need more. (I like to give some to the parents too if they’re walking with their children. 🙂

I’ll share photos of all the decorating when it’s finished.

I didn’t want this post to get too long so, you’ll probably see two posts from me today…

The holiday season is beginning just as busy as usual. Thankfully, no hurricane threats to deal with this year and I’m hopeful that trend continues.

Today a couple of guild members met at our county fairgrounds to judge the contest blocks for this year’s quilt. Each year the guild makes a quilt to display with the fair’s theme. It then becomes part of the collection dating back 40 years. Quilts from previous years are displayed during the South Florida Fair hanging from the rafters in the exhibition hall. This year it’s “Party with the Pirates”.

I was honored to be asked to piece the top this year. I wasn’t one of the judges so was able to submit my own block. Since the judging is complete I can show you the block my granddaughter made (left) and the one I entered (right). I’m so proud of how patient and careful she was stitching her block.

Last week our guild had a Santa workshop. It was lots of fun! When I got home the only thing left to do was sew on the button eyes and nose.

I brought two items for show and tell. One was a bargello quilt I made earlier this year. I initially planned to donate it for a family member’s quarter auction fundraiser (for a child’s kidney transplant operation). A guild member asked if I’d sell it to her. I usually donate quilts, so this was new for me but I’m happy it went to someone who loves it and for probably more than it would have taken in at the auction. I have another quilt planned for the fundraiser, and I’ll show you that one when it’s finished.

My other show & tell was this little table topper “Not Kitten Around”. It’s part of a Riley Blake calendar series. I’m not making them all but I was able to purchase this individual month from our local quilt shop, Quilt a Bit. I bought the turkey today to make for Thanksgiving. They’re small at only 12″ x 14″ but that’s just the size I need fit the stand I already owned.

Don’t mind the open garage door in the background. My husband has started his annual Halloween decorating. With a 20′ x 30′ garage and two sheds (11′ x 20′ and 8′ x 10′), he still barely has enough room for all the Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Halloween decorations in addition to patriotic, Easter, and Valentine’s Day. The kids in the neighborhood absolutely love it when they see he’s beginning to decorate. 😉

When people ask what he thinks about how involved I am with my quilting and fabric, I just roll my eyes and think, “if you only knew!” I believe he’s secretly thrilled that I have my own “thing,” so he can enjoy his hobby without interference from me. LOL

I finished one of my patriotic string quilts in the last two weeks also. I’m happy with what I did get finished but, not so much with all the things I’ve started and put aside. Oops! As soon as I finish assembling the fair quilt I’ll get busy with all the WIPS (works in progress) so I can enjoy making a few things for Christmas. It’ll be here before we know it!

One of our guild members shared an idea this month for a leaders/enders unit. (No one explains what this is better than Bonnie Hunter. You can read more about the process here.) The drawing above is the one our guild member has invited us to join her in making for the next six months.

Today I started cutting some scraps that I plan to use with a black background. I think I already know how I want to finish the quilt so I’ll be excited to see it progress over the next several months. It it goes quickly, I have a plan for a second quilt using different fabrics and setting. I think this will be fun!

I don’t have anything finished to show this week even though I have been busy. I like to bind my string quilts by hand, a little bit each night, so it takes several days to finish. That might be a good thing because I’ve been procrastinated about adding older post so expect to see a few more of those.

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Originally posted October 22, 2023

This week I finished a quilt from scraps using the Atkinson Designs pattern called Step Right Up.

The strips were leftovers from another Atkinson pattern I finished last year that had previously been a UFO.

Two more tops were made with the left over strips but they still need to be quilted.

A lot of my scrap quilts have a lot of added background fabric. It’s not the most efficient way to use the leftovers but, it’s more important to me to enjoy making the quilt.

The next two finishes are string quilts. The first was made using Bonnie Hunter’s String X free pattern with paper telephone Yellow Book pages. I prefer paper foundations to keep the quilts lighter than using muslin or other lightweight fabrics.

The tiniest strings were stitched to adding machine paper to make the fun quilt below. I’d had the Crosswalk quilt pattern on my list to make for a while now. It was fun to take the original idea and substitute strings for the centers of the blocks.

A few partial solid strips left after making the blocks were used for the scrappy binding.

A switch on my long arm broke, so I’ve been organizing while waiting for the part. The room doesn’t really need it, but we expect our hurricane windows to be installed in 4 to 6 weeks. When we get the notice from the installer, I’ll have to quickly move everything to one corner. I’m using these couple of days to consolidate as much as I can. All the furniture is on casters, including the long arm frame, so moving things shouldn’t be too difficult.

My longarm is back in service! Yay!

The problem was the bobbin case and as soon as I saw the new one there was no doubt. Notice the clasp on top of the case on the right. I’m sure that happened when I dropped it. The screw that holds it in place was still tight but the metal thing was definitely not right.

I didn’t even want to try bending it back in place on the off chance that I might make things worse, like cause the machine to jump timing. I know from past experience that’s a $700 housecall and several weeks wait for the appointment.

I quilted a guild Community Outreach top and it worked just fine. I think the stitches even look better on the back now. I used a “Mod Dots” design board by Urban Elementz to quilt it (a PVC version of a pantograph used with a stylus). I think it mimics the balls of yarn the cats are playing with in the quilt top.

I also made a sample block with the Kaffe fabric scraps. I’m glad I did because I quickly realized I’m not going to be able to make one block a day like I’d planned.

There are 17 logs in each block (41 pieces). I like to press the log before I add the next one. I was constantly getting up and down. This one block took over an hour to make.

Plan B: Cut out all the blocks, label everything well, and sew one log on all 24 blocks each day. I’d much rather get up once to press 24 pieces, than to get up 17 times.

I really do like the block. I may just finish this quilt for the bed in our guest room/home office. It’ll make the room feel like a tropical getaway. 🙂

Have you ever begun with an idea and have it morph into something you didn’t quite expect? Here’s how this one began – late last night.

I’d seen a photo on Facebook of a pattern by a company that didn’t have the rights to it. The actual pattern is called Petal Pop and designed by Melissa Corry. I liked it and noticed it used jelly roll strips, which I thought might be perfect for our guild’s strip challenge program in the spring.

Last night, I considered buying the pattern but chose not to when I saw the quilt shown on the cover was 98″ x 98″. The 50″ square version only had one “flower” in the center and I didn’t like it nearly as much.

I considered cutting the strips in half, 1 1/4″ wide, but that would make them really narrow and involve a lot of extra math! 🙂

Instead, I stayed up late and graphed a block that would use 1 1/2″ wide pieces. The block is an usual one, but looking at where the sashing and cornerstones are located helped to define it.

A few months ago, I saw a picture of some quilt blocks in progress. The quilter didn’t mention the pattern, but I recognized immediately that it was this same block. Looking at that photo also helped me figure out how the block was probably pieced.

I went to bed wondering how the blocks would look using some of these scraps??? Most of them read as solids though and I didn’t think that was the look I wanted.

A honeybun of 1 1/2″ wide strips would be perfect for the finished size I hoped to make. Problem is, I already own plenty of fabric. Buying something new would be going in the opposite direction of my goal – that is to try and use scraps and strings as often as possible.

I went to bed and put the idea to rest too.

Remember seeing these photos? I received those Kaffe scraps back in July from an online friend with whom I had shared some Civil War-type background pieces of fabric. I made one quilt with the Kaffe prints and mentioned being a little disappointed with it in this post. I put the rest away in a box to use in the near future for string blocks.

This morning I remembered them and decided to layout what I had left to see if they might work for this quilt. Other than a handful of pieces that are 3″ and 4″ wide (not shown here), these are what’s left.

These strips are all shorter than 40″ and less than 2 1/2″wide.

I counted them and I have plenty to make the quilt top since they are all at least the 17″ I’ll need for the block size I drew. Yay!

Kaffe prints are usually too busy for my taste. There’s a lot of background fabric in this quilt so I’m hopeful that it will tone them down just a bit.

The quilt in the pattern reminds me of a Lori Holt farm/country style project. Mine is much more likely to look like a garden you’d see in the tropics.

For fun, I used artificial intelligence to create a picture of a typical south Florida garden. It sure ooks a lot like those Kaffe fabrics above, doesn’t it? The photo caption was AI generated too. I had to laugh when I read the “tranquil meadow scene” description. I don’t see a meadow, do you?😂

The funny thing about how all this evolved is this .. I had jist texted my friend Robin a day or two earlier about wanting to try something different but I wasn’t sure what that “something” was. We discussed a sew along of a quilt a blogger was making but I tend to turn projects like that into UFOs that I have to deal with later, so I avoid them. I also mentioned a quilt shop class that looked interesting or maybe even a block swap with friends, but neither of those felt like what I really wanted to do either.

Maybe what I needed was in front of me all along, a project like this. One that was interesting and something I hadn’t done previously. A quilt that would take a while to complete but didn’t require me to put it aside to wait on some one or some thing.

I do still want to continue focusing on making scrap and string quilts because I enjoy making them. This will give me a needed break from focusing so much on those they start to get boring. I can work on cutting and piecing a block at a time and watch the quilt grow gradually.

My new bobbin case just arrived while writing this post. I’m eager to try it but I need to do some housework first because if it works, I’ll want to start quilting the guild donation quilt I have loaded. If it doesn’t, well…that could also consume the rest of my day.
Fingers crossed! &&