Quilting is in my Blood

April was another busy month. I’m super happy that I was able to finish paper piecing the units for Violet Craft’s Rainbow Cheetah and was able to get all the units sewn together for the head.

In contrast to the large scale paper piecing of the Cheetah Abstraction quilt, I decided to make a much smaller scale quilted Fairy Wren, pattern by The Tartankiwi. I downloaded this paper-pieced pattern several years ago, and decided to make one for my friend, Kelly, who lives in Kentucky, and one to keep. Below is the Fairy Wren that I kept for myself. The blocks were 6.5″ unfinished. After matchstick quilting, I cut them down to 5.75″ square. I wanted mitered corners, so I attached a one-inch binding strip referring to Twiggy and Opal’s mini mini binding tutorial, but rather binding the mini, I taped the binding strip to the back of a 6.25″ square of acid-free card stock using acid free masking tape. Then I inserted it into a trivet frame I had on hand when I used to make mosaics.

I actually took Kelly’s Fairy Wren with me for my trip to Kentucky, but I took a circuitous route to KY by way of Florida! My friend, Annette, who lives near Orlando, is originally from Kentucky, and was interested in going with me to her home state to show me around. We opted to drive her nice, very comfortable car from FL to KY rather than flying into Kentucky and getting a rental car. Anyway, when I was up at 4:00 am (after about five hours of sleep!) consolidating my luggage for the car trip to KY, I left both the Fairy Wren AND my appliqued hummingbird sweatshirt in the smaller suitcase that I left back in Florida. Ugh! Did I ever feel like a dork! It’s been too warm to wear the sweatshirt, so here’s a pic of it pinned to my design board. The pattern is by Liza Taylor Handmade and was available to purchase as part of The Paper Piecers membership. Here is a link to the waiting list to the Paper Piecers Membership that will re-open in July.

I had a great time in both Florida and Kentucky. I had a short-but-sweet visit with my friend, Kelly, who I hadn’t seen since we were in our twenties. Annette also took me on a tour to Mammoth Caves and drove me to Paducah for the American Quilter’s Society quilt show which was amazing. Annette’s nephew took us for a bourbon tour/tasting and also to watch some races at Churchill Downs which was gearing up for the Kentucky Derby on 5/4/24. Below is a pic of Annette and me at the American Quilter’s Society quilt show.

It was quite crowded at the quilt show and was difficult to get good photos of the amazing quilts. Cassandra Beaver with The Not So Dramatic Life recently wrote a post about some of the quilts that she liked which included two of my favorites: River/Rocks/Fire by Betsy Kulamer and Convergence by Barbara Triscari and Christine McCann. See Cassandra’s post below:

5+ Spectacular Can’t-Miss Quilts From the AQS Paducah Show

Modern Star Swap

I am participating in the “modernstarswap hosted by @mashemodern on Instagram. The centers are supposed to be fussy cut, and we have been asked to used fabrics by popular designers. I’m making five sets of 10 blocks each (plus an extra block for me) and am using fabrics by Alison Glass, Giucy Giuce, and Tula Pink. Below is a sample block I made to post on Instagram (@MRINGER58).

Fussy Fuel BOM

I decided not to redo my 6.5″ square Block Four for Geeky Bobbin’s Fussy Fuel 2024 Block of the Month. I am using Alison Glass fabrics for this BOM that is focused on learning new fussy cutting techniques.. The reason I wasn’t happy with it is because I had planned to also use the purple fabric as sashing between my blocks, and I don’t think I would’ve liked that look with block below. But I’ve decided to use the blocks in a table runner and won’t need to use sashing to separate the blocks. Overall I’m happy with the block and like how it looks like we’re looking out a window at the girl in the lower right corner.

Scrappy Projects

I did not work on any Modern Postage Stamp blocks nor my dryer sheet block. The designated color for April was yellow, and when I looked at my yellow fabric stash, I found it sorely lacking. However, that problem has been remedied with a Fat Quarter Shop order. They have an unbelievable selection of yellow fabrics. They also have a nice selection of Alison Glass fabrics that I may or may not have added to my stash 🙂

What’s Up for May?

• Finish my Star Pulse Quilt Along quilt top.
• Finish my Rainbow Cheetah quilt top.
• Make 54 more Modern Star Swap blocks.
• More secret sewing.
• Make a dryer sheet block with yellow fabrics for the April color for Rainbow Scrap Challenge .
• Make a dryer sheet block with pink fabrics for the May color for Rainbow Scrap Challenge .

My favorite finish in April is a quilted Fairy Wren, pattern by The Tartankiwi. I downloaded this paper-pieced pattern several years ago, and decided to make one for my friend, Kelly, who lives in Kentucky, and one to keep. Below is the Fairy Wren that I kept for myself. The blocks were 6.5″ unfinished. After matchstick quilting, I cut them down to 5.75″ square. I wanted mitered corners, so I attached a one-inch binding strip referring to Twiggy and Opal’s mini mini binding tutorial, but rather binding the mini, I taped the binding strip to the back of a 6.25″ square of acid-free card stock using acid free masking tape. Then I inserted it into a trivet frame I had on hand when I used to make mosaics.

I got a lot done in the first quarter of 2024 including participating in the Stay at Home Round Robin 2024 hosted by Quilting Gail, completing three Project Quilting Season 15 Challenges, attending QuiltCon 2024 and writing a post about a number of my favorite quilts, making some blocks for the Fussy Fuel 2024 Block of the Month, cutting up a boatload of scraps for future projects, making some modern postage stamp blocks and Rainbow Scrap Challenge dryer sheet blocks, making a Mod Modern Mosaic Covered in Love block, and making some Stitch-and-Flip units for the Star Pulse QAL hosted by Quilting Jetgirl. I also started paper piecing units for my rainbow version of Violet Craft’s Cheetah Abstractions Quilt. See my January, February, and March recap posts for more information about these projects.

What’s on Deck for Quarter Two of 2024

• Applique a paper pieced block to a grey sweatshirt and hopefully like it enough to wear to the American Quilter’s Society quilt show in Paducah, Kentucky, at the end of the month.
• Finish Quilting Jetgirl’s Star Plus Quilt Along quilt.
• Finish my Rainbow Cheetah Quilt.
• Make 50 sawtooth star blocks for a Modern Star block swap.
• Start a Baseball Star quilt for a friend who also loves baseball.
• Start a baby quilt for a friend’s baby due in August possibly using an Alison glass Postmark Panel.
• Work on some Geeky Bobbin Fussy Fuel 2024 Block of the Month blocks.
• Work on a Sashiko Japanese tea mat in different shades of purple.
• Make more modern postage stamp blocks.
• Make more Rainbow Scrap Challenge dryer sheet blocks.
• Make a couple paper pieced blocks from patterns through the Liza Taylor Handmade’s Paper Piecers Membership. I think I will use the two gardening blocks for a bag or a bucket pouch.
• Do some more secret sewing.

Linking up to #2024QuiltingQ1CheckIn.

I’ve had a productive month. Not in any particular order, here’s what I was able to get done in March:

I made one 12.5″ x 15.5″ Mod Modern Mosaic Covered in Love block. This block will be used in a Covered in Love donation quilt for hospice patients in Texas.

I finished my SAHRR 2024 quilt top in the time for the quilt parade. Read about it here.

I made 16 purple blocks for a Rainbow Modern Postage Stamp Quilt that will probably be bumped to 2025. I also made a purple dryer sheet block:

In March I participated in one Project Quilting challenge: Wearables.

I was really tempted to participate in the last 2024 Project Quilting challenge: Irish Chain. I found a You Tube video for an adorable Irish Chain block using Art Gallery Fabrics Lambkin fabric, but I used up that fabric for the back of Christmas placemats last year. I did, however, find a half yard on sale on Etsy for $6.00, so I think I will be be making a cover for the dorm refrigerator in my quilting space for this coming Christmas.

I got the HSTs sewn for my Star Pulse quilt-along project in earlier this month and then used them in the Stitch-and-Flip units pictured below:

I did make Block 4 for Geeky Bobbin’s Fussy Fuel 2024 Block of the Month. I haven’t taken a photo of it because I think I’m going to remake it.

The project that I’ve been working on that I am most excited about is the Violet Craft’s Rainbow Cheetah. I bought the pattern at QuiltCon and have already spent quite a few hours organizing and labeling templates, pulling fabrics, and starting to sew the paper-pieced units. Below is a pic of one of the charts I’m using to organize the fabrics that I’m using on a set of FPP units.

Lastly I wrote a QuiltCon 2024 Recap post that is linked here.

What’s Up for April?

• Make more progress on my Star Pulse Quilt Along project hosted by Quilting Jetgirl.
• Re-make Fussy Fuel block 4.
• Continue working on Rainbow Cheetah FPP units.
• Applique a Double Woven Star Quilt Block to a grey sweatshirt to wear at the AQS quilt show next month in Paducah, Kentucky.
• Do some secret sewing.
• Make a dryer sheet block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (color unknown at this time).
• Write a #2024QuiltingQ1CheckIn post for the linky party hosted by Quilting Jetgirl.

Linking up to:

Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday

When I was going to sew on my sixth border, it became obvious to me that the middle of the quilt was shorter (about 29″ long)  than the fifth borders (about 30″). And I’ll be honest, I knew exactly what had happened. In the very first quilt class I took in 2014, I was trained to calculate the correct length of a border by measuring the length of the two outside edges and the middle of the quilt, and using the average of the three measurements to figure out how long to cut the border strip. And this also applies to the horizontal borders too. See this post for a more detailed explanation of the process. But I was lazy and calculated my borders and sashing strips simply by measuring the previous border or sashing strip.

So I ripped out the white sashing strip between my fourth and fifth borders and correctly calculated the length of that sashing strip. I had to shorten the fifth border by trimming down some of the print fabric. After I added the sixth border (which believe it or not was too short and I had add one-inch coping strips at the top and bottom of each border), I calculated measurements for the outer borders. Because everything still wasn’t perfectly lined up, these borders were a pain to sew on. I had to pin the heck out of them and do a lot of easing of the fabric, but overall, I’m happy with this finished quilt top that measures 33.5″ x 57″. I will send it out for quilting which help it lay flatter, and I believe it will look nice on my pressing table (when I’m not pressing anything!) during the holiday season.

Here are the previous posts I wrote about this project:

Center Block

Border 1

Border 2

Border 3

Border 4

Border 5

Border 6

I absolutely enjoyed participating in the Stay at Home Round Robin for the third year in a row. See my finished SAHRR 2023 here and SAHRR 2022 here.

Linking up to Quilting Gail: SAHRR 2024 Quilt Parade.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at QuiltCon 2024 last month in Raleigh, NC. The quilts below all caught my eye for one reason or another. I will at least write a sentence about each one. I have the photo of the quilts on the left side and the artist’s statement on the right. Click on the images to enlarge them.

The Quilts of Jacquie Gering

I am a huge fan of Jacquie Gering and had the opportunity to take a walking foot class from Jacquie in 2017 at the Hip Stitch quilt store in Albuquerque. It was hands down the best quilting class I’ve ever taken. I’m only including two of her quilts in this post, but every single one was memorable and thought-provoking. I had a very personal connection to the Missing Pieces quilt below as I have a family member who is currently suffering from memory issues.

The quilt below beautifully depicts how the COVID19 pandemic affected all of us.

Windham Artisan Cotton 2024 Challenge

In this category, I was very taken with David Owen Hasting’s Azami Thistle quilt. The quilting is phenomenal, and I loved the message, “when in doubt, take something out.” That’s wisdom I can apply to many areas of my life.

I really liked the organic quality of this Oysters quilt:

The last quilt that popped for me in the this category, is Pop! (pun intended 🙂

Improvisation

The front of the quilt below is awesome, but I was also taken with the back of the quilt.

Use of Negative Space

This Enough quilt is so elegant in its simplicity.

MQM Maximalism Exhibit

In stark contrast to the category above, this quilt had the most brilliant use of fabric selvedges that I have ever seen!

Group & Bee Quilts

I would have loved to gone to that quilt retreat in the Montana mountains!

Applique

I don’t think I will ever forget the quilt below.

Best Machine Quilting

I knew that Yvonne with Quilting Jetgirl had submitted her Cloudy Night Sky quilt to the QuiltCon Quilt Show, but I had no idea that it had won the award for Best Machine Quilting. Read her post about this wonderful award here. Below are four photos of the quilt. The first is the quilt itself, the second is Yvonne’s Artist Statement, the third is a shot taken with Yvonne, her best friend, Cheryl, with Meadow Mists Designs, Yvonne’s mom, and me. The last pic is of my friend, Laura, and me with this lovely quilt. Laura is not a quilter (though she is an artist who uses a variety of mediums), but she decided to join me in Raleigh for a nice long weekend visit. She lives in Philadelphia, which isn’t all that far from Raleigh and is much closer than New Mexico! It was so great getting caught up with her and being able to visit in a leisurely manner.

I had a successful and rather crazy February, mainly because attending QuiltCon and traveling took up several days in February. I still haven’t written a post about my QuiltCon experience and plan to work on that post in the coming week. Not in any particular order, here’s what I was able to get done in February:

I made Block 3 for Geeky Bobbin’s Fussy Fuel 2024 Block of the Month. I am using Alison Glass fabrics for this BOM that is focused on learning new fussy cutting techniques. Block 3 was straight pattern match where I used two different colorways of the same fabric and matched the patterns of the fabric for a seamless look. I was moderately successful with this block.

I also made more progress with my version of the Stay at Home Round Robin 2024 hosted by Quilting Gail. The four blog posts that I wrote in February about this project: Border 3, Border 4, Border 5, and Border 6.

I continued to be busy cutting up a lot of scraps for future projects including two of Erica at Kitchen Table Quilting’s patterns (The Cleo Quilt-Rainbow Version and Rainbow Modern Postage Stamp Quilt). I was definitely inspired by her Are You Ready for a Scrap Challenge post. Last month my plan was to make a twin size Cleo quilt for my bed, but I have since changed my mind, and I will share more about the project that has grabbed my heart below. So I have cut a boatload of 6.5″ squares, and now my plan is make the baby quilt size. The number of squares required for these two different sizes is significantly different–twin (252) and baby (64). Below is a pic of 237 6.5″ squares (some of the squares were actually two triangles cut using freezer paper templates for scraps that were smaller than 6.5″ wide as can be seen on the red fabric with flowers below).

I finished 15 more green modern postage stamp blocks that measure 6.5″ square. I will also have more of these blocks than I will need for a throw-size quilt, but they can be possibly be combined with some of the extra 6.5″ squares pictured above for future quilt projects.

I didn’t make any red modern postage stamp blocks since I won’t be including that color in my finished quilt, but I did quickly sew up a red dryer sheet block:

In February I participated in two Project Quilting challenges: Inside Out and Hourglass.

I also did a little secret sewing in February when I made Stand and Stow bags for my friend, Laura, who met me at QuiltCon, and my niece, Mary Frances, in Michigan. I didn’t take photos of either bag, but Laura shared a pic with me that shows a glimpse of her bag.

I did not get any HSTs sewn for my Star Pulse quilt-along project in February, but they are now complete, and I will share a progress pic later this month.

What’s Up for March?

• Make 16 purple postage stamp blocks
• Make a purple strip-pieced block
• Make more progress on my Star Pulse Quilt Along project hosted by Quilting Jetgirl.
• Make the March Fussy Fuel block
• Share my finished SAHRR 2024 quilt top at the parade on March 18th
• Possibly participate in the final Project Quilting challenge this season.
• Write a post about my experience at QuiltCon last month.
• Make a Mod Modern Mosaic Covered in Love block.
• Pull fabric for the project that has grabbed my heart. While at QuiltCon, I visited Violet Craft’s booth and absolutely fell in love with her Rainbow Cheetah quilt on the wall behind her, and of course I bought the pattern. THIS is the quilt that I want on my bed sometime in 2024 with additional background fabric to make it about 60″ x 80″.

Linking up to:

Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday

When I saw that Challenge 5 of Project Quilting Season 15 was Wearables, I immediately thought of all the wonderful quilt apparel I saw at QuiltCon last month. There were jackets, coats, sweatshirts, and even shoes. I was extremely tempted to try affixing and stitching a quilt block to a plain grey sweatshirt, but I don’t have a quilt block made that I would like to use (but I have one in mind that would look great, the Double Woven Star Quilt Block by Joe, June, and Mae). I’m still getting caught up from my trip to Quilt Con, followed by a trip to see my niece in Michigan, so I needed to pick a quick project for this challenge.

I absolutely love visible mending but also couldn’t come up with something that I wanted to visibly mend. Then I thought about some plain light blue gloves that were still in my backpack from recent travels that could look quite cute with a few lines of sashiko stitches. I pulled out some pretty blue Perle floss and threaded a long sashiko needle. I thought I could mark lines on the knitted gloves with a Frixion pen, but my marking didn’t show up at all, so I decided to wing it and do three lines of organic stitching on each glove.

I had to go to Santa Fe for a medical appointment on Friday, and we drove down the day before since snow was forecasted (and living 6400′ in elevation in Northern New Mexico makes for dangerous morning driving when the roads are snowy or icy). So I worked on these gloves while in the hotel room Thursday night and took a quick pic Friday morning at Santa Fe  Quilting amongst the pretty blue batik fabrics. 

I’m still thinking of enhancing my plain grey sweatshirt with the Double Woven Star quilt block. I think it would be fun to wear next month when I go to the AQS Quilt Week in Paducah, Kentucky. That’s right! Since I retired in June and can do many of the things that were difficult to do while working full-time, I have booked several trips in 2024, including finally making it to Paducah. It’s a place I’ve wanted to go for a long time. Back in the 1990s, my mom, sister, and Aunt Lois went to this quilting mecca, and now I will be able to walk in their footsteps (maybe not literally, but who knows!?!)

 

For my future reference and also for anyone else interested, below are some links to two tutorials for attaching a quilt block to a sweatshirt, one is quilted and the other unquilted. The third link is to some beautiful wearable fashion by @florawestdesign on Instagram. I’m really tempted to make a Sawtooth Star with hand-quilting either in addition to the Double Woven Star Quilt Block or instead of it.

 

Quilt Block—Quilted

https://www.diaryofaquilter.com/using-quilt-blocks-for-wearable-fashion/

 

Quilt Block—Unquilted

https://www.southernsewingco.com/post/how-to-attach-a-quilt-block-to-a-sweatshirt

 

Flora West Design

https://www.instagram.com/p/CswxTPnSzIK/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Kathleen at Kathleen McMusing gave us our sixth border assignment. She challenged us to use numbers and/or letters in our final border and then to share how we interpreted this border prompt.

I knew I wanted to incorporate more of the green fussy-cut snowflakes from my Maywood Studio Christmas Night Green Patchwork Snowflake fabric and decided that I wanted to make four-patches for this final border but wanted to construct them on-point to make them into diamonds rather than squares. Below are my left and right sixth borders that I have not yet attached as this work-in-progress has a little issue.

The middle of the quilt is about 29″ in length and my fifth borders are 30″ in length. I need rip out the white sashing strip between my fourth and fifth borders and correctly calculate the length of the sashing strip and then recut and sew that sashing strip. I will also take out the print fabric at the ends and center of my fifth border and resize those pieces as needed.

I plan to have the quilt top completed by the March 18th Finished SAHRR parade.

Linking up to Kathleen McMusing: SAHRR 2024 Round 6 Linky Party.

I originally wrote this post on 2/21/24, the day before I left for QuiltCon. It’s now 2/2724, and I will write a post soon about my QuiltCon experience, but I’ve also decided to share this post as my Favorite February 2024 Finish.

I was so excited to see the Project Quilting 15.4 Hourglass Challenge. It is such a classic design, and in the past couple years, I’ve developed quite a fondness for quarter-square triangle blocks. I knew right away that my project needed to be small as I will be on an airplane on my way to QuiltCon tomorrow. I drafted a simple paper-pieced hourglass in EQ8 and pulled out some turquoise ombre Fairy Dust fabric. I cut a six inch strip of fabric and then subcut sections of it from dark, medium dark, medium, medium light and light. I chose to use a grey Fairy Dust ombre fabric for the background. It went together fairly quickly, and then the quilting gods were smiling on me as I didn’t have any trouble lining up the left and right sections. That tends to be my Achilles’s heel when it comes to paper piecing. It confounds my mind how two sections sewn together being off just 1/32″ can look SO terrible!

I quilted it with diagonal straight lines in variegated turquoise thread (Aurafil 4663 Baby Blue Eyes) and a favorite grey thread (Aurafil 2620 Stainless Steel). Then I machine bound it using another strip of the turquoise Fairy Dust fabric. My Brother sewing machine with the walking foot was acting up, so I used my Brother sewing machine with a regular piecing foot, and the machine binding is a little rough, but hey, I got it done! I can’t tell you all how often I have to remind myself that “Done is better than perfect!”

This finished mini quilt measures 6″ square, and I have to say that I really like it (as my sister would say “warts and all”).

Linking up to Project Quilting 15.4 Hourglass Challenge. I am also linking up to Favorite Finish February 2024 Linky Party hosted by Quilting Jetgirl.