Quilting is in my Blood

I have had a blast participating in the Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) sew-along this year. It’s been fun figuring out how to incorporate each border prompt given to us weekly by six different co-hosts.  And equally fun has been seeing everyone else’s SAHRR projects by so many talented and creative quilters. I used a variety of Alison Glass fabrics from my stash and only had to purchase the purple 2020 Sun Print Stitched fabric for the final border (the color is called Liberty). The finished wall hanging measures about 26″ square. I decided to quilt my project simply using stitch-in-the-ditch quilting with thread that matched each border.

The threads from the center to the binding are: Aurafil 2250 Red, Mettler Orange 594, Aurafil Medium Orange 5009, Aurafil Canary 2120, Aurafil 1125 Medium Teal, Presencia 311 Electric Royal Blue, Presencia 268 Majestic Purple, and Aurafil 1100 Red Plum. I used a cool thread burying tip by @jackiegillies that was super handy for burying really short threads.

For anyone interested, here is a recap of my SAHRR starting with the center block:

For my 2023 Stay at Home Round Robin project, I decided to make a color gradient wall hanging using Alison glass fabrics and coordinating Kona solids. I made the center block with one of my red-orange Alison Glass prints along with Kona Coral and Poppy. I used the center of Kitty Wilkins’s Fierce block which she designed for the 2019 Summer Sampler to help participants strengthen their tiny paper piecing skills. See the complete Fierce block made by Kate@SwimBikeQuilt here. My SAHRR2023 center measured 4.5”square unfinished.

Roseanne with Home Sewn By Us gave us our first border prompt which was the Spool Block. I paper pieced the tiny strips of “thread” using 1/4″ graph paper. It was about 7″ square after the first border.

Wendy with Pieceful Thoughts gave us our second border prompt which was Stars. I paper-pieced four Sew Tiny Arkansas Stars, pattern by Kitty Wilkin. I added strips of a gold Alison Glass Trinkets fabrics, and with my second border complete, my SAHRR2023 project measured about 9.5″ square.

Chris with Chris Knits gave us our third border prompt for the SAHRR2023 which was the Hourglass Block. I opted to just make four hourglass blocks in yellow/green fabrics. With the third border completed, it measured about 13.5″ square.

Anja with Anja Quilts gave us our  fourth border prompt for the SAHRR2023 which was the Flying Geese. My regular followers are aware that I’ve made my share of flying geese when I made three temperature quilts last year–read about them here. So what was another eight flying geese! With this prompt, I started moving from the warmer colors to the cooler colors  and decided to make eight 1.5″ x 3″ finished flying geese units in turquoise/green fabrics with some gold and yellow accents to tie into the last two borders. With the fourth border completed, it measured about 17″ square.

Emily with The Darling Dogwood gave us our  fifth border prompt for the SAHRR2023 which was the square-in-a-square unit. With my fifth border completed, it now measured a little over 20″ square. I had so much fun with this project using some of my favorite Alison Glass fabrics and even repeating her lovely Dwell fabric in Sunshine and Pond to create more balance and places for the eye to rest. And using Alison’s rainbow moons in my square-in-a-square corner blocks just made my day! They are SO perfect for fussy cutting!

Gail at Quilting Gail gave us our last SAHRR2023 border prompt which was the pinwheel block. I used a paper-pieced pinwheel block from EQ8 combining both blue violet and red violet fabrics. And just to reiterate, Alison Glass’ fabrics are SO fun to fussy cut! Below is a close-up of a one of the pinwheel blocks.

Linking up to Quilting Gail: SAHRR2023 Quilt Parade.

Gail at Quilting Gail gave us our last SAHRR2023 border prompt which was the pinwheel block. I used a paper-pieced pinwheel block from EQ8 combining both blue violet and red violet fabrics. Alison Glass’ fabrics are SO fun to fussy cut! I have the sixth border sewn onto my SAHRR2023 project, but I’m only going to share one of the pinwheel blocks now and will show everyone the last border on May 13th when we participate in the SAHRR2023 parade on Gail’s website. I hope to have it quilted and bound by then. To see my other five borders, click here.

Linking up to Quilting Gail: SAHRR2023 Sixth Border Linky Party.

For my March 2023 One Monthly Goal, I am planning to make a Turquoise Star quilt using five stars from Lee Heinrich’s Chevron Star pattern. At one time I thought I wanted to make a more complex quilt with 13 stars, but these stars are super challenging to line up the points, especially with my solid fabrics which tend to be less forgiving when it comes less than perfectly aligned points. I consider myself to be an intermediate paper piecer, and I have to confess to pulling out all the tricks (glue basting, long basting stitches, and being willing to sew, unsew, sew, unsew, sew, etc) to get the center of the star decently aligned. It reminds me of grad school where the number one requirement for success is not superior intelligence but rather the ability to persevere!

So I have decided to let the quilting do much of the work in giving this quilt its Wow factor. I have been in touch with Rebecca of Rebecca Grace Quilting, and she is going to use some designs by Karlee Porter to create a custom quilting look. There will be a TON of negative space where the quilting can shine.

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: March 2023 One Monthly Goal.

My February 2023 One Monthly Goal was to make a quilt top using the Easy Bargello Quilt Pattern by Busy Hands Quilts. I really enjoyed sewing with Wilmington Prints Magic Colors and Silvers Linings 40 Karat Gems (precuts similar to jelly rolls). The quilt top measures 70″ x 81″ so it even fits my full-size bed nicely.

My cousin McKenzie and I had a mini family sew-along with this pattern. She is always busy making wonderful quilts. Follow her on Instagram at @Bogey_and_Bobbins where you can see her beautiful quilts and other handmade items along with the antics of her beautiful chocolate lab, Bogey. See her progress thus far on her Easy Bargello quilt top below (and Bogey who was giving McKenzie sad eyes because she wanted to go for a walk!):

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts: Feb 2023 OMG Finishes.

Emily with The Darling Dogwood gave us our  fifth border prompt for the SAHRR2023 which is the square-in-a-square unit. With my fifth border completed, it now measures a little over 20″ square. I’ve been having so much fun with this project using some of my favorite Alison Glass fabrics and even repeating her lovely Dwell fabric in Sunshine and Pond to create more balance and places for the eye to rest. And using Alison’s rainbow moons in my square-in-a-square corner blocks just made my day! They are SO perfect for fussy cutting! See the details below about my center block and first four borders as well as a link to my SAHRR2022 project.

I had been looking forward to participating in  SAHRR2023 since I finished up SAHRR2022 last year because it was so much fun customizing my design and stretching my piecing skills. See my Blue Dog quilt here and a similar one I made for my stepson, Drew, here.

For my 2023 Stay at Home Round Robin project, I decided to make a color gradient wall hanging using Alison glass fabrics and coordinating Kona solids. I made the center block with one of my red-orange Alison Glass prints along with Kona Coral and Poppy. I used the center of Kitty Wilkins’s Fierce block which she designed for the 2019 Summer Sampler to help participants strengthen their tiny paper piecing skills. See the complete Fierce block made by Kate@SwimBikeQuilt here. My SAHRR2023 center measures 4.5”square.

Roseanne with Home Sewn By Us gave us our first border prompt which was the Spool Block. I paper pieced the tiny strips of “thread” using 1/4″ graph paper. It was about 7″ square after the first border.

Wendy with Pieceful Thoughts gave us our second border prompt which was Stars. I paper-pieced four Sew Tiny Arkansas Stars, pattern by Kitty Wilkin. I added strips of a gold Alison Glass Trinkets fabrics, and with my second border complete, my SAHRR2023 project measured about 9.5″ square.

Chris with Chris Knits gave us our third border prompt for the SAHRR2023 which was the Hourglass Block. I opted to just make four hourglass blocks in yellow/green fabrics. With the third border completed, it measured about 13.5″ square.

Anja with Anja Quilts gave us our  fourth border prompt for the SAHRR2023 which was the Flying Geese. My regular followers are aware that I’ve made my share of flying geese when I made three temperature quilts last year–read about them here. So what was another eight flying geese! With this prompt, I started moving from the warmer colors to the cooler colors  and decided to make eight 1.5″ x 3″ finished flying geese units in turquoise/green fabrics with some gold and yellow accents to tie into the last two borders. With the fourth border completed, it measured about 17″ square.

I’m excited to see what Gail has in store for us on Monday but also a little sad since that will be our last border prompt.

Linking up to The Darling Dogwood: Fifth Border Prompt.