Quilting is in my Blood

Wendy with Pieceful Thoughts gave us our fourth round assignment: Sliced Square with Insert. I chose not to slice a square but instead used 2.5″ x 4.5″ strips of a pretty Joel Dewberry floral print with 1.5″ x 2.5″ side strips of Kona Celestial. It still has the look of an insert. Because this is such a simple block, I was able to add this border to my project and then add the 2.5″ coping strip border in a few hours of sewing.

When I was I working on my quilt top today, I remembered reading about a “magic numbers principle in quilting”. In my project, I am using 1.5″, 2.5″ and 4.5″ measurements. If I chose, 6.5″ strips or blocks would also work, but I don’t want that large of a border! Read more about this concept here.

Currently my quilt top is 53″ square. I am planning to combine Rounds 5 and 6 to keep the size of my finished quilt more manageable.

Linking up to Pieceful Thoughts: SAHRR 2025 Round 4.

Gail with Quilting Gail  gave us our third round prompt which is Stars. As a reminder, I am using Joel Dewberry fabrics that I’ve had in my stash for nine or ten years along with some coordinating solids. The background fabric is Kona Zucchini. So far all my borders have been four inch finished. I opted to make 12 Sawtooth Star blocks and 8 framed fussy cut stars. I used Lee Heinrich’s Perfect Geese templates to make the 48 flying geese (1″ x 2″ finished). They do turn out perfectly which is helpful when working with such small pieces. My project is 41″ square so far.

I can barely contain my curiosity regarding what Wendy has chosen for Round 4 next Monday!

Linking up to Quilting Gail: SAHRR 2025 Round 3.

I was gone a good portion of January due to helping out in California with a family emergency, so I was unable to get the first border done in time to join Kathleen McMusing’s 1st border linky party. Kathleen gave us the options to include a King’s Crown block or a block that starts with our first initial. I opted to make the King’s Crown Version 2 block. These are the four blocks that are centered in the border below. For our second border, Anja chose the ever versatile Half-Square Triangle (HST) block. I decided to make 32 two-inch finished HSTs and placed them in diamond formations which gives a kaleidoscope look. I put these eight Diamond HST blocks in same border as the King’s Crown blocks and then added four Owl Corner blocks. All my borders will be four inch finished (unless of course I change my mind!) and the coping borders are two inches finished. Currently my projects measures 28.5″ square.

Linking up to Anja Quilts: SAHRR 2025 Border 2.

I am joining this year’s Stay at Home Round Robin hosted by Gail at https://quiltinggail.com/

https://quiltinggail.com/

I’ve been having some problems with my laptop, so I’m trying to write this post on my phone and I really don’t know what I’m doing, so please pardon my omissions and/or repetitions.

I’m using some Joel Dewberry fabrics that I’ve had in my stash for nine or ten years along with some coordinating Kona solids.

I look forward to finding out on the 20th what our first border assignment will be.

Happy New Year! I’m so excited to share my first finish of 2025. It’s a mini quilt I’ve wanted to make for a couple years, and I finally had a little chunk of time to devote to it. By mid-December, I had finished my last sewing project of the year and wasn’t feeling inclined to work on any neglected Works in Progress. I also had most of my holiday baking done (my new favorite decadent cookie recipe is the Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies by Ambitious Kitchen). So I decided to start working on a 24″ Color Burst Mini quilt, pattern by Sassafras Lane. The wonderful rainbow colors don’t show up very well in the pic I took on my design board:

It looks wonky as all get out in the photo I took outside on the shed! But the colors in the pic are accurate. I guess we can’t have it all!

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project. Yellow was my most challenging color, and I had to dip into my stash rather than just using scraps. I wish my Orange section blended a little better, but I love the suns at the top of that section, even though a tone-on-tone fabric would have been less prominent. I quilted it simply with grey spokes and then outlined each segment with the closest color of thread from my selection of threads.

My Creative Color Wheel was a helpful tool in selecting fabrics. I’ve taken photos of both sides of it.

Linking up to Quilt Schmilt: To-Do Tuesday and Songbird Designs: Monday Musings.

Edited: This was my only finish in Jan 2025, so it is definitely my favorite! I’m linking up to Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish January 2025.

I’m joining Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs with her Best of 2024 Linky Party. I’ve decided to share five of my favorite quilts I’ve made this year. I can’t resist starting with the T-Rex quilt made for my friend Kristen’s baby boy, Roman. I love how Roman was placed on the quilt below. Read more about this project here.

Here’s another paper pieced baby quilt (details here).

The largest quilt I made this year at 70″ x 80″ is my Rainbow Cheetah. Read more about this large-scale paper-pieced project here.

And much smaller at 15″ x 25″ is my Eiffel Tower wall hanging (details here):

I’ll end with my favorite 2024 color gradient quilt, Ranges, blogged about here.

My favorite December finish was turning an old needlepoint that my mother made, probably in the 1980s, into a pillow for my niece, Mary Frances. First I dry blocked the needlepoint to even it out using this tutorial from Purl Soho.

I decided to give the pillow a more finished look by adding piping and used this tutorial from Joe, June, and Mae. My borders are more narrow than suggested in the tutorial. I was hoping that a 16″ square pillow form would work, but it is not as filled out as I wanted it to be (see photo below). I had a 17″ square pillow form sent to my niece, and I sent the finished pillow cover separately. She has received both in the mail and is going to try to wait until Christmas to see the finished pillow cover and put in on the pillow form. That’s her choice. I would’ve been fine with her ripping open the package upon receipt!

Linking up to Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish December 2024.

I am joining the #2025QuiltingPlanningParty hosted by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl. Like many quilt bloggers, a main motivation for blogging about my quilting has been to have an ongoing journal about my quilting journey. At this time of year I like to take the opportunity to revisit my goals for the year and to refine my goals for the coming year. I wrote three posts about progress with my 2024 quilting goals: #2024QuiltingQ1CheckIn, #2024QuiltingQ2CheckIn, and #2024QuiltingQ3CheckIn.

For the last quarter of 2024, I focused a lot on Christmas projects, some of which I blogged about here. I also finished the Red Sashiko Christmas Tree shown above which I started two years ago and finished this month by adding the free-form trunk and then stapled it to a 10″ square blank canvas. I’m not sure where I bought this pattern, but I think it was from BeBe Bold. I also made some Nativity blocks (pattern by Burlap and Blossom Patterns). Below is one that I finished in an 8″ x 8″ frame.

I also redid the binding on a quilt my mom made for my niece in the 1980s (see post here) and wrote a post about my Ten Years of Quilting.

2025 Quilting Goals

I have committed to working on the SAHRR 2025 and three block of the month programs:

• Stay at Home Round Robin 2025 hosted by Quilting Gail
• 2025 Murder Mystery Quilt
• Starry Signs Block of the Month 2025
• Frightful Fun Block of the Month 2025

These are some other projects that I may work on in 2025 or in future years:

• Aurora by Bryan House Quilts (I actually want to use the layout of this quilt for a wall hanging).
• Seaglass and Fussy T-Shirt quilts by Exhausted Octopus
• Effervescence Quilt by Quilting Jetgirl
• Signal Trace by Quilting Jetgirl
• Cleo and Modern Postage Stamp quilts by Kitchen Table Quilting
• Luminary by Craft a Dream
• Star Shower (modified) by Mashe Modern and Maeberry Square
• Butterfly Effect EPP Eclipse by Lillyella (scroll down to see the Eclipse version with the black background–I purchased this kit three years ago).
• Ombre Tree Time by V and Co.
• Color Burst Mini Quilt by SassaFras Lane
• All Star Quilt by Giuseppe Ribaudo (@giucy_giuce on Instagram)
• Online FPP Design class with Quilt All the Things

I also hope to participate in at least one Project Quilting challenge this coming year.

 Linking up to .#2025QuiltingPlanningParty

I’ve spent the last two months working on several Christmas quilts, and I have several finished quilts/runners to share with you. Cara with Sew Colorado Quilting did almost all of the quilting on these Christmas projects, and she did a wonderful job. The only project that I quilted was the runner to go under my sewing machine. The pics below taken on the grey down comforter on my bed are definitely not my best photos. It was cold yesterday. My back was tight, and I didn’t feel that it was safe to photograph using the curtain rod on my shed as that involves getting up on my step stool with very little to hang onto. So I figured it was better to have mediocre photos and no injury!

Gingiber Merrily Quilts

Awhile back my friend, Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts, sent me some Gingiber Merrily fabric and panels that she decided she probably wouldn’t use. I’m a sucker for Stacie Bloomfield’s animals, so I was happy to be the recipient of her generosity. For my friend, Kristen, and her three children, I made a lap size Merrily quilt measuring 60.5″ x 66 “that they can snuggle under this holiday season. This is the second Merrily quilt I’ve made. It’s such a fun and cheerful pattern. I used the fabric that Wendy sent me for the adorable inhabitants of the Merrily houses with the background fabric of Moda Sweetfire Road Once Upon Christmas Snowfall Snow White (which is really more cream than white). I used Gingiber Merrily fabric left in my stash for the houses and logs as well as the binding. Cara used Glide Linen thread for this quilt.

And I used the panels for the back of the quilt along with the background fabric used for the front of the quilt and another snowflake fabric from Backside Fabrics called Snowflake by Whistler Studios Light Gray. The thread is Glide Bone. I like the back of the quilt almost as much as the front of the quilt.

For my November 2024 Favorite Finish, I have chosen the tablecloth I made to go on our small kitchen table using these same fabrics except the binding is Moda Sweetfire Road Once Upon Christmas Snowfall in Red. The quilt measures 47.5″ x 48.5″ , and the thread is Glide Bone. I splurged on bamboo batting to help the quilted tablecloth drape nicely. Here’s a pic of the front.

And here’s a pic of the back where I used a sweet manger panel that I bought a few years ago along with a brown snowflake fabric from my stash.

Illuminations Quilts

I made a lap size Randolph & Rudy quilt to compliment the Awesome Sky Christmas quilt I made for my best friend, Mary, in non-traditional Christmas colors using Illuminations fabric. I accidentally purchased both a PDF and a paper copy of this adorable Elizabeth Hartman pattern and gave away the paper pattern in a giveaway to celebrate my Ten Years of Quilting. 

The back of the quilt was also made from two Illumination fabrics. 

I also made a runner with these Illuminations fabrics. I used tree foundation paper piecing patterns from Quiet Play. The runner measures 20″ x 60″.

I used this cute Illuminations polar bear fabric for the back of the runner.

SAHRR 2024

I really enjoyed participating in the Stay at Home Round Robin 2024 at the beginning of this year. I made a 32.5″ x 55.5″ quilt to go on top of my pressing table when I’m not using it. Read more about this project here. Below is a pic of the front of the quilt:

And here’s a close-up of the back of the quilt that shows off the different snowflakes in the pretty Ruby Glide thread.

Tell Me A Story Holiday Swap

In August I participated in a hosted  Tell Me A Story Holiday Block Swap hosted by Amy Friend of During Quiet Time. I used 11 of the blocks I received for a runner to go under my sewing machine and supplemented with 10 Tell Me A Story Christmas Transitions blocks. My favorite blocks are the New Mexico and Oregon blocks on the left side of the runner made by my cousin, McKenzie who posts on Instagram as @bogeyandbobbins.

Linking up to Quilting Jetgirl: Favorite Finish November 2024.

I recently found out about a Hurricane Block-A-Thon to support a fellow quilter, Lea Louise, whose house was split in half by Hurricane Helene. I purchased the pattern from The Fabric Hut for $10, with the proceeds going directly to Lea Louise. I made two nine-inch blocks using this simple pattern with the required white fabric and two complimentary fabrics. They sewed up quickly. The Fabric Hut is accepting blocks that are mailed by 10/31/24, so there is still an opportunity to whip up a block or two. The pattern can be found here. Below are the two blocks I made:

Many of you have entered the giveaway that I shared about in my Ten Years of Quilting post (a paper copy of Elizabeth Hartman’s Randolph & Rudy quilt pattern). The giveaway closed midnight MST on Sunday, October 27th, and the winner is Linda of Texas Quilt Gal. Congrats Linda!!!

Linking up to Monday Musings at Songbird Designs  and To-Do Tuesday at Quilt Schmilt.