Quilt Top for Scarlett

 

This quilt top is basically a large carpenter's wheel block (32") with a border (4"), but the fabric placement in the outer wheel part is designed to look like flowers.  After it was mostly sewn together, I thought it would have looked good (maybe better) if I had added a half-sqaure triangle of green at the base of each flower to continue the green square and add a green base to the flower.  But I didn't want to take out the necessary seams for that.  If I make one again with this design, I might try it that way.  

The print fabric is from the Muse line of fabric from 3 Sisters by Moda.  The green is Art Gallery Fresh Sage, and the background is Kona Snow.  The binding will be the same scarlet color as the centers of the flowers and the backing fabric will be another Muse print. 

Six Pillowcases

 

My quilt guild makes and donates pillowcases to the Pike County Child Advocacy Center.  When we were filling out our UFO sheet for this year, I put "make pillowcases" as one of my goals.  I have lots of novelty fabric in my stash that I thought would work well for pillowcases.  Of course, I didn't just use fabric from my stash.  The woodland creature fabric and the butterfly fabric were bought from Hobby Lobby just for the pillowcases, as were the gray and pink the accent fabrics.

The pillowcases are easy to make.  The hardest part, to me, is cutting the 27 inch x width of fabric pieces for the main body of the pillowcase.  My cutting tools don't easily accommodate that size. It only takes 2 seams to create the pillowcase.  I over-locked the long seam for stability.

Little Paintings

 

A couple of weeks ago I watched a YouTube video from Nano Art about making a small painting each day that reflects your mood or what's on your mind.  She called it painting your feelings.  I decided to try it and I've enjoyed doing it.  I don't always do one everyday and sometimes I've worked on one painting over two days, when it required multiple layers that needed to dry in between.  Sometimes the painting is abstract and simple and other times it's more detailed and realistic.  Obviously, it just depends on my mood, as it should.  I thought I'd share my progress.

Cascades of Glory top

 

I designed this quilt years ago but just recently bought fabric to make it.  It is a variation on the "Cascades" quilt that I made years ago, using a jelly roll and a charm pack.  This quilt is smaller and uses yardage instead of precuts.  This is the second quilt that I'm making for my quilt guild's Quilts of Honor project.  The top measures 56-1/2 x 72-1/2 inches.

Quilt of Honor finished

 

My first Quilt of Honor is finished, all but the label, and I'm not responsible for that part.  I took the quilt top to the guild member that quilts them, and she had it finished and back to me the next day.  It has the 250th Anniversary design for the quilting and I think that the thread is white on top and gray on the back.

I decided to attach the binding by machine.  I sewed it to the back of the quilt and turned it to the front.  I sewed it down with a simple straight stitch.  I think it looks nice that way, and I'm able to finish it much faster than hand turning the binding. 

Quilt of Honor #1

 

This quilt top is made from a version of a block that I got from a  Missouri Star tutorial.  The tutorial is for the 3 Dudes jelly roll block.   The block in the tutorial uses a different number of 2-1/2 inch strips per block than mine, but it uses the same technique. 

I made the first block for this quilt back in 2014 from scraps that I had in my stash.  I bought some more fabric at the quilt shop (the receipt was still in the box with the fabric, that's why I know when it was.) to make a quilt out of it, but I never got around to making it.  I guess that I wasn't planning to put a border on it originally, because I didn't buy fabric for that at the time, so I had to buy some at the quilt shop this week.  The blue of the border fabric is a little darker than most of the blues, in the quilt, but since it is a scrappy quilt, I think it works fine.

I hadn't originally planned to put the white sashing strips between the blocks, either.  But when I laid the blocks together side-by-side, I thought that it looked too dark.  I like how the extra white brightens it up. 

I won't be quilting this one myself.  My quilt guild honors local veterans with Quilts of Honor every November, and I made this top for that purpose.  One of our members has a computerized long arm machine, and she bought a special 250th Anniversary (America turns 250 years old this year) quilting design pattern to use on all the Quilts of Honor this year.  I'm happy to let her quilt it, honestly. 

The top measures 51 inches by 65 inches. 

Pink and Purple Scrap Buster Block

 

I decided to keep the block that I originally made for the guild raffle, and make a different block to enter.  I don't feel any great desire to keep this one.  One of the other members made a block that was largely purple fabrics, and I thought that a pink and purple block could work well with that one.  It's hard to imagine that all the blocks together would make a cohesive looking quilt.  I'm not sure what I'd do with them if I won them.

Frogs and Bugs Charity Quilt

 

I finished my Frogs and Bugs charity quilt today.  The name is really unofficial because I don't generally name charity quilts.  Often times I don't even label them at all.  This one will have a label, but the charity has very specific things that they want on the label, and a name for the quilt isn't one of them.  The point person at my guild has labels printed, so I don't need to make the label either. But since it is made from fabric with frogs and fabric with bugs, I'm calling it my Frogs and Bugs quilt.

I quilted it on my longarm with a hand-guided all-over still water design. The thread is Isacord Spring Frost, and the batting is 100% polyester Soft Light-Loft from Mountain Mist (the charity requests polyester batting, but I don't like it).  The binding is attached by machine to the back of the quilt, turned to the front, and machine stitched with a straight stitch on the front. The charity also requests that the binding (and label) be attached by machine.  Apparently a lot of the quilts go to orphanages and they say having everything attached by machine holds up better to the orphanage's laundry practices.

Scrap buster raffle block

 

 

Another new thing with my quilt guild, now that I've started back going, is that they do a quilt block raffle every other month.  My understanding is that every block you make counts as a chance for winning all the blocks (sometimes half the blocks if there are a lot?).  Everyone uses that same pattern, but the fabrics are all individual and therefore different.  

I made this block for next month's raffle.  It is made from left over Kansas Troubles fabrics that I had in my stash.  I tried to focus mostly on red fabrics for the darker patches, and yellowed creams for the lighter patches to make a cohesive looking block.  The block measures 16-1/2 inches square.

The problem is that I really like the block, so I'm not sure I want to enter it in the raffle.  Maybe I want to keep it and make more blocks to go with it.  I could make a really pretty quilt for the back of my loveseat.  Maybe I want to make a block with totally different fabrics, that I don't like as well, to enter in the raffle.  I guess I need to decide.

Frog Block Quilt Top

 

I finished this quilt top yesterday.  The frog block in the center is an orphan block that I've had up on a design board for literally years.  I had originally planned to make 4 of the frog blocks for a baby quilt, but I decided against that idea.  I've been planning this quilt for a while now, but I've just finally gotten around to it.  The frog block is 15 inches, and I added a 1-1/2 inch border around it to make an 18 inch square for the center.  The surrounding fabrics are mostly blues and greens with both frog and bug fabrics, too.  Those are 6 inch squares.  The inner border is 1-1/2 inches and the outer border is 6 inches.  The quilt will finish at 45 inches by 57 inches.

This month I started back going to quilt guild and found out that my guild now supports Quilts Beyond Borders, a charity providing quilts to children in under-served areas of the world.  I had always planned to give this quilt to charity in some fashion, so now I have a good outlet for that.

Swan Kitchen Towels

 

 

I'm a little ahead of the game on these.  They are kitchen towels that I plan to give to my mother for Mother's Day.  I noticed that my mother has started collecting swan-themed items, so I decided to make her some swan themed kitchen towels.  The quilted part that wraps around the oven door handle is made with swan fabric.

The quilted part was done using my long-arm quilter in a swirl pattern.  I quilted a piece of fabric that was about 7 inches by the width of the fabric then cut it down into 6-1/2 inch squares.  I rounded off the corners of the squares and then attached bias binding to make the equivalent of a potholder.  I then sewed the "potholder"  to the center of the kitchen towel, gathering in the towel to make it match the width of the potholder.  I then attached a button to the side opposite the loop and use the loop as a button hole.

The bias binding was cut at 1-1/4 inches wide, but I think I will try 1-1/2 inches next time.  I think that would be a little easier to work with.

2025 Recap

At the beginning of the year last year I set out some goals for myself.  I reached most, but not all, of them. Here is the end of the year summary:

1. Finish UFOs = 4 of 4 (completed)
2. Use pre-cuts = 3 of 3 (completed)
3. Do window paintings = 2 of 2 (completed)
4. Do non-window painting = 1 of 1 (completed)
5. Sew sets of coasters = 5 of 5 (completed)
6. Sew small bags = 0 of 2
7. Sew tote bags= 1 of 2 

I couldn't decide if making the small bags was a good idea or not.  I think they are cute, but I'm not sure about the overall appeal or functionality.  I'm especially concerned about the closure.  Is a small Velcro closure enough?  Should they zip?  Have pockets?  I don't know.  I asked my 8 year old granddaughter what she liked best, and she said bigger with pockets.  I plan to take that under advisement.

The other tote bag, I just never got around to it. Somehow time just got away from me once we got back from visiting family in Washington last summer.  As you can see, there are no posts from July, August, or September.  We were gone during the month of July, but after we got back home I just couldn't back into the creative mindset.

And I thought I should note that I actually did a lot more than just one painting on paper.  I did several zen tangles, 5 mini-watercolors, and some full page watercolors. 

In total, I finished 8 quilts, 2 bags (one was for me so I didn't count it in my goals list), and 5 coaster sets.  I didn't create any new quilt tops without finishing them, so no new UFOs.  Not a bad year. 

Ride the Train

 

Gus's quilt is finished and ready to give.  Even though it was technically finished after Christmas, that didn't really matter, because we weren't going to see them until after Christmas (Dec. 29), so all is well.

I quilted this one in an all over meander pattern using white cotton thread from Hobby Lobby.  It's not my favorite thread, but it's what I had.  I feel like it doesn't unwind as smoothly as the polyester thread, so the stitches come out a little less even. 

The binding was attached to the front and turned to the back, then machine stitched down using a small zigzag stitch in matching red thread.

Disclaimer:  This post is being backdated to the date I finished the quilt.  I was having computer issues and didn't get things posted in a reasonable time frame, but I wanted the quilt to show up in the right time frame when I look back at the year.

All Aboard quilt

 

This is a twin sized quilt for my oldest grandson, Gus.  He's about to graduate from his toddler bed to a twin bed.  He LOVES trains, so his mama asked that I make him a train quilt for his new bed.  It will also be the biggest part of his Christmas present this year.

The quilt top is made from the All Aboard pattern by It's Sew Emma, but it doesn't use the featured fabric.  I assume that's not available anymore anyway.  The quilt top measures 71.5" x 91.5".

Disclaimer:  This post is being backdated to the date I finished the quilt top.  I was having computer issues and didn't get things posted in a reasonable time frame, but I wanted the quilt to show up in the right time frame when I look back at the year.

Fillers, Feathers, and Flowers

 

 

I made this quilt top so that I could do some practice machine quilting.  I divided the quilt into rows of 2 strips and rows of three strips for the quilting designs.  The rows of two are quilted with filler designs and the rows of three are all feathers.  Jellyroll strips work well for practicing.  They give a defined area to quilt in that goes all the way across the quilt.  It was all quilted in Lt. Turquoise (#32975) Glide thread.  I plan to use this quilt as an everyday quilt on my loveseat.

Disclaimer:  This post is being backdated to the date I finished the quilt.  I was having computer issues and didn't get things posted in a reasonable time frame, but I wanted the quilt to show up in the right time frame when I look back at the year.

Full Moon with Bats Door Art

 

I had an idea for more Halloween themed door art, so I decided to paint on my front door, like I did last Christmas.  I like for the painting on the front door to be larger, simpler, and easier to see from the street than what I paint on the side door.  I thought that bats in front of a full moon would be pretty visible and recognizable from a distance.  It also sorta resembles a evil smiley face. 

I used string and a dry erase marker to draw the large circle.  I used white ceiling paint to fill the circle.  Then I used a pale yellow wall paint for the moon color.  I drew bats on card stock, and then cut them out.  I traced around them with pencil and then filled in the outline with black acrylic paint.

I think it turned out okay, and it fulfills my last non-sewing goal for this year!

Running total of goals accomplished:

    Finish UFOs = 4 of 4 (completed)
    Use pre-cuts = 3 of 3 (completed)
    Do window paintings = 2 of 2 (completed)
    Do non-window painting = 1 of 1 (completed)
    Sew sets of coasters = 5 of 5 (completed)
    Sew small bags = 0 of 2
    Sew tote bags= 1 of 2

Black Cat in a Pumpkin Door Art

 

For Halloween, I decided to do a painting of a black cat in a pumpkin on my side door.

First I found a picture online of a cat in a pumpkin that I liked.  I drew it first on paper to get a feel for how to draw it.  Next I drew the picture with dry erase marker on the window.  Then I used acrylic paint to fill in the colors.  It took several coats of paint for the orange because I didn't do a white base coat.  On this door I don't do the white base coat because I want the image to be the same on both sides of the door.

I think it turned out cute enough.  It makes me smile when I see it.  And it fulfills one of my creativity goals for the year.

Running total of goals accomplished:

    Finish UFOs = 4 of 4 (completed)
    Use pre-cuts = 3 of 3 (completed)
    Do window paintings = 1 of 2
    Do non-window painting = 1 of 1 (completed)
    Sew sets of coasters = 5 of 5 (completed)
    Sew small bags = 0 of 2
    Sew tote bags= 1 of 2

He Still Loves Me Jelly Roll Race quilt top

 

 

I started this quilt top on Wednesday and finished it today.  If you've ever made a jelly roll race quilt, you know that it involves sewing very long seams once you get the strips sewn end to end. It's not my favorite thing to do, so I was only sewing one long seam per day.  I sewed the last two seams today, but they were the shortest ones. These really aren't my favorite types of quilts to sew, and I don't love the way they look either.  

I bought this jelly roll (one of my first actually) and some coordinating fabric over 10 years ago, planning to make a jelly roll race out of it. I actually bought 2 jelly rolls at the same time and made a jelly roll race out of the other one, but in doing so found out that I didn't like doing it.  

However, I decided that I wanted this style of quilt to practice long-arm quilting on, so I went ahead and pieced this one just for that purpose.  It has the added bonus of using one of my unused pre-cuts, so that means it satisfies one of my goals for the year, too.

Running total of goals accomplished:

    Finish UFOs = 4 of 4 (completed)
    Use pre-cuts = 3 of 3 (completed)
    Do window paintings = 0 of 2
    Do non-window painting = 1 of 1 (completed)
    Sew sets of coasters = 5 of 5 (completed)
    Sew small bags = 0 of 2
    Sew tote bags= 1 of 2

Hopscotch quilt

 

I decided to name this one "Hopscotch" because the alternating rectangles and squares made me think of a hopscotch board.  Plus, the bunnies on the fabric already had me in the mindset of hopping.  I considered naming it "Paska"after the Eastern European Easter bread, because the pattern name is "Brioche and Baguettes" and the fabric was Easter themed, but decided against it.  It seemed a little too obscure and confusing for the general public that wouldn't know the pattern name.

I finished this quilt yesterday, June 5, 2025, but I started it on June 24, 2020, so this is my fourth completed UFO of the year, which completes that goal category. Yay!  This is another quilt that will be tucked away for my imagined craft show booth.

I quilted it on my long-arm in an all-over swirl-meander motif.  The thread is Isacord Chiffon, (color #2170) and the batting is Happy Cloud 50/50 Bamboo blend.  The binding was attached to the front by machine and turned to the back by hand.  The quilt finished at 57 x 75 inches.


Running total of goals accomplished:

    Finish UFOs = 4 of 4 (completed)
    Use pre-cuts = 2 of 3
    Do window paintings = 0 of 2
    Do non-window painting = 1 of 1 (completed)
    Sew sets of coasters = 5 of 5 (completed)
    Sew small bags = 0 of 2
    Sew tote bags= 1 of 2

Banner Day Flannel Rag Quilt

 

 

I don't plan on giving this quilt an official name or label, because I donate these to the Child Advocacy Center.  I started this quilt on May 24th and finished it yesterday. (They really don't take very long to make, but we took a mini-vacation during that time, too.)  It is made from a bundle of fat quarters of Banner Day fabric from Robert Kaufman Fabrics that I purchased from The Fat Quarter Shop in January of 2020, so that counts as one of my unused pre-cuts.  The bundle included 12 fat quarters, which was exactly what I needed for this style of rag quilt.  

These fat quarters were a little short lengthwise and a little long in height, so I ended up cutting the panels at 20 x 18.5 inches.  I sewed the individual fabric and batting sandwiches together on my sewing machine, and then quilted each one on my long-arm.  I used light grey Sewology thread from Hobby Lobby for the quilting, and I quilted them all in an all-over swirl motif.  After sewing the quilted panels together on my sewing machine, clipping the seams and edges, and washing it, the quilt finished at 33.5 x 46.5 inches, not including the outer fringe.

Running total of goals accomplished:

    Finish UFOs = 3 of 4
    Use pre-cuts = 2 of 3
    Do window paintings = 0 of 2
    Do non-window painting = 1 of 1 (completed)
    Sew sets of coasters = 5 of 5 (completed)
    Sew small bags = 0 of 2
    Sew tote bags= 1 of 2