Dots & Dashes

Dots & Dashes is the largest of all the quilts I'm machine quilting. Stitch in the ditch was the easiest way to quilt. After quilting and being laundered, my dots & dashes measures 58" by 72".

I think she looks so pretty. My ditch stitching wasn't always accurate but you don't notice so much since she's been washed. You see the block rows alternate, I stitched along the edge of the white sashing so the quilting alternates in each block.

A friend of a friend, who decided to quit quilting/sewing, donated their fabric stash to me several years ago with the specification that the fabric be used for charity quilts. The green backing fabric came from that stash.

The striped binding fabric has been in my stash for years. I thought it would make good binding since there were so many different colors in the quilt.

In this picture you can see how I stitch in the edge along the long sides of the white sashing.

Dots & Dash, along with 4 smaller quilts, will be donated to the cancer center at Goshen Hospital.

You may have noticed in the large picture that there are 4 patches in the side borders. Do to a lapse of mind in planning (😕), they ended up in the side borders instead of the corners where they were supposed to be. I didn't notice this until I took pictures of the quilt before I quilted it. I just didn't feel like taking the quilt apart. We'll just call it a design feature and let it go at that.

The pattern for Dots & Dashes is found at the Quilted Twins website.

Dots & Dashes is the only quilt in this quilting marathon to NOT have a pieced batting.

Just one more quilt to be quilted in my quilting marathon, Tula Hexies!

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

Blooms

I'm still in my machine quilting phase. Blooms has been waiting since 2022 to be quilted. Blooms was designed by Sherri and the pattern can be found here.

I'm a basic machine quilter and I'm using white thread for quilting on all of the quilts.

This quilt was quilted by stitching in the ditch, first along the sashing horizontally and vertically. The diagonal red corners are also stitched in the ditch along with the center square. I thought the center section was too large to not quilt so the center yellow hexies are stitched on the inside.

The backing fabric is a light gray and shows the stitching for the Baptist Fan design in the borders better than the front side.

I'm pleased that my quilting has improved enough that the curves actually look fairly smooth, no zags.

After washing, Blooms is 41" by 51" and will also be going to the Goshen cancer center.

And if you are wondering, I'm still sewing batting pieces together for use in these quilts.

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts

Ladybugs & Tulabugs

I have two ladybug quilts to show you today. The first one is the crib quilt I pieced at the November 2023 retreat. I posted about it here. 

In the original post, I wrote it would be spiral quilted. That's not what happened, the little quilt told me to quilt cross-hatching. Diagonal lines were marked from the squares in the squares border to the other side.  This quilt measures 38.5" by 44".

The fabrics in the yellow & black ladybug quilt were purchased at Carolines in Rome City. I had purchased enough of the black fabric to use for backing.

The second ladybug quilt is made with Tula Pink fabrics so I call it Tulabugs. 

For the 2nd quilt I decided to use the X design which is easy to do. You mark diagonal lines from corner to corner, then you mark a + in the center both horizontally and vertically. The + is the pivot point. When the X stitching was finished, I stitched in the ditch on both sides of the narrow green border. I had two different pieces of lavender (which looks gray in the photo) fabrics to use for backing then used the same green border fabric for binding. Both bindings were completely stitched by machine, no hand sewing.

I'm keeping the first quilt to have on hand for the next baby that needs one. The second quilt will be donated to Goshen Cancer Center for use in the chemo department. It measures 44" square.

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Knitting Dishcloths

It's been a while since I've had a Sunday post. The only hand work happening in my house is knitting dishcloths. They're simple to make and I don't have to think.

I don't know where I found the pattern I use, I do know it was a free pattern from wherever it came from. Seed Stitch Dish Cloth - With a size #6 circular needle cast on 40 stitches. Row 1 & 2 – knit. Row 3 & 4 – Knit 2 *K1 P1 repeat from * across to last 2 stitches k2. Repeat rows 1 – 4 for pattern until measures 9” (same as bottom edge), ending with Rows 1 & 2. Bind off. 

I should be embroidering quilt labels but that hasn't happened either, oh well. When I'm finished machine quilting all the small quilts I have in the stack, I'll prep the applique border for Blueberry Pie.

I was in Wakarusa last week so I took pictures of the quilt garden, it's growing. The dusty Miller looks like it's threatening to take over.

And from a different angle.

This is the design of this years garden.

A lovely wooden quilt hangs on the wall during the summer, it's put away over the winter season. 

Here is a link to Quilt Gardens Along the Heritage Trail.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Craftastic Monday, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday

Summer Garden Compassion Quilts

I'm continuing with my machine quilting journey and have quilted two small quilts that I named Summer Garden. They were squirrel projects I first posted about here.

Now they're quilted, simple stitch in the ditch quilting.

They both measure 37.5" by 46" and will be donated to the cancer center at Goshen Hospital. I love the fabrics and I hope they bring a smile to the recipients. 

The fabrics used in the quilts were from a fat quarter bundle I purchased at the Jane Stickle retreat several years ago. The binding fabric was made from the fabric not used for piecing blocks and the fat quarter bundle is completely gone!

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Christmas Placemats & Mini Tula

 I've been accumulating small projects to be quilted with my sewing machine. Machine stitching isn't something I enjoy but I do it because it needs to be done. The last time I posted about machine quilting, a commentator asked me why do it if I don't enjoy it? There's an easy one word answer to the question, money! I'm too frugal to send these little projects out for long arm quilting. I have no problem paying to have larger quilts professionally quilted but this little stuff I can do.

I'll be showing you my not so professional quilting for the rest of June and probably most of July, who knows, maybe even August!

Starting off the quilting procession are placemats, Christmas placemats. I pieced them last January, after Christmas of course, so I would have them for next Christmas.

I got tired of piecing after the first four in the bottom left corner so I just sashed pretty fabrics. I used a variety of stitching, all simple. You don't see the quilting on the sashed ones. The binding will probably be attached the first of December. The four in the bottom left corner are 14" by 17". The sashed placemats are 15" by 19".

Remember last winter when I was hand piecing Tula Hexies? There were extra hexies so I pieced a mini Tula. This is also a placemat.

A black & white stripe will be used for binding Tula Hexies and this little placemat. It measures 17" by 20". This was good practice for the full sized quilt but I'm still not sure if that is how I want to quilt the big quilt.

I've started quilting the small projects first, working my way up to the larger ones. These little placemats were perfect to use the small pieces of batting that have been accumulating.

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Free Motion Mavericks, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Jewel Box, Embroidered Blocks, Dots & Dashes

I made as many Dots & Dashes blocks as I had cut pieces for. It isn't large enough to be a comforter top for MCC but it's big enough for a cozy quilt for the cancer center at Goshen Hospital.

This is the center of the quilt. It looks bright and colorful in this picture but I thought it looked rather sad on the floor and decided to add borders. Maybe it was because it was laying on gray carpeting?

I pulled black fabric with bright streamers or ribbons to be used for sashing. I thought it would add some zing to the various fabrics in the quilt.

The Dots & Dashes flimsy finishes at 60" by 74". My machine quilting will be basic but it will hold the layers together. It feels good to finish a long time UFQ (unfinished quilt).  

I like the design those 4 squares make in the corners when the blocks are pieced together.

The pattern for Dots & Dashes can be found on the Quilted Twins Free Patterns website.

Here is a close up of the border fabric. Aren't those streamers/ribbons colorful?

I did sew the Jewel Box blocks into a 32.5" by 40" flimsy but I'm not going to quilt it now. I'll add borders someday then quilt it. Perhaps it will be gifted to the oldest granddaughter someday. I wonder if she remembers the quilt I pieced for her  years ago?

The Jewel Box pattern is from the book written by Eleanor Burns. 

A granddaughter embroidered the little blocks several years ago. I like the way the cornerstones were in Radiant Blues so I decided to make them the same way for this quilt.

I didn't have enough of the lavender 30's floral fabric for borders. I'll try to find something similar the next time I'm in Shipshewana.

Linking to Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Okay, how about one more picture?