Fire Island Hosta Queen

I've finally started the Fire Island Hosta Queen quilt, I've been wanting to piece this quilt for years but just didn't make the time. The first time I blogged about this project was in December 2022.

Four partial sections of leaves have been completed.

These leaves may not look like much but they represents many hours of careful stitching. There will be a stem at the bottom where the uneven blue fabric is. I trimmed off the excess fabric but there is still more fabric that will need to be trimmed.

Here is a picture of the backside of the leaf section. There are 40 pieces in this leaf, 160 pieces in the 4 sections.

After the stem is attached, another pieced section will be attached then a pieced section will be added to the outside portion. I'm not looking too far ahead, just piecing a section at a time.

This is not a fast project, I hope to have all the leaves completed by the end of the year but that depends on how many other quilts I work on. I have an applique project that will require intensive preparation, the actual applique won't start until next year. 

Sometimes I wonder why I do this to myself but I always enjoy watching the quilts grow and being completed. 

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, I Quilted This!, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Rhapsody in Blue

More quilting across the quilt! Here are the pictures starting with the left side border.

    

This is the applique border. All winter I've wondering if I should go ahead and add background quilting or wait until it's finished and see what Elaine says. I've decided to go ahead with the quilting, the quilting is so much easier in the frame. These are straight lines across the background, from square to square in the patchwork borders. The lines are 1.5" apart.

There are a variety of quilting designs in this quilt. I think a variety of designs adds interest to the quilt. The simple diagonal lines in the patchwork section are a nice contrast to the curvy background triangles in the center applique section.

The right side applique border, again straight lines have been added.

And the right outside border. I love this feather design. This quilting design will be used in other future quilts.

People keep asking how much more there is to quilt. See the tape measure on the left side of the photo, there is a 9" swath across the center of the quilt to be quilted.

After the center is quilted, I'll unroll and quilt the rest of the background of the applique border. That will take several more weeks of quilting.

I was in Wakarusa last week, the quilt garden has been planted! The name of this year's garden is Wedding Garden. There is a new sign in the background.

There are doing some work on the side of the flowerbed, they're putting in pavers. I don't know what is going into the center, perhaps another flowerbed? I'll keep you updated.

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

I didn't go to Grandma's Pantry so I didn't get a picture of their garden. I'll get there soon and take a picture to show you.

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

Awareness & Butterfly Beauty

The last of the basted flimsies are quilted and the binding is finished. 

The first quilt is called Awareness because it's made from a 3-yard pattern called Awareness which was designed by Donna Robertson and Fran Morgan, owners & designers of the Fabric Cafe. I pieced this flimsy last January during a snowstorm while retreating at the Essenhaus Inn, I am so glad winter is over 😉!

My finished quilt measures 45" by 51" which is a little smaller than the patterns says. 

Fabrics from the stash were pulled for the backing. Of course some fossil fern fabrics have been used but I have no memory of purchasing the other fabrics. They were 1/3rd yard WOF cuts but they were anywhere from 10" - 14" wide after the edges were cut straight. 

The next quilt is one I named Butterfly Beauty. I bought this fabric at Calico Point, probably in the winter when I really need a touch of summer. There was only one yard of the butterfly fabric, I tried to use every bit of it.

Butterfly Beauty is my own design. The border fabric is a pinstripe light gray fabric. As usual I used simple quilting.

I definitely had to use my math skills for this quilt. I would have used the Awareness pattern if I would have had more of the purple fabric but I only had a small piece, enough for the two corners.

The outside border was piano key quilted with diagonal quilting in the corners.

The quilting used a pastel variegated thread which doesn't show the different colors in the thread. The gray border fabric looks rather wrinkly for some reason. I do wash the quilts after they're quilted to remove the markings and the spray adhesive. The borders are quilted approximately 2" apart, maybe it should have been closer? Oh well, the quilting is finished and I'm not going to do a redo.

The backing was this cute floral periwinkle fabric I pulled from my stash. 

It looks a little dark in this picture but it isn't, it's cute and springy!

Butterfly Beauty finishes at 42" by 51", not a huge quilt but large enough to give someone a quilty hug.

There are several flimsies waiting to be quilted for compassion quilts hanging in the 'to be quilted' closet but I've reached my goal of 6 finished compassion quilts. The rest will have to wait until next year.

Besides the 6 compassion quilts, 2 other quilts were finished which are gifts. I already gave the  Fabric Vortex to our grandson and the Turquoise quilt will be gifted this summer. I'm pleased with my quilting this year, none of the quilts had pleats in the backing fabric and my lines were straighter. It was challenging to quilt butterfly beauty because it was hard to see the diagonal lines on the fabric. I used my quilting guide for the first time. I've tried to use it before but it always dug into the seam lines then made a zigzag which I didn't like. It worked perfectly on whole cloth.

Linking to -To Do Tuesday,  Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, I Quilted This!, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

2025 Designer Mystery Quilt

I can't believe I made a mistake again on the last block! It's good I have you guys to critique my piecing. Don't worry about letting me know if I have a block pieced incorrectly, it would annoy me more if you see a mistake and don't let me know about it then mention it AFTER the flimsy is quilted!

Here is block 11 with the mistake corrected.

And here is block 12. I looked at this block several times and didn't see any mistakes.

Now it has the sashing attached.

I examined these blocks several times and didn't see any more mistakes so I went ahead and sewed the blocks into rows then added a narrow border and the outside border. Then I sent it to Dana to be quilted.

I did make a change. When the inside section of the quilt was on the display floor, I thought those ugly pinkish beige fabrics just sucked the color out of the quilt, even the orange fabric! The quilt just looked blah when the border fabric laid beside the center, it needed some contrast so a narrow brown bordered was added for some zing. The fabric was intended for the binding but oh well, my quilt will have scrappy binding.

The floral borders aren't cut as wide as the directions dictate, I wanted to have the flowers showing, not partial flower bouquets. Why have a floral border if you are just going to cut those flower sections in half? I measure and remeasured, I could cut 5.5" strips length of fabric and keep the flora bunches intact. The yardage wasn't long enough to miter the corners but that's okay.

Having full flower sections in the border looks so much better than partial flowers. In this close up you can see I fussy cut that narrow brown border which finishes at 1".

I took the flimsy to Dana on Monday and it was returned to me 10 days later. I selected the Daisy Daze pattern for the quilting, I think it's a cute design.

I did NOT use fabric from the mystery fabric collection for backing. I thought this green sunflower fabric looked springy and worked well with the flimsy. You can see the darker fabrics from the front showing through to the backside.

My finished quilt is 71" by 88".

There are plenty of fabrics left from this quilt including 5-fat quarters of the white background fabric. The larger pieces are all back in the box the finishing kit came in. I'm adding fabrics from another quilt that are similar colors, these fabrics will make a nice future compassion quilt(s) but not this summer.

The smaller strips and pieces have been cut to size and placed in their appropriate box.

This quilt was the 2025 Designer Mystery Quilt from the Fat Quarter Shop which has ended with the final block received in May. I am not participating in the 2026 mystery.

To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, I Quilted This!, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Rhapsody in Blue

I rolled after last week's post and quilted across the quilt again. Starting at the left side is the left side border. The applique in this border is completed so it's all quilting now.

There should be a pieced patchwork border before the next applique border. I don't understand where it disappeared to! Oh well, it looks like the patchwork border that appears in the right side.

This border is around the center applique. I stitched in the ditch on both sides of the border.

This is a close up from the above picture so you can see the background quilting design. This curvy triangle design is unusual, I like t better than straight triangles.

Here is a patchwork section from the right side.

Another applique border.

Another patchwork border.

And the right outside border.

I'm ready to be done quilting this quilt, this is my evening stitching and Sunday afternoons also.

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

Not So Ugly After All!

In 2025 I pieced several scrappy quilts trying to use up orphan blocks. I also had a 2.5" box full of 'ugly' squares. I always use blue squares first whenever I am making a scrappy quilt that needs 2.5" squares, I am a blue girl you know 😉. Next I used squares that were pretty. What was left in that box were browns, greens, other various fabrics, some of them pretty and background squares that usually have a tint of yellow, just not my preference.

I decided it was time to use those 'uglies' and and all the other squares in that box. Two compassion quilt flimsies were pieced. All the squares in that box were thrown into this quilt, uglies as well as the pretties. Surprise, these quilts are not so ugly after all!

Their turn has come in the quilting process and are finished. Like the other compassion quilts, I used diagonal stitching in the light fabrics and into the border. 

Quilt A (left side) finishes at 57" by 71". Quilt B (right side) finishes at 55" by 70".

Quilt A's outside border comes from my mother's stash. She died 20 years ago but her fabrics are still being used. I stitched in the ditch along the sides of the narrow brown border which came from my stash. Quilt B's border is also from my stash, I stitched in the ditch along the edge.

The binding is a variety of strips that worked well with the variety of fabrics used in the center.

Some people keep track of 'fabric in, fabric out'. I don't do that, I have no idea how to figure how much fabric was used in these quilts but the 2.5" square box was definitely diminished.

The backing fabric is a pale yellow fabric that was gifted to me years ago with the understanding it would be used for charity quilts. I didn't take pictures of the back, they're solid light yellow. 

Nothing was purchased to make these quilts, even the batting was pieced together from leftovers.

I use basic simple designs when I quilt with my sewing machine but I am pleased to see my progress. I eyed those lines in the light squares in the quilt, they are fairly straight. I can free motion quilt somewhat straight lines!

I was gifted this spool of thread years ago but I have no idea from who. I'm trying to use fabrics and tools I already have on hand. This thread was perfect for these quilts, the spool quilted all of quilt A and part of quilt B. After the small spool of thread was used, quilt B was finished with a brown variegated thread.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, I Quilted This!, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap

Rhapsody in Blue

I didn't post last Sunday, it seems like pictures of Rhapsody just look the same. This week you actually see something slightly different. Just to change things up, I've arranged the pictures from the right border going toward the left border.

Right side outside border . . .

which moves into a patchwork border. The pin in the one square is to remind me to finish quilting that square.

which then turns into an applique border . . .

Then another patchwork section. See the blue sashing on the left side, that's the outside border of the center applique.

The blue sashing is too far for me to reach. After I roll, I'll stitch in the ditch on both sides.

Still more of the patchwork . . .

This patchwork section goes all the way around the center applique.

Another applique border in between the patchwork.

More patchwork . . .

And finally, the outside left border. The applique is completed on that side, the rest of the border will be feather quilting.

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