January Retreat at the Essenhaus

I pieced several small quilts while at the new to me retreat which was held at the Essenhaus Inn in Middlebury, Indiana. This motel is very nice, the sewing space was spacious and the complimentary breakfast was delicious!

The first blocks I pieced were the corner and inset triangles for the Garden Party quilt. Those are done and sometime I'll start sewing all the blocks together. I don't have a picture of the blocks I sewed, you'll see them in the quilt.

It was time to sew a 3 yard quilt. I didn't want to buy a book, I'm not going to make that many 3 yard quilts and I'm tired of buying books that don't get used. I googled free 3 yard quilts and several patterns pulled up, I decided on the Awareness pattern designed by Donna Robertson.

This quilt sewed together very fast since I had cut all the pieces at home. This little quilt measures 46" by 52". 

I had bought these fabrics in a kit that was intended for a 3 yard quilt. I hadn't looked closely at the fine print on the label of the package before, it said the yardage was 3 & a quarter yards each. I could have added another row and used more of the fabrics! 

Several years ago I purchased this cute butterfly fabric on the spur of the moment at Calico Point. For a background fabric, I used a gray pinstripe fabric.

I designed my own pattern and came up with a little quilt that I call Butterfly Beauty, she will also be a compassion quilt.

The mottled looking blue fabric on the left corner is actually a lovely purple fabric from the stash. I didn't have a large enough piece of the butterfly fabric to use. This little quilt finishes at 44" by 52" and will be quilted and donated in the spring.

I had prepped blocks to possibly piece two Wiggly Whimsy crib quilts. I started the first one but I didn't think the squares blended well. So I stuck those pieces back into it's bag then pulled the second one and made a good start. It's pieced and hanging in the to be quilted closet, I forgot to take a picture! Here is a link to a crib quilt I pieced several years ago. It's a free pattern somewhere on the Moda Bake Shop site but I can't find it now.

The last project was to strip piece for a teal patchwork quilt.

I sewed strips together but wasn't able to subcut them. That I did at home. I pieced the subcuts into 8" finished blocks. This flimsy now measures 55" by 71".

A backing has been pieced and the binding is also sewn. This will probably be the first quilt to be machine quilted in the spring quilting binge. 

Linking to To Do Tuesday, 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

Snowdrops

The last blocks in section 8 of Stonefields are appliqued and are called Snowdrops. Actually it is titled Snowdrop because there was just supposed to be one block of this design but I appliqued two blocks because I like the design.

And the second block.

I made two snowdrops because the last block designed, called Sunflower, for this section is EPP'd. I don't mind EPP but since the blocks finish at 6", the pieces are really tiny! I did print the pattern off onto card stock paper the weight of regular EPP paper. I might be brave someday and attempt the EPP work but then I may not. 

I've run out of room on the display wall! I'm up to 97 blocks with 24 more blocks to be completed. I'll probably remove all these blocks then put newly completed blocks on the wall.

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

Carolina Lily

A new long term foundation paper-piecing project called Carolina Lily has been started. Here is my first block!

It took close to 2 hours to piece this first block but I'm hoping to pick speed as I go along. My goal is to piece at leasts 5 blocks every month, maybe more. These blocks finish at 6" so it may take several years to complete this quilt.

I'm using the foundation paper-piecing pattern by Cindy Edgerton. Her design is for a small wall quilt.

I watch From Small Things on Youtube. In 2024 she displayed her red & white quilts and her green & red quilts (Episode 11). She had purchased this pattern then foundation paper-pieced 100 of these little blocks and made them into a lovely quilt. I thought it was so pretty, I wanted a quilt of my own!

The pattern is a physical pattern and the papers are tissue paper, just like the clothing patterns like we used to sew. I copied the tissue paper on my printer then printed my foundation papers on newspaper weight paper.

I did manage to complete 10 blocks in January, now I need to get started on the blocks for February.

You don't need yardage to make these blocks, the largest piece in the blocks is the bottom green triangle. I'm using fabrics I already have on hand. The light green used in 4 of the blocks is at least 20 years old.

I'll let you know at the end of 2026 how many blocks have been pieced. WARNING: this is NOT the pattern to learn how to foundation paper piece.

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

Stonefields

Section 8 from Stonefields has started. First are these four blocks which are very appropriately called The Hexagons. I'm not the perfectionist that Rebecca is, I didn't spend that much time EPPing my hexies. You can see my stitches but you have to look very closely at them. 

The flower print is border fabric left from the Lady Jane quilt. I really like those flowers!

Another blue floral fabric.

I tried fussy cutting the leaf fabric. It didn't work like I had intended but you can see the leaves.

I also tried fussy cutting the dark blue fabric. Those little flowers aren't quite centered so I sewed them all closer to the center hexie so they would look more symmetrical.

The hexies are the 3/4" size which is the same size as the hexies that belong on the border. I haven't decided if I'm going to make the border the way the pattern says or not. I'll decide that when the blocks are actually sewn into the center flimsy and have the flying geese border.

Next are two blocks called Bull's Eye.

I've added a lot of yellow to these blocks in this section. They'll be interspersed among all the other blocks in the quilt, the yellow will just add some contrast to all the blues.

Here are a group of blocks named Hyde Park. These blocks are the same pattern as the very first four blocks pieced for Stonefields except that these four have little applique circles added.

Of course I had to fussy cut the circles for at least one of the blocks. These circles are the same fabric that I tried to fussy cut for the hexies.

There are several other blocks prepped for section 8 but these are the only blocks completed so far.

Stonefields is designed by Susan Smith.

Except for some of the background fabrics, the fabrics used are from my extensive blue stash.

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

Fabric Vortex

I was tired of looking at the fabric vortex pieces on the design wall so I unpacked the box that went with the blocks and started sewing.

So many little pieces and what a mess!

I sewed and sewed and sewed, for 4 days I sewed and didn't seem to make progress, the mess just got worse! This was driving me crazy so I finally said enough. 

This is what I came up with, the flimsy is 44" by 61".

I wasn't sure what I would do with this quilt after it was quilted but a grandson spoke up and put his claim on it. That's the advantage of living close to grandma.

Here is a link to Amanda Jean's Scrap-Vortex sew along. This link is to week 5, you'll find the other weeks under the sew-along tab at the top of the page. I can't believe she had a mess like this in her studio for 5 weeks!

Here is a link to Jo's Diamond Crumb blocks tutorial on YouTube.

All these pieces were on the card table so I cut 4.5" by 8.5" rectangles from newspaper and sewed the strips on them. Somday I'll sew more of these rectangles until I have enough for a compassion quilt. I have a box with random strips.

I still had a mess on my card table. Some of the scraps I put into the box for the little pineapple blocks, the rest I THREW AWAY! I'm done with fabric vortex quilts, never ever again! 😧

I should clarify that I do save all pieces larger than 1.5" so it's very small scraps I'm throwing away.

Linking to Oh Scrap!, To Do Tuesday, 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, Valomea's Scraps

Rhapsody in Blue

Another row across Rhapsody in Blue has been hand quilted. 

The quilted feathers look elegant.

The crosshatching in the squares looks so nice. It's a lovely texture when I gently rub my fingers over the quilting.

This quilt is directional. I started quilting at the top of the quilt so the top of the center applique has been quilted.

I can't decide if I should add quilting to the background of the applique sashing or not. I'll let Elaine decide after the quilt is out of the frame.

And the right side border. This picture always looks darker gray but the gray isn't this dark!

Did you notice something in the very top picture and the above picture also?

See how the lines change direction with the inverted V?

That is the halfway point! The quilting is halfway completed!!

The quilt flimsy was too large for the side sticks, approximately 18" hung over the end. That would be the left side in this picture. 

It was pinned so it was tight but since I'm halfway finished, I'm going to adjust the quilt.

The flimsy has been adjusted so the rest of the quilt is now in the frame. I also switched the longer side sticks to shorter ones. I measured the short side, 60" to be quilted. 

The next step is to baste the edges of the quilt layers together then start quilting along the long side. 

I realize my quilt sticks and stand probably look foreign to you guys but this is how my grandmothers, my mother and my sisters hand quilt.

Quilting in this type of frame isn't better than other ways, it's just what I'm used to. You hand quilt in whatever type of frame you like and we'll both be happy.

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

2025 Designer Mystery Quilt

The 7th block kit for the Designer Mystery Quilt from the Fat Quarter Shop came just before Christmas. It had to wait to be pieced until after the Tennessee flimsy was finished.

I pulled the finishing kit after #7 was completed and pieced the sashing for the blocks then sewed the first six blocks together.

And block 7 with it's sashing.

Block 8 arrived while I was at the January retreat. It has also been pieced, the sashing was added then sewn onto block 7. 

I haven't cut the border fabrics yet. I won't do that until all the blocks are sewn together which will be May.

I'm writing this post on a cold snowy winter afternoon. June will be lovely: green grass, flowers blooming, much warmer temperatures, sitting on the glider on the porch, sipping ice tea, watching the squirrels run around and listening to the birds sing. And . . . the best thing of all, no ice!

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