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?

Planning Party, 2nd Quarter Check-in

Summer is here and not much time is being spent in the sewing studio but I'm still making progress. Here is a link to the list I posted last January.

Radiant Blues is a flimsy and has been delivered to a long arm quilter.

I'm sorry this picture has a yellow tint, I think the bright sunshine affected it. I didn't realize the picture was this way but the quilt isn't at home. You'll have to wait for a better photo until after the quilting is completed.

Dresden Stars has also been delivered to the quilter.

Hearts & Wreaths is completely finished, my first completed quilt in 2024! Hand quilting does take a long time.

I did start piecing the pineapple blocks at retreat in April. I plan to piece more blocks sometime this summer.

Linking to Planning Party, 2nd Quarter Check-in, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Sew & Tell,  Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss

This 'N That

I'm working on some odds and ends now since Radiant Stars has been completed.

First are some project bags I've made or partially made. Deanna gave me the pattern when she visited in April for the quilt retreat.

Do you notice that I didn't use blue fabrics, I'm kind of blued out right now. This project bag is the 18" size.

I ran into a problem though with the zipper so bag 1 is at a standstill until I get some help from a friend.

The next bag finishes at 16" and I used the same fabrics, I like the red and aqua colors. 

I used a white zipper I found in a drawer. It worked just fine.

I've also been doing some cleaning, sorting and organizing. I noticed a large tub on the bottom of one of the metal shelves and wondered what was in there. I opened it and discovered fabrics from mother's stash and . . . . some unfinished quilts!

Dots & Dash - 

Jewel Box blocks left from a quilt I made our oldest granddaughter many many years ago.

Also a bunch of uneven 9 patch blocks and embroidered blocks for a crib quilt. No pictures of those projects.

Mother's fabrics are going to be cut into blocks to make comforter tops then passed along to another person to piece the comforters.

I'll try to make the unfinished projects into small quilts, hopefully that won't take too long. I have several small quilts and other projects I want to machine quilt, I'll just add these to the stack when they're pieced.

Several weeks ago, Michelle (From Bolt to Beauty) posted about the scrappy stars quilt she pieced called Quilty Stars. This pattern was designed by Emily Dennis. She decided to gift the pattern to one of the people who commented on her blog that day and the random generator selected me! This looks like a fun pattern, I certainly have plenty of 2.5" squares to use.  Thank you Michelle!

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

Hearts & Wreaths Finish!

After five months of hand quilting, Hearts & Wreaths is completely finished!! She measures 78" by 94". 

Six hundred seventy-four yards of white YLI hand quilting thread was used for the quilting. I did not wash Hearts & Wreaths after binding but she already has that kind of scrunchy look that washing gives a quilt. Hobbs 80/20 batting was used.

Hearts & Wreaths was put into the quilting frame January 5, 2024 and removed from the frame May 31. I spent last week binding the quilt. I was very enthused about this quilt so the quilting went quickly, 5 months for a short stitched quilt is fast!

Someday this quilt will be displayed in the rafters but not until I have a chance to display her for show & tell at the November retreat and possibly the Sauder Village show next April.

I had no plans for this lovely Free Spirit floral fabric when I purchased it many years ago at retreat. It was on the resale table and it was love at first sight. I came across it when I was boxing fabrics for the move to the new house. That is when I decided it was the perfect backing fabric for Hearts & Wreaths. There is fabric left so the rest will be used on the back of another quilt sometime.

Here is a link to my first post about Hearts & Wreaths. The pattern for Hearts & Wreaths is located in Quiltmania magazine, edition #138. 

If you look at the picture of Hearts & Wreaths in the magazine, you see tiny little appliqued leaf clusters in the border. I can NOT applique things that tiny, my fingers just aren't agile enough. However I did use the little leaf design for the quilt label but the leaves are embroidered, not appliqued.

The picture of the label was taken right after I had hand stitched the label to the back of the quilt. 

Now the binding is attached, and it looks looks this. This yellow label is the TRUE yellow color of this fabric!

For now I'm keeping this quilt for myself but eventually it will be gifted to one of the grandchildren.

I'm taking a sabbatical from hand quilting for the rest of summer and I will not be posting next week. 

I will be spending my evenings appliqueing the borders for Blueberry Pie. But before I can applique, I need to decide what design I'm going to use, then mark the borders! 

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

Just one more picture, this time displayed on our bed.

Actually I have another picture to show you. This is my favorite block. Most of the hearts were not fussy cut but these turquoise hearts were. The butterflies are so cute!

Of course the yellow background fabric isn't the true color. Finally, after all these months I have my first quilt finish in 2024! 

Comforters & a Quilt

Other projects were pushed back while Radiant Blues was created. Now I need to play catch up.

First were 4 comforters that needed bindings attached. I did not piece the tops or knot them, I'm just part of the process by sewing the bindings then delivering them to the MCC Resource center in Goshen.

In April, Carolyn brought a comforter along to the retreat to have me deliver. It also needed binding. Comforters don't have a binding like quilts, we just fold the backside to the front and stitch it down. I use this tutorial I published last year.

Carolyn's comforter is beautiful and she had it quilted! Since this is a donation anyway, I suggested donating it to the Michiana Mennonite Relief sale held every September and she said yes. Since that is what she's going to do, I can't just fold the backing over to the front, it has to have a real binding.

Carolyn said she would purchase fabric and mail it to me for binding but I said I would use the fabric I cut from the excess backing. I decided to add some dark brown to the binding to make sure I had enough fabric. It doesn't really show though, binding is so narrow.

Maybe you can see it better on the backside of the quilt?

The pattern for Carolyn's quilt is Iconic designed by Lela Boutique. Her finished quilt measures 63.5" by 77".

We looked out the north window the other evening and we saw this doe with her fawn. Sorry the picture is blurry, it's taken through a window screen.

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

Hearts & Wreaths

Today I'm posting pictures that show 2 quiltings across the quilt. I hope you understand what I'm saying. The pictures show approximately half of the blocks, the bottom half. I'm pushing myself to finish this quilt, I'm ready to take a quilting break for the summer.

At the bottom of the blocks is the seam line. Last week I had quilted almost to the line. This week I quilted and rolled, the seam line is actually rolled. This way you can see more of the quilting. 

I only need to quilt the other sides of the blocks. Instead of rolling, I'm going to move my chair to the other side of the quilt and quilt on that side.

What does this really mean? It means I'm really close to a finish!

Last week I was in Wakarusa, the quilt garden is planted and growing. We've had an abundancy of rain this spring and the garden is off to a great start. Click here to read about the Quilt Gardens.

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