Month 8, 2025 Designer Mystery Quilt

Block 8 of the Designer Mystery Quilt is completed. 

It used the same white background that has been in all of the other blocks. I was able to use fabric from former blocks and didn't need to cut into the white fat quarter included in this month's fabric packet.

This block was a quick sew. I didn't think to pay attention to the stripe orientation of the fabric in the inside corners or the outside corners. Oh well, does it really matter? 

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

Rhapsody in Blue

I've completed another row of hand quilting, the patchwork border is completed. I took pictures of the whole row this time, there are a lot of them! Going from the left side, the applique border to the right side, the quilted border.

The patchwork border is 9" wide so now I'm down to 95" to quilt, it's getting smaller!

The next border is a 9" applique border. Elaine and I had discussed if I needed to add background lines and she didn't think we did.  We'll have this conversation again after it's quilted. I can always add them after the quilt is out of the frame if we think they're necessary. There will be spaces in the border but not big spaces like what there would have been in the outside border.

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

Another Orphan Block Compassion Quilt

Returning from vacation can be overwhelming in catching up with quilting projects, where do I start?

I decided to start with the orphan blocks arranged on the display floor, I need room for the weekly Laundry Basket Mystery quilt. I had posted about the blocks in this post.

I have no memory of piecing those courthouse step blocks, I must have been at loose ends when I pieced them. I added several other blocks even though they aren't the same design. A couple of the blocks needed spacer strips added to bring them to size.

A search through the brown/green box didn't find good coordinating fabrics for borders but then I spied the bag with the brown/green fabrics I bought several years ago from the resale table at the Jane Stickle retreat.

This flimsy measures 56" by 75", the brown/green fabrics are perfect for this quilt.

It joins the rest of the flimsies waiting in the 'to be quilted' closet which will happen sometime next spring. 

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

Rhapsody in Blue

The first part of the patchwork section from Rhapsody in Blue is quilted. Here are the pictures from the left side to the right side.

First is the feather border behind the applique.

Then we have the patchwork made from 9 patches. I didn't photo all of the section, just a few pictures because the blocks looked all the same.

The space between the diagonal lines is 2" which is wider than the diagonal lines in the outside border. This is a nice contrast to the border. Unfortunately the pictures don't show the texture. The blue squares puff up slightly and show a nice contrast to the quilted border.

Next is the right feather border.

Here is a picture from the side, across the quilt.

I keep the quilt covered when I'm not quilting to keep the dust from settling on top.

It's starting to cool off in northern Indiana. We haven't had frost yet but it will be happening soon. I've brought the Christmas cactus into the garage to quarantine. I've been spraying them with an insecticide so I don't bring any bugs into the house.

I keep them on the south porch up against the wall for the summer. Apparently this is the perfect place for them, they're blooming!

These are the same type of cactus. The 'old' cactus is a different type and is not budded yet. The white and yellow cactus are smaller then the pink and orange ones. Perhaps next summer I'll repot the smaller plants into a larger pot together.

Linked 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

Twinkle

Calico Point called me, Twinkle is quilted!

For the quilting, I selected a Baptist Fan design. Baptist Fan is always a good simple design and shows nicely on the white backing fabric.

The binding is this light green stripe.  In the other pictures the small flower print shows as yellowish fabric. This bottom picture is the true color of that fabric.

Twinkle now measures 91" by 92" so it did shrink some during the quilting process. The fabrics are from the Summer House line. I bought the fabrics during my birthday shopping outing in 2024.

I know you guys are all probably in shock that I actually made a quilt without any blue in it, surprise!

I posted about the flimsy in this post dated November 2024.

Twinkle will be gifted to one of the grandchildren.

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

Stonefields, Blocks 46, 47, 48 & 49

Section four of Stonefields was completed before I left on vacation in September. Blocks 46 & 47 are the same design called Rocco.

There was only supposed to be one block with this design but it's too cute so I made a second one. I fussy-cut the flowers on the 2nd block.

Blocks 48 & 49 are named Primrose. The instructions said to make three Primrose blocks but I turned one of these three into the Rocco block.

And the second block.

Here are all of the blocks completed so far.

I'm not sure about those two darker blocks in the bottom row, they might be replaced in the future. I'll see what I think when the blocks are in the final arrangment and ready to be sewn together.

Stonefields is designed by Susan Smith.

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

Garden Party Prep

I have a retreat coming up in November. For the last several retreats Garden Party has been my retreat project. I almost finished the posy blocks at last spring's retreat but had to finish the rest after I returned home. I don't remember how many I made but enough for a bed quilt, that amount is written down and is in the bag with the blocks.

I started prepping the alternate chain blocks before I left for my vacation. I'm using red fabrics for the chain.

I didn't have a lot of scraps to use for the chains, most of the scrap pieces have been used in making 4 patch blocks. I used small pieces of fabrics that were too large to be called 'scraps' and was able to do mostly strip piecing.

A lot of the white background fabric was leftovers from cut off quilt backing fabric. I did piece one chain block to show you.

All the sections have been organized on a tray, ready to go to retreat.

I'm not sure how many blocks I need but I do know I'll need at least 100 blocks. If I figured correctly 😉, there should be enough sections for 100 blocks on the tray. The longer white pieces will be used for more 9 patch blocks or cut into the larger rectangles.

I did surround the single chain block with posy blocks to get an idea of what it will look like. It would be easier to visualize if I had sewn more of the chains but that will happen at retreat.

Probably not all the chain blocks will be pieced at retreat but hopefully I'll have enough pieced so that I can figure out how many more I need. I'll take another project along to retreat though, just in case it is needed.

These are little blocks, they finish at 5" so it takes a huge amount of blocks to make a decent sized bed quilt. 

Garden Party was designed by Bonnie Hunter and can be found in the Addicted to Scraps book. I did find a website to purchase only the pattern.

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

Rhapsody in Blue

Rhapsody in Blue went into the hand quilting frame in August, I gave you a preview in the August 31 post. Normally, when I'm hand quilting, I give you a week by week progress report. I'm not doing that with this quilt, I'll give you a monthly progress report.

I had a quilting goal which was to have the first border quilted before I left for my vacation at the end of September, that goal was accomplished!

The background fabric is a light gray fabric but looks darker in the pictures. I use overhead led light while I quilt but they're not so good for taking pictures. These pictures were taken using regular lighting, the quilting shows but the background fabric looks darker than it is.

The pictures are from the left side to the right side. There is some overlap of the design but that's how it is. All of the applique has been stitched in the ditch.

I always cringe when I view a quilt that has a pretty quilting design but the background is left unquilted. To me (this is my opinion, you don't have to share it) the quilt looks unfinished, it's baggy and spoiled. That is why diagonal background lines are added to my quilts.

The next section to be quilted is the blue/gray patchwork. The plan is to diagonal stitch both directions in the light gray fabric, this will make the blue chain more predominate.

The width of the border is 14". The quilt flimsy is 118", just 104" more to be quilted! This quilt will be auctioned in the 2027 Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale.

Rhapsody in Blue is a collaboration between my friend Elaine and I. Elaine stitched all of the applique.

I thought about making all the pictures extra large but that takes up so much space. You should be able to click on the individual pictures to enlarge them.

I don't quilt every evening, I aim for 5 nights a week and quilt approximately 2 hours. Sometimes it's less than that, sometimes longer, I don't keep track of the hours of quilting. In my location hand quilters charge by the yards of thread used in the quilting. I've started with a 500 yard spool of white YLI thread. I'll let you know when the spool is empty.

YLI hand quilting thread is available from Red Rock Threads.

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

Orphan Block Compassion Quilt

Earlier this month I completed two compassion quilts. In the same post, I showed you some orphan blocks that were hopefully going to become another compassion quilt but they needed to sit awhile until the design appeared in my mind.

That happened last week and the orphans have become a flimsy.

I took some pictures along the way with the intentions of giving some measurements but I didn't keep up with writing down the measurements.

The blocks in the center are all 12" finished. The sashing and cornerstones finishes at 2". 

The top and bottom blocks finish at 10". 

They don't line up with the 12" blocks but I'm calling this an design element. I did have to add pieced coping blocks. It's 40" wide and 60" long.

The 9 patch blocks finish at 5". I sewed 2.5" rectangles on one side of them while the other side had 3.5" rectangles which means the length of these blocks becomes 10"by 5" finished. These blocks were sewn onto one side and the bottom of the quilt. It finishes as 53.5" by 77". 

I did stay-stitch along the outer edge of the flimsy to keep seams from pulling open. Some people say they don't have a problem but I do even though I make my stitching length shorter when I piece quilts. Prevention is easier than repairs!

I'd like it better if it was a little wider, adding an outside border of the yellow fabric would have made it the perfect width but . . . this yellow is the last of the yellow from the bolt I purchased when I started Hearts & Wreaths. All that is left are squares which will go into their appropriate box to be used in future scrap quilts. 

This flimsy used a lot of the orphans. There is one album block left, 4 of the 9 patch blocks and 2 of the patchwork blocks.  I did not buy anything to make this quilt which was a win-win! 

This flimsy, and the others I have made or will be making, will be quilted sometime next spring. I have absolutely no idea how this flimsy will be quilted but I have decided the best way to start is to stitch in the ditch along the main seam lines that run the full width and length of the quilt.

More orphans were pulled from the box and this is the arrangement I came up with for the next compassion quilt. This is not the final arrangement, it has to rest awhile before the sewing starts.

Someone once asked me why I have so many orphan blocks? What can I say, apparently I run an orphanage!

I am taking a blogging break until the middle of October. See you then and of course, happy stitching! 😉

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