Zippy Strippy Compassion Quilts

The last two compassion quilts are finished. I pieced the center sections before I went to retreat in April using an old jellyroll that has been guilting me for years. Deanna and I both bought the jelly rolls and extra fabrics years ago at the Pumpkinvine quilt store. She finished and gifted her quilt long ago, I didn't.

Remember when jellyrolls were first invented? Quilters were making zippy strippy quilts, some even participated in races to see who finished their quilt first. 

The problem with a zippy strippy quilt was it was too wide and not long enough. You could add borders which made it larger but then it was too big for me to quilt on my sewing machine. 

I started sewing these strips together but do the final doubling. I had a longer pieced strip which I cut in half to make the center. Sorry, I didn't take a picture.

I added borders to my centers and quilted them with simple straight line vertical quilting. The peach colored quilt was quilted in the ditch with lines 2" apart. The turquoise border quilt was quilted 1/2" from the seam line in the center then in the border. Both quilts were stitched in the ditch around the center sashing. Very simple but it works! 

They both measure 45.5" X 63.5".

This is the end of my machine quilting binge and I'm glad to be finished. Eight quilts have been quilted, five of them will be donated. The other three will be gifted eventually.

In the meantime, since I pieced these quilts, Michelle has published a jellyroll book, Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts. Several bloggers made quilts and posted about the book. I won a free e-book from Quilting Jet Girl just by leaving a comment on her post. The next time I make a jellyroll quilt, I'll use one of the patterns Michelle designed, they really don't look like typical jellyroll quilts.

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

Two Border Amish Quilt

The quilting is speeding along on this little quilt.

This is the right side.

The center section.

And the left side.

The green doesn't show the true color in any of these pictures, rather a blah shade of green.

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

Two Little Quilts

Two more small quilts have been completed. One is a compassion quilt and the other one will be a gift to a special person in my life.

Several years ago I pieced a Moda Love layer cake quilt. I purchased yardage and cut it into 10" squares then sewed the HST's. I did not read the instructions thoroughly because I thought I knew what I was doing, wrong! I ended up making way too many HST's and needed to buy more fabric to have enough yardage to finish the quilt.

After the quilt was pieced, I placed the leftover fabrics and extra HST's in a bag with the intent of someday making something with them. That happened last winter when I pieced the small quilts that both measure 44" by 52".

They were easy to make, the first one has large broken dishes blocks.

The backing is very scrappy. I had finished piecing the teal quilts for Joanna so I incorporated leftover blocks into the backing. This quilt is the compassion quilt.

There aren't as many HST's in the second quilt. I could have pieced 2 more HST's and made a square quilt but I just didn't want to piece another HST!

The backing isn't as scrappy as the first quilt but I thought the flowered fabric went well with the teal/purple fabric. 

The quilting these quilts was very simple, first I quilted the blocks horizontally then vertically in the seam ditch. 

The next step was to  stitch diagonally. Lines were marked 2" from the seam lines. I stitched diagonally to the marking then stitched around the square which brought me back to where I had been on the diagonal then finished sewing the diagonal stitch in the ditch sewing. 

The border quilting was straight lines. I had planned to use the serpentine stitching in the borders but I couldn't find my machine book that has the different stitches. Oh well, straight line works.

It didn't take long to quilt these quilts. The light fabric was marked with a washable blue marker while the dark fabric was marked with a white Sewline marker.

Again this was simple quilting but no pleats or tucks on the back!

Here is a link to the Peacock Moda Love Star quilt I pieced in 2021.

My Christmas cactus plants are on the south porch but back against the wall so they don't receive direct sunlight. This one is in full bloom! It was full of buds when it came in the house last fall and starting blooming in October. It had some flowers all winter long. I've never had one do this well. Several of the other cactus have flowers also but not like this one. This must be the perfect place for them in the summer.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, 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

Two Border Amish Quilt

With a small quilt, it's easy to quilt across the long side. And this week I reached in farther than necessary, the quilt is halfway quilted!

This picture shows the true color of the green.

The center section of the quilt. I guess I don't have the frame centered under the lights correctly, the color is off shade.

WOW! This is even worse, definitely not the right color.

I have learned my lesson, don't buy off brand fabric no matter how less it costs. It's a sturdy fabric, it isn't going to fall apart when washed, it just quilts hard. I'm very glad this is a small quilt.

I won't be rolling this side anymore, I'm going to move my chair to the other side of the quilt and stitch toward the center.

This quilt is for my stash, I just wanted to make an Amish crib quilt.

I was in Wakarusa several weeks ago and took a picture of the quilt garden. They didn't have the sign up about the flower garden design but, to me, it looks it might be a pinwheel? I'll update you the next time I get my hair trimmed. Here is a link for you to peruse with information about the quilt gardens.

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

Embroidered Baby Quilt

 In November I showed you an embroidered baby quilt flimsy, the blocks were embroidered by a granddaughter. Today I show you the finished quilt.

Some of the animals were embroidered with very light thread, they don't show very well. 

The borders between the blocks were stitched in the ditch with an iridescent white thread. I don't think it really shows in the picture. I don't know what you call this design but it works fine for the blocks. The embroidered blocks finish at 7.75".

Displayed on the grass.

I didn't have enough of the flowered fabric for the entire backing fabric so I pulled some pretty lavenders from the stash.

I add an embroidered label. I should have used a stencil for the lettering but I wrote free-hand instead. There wasn't enough room for the word 'by' but I think you know what I mean.

I used a water soluble blue marking pen for the border.

This is what the stencil template looks like.

Obvious the stencil is turned a different direction. If I had been quilting by hand, I would have stuck the needle under the design and made it look woven. For machine quilting, I linked the cables and called it good!

The finished quilt measures 47" by 58". I washed it to remove the blue markings.

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

Two Border Amish Crib Quilt

Even though this green fabric stitches harder than normal, I'm enjoying myself. I haven't quilted in a long time.

I always start at the right side and work my way left.

I'm reaching in farther than I would have to. In the center, the crosshatching reaches to the center design. I would rather stitch a long seam than a short one.

The quilting across this section is finished, I rolled the stick after taking the pictures. Since the outside border is already quilted, it makes the inside quilting go faster. At least it seems like that.

I do need to stitch in the ditch on both sides of the red borders. 

As I told you last week, I'm using the old sticks and stands frame because it think it holds layers better than the Grace frame does on the sides.

This is one of my favorite quilting tools, it holds the pins I use to pin the quilt to the frame. I used to keep my pins in a small plastic container but I lost the lid. I was constantly spilling the container and needed to pick up the pins all the time! This bowl is magnetic, the pins are no longer spilled. I keep my chapstick in it too. Since it's magnetic, I place it on the corner of the quilting frame and it locks onto the corner clamp.

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

Log Cabin Hearts

In the midst of my machine quilting binge, I received a call from Calico Point, another quilt is finished, this time it's Log Cabin Hearts.

I don't know the name of this quilting design but it's very pretty. A close up of one of the blocks.

Displayed on our bed.

I haven't used a flange binding for several years but it adds a touch of color to the edge of the outside border.

You need to stitch slowly to sew the flange without sewing onto the binding section.

I used white thread on the flange. 

Log Cabin Hearts finishes at 95" square. The directions on the pattern has a very wide outside border. I didn't want that wide of a border.

The Log Cabin Hearts pattern was designed by Esther Hershberger back in 1996. It's an older pattern and has templates instead of rotary cutter instructions. I measured the templates for cutting measurements.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, May Favorite Finish!, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Two Border Amish Crib Quilt

I told you I would show you my new hand stitching project today. It is number 15 on my long list of quilts for 2025. In the January post I call it the Amish crib quilt. My inspiration came from this book, Amish Crib Quilts From the Midwest, the Sara Miller Collection, page 39. This book is available on Amazon.

Several of the quilts were simple crib quilts with two narrow borders. They were titled 'plain quilts'. I'm calling mine the Two Border Amish Crib Quilt. There were no measurements or instructions given to make the quilts so I did the math. I'm sure I posted about this little quilt before but I can't find the post. 

My fabrics are a green for the main body and a medium red for the borders. The red borders are Kona fabric. The green is fabric I purchased at an Amish fabric store, I never heard of the manufacturer. 

White YLI hand quilting thread is being used instead of black thread. I did stitch several inches with black but didn't like so I removed it. The outside border is a chain of feathers.

The first long side border is quilted.

I'm stitching in the ditch along the sides of the narrow borders next to the outside border. I'm using 4 needles so I can quilt all four edges as I go. For me, this is easier than quilting one edge all the way then going back and quilting the next edge.

I used a white Sewline marking pencil to mark the designs through the stencils. The marks will wash out after the quilting is finish. I like how it makes a narrow line and it doesn't rub off like a chalk pencil does. In my opinion, chalk pencils are worthless, you can't sharpen them without the chalk breaking.

See how the outside edge of the fabric is sticking up? I don't like that.

Now I've stitched the fabric edge down flat. When the quilting is finished and I'm ready to trim the edge, it will be easier because that edge is flat.

The four borders around the quilt are quilted then I rolled the two long sides in and I'm ready to start quilting the inside. The markings don't show in this picture but they're there! The inside looks a little loose but it will quilt out just fine. Sorry about my shadow, I was trying to get most of the quilt in the picture.

It is going to be challenging to take true color pictures of this green fabric, it really is prettier than it looks. When it's completely finished, I'll take a picture outside and you will see the true color.

I'm using the stick and stand frame because I think the tension is better than the Grace Frame.

YLI hand quilting thread is available from Red Rock Threads. 

Here is a link to a post about putting a quilt into this frame. I tried to be detailed. Hopefully it will answer any questions you have.

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, Valomea's Patchwork

Two Compassion Qults

This week I have two compassion quilts to show you. The first little quilt finishes at 41" by 50". The blocks were leftovers from a quilt I pieced probably 20 years ago, time to move them out. I posted about the flimsy last November.

As usual I did simple machine quilting. 

Using white thread I quilted through the purple chain then stitched in the ditch along the edge of the HST blocks. It still needed more quilting so I horizontally and vertically along the seam line every 4" which went through the center of the HST block.

The white border has quilting on both sides. 

I did mark a design in the border with a disappearing pink marker but I couldn't see it so I just kind of did my own thing. The border fabric is so pretty though, hopefully it will cover my poor quilting design. 

Years ago I had pieced two simple quilt tops to spiral quilt and donate. I quilted one and thought that was enough spiral quilting. The other quilt top was the perfect size for the back of this quilt.

Maybe they'll decide they like the backing fabric better and use it as the top side.

The second quilt was a store kit I bought at Caroline's last July and pieced in October.

The kit is named Trip Around the Cottage, a play on Caroline's Cottage Cottons. The flimsy measures 67.5" square.

I liked the touches of gold in the fabric so I pulled this thread to use for the quilting. This quilt has easy quilting, I stitched in the ditch on the side of all the seams. This was enough quilting so I called it finished.

I challenged myself to not buy backing fabric for these small quilts, I had these fabrics in the stash so that's what I used.

I did prewash the red fabric (which is more maroon then red), it bled a lot but the excess dye finally left.

I'm pleased to say that neither quilt has any pleats or puckers on the front or back.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, 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

Elegant Garden, Block 24, the Last Applique Block!

Block 24 of the Elegant Garden quilt is completed, the applique blocks are finished!

I went ahead and pieced the center block so the center of this quilt is completed.

The row that was intended to be the bottom row (row 5) was switched with row 4 because the center block of row 4 had the same background fabric as what was used in the center star block. Switching the rows was an easy solution, but I did have a problem with the pieced center block.

This is the block trimmed to size. I don't know what I did but this isn't right!

Time for plan B, the block was trimmed smaller then sashing was added. Now it's the size it's supposed to be and it was sewn into the center row.

The next step was to piece the 24 half star blocks to go around the outside of the quilt. I don't think so, not after having a problem with the center star block.

Now the decision is, someday, will I regret not piecing those star blocks? That's an easy answer, NO! I was attracted to this quilt because of the applique, not the stars. Besides, if I made those half star blocks, I would need to buy more pink fabric.

I used to have more  pink civil war fabrics but back in 2022, I pieced a flimsy I named Churn Dash Diva.

In the civil war tub were leftover fabrics from that quilt, the dark brown fabric and the pink striped fabric that were used for borders in Churn Dash Diva. I had enough of the brown fabric for an inside border and an outside border for Elegant Garden. There was also enough pink striped fabric for a wider border. And, there is fabric in the tub that should work well for the binding. I always sew binding immediately after finishing the flimsy.

My Elegant Garden flimsy measures 60.5".

It was rather fun to make a small quilt for once. For now she's going into the 'to be quilted' closet and hang along side her older sister churn dash diva. And, in case you're wondering, churn dash diva is still waiting to be hand-quilted.

Every fabric used in Elegant Garden came from the civil war tub, no fabric was purchased for the purpose of making this quilt. The tub is in complete disarray but is still pretty full. There are some larger pieces in the tub that will be used as backing fabrics. Maybe I'll sew a pieced backing for churn dash diva too, I wonder what she'll think about that?

I hadn't planned to have a finished flimsy to show you today but sometimes quilting goes like that. I have started a new project that I will show you next week.

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