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

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

Pink Picture Frame Pattern

Last winter I pieced several quilts to be used as gifts or compassion quilts. You have seen the Fabric  Vortex and the Turquoise Patchwork quilt. After those quilts were quilted, I went ahead and spray basted 6 more quilts using Odif 505 washable adhesive spray.

The quilts were marked for quilting after the layers were sprayed and dried over night. I did pin the quilts to help with stability but not very closely.

At the November 2025 Jane Stickle retreat  I purchased two panels for $1 each to use in compassion quilts. I wasn't sure how to set them but I knew I'd figure something out.

When I was googling free 3-yard quilt patterns, the Pink Picture Frame pattern designed by Wood Valley Designs pulled up. I printed it off and used it as the general design for these quilts. My measurements aren't the same as the pattern because my panels were different sizes from what the pattern specified but the pattern gave me a place to start.

I forgot to take pictures of the flimsies in January when they were pieced but now they're quilted and ready for photos.

Quilt A - The background gray fabric is quilt backing fabric left from another quilt. It's a very light gray with darker gray sunflowers. The green fabric and pink fabric also came from my stash.

Both quilts are quilted the same, diagonal lines across the whole quilt including the borders. I did stitch in the ditch along the border edges.

Quilt B is the same design but with a few fabric changes. There wasn't enough of the gray sunflower fabric so the outside border is a different gray fabric, again from my stash.

These are the two pink fabrics in this quilt, a batik and fossil fern fabric.

A light gray thread was used for quilting, I think it was called cool gray. Both quilts finish at 45" by 58".

I'm not a big fan of scrappy quilt backings but that is what was used with these quilts. I used a lot of greens for these backings.

Many of these greens were fossil fern fabrics. I ordered a box containing fat quarters of fossil fern fabrics when the old Craftsy store was going out of business. I didn't realize how many fat quarters there would be! The back of this quilt was a good place to use them. I know I'm making Carolina Lilies which uses green fabrics but I didn't want bright yellow/green in that quilt. The solid green Kona fabric is left from the diamonds used in my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.

Most of the green backing on this quilt was a Robert Kauffman fabric. I don't know why I bought so much of it but apparently I had a plan when I purchased it, it's used now.

Another quilt used the peach/salmon fabrics for backing, I put leftover pieces from that backing in this backing.

Both of these quilts will be donated to the cancer center at Goshen Hospital.

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

Turquoise Patchwork Quilt

I pieced turquoise strips at the Essenhaus Retreat in January which were then sewn into a flimsy. Once the flimsy was finished, it was hung in the to be quilted closet along with several other flimsies I plan to quilt this spring.

I used my Elna 720 machine for quilting, it can be challenging maneuvering everything through the throat but I got 'er done.

The border fabric and the backing are the same fabric. I bought the bolt from Lori when she decided she no longer had a use for it but it was perfect for me.

I had blocks left from piecing the front of the quilt and added them to the backing. 

I used a light variegated blue thread to quilt diagonally through the white block. I didn't want to use plain white thread, I thought the white blocks needed something to brighten them. I left the turquoise blocks unquilted.

The white border was stitched in the ditch on both sides and then 1/2" from the edges. It looked baggy without the extra stitching.

For the border I used the Baptist Fan design. The first item I ever quilted with the Baptist Fan was a little doll quilt. I did a terrible job but that's how we learn. My curves are much smoother now without zigs or zags. I really am improving with my machine stitching but I'm careful to not use too complicated of designs.

A different thread was used for the border, a darker variegated turquoise thread. I thought the thread used on the white would be too light for the borders.

The finished quilt measures 53" by 69", a nice snuggling size.

All of these fabrics are leftover from the quilts I made for Joanna last year. I didn't have the backing/border fabric last year or it would have appeared in her quilts.

This is going to be a summer birthday gift for a friend, I think she'll be quite surprised.

This was the 2nd quilt I've quilted in my spring quilting journey, two completed, several more to quilt! 

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

Fabric Vortex

My Fabric Vortex quilt is quilted!! The 9 year old grandson is very happy with his new quilt, he didn't notice my 'not so perfect' quilting.

I quilted this little quilt myself on my domestic sewing machine using a spiral design. The quilt does not lay flat but that's to be expected with all those bits and pieces. The finished quilt measures 42.5" by 59". It would have been wider but I was trying to even up the edge, that was impossible so I gave up. I've used confetti fabric for the binding, it has all the colors of the quilt in it.

I used blocks from the orphanage for the backing.  It's a reversable quilt! The grandson was excited about that also, especially when I told him they were orphan blocks. I had to explain to him what that meant but he is very pleased to be the owner of this quilt.

This is an one and only quilt, no one else in the world has a quilt like this!

Here is a link to a post I wrote back in 2022 when I decided to make a Fabric Vortex quilt.

Here is the link to the post I wrote in February when I completed the Fabric Vortex flimsy.

Amanda Jean started the Fabric Vortex craze back in 2015 when she had a Fabric Vortex sew-along. This is the link to her Sew-Along page. Scroll down to find the links to the instructions.

I admit my squares aren't small like hers, I don't have that kind of patience! This is a link to Jo's YouTube video about making Diamond Crumb blocks. Those have larger pieces than Amanda Jean's.

I've browsed through Amanda Jean's blog, she says she has made several Fabric Vortex quilts. This is a link to a post about the bed sized quilt she made.

I'm impressed she's actually made several vortex quilts and one is large enough for a bed! I'll never do that, making my small quilt about drove me crazy, I couldn't stand the mess it made. I've crossed Fabric Vortex off my 'quilts to make' list, one was enough for me.

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