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

Tula Hexies

Tula Hexies was by far the most challenging quilt to quilt. I decided to use the same orange peel design I used when I quilted the placemat. Moving a placemat around under the needle is much easier than moving a whole quilt! 

The orange peel curves are not always smooth but the quilt is finished! The orange peel quilting is not free motion quilting, I marked every curve but still couldn't follow the lines.

Part of me wishes I had sent the quilt out to be machine quilted, part of me is proud that I persevered and quilted her myself. I'm never going to be come better at machine quilting if I don't actually do it.

Even though the quilt 'sandwich' was spray glue basted, I still pinned in the center of each hexie. I wasn't taking any chances with fabric slippage.

After washing, Tula Hexies measures 50" by 78".

The black & white stripe is the perfect binding for this quilt and the mini Tula placemat. Tula Hexie is staying here at my house and I'm using the mini Tula as my personal placemat.

Okay Blogger, don't place the picture horizontally!

I even purchased a special backing fabric for Tula Hexies, these hexies are a larger version of the smaller hexies in the quilt.

I was inspired to to hand piece my Tula hexies when I saw Deb and Hanne making their hexie quilts last November at retreat. Hanne also hand sewed her hexies while Deb utilized the EPP method. Hand sewing was easier on my hands than EPP.

Tula Hexies is the last quilt in my machine quilting journey this summer. I'm ready to move onto other projects now.

I do feel more proficient with machine quilting. I don't think I'll let a whole year pass before machine quilting something again.

Linking to Midweek Makers, 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

Dots & Dashes

Dots & Dashes is the largest of all the quilts I'm machine quilting. Stitch in the ditch was the easiest way to quilt. After quilting and being laundered, my dots & dashes measures 58" by 72".

I think she looks so pretty. My ditch stitching wasn't always accurate but you don't notice so much since she's been washed. You see the block rows alternate, I stitched along the edge of the white sashing so the quilting alternates in each block.

A friend of a friend, who decided to quit quilting/sewing, donated their fabric stash to me several years ago with the specification that the fabric be used for charity quilts. The green backing fabric came from that stash.

The striped binding fabric has been in my stash for years. I thought it would make good binding since there were so many different colors in the quilt.

In this picture you can see how I stitch in the edge along the long sides of the white sashing.

Dots & Dash, along with 4 smaller quilts, will be donated to the cancer center at Goshen Hospital.

You may have noticed in the large picture that there are 4 patches in the side borders. Do to a lapse of mind in planning (😕), they ended up in the side borders instead of the corners where they were supposed to be. I didn't notice this until I took pictures of the quilt before I quilted it. I just didn't feel like taking the quilt apart. We'll just call it a design feature and let it go at that.

The pattern for Dots & Dashes is found at the Quilted Twins website.

Dots & Dashes is the only quilt in this quilting marathon to NOT have a pieced batting.

Just one more quilt to be quilted in my quilting marathon, Tula Hexies!

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

Blooms

I'm still in my machine quilting phase. Blooms has been waiting since 2022 to be quilted. Blooms was designed by Sherri and the pattern can be found here.

I'm a basic machine quilter and I'm using white thread for quilting on all of the quilts.

This quilt was quilted by stitching in the ditch, first along the sashing horizontally and vertically. The diagonal red corners are also stitched in the ditch along with the center square. I thought the center section was too large to not quilt so the center yellow hexies are stitched on the inside.

The backing fabric is a light gray and shows the stitching for the Baptist Fan design in the borders better than the front side.

I'm pleased that my quilting has improved enough that the curves actually look fairly smooth, no zags.

After washing, Blooms is 41" by 51" and will also be going to the Goshen cancer center.

And if you are wondering, I'm still sewing batting pieces together for use in these quilts.

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

Ladybugs & Tulabugs

I have two ladybug quilts to show you today. The first one is the crib quilt I pieced at the November 2023 retreat. I posted about it here. 

In the original post, I wrote it would be spiral quilted. That's not what happened, the little quilt told me to quilt cross-hatching. Diagonal lines were marked from the squares in the squares border to the other side.  This quilt measures 38.5" by 44".

The fabrics in the yellow & black ladybug quilt were purchased at Carolines in Rome City. I had purchased enough of the black fabric to use for backing.

The second ladybug quilt is made with Tula Pink fabrics so I call it Tulabugs. 

For the 2nd quilt I decided to use the X design which is easy to do. You mark diagonal lines from corner to corner, then you mark a + in the center both horizontally and vertically. The + is the pivot point. When the X stitching was finished, I stitched in the ditch on both sides of the narrow green border. I had two different pieces of lavender (which looks gray in the photo) fabrics to use for backing then used the same green border fabric for binding. Both bindings were completely stitched by machine, no hand sewing.

I'm keeping the first quilt to have on hand for the next baby that needs one. The second quilt will be donated to Goshen Cancer Center for use in the chemo department. It measures 44" square.

Linking to Midweek Makers, 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

Summer Garden Compassion Quilts

I'm continuing with my machine quilting journey and have quilted two small quilts that I named Summer Garden. They were squirrel projects I first posted about here.

Now they're quilted, simple stitch in the ditch quilting.

They both measure 37.5" by 46" and will be donated to the cancer center at Goshen Hospital. I love the fabrics and I hope they bring a smile to the recipients. 

The fabrics used in the quilts were from a fat quarter bundle I purchased at the Jane Stickle retreat several years ago. The binding fabric was made from the fabric not used for piecing blocks and the fat quarter bundle is completely gone!

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

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

Cow Quilt Quilted!

Instead of putting the cow quilt into the 'to be quilted' closet, I decided to just quilt her now and have a complete finish.

First thing was to sew a 1" finished black border around the flimsy. It just needed some black to make all the other fabric shine.

Machine quilting is not my thing, I don't enjoy, I do it just to finish a small project and save some money. Since I had recently machine quilted several small projects using the serpentine design, that's what I decided to use. I used a brown/beige variegated thread.

Here is a close up picture of the quilting. Just so you know, cows don't have blue eyes.

There was green grass the day I took these pictures. I should embroider the mouth onto the cow and add a black eye to the rooster . . . I really should do that but I probably never will.

This cow quilt measures 49" by 55" after washing and drying. I'll be keeping this quilt for someone in my own family.

I had the perfect fabric for backing in my stash. I buy brown cow fabric whenever I see it because it is a rarity! I see now I took the backside picture the wrong direction. The quilting should be vertical, not horizontal.

The Cow Quilt pattern can be found here on the Counted Threads website. I did make changes to the pattern with color placement for the cow.

You can read more about piecing the cow quilt here.

Linking to Needle & Thread Thursday, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

More 9 Patch Crib Quilts

I actually used a pattern for the next group of 9 patch crib quilts, at least 2 out of the 3. The pattern is County Fair and is from Lissa Alexander's book, Scrap School.

This first quilt I made a smaller version of Country Fair. But when I sewed it together, the triangle pieces didn't fit! I had glanced over the pattern and thought I knew what I was doing. The sashing was a different size than I thought.  I did NOT take it apart, just cut new triangles and sewed it together. 

I just straight line quilted 1/2" from the seam lines. After I attached the binding, I realized I missed a line of quilting. I'm just leaving it like it is. This little quilt measures 35.5" by 46".

I made sure I followed the pattern for the next quilt but then I forgot what I was doing and sewed sashing onto the corner 9 patches. That correction was easily made. This little cutie measures 43" by 53".

For the 3rd quilt, I decided to just make it simple and used a straight set. I used curvy line quilting stitching all the seams vertically but just quilted the horizontal sashing seams. This quilt measures 44" by 52"

Here are all three of them hanging on the clothes line.

Here are more details about piecing these quilts. 

Linking to Peacock Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Brag About Your Beauties, Patchwork & Quilts, Free Motion Mavericks

Finally Some Finishes!

At the end of December I wrote a very detailed post about the challenges I have planned for 2022. Guess which project I started working on first? None of them!

Cathy from Sane, Crazy Crumby Quilting often mentions how she focuses on a project a month at a time. That's what I decided to do.

I pieced several crib quilts in 2021 and decided I was going to spend January machine quilting them. Machine quilting is not my favorite quilting activity but if they're quilted, I'll have some finishes to show you. Also the sense of accomplishment would feel pretty good too.

The first crib quilted was the orange 9 patch quilt. My sewing machine has a curvy stitch setting which I can elongate. I stitched al the seams with the curvy stitch. The binding fabric has been hanging around the sewing room for years. It was perfect for the binding which was machine stitched on both sides.

After quilting the finished measurement is 42" by 49".

All my posts this week will be about the crib quilts. 

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Stitch Sew & Show,  Needle & Thread Thursday , Free Motion Mavericks

Happy Little Things

In the summer of 2019, Jacquelynne Steve's had a block of the month called Happy Little Things. I decided to participate since it included embroidery.

I enjoyed the embroidery but decided to finish the blocks in my own way instead of Jacquelynne's design.

This quilt has been quilted in my machine quilting marathon and she measures 42-1/2" by 45". 

My friend Deanna embroidered this Grandma's heart block several years ago for me. I decided it was perfect in this quilt.

For the machine quilting, I stitched horizontally and vertically around the 9 patches, then diagonally in both directions. The embroidered blocks only have diagonal quilting.

This is the last of this blue oval fabric, I thought it went perfectly with the blues in the front. Unfortunately I didn't have quite enough so I had to add the narrow strip to the side.

And a quilt roll.

Here are other posts about Happy Little Things.

Linking to Peacock Party, Put Your Foot  Down, Whoop Whoop Party, TGIFF!, Finished Or Not Friday, Free Motion Mavericks, Brag About Your Beauties, Let's Make Baby Quilts, UFO Busting

OMIGOSH!

At the Jane Stickle retreat there is a quilter who loves to issue challenges, she actually finishes them too! Usually I'm not interested but one challenge she suggested last November was the Omigosh! quilt. 

Since this quilt was already on my to be made list, I decided to participate. Here is my small finished quilt. The double 9 patch block and the shoofly blocks finish at 4-1/2". She measures 46" by 51". The borders are my own design. I didn't want plain white borders.

Spiral quilting was the perfect design for this quilt with so many tiny pieces. Son 2 is an accountant and I had him figure the number of pieces in this quilt. The final figure is 4513. I am so glad I didn't make a full sized quilt! In an earlier post I had figured the number of pieces and came up with a different number, but hey, never argue with a accountant.

My spiral quilting isn't perfect, don't get out a compass!

The back is a pale blue & white pinstripe fabric.

And the fabric roll.

You can read more about my Omigosh! journey here.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Clever Chameleon, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Let's Make Baby Quilts, Free Motion Mavericks