Category Archives: baby quilt

Farm Quilt Finish

I am in a quilting and reading phase. Quilt a little, read a lot, quilt some more. There are always so many projects to make and books to be read, am I right?

But – the sewing! I have been getting lots done. Today I will share this cute picnic quilt I made for my grand daughters. I carried this line of fabric (it is all gone – sold so fast!) and before I sold out, I stashed away some of the red and yellow yardage as well as a panel of the animals.

I love seeing red and yellow together. It makes for a really cheerful combination. I need did use the green fabric with this project. I decided to save it for another day.

I started to make nine patch blocks last January and split them up, sewing them back together for a disappearing nine patch design.

Some had red centers.

Some had yellow centers. But once made, the blocks were always set aside for some other project.

Well my son and his wife recently bought a house outside of Seattle and we have been calling it “the Farm House”. It isn’t really a farm but it is on 1.5 acres and has a lot of raised beds, greenhouses, and a chicken coop. So, farm enough in our opinion.

I decided I needed to finish the quilt so the girls could sit on it outside and eat a snack or bring their lunch outside. The three year old is always filled with energy and I know she will love their big yard. This property is perfect for them.

I had some fun quilting this. In the center, I stitched in the ditch around the white animal squares. Then I used vertical and horizontal straight lines at various intervals. In the yellow border I just did a wavy line through each one.

I played with the red border. I did swirls, hearts, flowers and whatever else came to mind. On two corners I put the girl’s names which was fun. On the bottom border I stitched “Grammys Girls” but wasn’t thinking of the orientation so it is upside down. Sigh. Not a huge deal but I do wish I had thought to flip it before I stitched the words. Not enough to spend the time unpicking the stitching though. Haha.

The backing is a super wide stripe from Michael Miller. My sister was clearing her sewing area a couple of years ago and gifted me this piece and a few others. I knew it would come in handy at some point. The binding is a repro feed sack print I have in the shop. I like the little flowers framing the quilt, though this picture doesn’t really show the binding off very well.

I ran into a snag when I washed the quilt last night tho. The red bled onto the white animal squares. (I was too annoyed to take any pictures.) Ugh. I haven’t experienced this and was a little freaked out. Both Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts and Jan of Colorful Fabriholic recommended this method by Vicki Welsh to removed the red. By the time I asked these lovely women, I had already cold water washed it twice and rinsed it two more times. After reading Vicki’s method, I chose to alter it a bit. My washer is large and the quilt is about 50 x 50″ so not terribly big. I put it in the wash on the “deep water wash” cycle with hot water. The hot water was the part that scared me but Vicki says that is what needs to be done. Before I put the quilt back in I decided to spray each of the white squares liberally with OxyClean stain remover. I didn’t rub it in aggressively but I did sort of massage it into the stained areas. Then I used a fragrance free “free and clear” type of laundry detergent and put in more than I normally do. Once the machine was filled with hot water I stopped the cycle and let it soak, making sure it was all under water. Finally I let the machine finish its cycle and ran it through a couple of extra rinse cycles since there was a lot of soap in there. It worked! The animals are back in their little white squares as opposed to the pale pink squares that I saw last night. Phew! Thank you Wendy, Jan and Vicki!!

Now that this is finished, I have moved on to another quilt top. I basted it yesterday and plan to quilt it this weekend. It is miserably hot and smokey outside – I did get a little yard work done early this morning but will be inside all afternoon. We don’t have any plans for the long weekend. Hope you are all well. Enjoy your long weekend and make sure to spend a little (or a lot) of time sewing!

Linking to:

Brag About Your Beauties, Whoop Whoop, Tish’s UFO Busting & TGIFF

Super Cute, Super Simple Finish

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You know how you set something aside for so long and then somehow your mind decides it is going to take forever to finish it and you don’t want to so you just leave it there? Yeah, me too. Last fall I pieced a cute strip quilt using a focus print from Pandalicious. I had yardage in the shop and thought it would be fun to make one and then make up some kits for others to make it.

So I made up the quilt top and got it basted. I started to free motion quilt each of the strips and all was going well. When I got to the large section of pandas in the middle, my tension got screwed up. Of course I didn’t know this and just kept going because the top side looked fine. Ugh. When I saw the back, I knew it all had to be unpicked.

Onward I went and got all the messy stitching ripped out. By then I developed some serious dislike of the project and set it aside? Why do this? It wasn’t the quilt’s fault. But I did anyway. Folded it up and put it on top of a pile of fabric.

This week I thought it was time to finish it. Of course, by now, the fabric is gone and I can’t make any kits. Sigh. Quilting the remaining sections (the pandas in the middle and both of the black and white sections on top and bottom) took no time at all. Like an afternoon of playing at the machine and it was done. So after sitting there for 9 months or so, it is done!

I attached the binding with machine stitching on front and back. It is adorable! I quilted the top and bottom sections with a meandering motif of interlocking squares. I am not sure what was going on, but there are some little tension issues on the back side. Not enough that I am going to fix it though. I suspect after being washed, it will all work out.

I did a very loose meander over the middle section going around the pandas. They are such happy little guys!

I took the photos in the early evening so the sun was creating lots of shadows. But no matter, just look at how happy this little quilt is. What should I do with this one? I will likely donate it. It will be fun for some child to snuggle under.

Why does the color look so strange in this one?

Happy to cross this off the UFO list and wish I had done it long ago. Makes me happy to get it finished up.

Anyone have anything fun planned for the weekend? Hahaha…. sorry to be so ridiculous! I feel like each day (weekend or not) is so much the same due to the quarantine. Our town is loosening up just a bit but we are still very careful. So it will be the usual. Taking walks, a little bit of gardening, shipping orders and sewing, sewing, sewing!

Want to leave you with a smile. Isn’t this just a classic fun-in-the-bathtub picture?? This girl makes me laugh all the time. She is such a joyous kiddo. Enjoy the day everyone!!

Linking to Brag About Your Beauties and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop! Go check them out to see lots of fun projects.

Hands 2 Help 2020

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Oh how I love this event! Each year Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict hosts an event, Hands 2 Help, to encourage quilters to donate some of their work to various organizations. I have participated numerous times over the years. I have donated quilts to various places and have marveled at the number of quilts made and gifted each May. Last year and this year I am going to donate as well as coordinate the receiving of many beautiful quilts for Mercyful Quilts.

Over the past several weeks, the quilts have started to arrive. It is so fun to open the packages and see the color schemes, block patterns and quilting styles on each one. From simple to ornate, each one is beautiful and very much appreciated. I promise to share them with you – I still need to take pictures though.

As I thought about the event from the donor perspective this year, I knew I would donate one to Mercy Hospital – you all know how strongly I feel about their program. I will be giving them the blue and yellow star quilt I wrote about in my post two weeks ago. I also wanted to donate to our local Project Linus group. As I started to look at fabric, I decided it was silly to make a new quilt for them. I have a small stack of baby quilts in the closet that I made for the fun of it but never used or gave away. It seemed more practical to give one of those away than to make another one.

I chose to give them the Fireburst Quilt I made a while ago during a quilt along hosted by Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland. It is such a sweet quilt and should be used. Yesterday I washed and dried it since it had been in the closet for some time. It is all soft and crinkly now – ready for a child in need.

I love the colors used for this quilt – they are bright and cheerful. I remember when I started to spiral quilt this I worried it would be stiff so I decided to gradually widen the space between the spirals. It worked out well and I like how soft and puffy it is.

The fabric on the backing is Folk Fleur from the Meriwether line by Amy Gibson. It is sweet with tiny flowers floating across the fabric. (There is just a bit left in the sale section of the shop.) I used a zig zag stitch to quilt the border which added a bit of whimsy.

I am really happy to give this quilt to Project Linus. I love making them but it doesn’t make any sense to leave them unused in the closet. I know many people have stacks of their quilts throughout the house and that is what works for them. I feel like quilts are to be used. This one needs to belong to a child.

I am excited to see the numbers for this year. It seems with each year more and more quilts are donated as part of Hands 2 Help. With the quarantine in place this year, and many people unemployed, it might be a lesser number? This would be totally understandable too. Are you participating? If so, thank you for your generosity!! Thank you also to Sarah for spending so much time organizing this inspirational event each spring.

Flannel Blankets and a Trash to Treasures Giveaway

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I recently had a conversation with the chairperson of our Community Service team within our local quilt guild. We were talking about the recipients of the quilts we make and the quantity of quilts she had available. The discussion came around to our local Children’s Protective Services team. This team includes officers of our Sherrif’s Department who have the very sad task of removing children from home’s where they are not in good, safe situations.

These officers like to carry blankets in the trunk of their cars so they can wrap up a child if needed when removing them and taking the child to social services and a foster home. The officers asked for blankets or quilts without batting. These kiddos are often put into carseats and the quilts can be too thick.

Thinking about this need, I decided to make some blankets with quilting cotton and flannel. These would be cozy and so easy to make. Plus they wouldn’t take up much room in the carseat. To do this, I looked at my stash as well as the fabric in the shop and selected some pieces that worked together nicely.

The sizes of the blankets were somewhat dictated by the pieces of fabric I wanted to use. The first blanket I made turned out to be 42″ square when finished. I cut pieces of flannel and quilting cotton that were each 1 and 1/4 yards – so almost a 45″ square, depending on the width of the fabric. I pre-washed everything because flannel is known to shrink a bit. After pre-washing, I pressed all of the fabrics and laid them out, right sides together. Then I squared up the pieces. A quick stitching around the perimeter, leaving about five inches open to turn it right side out, took little time. Once the corners were popped out nicely, I pressed the seams and top-stitched around the perimeter at a 1/8″ margin. I top-stitched again about two inches inside of that first go around.

I have a number of yards of gray flannel in my stash that has been sitting for a long while. It looks great with these silly animals. I am sure it will work with other pieces as well and will try and use more of it for these sorts of blankets.

For each blanket I cut one piece of flannel and the other woven cotton. However this could be easily adapted according to the stash a person has to use. Stretch knits would work and be really cozy. A woven cotton backed with minky or cuddle fabric is also a great idea. All of these are thinner than a typical quilt.

On of the blankets I made is quite a bit smaller because I had a little piece of flannel I wanted to use. It finished at 32 inches square. The navy flannel with sweet little daisies is so soft and the size will be perfect for a smaller child or toddler.

The need for these blankets makes me so sad. Last year these officers had to remove about 100 children from bad situations within our county. I couldn’t believe that number. It is much more than I would have guessed. If the blankets are helpful in this awful time for a child, I am happy to make them. They take little in the way of supplies or time and might be soothing during a scary time. I plan to bring these to our community service group and check to see if other guild members might want to make one or two. Really, they take so little time and most likely we all have one yard cuts waiting to be used.

OK – Let’s talk about the Trash to Treasure giveaway now! I have mentioned before that two of my sisters have an Etsy shop together. It is called 6 Monkeys & Co and they make and sell custom children’s clothing and gifts. One of my favorite things they make are traditional baby bonnets. They are soooo sweet and make a wonderful (very affordable) handmade baby gift for a newborn. Please take a peak here to see them. If you find yourself in need of a fantastic gift for a grandchild, niece or nephew, be sure check out their shop.

Anyway, when my sisters are sewing, they are inclined to toss their scraps. When you are a garment maker, it doesn’t make sense to keep these pieces of fabric if they aren’t big enough to cut into a useful piece (sleeve, skirt, collar, etc) for a piece of clothing. But as a quilter, I want all the scraps, ALL THE TIME! So Cathy and Patti save them for me. At the moment, I have accumulated tons. Sometimes I cut them into 5″ squares and figure I will make an I Spy quilt. But let’s be real. This pile is growing and I think it is time to share the wealth. If you would like to have some of these, please leave a comment. I will pick two winners and each will receive a great package of assorted scraps. Some are novelty fabrics, some blenders and lots of little florals and stripes. My sisters only save the larger scraps as I explained I wanted to be able to cut five inch squares with them so the pieces are really usable. The fabrics are great quality and would make a really fun scrappy quilt. Giveaway open through Friday, January 31st.

NOTE – Giveaway Now Closed. Thanks for entering!! Congrats to Sam and Sharon – winners of all these fun scraps!

I have almost finished my January goal which was to quilt and bind my Squared Away quilt. I will share that later this week. For now though, how about some scrappy treasures?? Happy sewing all.

Sharing at some of my favorite link ups. Check them out at the top of the page, under link-ups.

Another Simple Strip Quilt

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In an effort to continue to practice free motion quilting, I whipped up another quick strip quilt. When I made the brightly colored quilt a couple of weeks ago, it worked out wonderfully as a way to practice different quilt motifs on each stripe. The quilt is small enoughg to be a pleasure to work on. It has been a long while since I have worked on my quilting and to my surprise, my abilities really regressed. Like most things, practice is essential.

I chose to use this adorable Pandalicious fabric as the focal point in the middle and then build from there. The fabric was designed by Katarina Roccella for Art Gallery Fabric. It is sweet and whimsical making it perfect for a child’s quilt! Two of the other stripes are also from that same line. The Hidden Pandas are a lot of fun and then the black and white squares with circles is called Panda Patches. The solid Emerald green and the large green dots finish it off. The color combo is great and not the typical used for a baby quilt.

The quilt takes minutes to assemble which I did several days ago. Because I truly dislike basting quilts, I forced myself to get it done. Actually – I was able to do this while on hold waiting for customer service on the phone – multi-tasking at it’s best. (Thank goodness for speaker phones!) Now it is ready to be quilted!

My quilt holder was in a less than cooperative mood. He makes me laugh. 🙂

Now these little pandas will have to sit and wait for me. Ray, Julia and I are taking some time off next week for family time! We are really looking forward to this after such a busy summer. Julia starts school in a couple of weeks so this is the perfect way to end the season!

I had some inquiries about the first strip quilt I made. I have kitted that quilt and written up the dimensions for anyone who is interested in practicing their FMQ. Alternatively, it is a wonderful kit to use when teaching someone to quilt or FMQ. If you are interested, click here to see the kit in the shop!

Finally, I spent yesterday doing some organizing in my shop. When I have a piece of fabric with a little defect, a crooked cut (oops!), or just the end of the bolt, I toss them in a basket. Then they sit there! I took the time to measure them and list them as remnants. If you are a bargain hunter, check them out by clicking here. There are lots of great pieces to be had!

Hope you are enjoying your long weekend if you are a US reader! Take care and I’ll be back in a week or so.

New Baby Quilt with a Cute Sisu Print

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I have had this adorable fabric in the shop for a while now and it has called to me on numerous occasions. It features the sweetest little girl hang gliding, floating with balloons, and parachuting. The use of primary colors makes it so cheerful and bright – I just love it. It is called Hei Sky Cloudine from the Sisu line by Art Gallery Fabric.

AGF, as always, has described the line beautifully: “Sisu!” is an untranslatable Finnish word; it is the mindset that allows us to keep going just when we think we are about to give up. In Sisu, children playing with primary shapes and colours inspire our natural tendency to persevere into our fullest potential.

Last week I was browsing quilt blogs and came across a post on Material Girl Quilts and saw a very simple quilt made of stripes of fabric in varying sizes. It really appealed to me because it would show off this sweet fabric perfectly. I made two small modifications to the tutorial. I added a very narrow stripe of color just above and below the focal fabric. Then I cut my strips a tiny bit wider just to make use of the fabric as much as possible.

Obviously, this is a very simple quilt to make and took little time to put together. I used primary colors which make for a bold, happy quilt. Because the assembly took no time at all, I took the quilting slow. A quilt this size is perfect for practicing free motion quilting. Also, quilting in a row like this lent itself to some fun motifs. I enjoyed making the rows of rising suns on the dark yellow stripes. On the blue dots, I quilting large stars but I cannot quite make them show up in the picture. It seemed like I was making a night sky stripe with stars on the dark blue dotted fabric.

Clouds were the obvious choice for the focus fabric. This adventurous girl is floating around amidst all sorts of clouds. Small curved lines with lots of echoing was a fun motif to quilt. For the red polka dot stripe, I just did a wavy line, almost like a ribbon candy motif. By the way, the stars and sun motifs are from Lori Kennedy Quilts – you can find just about any motif on her site. It is a wealth of information!

The backing fabric is a red and white large check with a hint of blue outlining the white squares. Perfect colors, right?

Making this quilt was so satisfying. Easily pieced, fun fabrics, and fun quilting motifs – Hurray!All of these fabrics are available in the shop so feel free to browse these links:

I am surely going to make more of these when I want to use fabrics with large scale prints. This quilt will probably hang as a sample for a while and then be gifted or maybe donated to Project Linus. We are enjoying oddly cool weather today and tomorrow so I am enjoying it. Sewing is going to have to wait until it heats back up on Monday!! Enjoy the weekend all!

Linking to my favorites – check them out at the top of the page, under link ups. This week since this has some FMQ going on, I am also linking up with Muv for Free Motion Mavericks.

A Quilt for Rubi

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My niece is waiting patiently for the arrival of her fourth little girl. Well, actually, this little one isn’t so tiny! At the ultrasound last week, the baby measured at almost ten pounds. My niece is really wanting this child to make her appearance. We are all hoping to hear from my sister soon that labor has begun. Just about every other text string, one of us asks “any baby updates?” C’mon Rubi!!

As you would imagine, I made a quilt for this great-niece of mine. I wanted to use pink but not only pink, you know? I decided to use the Floriography precuts and yardage I have had for quite a while. At first I thought about making a stacked coin quilt and started looking at my Pinterest boards to find the right one. While skimming and scrolling, I came upon a pin I had from Cluck Cluck Sew. She has a great tutorial for a Jelly Strip stash buster quilt. This seemed like a fun one to try.

I am very pleased with the results! The colors are sweet and girlish but also quite bold. Using the coral color added a big pop as did the dark blue. The dark blue was one of my favorite prints and I was able to make a flange with it to use when I attached the binding. (I really like the look of a flanged binding. See more here, here and here.) Doesn’t the dark blue floral stand out beautifully between the white border and the bubble gum pink binding?

When I quilted this piece, I did a loose flower motif that I saw over at the Inbox Jaunt, one of my favorite places to look for fun quilting ideas. Lori calls this her Easy Breezy Flowers which is the perfect name. Hers were quilted tightly together but I spaced mine out. I didn’t want to densely quilt this – I wanted to leave it soft. However, the flowers are easy and quite forgiving. I even put Rubi’s name on one of the squares along the edge.

Because I rarely take the time and label my quilts, I at least quilted my initials in another corner. So someday when this heirloom is found by a quilt museum curator, they can wonder just exactly who BK really was.

Isn’t the backing beautiful? This soft sheet has been sitting in my stack of thrifted sheets for quite a while. I really love it – I think it looks like Monet painted it. I still have some left which makes me happy. It is a pretty piece of fabric.

The quilt finished at about 38″ square. I hope Rubi and her big sisters use it all the time. Being the fourth little girl, she is going to have so much attention from the big girls. I can’t wait to see pictures when she (finally) arrives!!

Leaving you with this funny photo of Leo. Yesterday Julia was gone all day working at her internship. So I went out with Leo to let him run around in the pasture. He found a soppy mud pit to play in and was soooo happy! He dug, snorted and snuffed for quite some time. It was a lot of fun to watch.

Hope all of you had a lovely weekend. This week I will be getting ready for the local guild’s quilt show. It is the only one I signed up for this year and I am looking forward to it. But I need to get organized! I also have a cute jersey knit dress I started this weekend and I think I should be able to finish it up. What are your plans for this week?

Flock of Geese Quilt Finish & Kit

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As you may know, I began to stock a fun selection of modern quilt patterns in the shop a few months ago. I have been working on building up a variety of patterns so that my customers will have plenty to select from. So far, I am carrying patterns by Meadow Mist Designs, Bonjour Quilts, Devoted Quilter, Quilting Jetgirl, and – most recently – Cooking Up Quilts. There has been really good response to these and I am enjoying seeing the gorgeous patterns from these talented designers.

Flock of Geese Quilt Pattern, designed by Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs.

As often happens, one thing lead to another and I asked Cheryl Brickey (Meadow Mist Designs) if she would help me to create a kit for a pattern of hers. Together we decided it would be fun to make a kit for the Flock of Geese pattern. She and I shopped for fabrics in my shop and came up with such a pretty compilation after many emails back and forth.

The kit for the Flock of Geese pattern contains beautiful fabric from Art Gallery Fabric.

Pulling the kit together was lots of fun and Cheryl made a rendering of the Flock of Geese pattern using the fabrics we selected.

With the exception of two, all of the fabrics in this quilt were designed by Sharon Holland. She is one of my all-time favorites and I wanted to use her work specifically. Above you will see fabrics from her Signature line as well as Sketchbook. They work together perfectly!

I wanted to make up a sample of the quilt and decided to make the baby size. The pattern includes baby and lap size quilt options. The smaller size was better for me as I intend to use it in the booth at the local quilt show I am working in May.

This pattern is a very easy make. It contains half square triangles which make up the blocks and then the blocks are set on point. Very fun and not difficult at all. Cheryl’s instructions are crystal clear which this quilter is grateful for!

Using a Hera marker (my favorite tool!) I quilted straight lines in a cross hatch pattern. It worked really well for this design. The cross hatch pattern looks good with these blocks set on point. For someone who is really into FMQ, there is a lot of negative space on which intricate quilting could be done.

This quilt is so soft. The batting is Hobbs Heirloom and with the widely spaced quilting, it drapes beautifully. I haven’t washed it yet but we know that will make it even cozier.

For the backing, I selected Texture Slots, a piece from Sharon’s Sketchbook line. Great colors and it coordinates with the fabrics in the quilt top. The binding is from her Signature line and is called Traveler Raindrops. The binding is machine stitched to front and back. My choice on binding method is dependent on my mood. Sometimes I am feeling the urge to hand stitch and others, not so much. Both methods look fine to me so I go back and forth between them.

The finished quilt is so sweet. I am happy as can be with it and equally happy to offer the kit in my shop. Working with Cheryl has been a treat and I look forward to more collaboration with her in the future! If you are interested in the kit, I have it available in both baby and lap sizes. Also, it can be purchased with or with out the Flock of Geese pattern. For those quilters who might already have the pattern, there is the option to purchase just the fabric. Click here for more details.

Linking up with my favorite Linky parties. Speaking of which, there is a new link up happening at the end of the month. Cheryl, of Meadow Mist Designs, will be hosting a new monthly linkup. It opens the last day of the month and is called Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup. The first linkup is on March 30th. Quilters – link up your favorite make for the month using an existing or new blog post or a post from Instagram. This will be a lot of fun as we celebrate our favorite make from the past month!

Fireburst Finish!

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Hurray for the first finish of 2019!! My goal was to link this up as a finished quilt during the Fireburst celebration over the New Year’s weekend. Alas, that didn’t happen.

However I happened to have a bit of sewing time this week and I finished it up. I started the spiral quilting which is always a bit difficult and wonky for me at first. I was following along at the width of the walking foot but after several full spirals, it started to look a little too tight.

The beginning of the spiral quilting.

I decided to stop quilting and I set it aside. My main concern was whether the quilt would be stiff if I continued to quilt it with this density. I am not a huge fan of dense quilting unless it is a quilt hanging on a wall.

After waiting a bit and asking for input on Instagram and Facebook, I started working on it again. I did a somewhat gradual widening of the spirals such that by the outermost edge, the stitching lines were two full inches apart. I like this so much better. If I could have, I would have started to widen the spirals earlier but I think this looks really nice.

Sewing the binding on. Isn’t the plaid binding so cute?

The quilting took very little time. After the spirals were finished, I used a fun, decorative stitch on my machine for the orange border. I really like the way it looks. There are so many cute stitches available on the machine and I rarely remember to use them. Anyway, that was a lot of fun.

For the backing and binding, I shopped downstairs, where I keep the Needle & Foot bolts. It didn’t take long to choose Folk Fleur and Homespun from the Meriwether line by Amy Gibson. I think these fabrics are so sweet. Plus, a bias plaid binding??? Any sort of bias cut binding is the best. When a fabric is a plaid that is already on the bias, so much the better. What do you think? This quilt looks great from the front or the back.

I am really happy with this sweet baby quilt. I am unsure where it is destined to live as of yet. But I am sure it will go to the perfect place. That usually seems to just make itself known. Thank you to Tish for hosting the Fireburst mystery QAL. I enjoyed the whole thing! This was also my January “One Monthly Goal” for the event held over at Elm Street Quilts so I will happily link up there when the linky opens!!

Finally, want to see another cute finish from this week? You might remember I spent some time in Vermont over the holidays. One of my favorite ways to spend time was having a tea party with H. When I posted this picture on Facebook, my friend Karen, Kaholly.com, suggested I make some little tea bags for her to pretend with. What a great idea!!

Tiny teabags for a tiny tea party.

I came home and made these. Using little scraps, I stitched up these squares with a bit of batting inside. To make the strings, I braided three strands of Perle cotton thread. Aren’t these fun! Lemon team, strawberry tea, pineapple tea, and…… kitty cats??? I don’t know why I made that one – I think I will tell her it is so she can make kitty tea for Jenny and Polly (their two cats). Clearly I didn’t think this through but it should work out. Maybe her cats want a spot of tea? Those poor cats – I can just see H following them around with a cup and this tea bag hoping they will want a sip. These were so fun to make. I hope she has as much fun using them.

Wishing all of you a great weekend. I know there are some huge storms threatening the Northeast. Stay safe and warm in your sewing room. we are expecting a lot of rain here so I will be doing the same thing!

I have had a sale running in the shop all week. It ends tomorrow which means there is still time!! Save 25% off on all Michael Miller fabrics. So many pretty prints and cozy flannels to choose from! Come take a peek. Remember shipping anywhere in the US is always $6.99 no matter the size of the order. Quite a deal

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Fireburst Flimsy

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I have a quilt top to share with you! It is my first time participating in a mystery quilt project. For those of you who aren’t familiar, a mystery quilt is an event where the quilter who designed the pattern releases bits of information on a regular schedule. The participating quilters follow along, making something but not knowing what the final result will look like. This event is the Fireburst Mystery Quilt designed and hosted by Tish of Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland.

A little bit of background – I haven’t ever participated in one of these because, honestly, the idea of making a quilt when I couldn’t see the pattern freaked me out a bit. I have such a difficult time with spatial relationships, what goes where and in what direction does it point, etc. When I make something, I constantly look at the pattern to double check myself and even then I make mistakes and spend a lot of time with my trusty seam ripper. But this time was different because I cheated a bit. 🙂

Tish was planning her event and, early on, she asked if I would put together some kits to sell in my shop that worked for the pattern. There are quilters who like the idea of a mystery quilt along but feel challenged pulling fabric for it without being able to see the pattern (the host of the QAL will usually explain that the pattern needs so many light, medium and dark value fabrics so people can pull from their stash or shop accordingly.). Anyway, Tish and I worked together to pick fabric in my shop and create kits (which was actually a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing the finished quilts of people who purchased the kits.). To do this, Tish showed me the pattern, thus taking the ‘mystery’ out of it for me! I decided to sew along with the group, sort of pretending I had not seen the pattern and give it a try. For the most part, I didn’t look at the finished pattern – in fact I didn’t look at it until the end when I discovered a mistake. More on that it a minute. 😉

Another reason I wanted to participate was the very slow and relaxed schedule Tish. planned for the event. She gave instructions at the beginning of each month and it was very easy to accomplish what she planned within the month. This has been such a hectic time lately with my son’s wedding, trips to Vermont, summer time etc. I appreciated a project that I could just work on a little bit each month and ‘keep up’. (I have not kept up with any of my RSC2018 projects at all, which is a little disappointing. But what’s a person going to do? Life gets in the way.) At this point, participants are finishing up the quilt tops and then will be quilting and binding them. There is a fun link up in January to celebrate the new year and these pretty Fireburst quilts.

OK – so how was my experience with a mystery quilt along when it wasn’t actually a mystery? It was interesting because I still spent a lot of time with my seam ripper!! I have leftover pieces that I cut and/or stitched incorrectly. Half square triangles that were not used because they were made with the wrong fabrics. Maybe I will make a few blocks with these oddball pieces and put them on the backing. With all of that, I still have a mistake on the quilt top. Take a look and you will easily spot it! By the time I noticed it, the blocks were stitched together and I was no longer on good terms with my seam ripper. This is the way it will stay! My fireworks are going to flare a bit different than everyone else’s!!

It is such a sweet quilt and will be a fun baby quilt to gift or donate. I love the two print fabrics from Priory Square by Katy Jones. The solids are bold and make a great fireburst coming off the center! Isn’t the center block pretty? It would be a fun block on its own.

The project was fun and should have been quite easy. Actually it was easy. Even with my errors, it came together nicely. If you like the pattern, I encourage you to make one. All of the steps are listed with clear directions on Tish’s site. There is time enough to begin now and finish with us in January if you like!

Time to make the backing now! I hope you are all having a lovely week.

Linking up with lots of fun places. Check them out at the top of this page, under Link Ups.

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