Tag Archives: fireburst mystery quiltalong

Hands 2 Help 2020

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.

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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Getting Back on Track

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July was one of those non-stop months. We were on vacation from the 1st to the 12th. Came home and got caught up on household and gardening chores and then hosted a bridal shower last weekend. Of course amidst all of this there was the usual number of migraines. Because of all of this, I did very little sewing and not a whole lot of blogging.

Yesterday I found a little bit of time and did the July piecing for Tish’s Fireburst Mystery Quilt. Fortunately, the piecing for July consisted of a number of flying geese blocks in different combinations and one little square in a square block. I like the fabric combinations and look forward to the instructions for August. I chose to make the baby size quilt and these fabrics will be so sweet when assembled.

Speaking of which, hurray for August! I am really determined to get back on track. I think this is doable as we have very little planned for this month. I am eager to get back to my routine and spend some time in the sewing room.

I just basted my Twisted quilt. The dining room table had the extra leaf in it so I took advantage of that space and got the layers pinned. I am vacillating between a few ideas for quilting it though. I need to do some doodling and make a few decisions.

Remember I mentioned I was hosting a bridal shower over the weekend? It was a lot of fun and I think the bride-to-be enjoyed it. Four of my sisters were able to come to the shower which was so nice.

One of my sisters, Cathy, brought me a big bag of fabric scraps! I have talked about my sisters’ shop, 6 Monkeys and Co, where they offer handmade children’s clothing. Because neither of my sisters do any quilting, they tend to throw away any remaining scraps after cutting out their project. (While I am talking about my sisters, I need to do a little shameless promotion! Their sewing skills are amazing and it really shows in the sweet dresses, shorts, shirts and hats they make. If you have kids or grandchildren, you need to check out their shop!)

Cathy offered to start saving scraps for me and now I have all sorts of fun children’s prints to play with!

I am itching to cut these into usable pieces but for now they are going to be organized by color and then they will have to wait just a bit.

Finally, Julia is getting ready for the fair which is next week. Saturday morning Julia gave Olive a bath because she needed a picture of herself and Olive to hang on a sign above Olive’s pen. It was rather comical trying to get a decent shot because Olive wasn’t having any of it. Finally, bribed with an extra meal, she cooperated. Silly pig.

Fabric Kits for Fire Burst Mystery QAL

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Remember last week when I mentioned I had never done a mystery quilt along? It was in the post about the April blogger bundle curated by Cheryl Brickey. I said that mystery quilts made me nervous since I didn’t get to see the overall pattern for the quilt. Well I am making progress! I am involved in the new Fire Burst Mystery Quiltalong hosted by Tish Stemple.

However I should explain. Tish took the mystery out of it for me when she asked me to curate two different kits of fabric for the event. She had a few readers mentioning to her how picking the fabrics was a challenge for them, not knowing what the quilt was to look like. She thought offering a few kits might appease the nerves of some of the participants. This sounded like a lot of fun for me so I got to work.

With lots of emailing back and forth between Tish and I (or is it me??) there are now two different kits available in the shop for the event! I really like them both. I created each one to be quite different from the other so the color choices would appeal to a wide variety of taste.

The first one! This kit appeals to me with the jewel tones standing out most. The dark blue and fuschia fabrics are from the 76 line by Alison Glass. Along with those, are two fabrics from Amy Gibon’s Meriwether line made by Windham Fabrics.

I set up the kit so that the background fabric is the creamy off-white print with the little stars. The floral is also from that line and it looks great with the Alison Glass fabrics. So this kit is as follows:

Background Fabric: Twinkle Farmhouse by Amy Gibson (the creamy off-white stars)
Fabric 1: Stitched in Violet by Alison Glass (the dark fuchsia)
Fabric 2: Frolic in Farmhouse by Amy Gibson (the lovely floral on creamy off-white)
Fabric 3: Numbered in Peacock by Alison Glass (the dark blue)

Kit number two is quite different. For this one, I selected a subtle print for the background. Called Dancing Daisies, it is from the Camping collection by Art Gallery Fabric. I really like the pale green, soft little daisies and the pop of orange in the center of each flower.

Because I used a print as the background, I stayed with solids for the other three fabrics. Drawing from the colors of the print, I chose three pieces from Art Gallery’s Pure Elements solid fabrics. I love both shades of orange and how the daisy centers are enhanced by them. I think this is a really pleasing but bold combination.

Here are the details for Kit 2:
Background Fabric: Dancing Daisies, made by Art Gallery Fabrics.
Fabric 1: Tiger Lily (the dark orange)
Fabric 2: Mandarin (the light orange)
Fabric 3: Emerald (the dark green

I have to say, this was such a fun project. I am trying to decide which kit I will use when I sew along with this, my first, mystery QAL! I know, it is like I cheated because I got to see the pattern. But baby steps, right? Baby steps. 🙂

I hope you will go check out Tish’s post today. Whether you are participating or not in the Fire Burst Mystery QAL, her post is full of great ideas about color selection. I really like how she explained it and found it quite helpful.

What do you think of these two choices? Which is your favorite? I would love to know because it is helpful to me for these kinds of projects as they come up in the future. Also, are you participating in the QAL? Hope so, it is going to be a lot of fun. The schedule is very relaxed and the quilt pattern is doable for quilters of all skill levels.

If you have ay questions about the kits, leave a comment and I will get back to you. Both are available in the shop in two sizes, baby quilt (32″ square) and lap quilt (64″ square).