Birds!

It seems to be a bird-y kind of year so far. This is a total coincidence but I love them!

"Chirp!" by Sue Spargo is a project I started with two friends. We're making one block a month.

My quilt guild holds a "block lotto" every so often.  Everyone brings one or more blocks of a given design. Afterward, there is a drawing where someone wins all the blocks.  Unfortunately, I was at a retreat last time, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these cuties.

You can find the pattern over here and a video tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt Company over here.

And last, but not least, these birdies are from Wonderfil's 2024 Block of the Month, called "Birdwatcher". I'm turning them into native birds because we don't have canaries or rainbow-colored hummingbirds in our woods.

And on the non-bird front, I made another little bottle cap pincushion.

It's pouring today, so more sewing is probably in my future.

A New Pattern!

The new pattern is out in the wild! I've called it "Gummies".

I've included 5 sizes: Throw, Twin, Full, Queen, and King.

(In reference to my previous post, I researched quilt sizes ad infinitum, and finally chose what would work for the size of blocks and sashing in the pattern.)

You can find the pattern here on Etsy and here on the website. You will save $2 by buying directly from me.

Quilting is in progress on my brand new Bernina Q20. She arrived last Wednesday and I'm in love.

I've been practicing hard and finished the Color Stack quilt. If you'd like to make one, I used this tutorial from Hopeful Homemaker as a starting off point.

The Quilt Size Dilemma

I'm working on a new pattern. It's been years since my last one! 

From experience I know that quilters like choices, so I've been researching quilt sizes in order to offer multiple size options.

Wow, is that a jungle to wade through!

First off, "ranges" are hard to do for anything that actually has to go on a bed. I think for beds you have to figure out the mattress size, then how much of a "drop" you want and do the math from there.

But even that is NOT easy. I'd never heard of a "Wyoming King" or "Alaska King".

Olympic Queen? Maybe, but doesn't that sound like the name of a riverboat? California anything? Yes. XL? Yes.

In short, I'm still trying to figure this out. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, a sneak peek at the pattern.

Scraps

One of my 2024 goals is to significantly reduce all my scraps. What do you classify as "scraps"?

Over here, anything that is too small to fold and put away is a scrap. I also don't save very small pieces of fabric.  I have friends who will gladly adopt these.

My first step was to take ALL the scraps and cut them into 2.5" wide jelly roll strips. I was AMAZED at how many strips I ended up with! I then sorted them by color because I am not a "just grab one" kind of girl. "Intentional scrappy-ness" is more my kind of thing.

Our guild donates hundreds of quilts to local charities each year.  That, combined with the fact that I'm getting a new quilting machine soon (stay tuned for a post full of excitement) and will need some quilt tops to practice on, kicked me into gear.

The first quilt was one I posted a couple of weeks ago, inspired by one I saw at show-and-tell at a guild meeting. I love it but it took a LONG time to put together.

So, the search began for a simpler pattern or two.  Pinterest is a mecca of jelly roll quilt inspiration.

Up first, the Color Stack quilt from Jennifer at Hopeful Homemaker.

Here's the result:

It took about a day to piece and I kind of love it! Her tutorial is great but, if you don't feel like figuring it out yourself, there is a pattern.

Being someone who does not like repeating things and gets bored really quickly, I am now on the hunt for the next idea.

Stay tuned.

Challenges are fun!

I recently joined another small group, the focus of which is to challenge your creativity. And it's so much fun!

Every quarter someone from the group presents a challenge word or phrase and we have 3 months to make a little quilt interpreting that phrase. We are restricted to a maximum size of 20" x 20".

Sometimes I'm really inspired, sometimes not so much.

These are my quilts from the last 3 challenges:

"Round and Around We Go"

"Slow"

"Twisted Triangles"

I encourage you to challenge yourself! You'll be amazed at how creative you are, even if you think you're not.

A Finish!

Finishes have been few and far between the last couple of years. In fact, my last list of completed projects was for 2016!

I saw a quilt like this at "show and tell" at my guild and it spoke to me. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out the design, since no one seemed to know which pattern was used.

This is Aila. She joined our family in March 2022.  She's getting a much needed bath today. :)

I partially chose this design because I have a whole tote full of 2.5" strips that need to go. I still have piles left, so another quilt (or two, or three) is in my future.

Perhaps a rail fence quilt? I think that will use more strips.

This is the show and tell quilt. Isn't it amazing? Because mine is meant as a charity quilt and they need throw quilts, not king size quilts, I reduced the size.

A note: If you want a symmetrical quilt, you have to make it square.  I only realized that when I was pretty much done with the top.

The pattern was eventually found. It you want to make the quilt, you can find it here:

Garden Pathways from Quilt Sampler Spring/Summer 2018 magazine (apqshop.com)

Bottlecap Pincushion Fun

I seem to be trying all kinds of new things this year.

I do a lot of hand appliqué and have a little container to have all my supplies for a project contained and portable.

The small pincushion I was using was just a teeny bit too tall. When I close the lid, all the pins and needles get pushed down and I tend to lose needles never to be seen again.

I've wanted to make something a little smaller for a long time. When I saw a bottle cap pincushion on Pinterest (where else?), I knew this would work!

This took me about 45 minutes to whip up. It's a little wonky but not too bad for a first attempt.

I used wool from my wool appliqué stash. Wool felt will yield a more "perfect" result, but this is what I have.  If this becomes and addiction, which it could because it was SO much fun, I may invest in some.

I used the cap from a half gallon milk container, which yielded a pincushion about 1.5" in diameter.

See how perfectly it fits?