2021 2nd Saturday Sampler Version 3 :: A Finish

 This is the second quilt I quilted with my new Q20 sit-down machine. I used a ruler to quilt wavy lines across it.

Yes, I probably could have done this design without a ruler, but I wanted to experiment with using a ruler on my new machine. Worked great! And the best part is that I can use my regular Bernina ruler foot (#72 foot) on my Q20.

For the back I found this fun print in my stash that complemented my color scheme on the front.

This quilt will be donated to my local hospital for the oncology department. It finished at about 40" by 50".

This is the third version of this quilt I have made. It was made as part of the 2nd Saturday Sampler Club I have at my shop. It's a block of the month program I run through the shop. Soon I will have the first version of the 2022 2nd Saturday Sampler Club project done and ready for quilting. This year I will be opening sign-ups to anyone. The patterns will be emailed to you so you don't have to be local to participate. The cost will be just $25 and there is no kit or fabric purchase required. I will be recommending that you purchase a single fabric for the background and a 1/2 yard of a dark fabric for another part of the quilt, but these are just recommendations not requirements. All the details, along with a sign-up link, will be in the post in which I reveal the top. Hopefully that will be happening before the end of this year. The 2022 program will not begin until March 12, 2022 so there will be plenty of time to sign up.

Fat Quarter Project

This will be the project my scrap groups will be working on for the next few months.

It finishes at 37" by 48" which is the perfect size for my guild's quilts for oncology project. All of the fabrics I used in this are from my friend Judy who passed away last year. She had good taste in fabric! This would also have been a project that appealed to her. The pattern calls for scrappy binding cut from the fat quarters used in the top. This is already cut. I also have a piece from Judy that is large enough for the back. So except for the batting, the whole thing is made from Judy's stash! I think she would approve.

Cake Mix Recipe 3 :: Part 3, A Finish

Quilted, bound and done!

It finished at 40" by 50", a perfect size to become a quilt for my guild's oncology quilt project after the shop is done with it.

I used only part of the layer cake to make the front, the rest are on the back.

Here are links to the first and second posts on this project:

Post 1 and Post 2

This was fun to make and not super hard. I started with the pinwheel and worked my way out to layout the half square triangles. I have half square triangles left over. I could have done another row on the long side and still have a few left over, but decided against that. This size works for my purposes.

Charity Sewing :: A Finish

The first of three charity quilts from my shop is finished.

The backing fabric was purchased and donated by a very generous customer who was unable to make a block for the challenge but wanted to participate.

The second quilt is still in progress. We recently received new fabric at the shop and samples had to be made. As soon as I finish the last sample I'll get back to these quilts.

To see a photo of this quilt before quilting and to read about the details of the challenge, click here for my previous post about this project.

Charity Sewing

I had a block challenge at my shop recently. Folks purchased a small fabric pack that contained 8 different 5" squares. They then had to make a 12.5" unfinished block using at least 6 of the 8 fabrics and could add one fabric from their stash. We received 23 blocks from customers! I'm turning those blocks into quilts for the oncology department of our local hospital.

The first quilt top is completed.

One of my employees is also a long arm quilter and has volunteered to quilt these for me. She will work her magic on this. I'll sew on the binding so we can donate it.

The second quilt is in progress.

Originally I was going to make just two quilts from the blocks but have decided to stretch them into three quilts. I'll need to make a few simple blocks for the third quilt but I have a simple plan for those. 

Farewell Judy

One of my guild's long time members passed away recently after a 3 year battle with cancer. Her husband gave the guild her fabric to be used in our quilts for oncology project. Rather than just taking her fabric to the next guild meeting and putting it out hoping that folks will take it and bring it back in the form of a finished quilt for oncology, it was brought to my store. Some guild members will come next week to begin the task of sorting and cutting it into kits. To start with we are going to cut 2.5" by WOF strips. I came up with three easy patterns that only use 2.5" strips.

The first one is the Strip & Flip Quilt. The tutorial is by Cluck Cluck Sew, but I altered it to use 2.5" strips instead.

Mine will finish at about 45" by 54". I followed the tutorial for the most part. The things I changed are (1) I used 2.5" by WOF strips only; (2) I didn't cut my strips down to 36", I left them WOF; (3) for the solid strips I again used 2.5" strips. I needed 3 and cut the third one in half and sewed each half to the other two strips then cut them to length.

The second pattern is Garlic Knot, also known as Arrowhead Puzzle Block.

I only made a single block to test the directions I found online. I'm glad I tested it because the ones I found were incorrect. They were free directions so I can't complain. I've found that most of the time in this life you get what you pay for. I don't have a link to share for this one since the directions I found online were wrong. Maybe you will have better luck. At some point in the future I may upload my own directions but not today.

The third pattern is called Jiffy Jelly Quilt. It is a free pattern from Moda. The pattern is really nice (an exception to the rule about getting what you pay for) so I didn't feel the need to make a sample.

I hope that with these three patterns and Judy's fabric we can make some beautiful quilts for the oncology department of our local hospital.

Retreat Report

I had a wonderful time at my retreat over the weekend. It was a nice break. I'll be really busy this week preparing for my store opening on the 15th. 

The mystery blocks this time were "hugs and kisses" blocks. Here are the two I made.

And this is the completed top.

One of the ladies will finish it and turn it in for our oncology project.

I only worked on two of the five or six projects I took with me. My main project was my Postcard from Sweden quilt. I showed you the fabrics I was using previously. Click here to see them all.

There was quite a bit of snow up at the retreat center so I took my project outside after I had a few rows together for a photo.

I came home with half of the top together and all but one row of HST units made. I will finish it up this week and get a photo for you. This will hang in my shop as a store sample. I plan to make up kits for my version of this quilt. The original used all Kona solids. My version uses all Moda fabric, because this is mainly what my store has at the moment. The fabrics are a mix of Grunge, Crossweave Wovens and Bella Solids.

The original quilt is gorgeous, but I really like the movement the Grunge and Wovens add to the solids.

I'll show you the other project I worked on later this week.

Judy's Quilt Quilted

Yesterday I was able to get Judy's quilt quilted for her. Click here for my first post on this quilt.

I did a simple all-over meander. It's nothing fancy, but is fast and looks good on just about every pattern. Speaking of the pattern, it is from The Big Book of Nickel Quilts by Pat Speth and Charlene Thode. I believe Judy said that this was actually a "bonus quilt" because it is made from the leftovers of another quilt from the book. The dark green fabric along the right hand side in the photo above is the left over of the backing fabric Judy provided.

I'm not sure if Judy wants to bind this herself or if she wants me to do it. For now I will do nothing until I hear from her.

Judy's Quilt

One of our guild members is going through chemo, again. This is the second time in as many years. It is hard but she has such a great attitude. When she was diagnosed with cancer again she made a goal to complete (just the tops) 100 quilts for our oncology project before the end of this year. She brings the completed tops to our guild meetings and asks for someone else to quilt them and bring them back to her for binding and a tote bag.

Above is the one I brought home this month to quilt for her. I believe she said it was from one of the "Nickel Quilts" books. Judy has lots of Civil War fabrics and she is using those up in these quilts. I'm not sure where she is on her goal, but she has finished a lot of quilts since the beginning of her project.

I haven't posted a Spooky photo in a while. Here she is settling down for a nap in her tote earlier this week.

The radiator is right underneath the window which makes this a cozy spot.

Mom's Star Quilt :: A Finish

A couple years ago my mom sent me this completed top. She doesn't want it back and instructed me to give it to the charity of my choice when finished.

I finally got around to finishing it. I used some of my scrappy binding and this great bandana print for the back.

The post washing finished size is 45" by 60.5" and it will be donated to the oncology department of my local hospital.

Regular readers may notice that I'm using a different fence to hang quilts from in the above photographs. It's our neighbor's fence. This is what my usual section of our fence currently looks like.

We are finally getting our fence replaced. I have disliked the old fence since we bought this house eleven years ago, but it was in good shape and we couldn't afford to replace something that was in good shape. Lately it has fallen into disrepair enough to justify a new one. Yay!

Twins :: A Finish

My sister sent me these two completed tops, I finished them.

I believe they were originally one quilt top, but she didn't like it for some reason. She included a yellow fabric with the tops. I found a purple with yellow dot in my stash. One has the purple for backing with the yellow for binding and the other has the reverse.

Both are washed and ready to donate to my local hospital's oncology department.

Spider Web Quilt :: A Finish

I began this project in January. It had been sitting for too long. So I pulled out my scrap strips and cut a stack down to a uniform 5" long by whatever width they were already. I only did this for strips that were between 1" and 2.5" wide. With this done it became much easier to finish up these blocks. Yes, some fabric was wasted because the last pieces did not need to be so long, but I have lots of scraps.

Then I added a narrow inner border and a wider outer border. It is now all quilted, labeled and bound with my scrap binding.

The centers of the spider webs are pretty bulky so I avoided quilting over them. I quilted a spider web design in the scrap sections and did a back and forth design in the white. Here is a close up of the quilting.

The finished quilt measures 43" by 54" - a good size for a quilt for the oncology department.

To read my previous posts on this quilt, which include tutorial information, click the following links:

Post 1,   Post 2,    and    Post 3

The only detail I need to add here is that I trimmed my blocks to 11.5" after I got them back into square form. This did cut off a few points, but I was going for finished rather than perfect on this project.

Charm Box Quilt :: A Finish

This may be one of my fastest quilt finishes ever! I picked fabrics and cut on Sunday, pieced the top on Wednesday, quilted it Thursday and finished it on Friday evening.

The pattern is called Charm Box Quilt and is a free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop. I added borders to mine to make it a little larger. Mine finished at 43.5" by 52.5". I used scraps from my 5" pre-cut (by me) scrap box.

This quilt will go to my local hospital to the oncology department. I even already have the bag made for it!

Charm Box Quilt Top :: Borders and Backing

I knew I had something fabulous in my stash that would make a perfect border for this!

I added a 1" border using the sashing fabric, then a 3" border of this green, brown and cream hexagon print. I believe I bought it four or five years ago from Ruth's Stitchery in Colorado Springs. I have a dark green Moda marble that I will use for the binding. And below is what I found in my stash for the back.

I got it basted and quilted yesterday. My plan is to do the binding and label this weekend and then I will show you the finished quilt next week. 

I enjoy intricate, time-consuming projects but I also love fast and easy like this one. It is nice to change up the pace a bit.

The pattern details can be found in yesterday's post. Click here to directly there.

Charm Box Quilt Top

My scrap group met yesterday. I made this ...

I had everything cut out before hand and was able to complete the top in under 3 hours. It turned out so cute!

The pattern I used is called Charm Box Quilt. It is a free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop. Click here to go to the free pattern.

I used scrap 5" squares from my stash. I tried to pick ones that looked more masculine. I plan to add an additional border to make it a bit larger as I want it to be an oncology quilt when finished.

This is such a cute quilt and so easy. I highly recommend the pattern if you need a quick project. It's a perfect baby quilt size as is, 36.5" by 45.5". We prefer oncology quilts to be at least 40" wide which is why I will add a border. I'm sure I have something in my stash that will make a nice border for this.

A Finish :: Boxy Stars

I've had this basted for two weeks. I was planning to quilt it differently but just couldn't seem to find the time. Earlier this week I decided to just get it done. It took about two hours to do an all over meander, trim it up and attach the binding and label. Then a few more hours to hand sew the binding down on the back. And ta-da - it's done!

The finished size is 44" by 58". I need to make it a tote bag and then it will go to the oncology department at my local hospital. The pattern is Boxy Stars by Bonnie Hunter. The link will take you to the free pattern.

And check out our crazy cat.

She loves to get into things. Lately she has started perching in the flower pots in the front yard. I hope she doesn't continue after I put flowers in the pots.

Boxy Stars Top Done

Here is my completed Boxy Stars top.

This is such a fun pattern! I will probably make another one of these at some point. This one will be the next quilt on my list to be quilted after I finish my Telephone Quilt. The link will take you to the post in which I gave the details of the Telephone Quilt, scroll down towards the bottom of the post for the details.