April Quilty Topper

 

I've been thinking of making a series of mini-quilts, one for each month of the year.  A great way to use all those tiny scraps, right?  I found Erica Arndt's (Confessions of a HomeSchooler) 2025 Quilty Topper Monthly Mini-Quilt Series and, it being my birthday and all, splurged on the pattern bundle.  The bundle includes twelve 20.5" square mini-quilt patterns, with appropriately seasonal motifs.  The patterns are extremely well written and easy to follow, with great techniques for making all those tiny little pieces line up nicely.  I've been hand quilting these small projects with a running stitch, using Sulky Pearl Cotton 12, which provides that rustic/primitive/country vibe I adore.  

And speaking of vibes that I adore, my new most favorite source for hardware to hang quilts is Ackfeld Manufacturing.  I had purchased their merchandise before on Amazon, but didn't always find exactly what I wanted.  In desperate need of a large quantity of 8" hangers with clips for Christmas gifts, I went straight to their website.  SO MANY OPTIONS and solutions for hanging quilts.  Shipping is a bit spendy, but worth it to get exactly what you need and want.  I love their three heart hanger for this particular project.

Baby Bunny

 

A new grand-nephew has arrived!  With the move, I got a late start and chose a simple pattern that I could make with my stash.  The Baby Bunny pattern from Coach House Designs met both criteria.  The most fun part was going through my stash and selecting the different pieces of fabric, so many that have been used over time in other baby quilts.  

 The pattern called for the cornerstones to be the same fabric as the binding, but since I was cutting 1.5 inch squares anyway, I cut an extra from each fabric to use for the cornerstones and I am happy with that change.  The pano is Anne Bright's Swirl Dance and is perfect for a baby quilt.  Baby's sex was undetermined until birth and I tried to balance pinks and blues.  I must admit, I think at least a third, if not more, of my stash is pink 💗.

Scandinavian Stars

I have lots of Christmas stash, left over from a bargello quilt-as-you-go Christmas tree wall hanging I made for a friend years ago.  As it turned out, it was never gifted because it got wet and the red fabric bled onto the white backing and I stuffed it in a drawer rather than dealing with it.  Now it's rolled up in the closet.  Someday.  But not today.  Today we are making Scandinavian Stars!

There are many patterns on the internet and I have to admit, I was flummoxed by the instructions on every single one.  I just played around with it until I figured it out. Once figured out, construction is pretty quick.  I made big ones, with 3 inch by 14 inch strips of fabric and little ones with 2 inch by 12 strips of fabric.  One set of instructions recommended the use of a fabric clip (like you use for hand sewing binding to quilts) to hold the tip of the star together while threading the end of the strip though to the other side.  (See, you didn't understand that instruction, and I know of no way to clarify that step.)  I originally used tweezers to pull the fabric strip through.  Then I ordered a bodkin from Amazon.  I have to say, I prefer the tweezers!  But the bodkin got me to free shipping on my order (I only needed another 99 cents!) and I'm using it.  And the fabric clips were a great idea.

I attached some invisible thread for hanging and that was perhaps the most challenging part of the project because the thread was, well, invisible. 

More Fairy Tales

Finally, Little Red is on her way to Grandma's house!

 

Hansel and Gretel are in the forest, conferring about the house they just spotted down the path.

The Fairy Godmother has arrived.

And Cinderella is on her way to the ball at the Prince's castle.

The Three Little Pigs have built all of their houses and await the big, bad wolf.

Mushrooms are growing under the trees in the Enchanted Forest.

That Fairy Tale Quilt: Little Red

Just a quick preview of happiness to come ... I've started That Fairy Tale Quilt by Lucy Carson Kingwell.  And I am savoring every single minute.  Theoretically, the fabric will all be from my stash, although I bought a Fat Eighth bundle of Andover Fabrics' Sonoma collection of low volume prints.  In anticipation of making this quilt, I started to stock up on low volume fat quarters before Fabric Depot closed but did not have anywhere close to the 3.33 yards of required background fabric.  The Fat Eights are pretty perfect for this pattern.

Some of the pieces are tiny--for example, Little Red's hand is a bit less than a square inch--and I love finding just the right piece in my tiny scrap bin.  Having made several quilts out of Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage 6 inch blocks, my tiny scrap bin is overflowing and this project may help solve that problem.  Or, add to it, who knows?

Holiday Lights

This quilt was started over a year ago, intended to be a Christmas present for a friend.  I stalled on the appliqued lights and stuffed it in a drawer after Christmas 2017.  I love Alex Anderson's Holiday Lights quilt but was more than a little frustrated with the construction of the tree blocks.  The pattern includes templates as well as instructions for rotary cutting:  I recommend the templates.  The width of the squares used for the trees is 4 7/8" and for me that is not an easy measurement to execute with a ruler and a rotary cutter.  Consequently, the top and side points on some of the trees are not exactly, well, pointy. Half and quarter inches I can do .. eighths, not so much.

I started feeling the Christmas spirit in early November and regained the enthusiasm required to finish this project. One of the reasons I had stalled is that I couldn't decide which technique to use for the appliqued lights. Machine?  Hand?  Raw edge?  Finished edge?  Finally admitting to myself that I'd never really ever be satisfied with  raw edges AND lacking confidence in my machine applique skills, I used featherweight interfacing to line each one of the 78 light bulbs, then hand appliqued the bulbs and "wire" (tri-fold bias strip), adding a string of lights to cover the seam in the backing.  I have never done much hand applique and really enjoyed the process! 

I doubled up on the wool batting for maximum coziness.

I decided I didn't like the original backing I had chosen and am very happy I purchased this black and white snowflake fabric before Fabric Depot closed.

This project used every last remaining black and white scrap I owned, most left over from the Third Street Neighborhood quilt.  I had to buy a few black and white fat quarters to finish up.

My very favorite part of this quilt is the one inch inner border of half-square triangles.

And I really like the appliqued string of holiday lights.  I am not all that impressed with the quilting pattern, which is supposed to be strings of holiday lights.  The "bulbs", however, are actually too large and look like mittens.  But, oh well. 

And now I realize that my couch pillows are rather faded and sad and need to be recovered. 

But no time for pillows when the boy and granddog want to go snowshoeing.

The granddog is oh so adorable in her jacket and snow booties.

#modabemyneighbor

So many things to love about this quilt:   houses ... hearts ... free patterns ... fat quarter friendly .... trees.  The trees were really fun and, in this quilt, I love them as much as the houses.

I found the pattern download at Bear Creek Quilting Company, my go-to website for free patterns and (not free) fabric.  Now that Fabric Depot has closed, I suspect I'll visit even more.

When my older sister and I were young, my sister went to camp for a week every summer.  I don't remember where it was, but I do remember getting A&W hamburgers and root beer floats on the long (for a 6 year old) car ride there.  When I saw this quilt, it brought back memories of those trips to the summer camp:  the fresh smell of the fir trees, the musty cottages, the dock at the lake.  At least, I think there was a dock ... and a lake ...the memories are very hazy.  The only thing I remember clearly is that I had absolutely no desire to go to camp and never really understood my sister's desire to do so.

The pieced pattern uses just a bit of applique and I did even less.  The flower circles are applique--easy--but there are supposed to be applique birds here and there, nesting on top of trees and houses.  I have nothing against birds, but I found them to be a little ... fussy.  As in, I didn't want to fuss with them.

This house, for example, should have a bird on the roof.  I guess I just don't have patience for that kind of stuff.

Another applique flower and a stylized American flag, which I love and which also proves that Christmas stash can come in handy any time of year.

I started this quilt many months ago, before all of the babies started to arrive.  I had originally purchased a yellow print for backing, but found this brown and white checkered print in the Outdoor Sale at Fabric Depot and am happy with my second choice.  I needed six inches more in length and added a row of houses, now my very favorite part of the quilt. 

A bit too much sunshine for taking pictures of a quilt, but then we NEVER complain about sunshine in Oregon.

Hey There, Little Red Riding Hood

...you sure are looking good

you're everything a big bad wolf could want ...

Another baby quilt was needed and I was ready to do something different. I confirm that this particular project met that requirement--for better or worse, as the saying goes.  As often happens, inspiration hit as I watched random You-Tube quilting videos and discovered the existence of the Add-A-Quarter Ruler, a clever little tool that allows one to measure and trim a perfect quarter inch seam allowance.  Wow, this ruler is the best invention since the one tablespoon cookie dough scoop! 

I've had some experience with paper piecing, but the very existence of this ruler led me to believe that there might be more to the technique than I had realized.  Ha!  So. Much. More.  Over the course of this project, I read many blog posts and tutorials that highlighted common paper piecing mistakes and I made every single one.  Sometimes twice. The very best ever tutorial is on Phoebe Moon Quilt Designs. I must be a True Paper Piecer, because I committed every one of Phoebe's Seven Deadly Sins of Foundation Paper Piecing.  Again, twice.

There are some elements of paper piecing I'll just never get, like WHY would one be expected to print a mirror image (reverse image, whatever) of a pdf pattern when one desires to make the exact replica of the depicted product?  I mean, basically the seller is saying "here is a pattern to make THIS lovely quilt" when what they really mean is "if you want YOUR quilt to look like this, then you have to click around on your computer until you can find the printer setting to reverse this image, or Little Red Riding Hood is going to be looking left instead of right and she won't even be on the right path to Grandma's House".  Yes, I do have an extra Little Red Riding Hood block with the darling girl walking right out of the side of the quilt.  

The other frustration was caused by my fabric selection, so that one was on me.  I LOVE the Little Aspens fabric, which is from the Maywood Studios Forest Friends collection.  There is a definite direction in the print, however, and getting all those trees to stand up tall and straight was tedious and time consuming, and more than a couple of times tree branches were listing a bit to the right or left and had to be straightened, i.e. a new fabric piece cut and resewn.  The next paper piecing project will have NO directional prints.  Period.

I also used a few prints from the Cottontail Cottage Collection by Bunny Hill.  I used Meadow Green Houses from this collection for the backing.  These houses are where Grandma's neighbors live, I'm sure of it.

Farm Girl Vintage

When Craig asked me what I wanted a couple Christmases ago, I didn't hesitate:  Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage book. I had recently discovered Lori's Bee In My Bonnet blog and immediately knew I needed to make a Farm Girl Vintage quilt. Or two.  The first was made for Cara's Evelyn and I somehow ended up with no pictures of that baby quilt (so how did THAT happen?). This second Farm Girl Vintage quilt was made for Caitlin's Lucas, with less pink and more blue, though Miss Piggy just has to be pink.

The book offers 45 Farm Girl Blocks with instructions for both 6" and 12" blocks. Even better, for us unimaginative types (did I mention I need a pattern?), there are layouts where you can plop your chosen squares into a quilt, table runner, table topper, wall hanging, pot holder ... so many options! I used the Country Fair Quilt Setting in the Small Version, which has 12 6" squares and finishes at 30 1/2" x 37 1/2", perfect for a baby quilt.

I need more practice in embroidering faces and other body parts, I was satisfied with Miss Piggy's tail, but Mr. Barn Cat's whiskers needed more work.  The instructions called for three strands of thread, but I really think two would have been better. I was worried about damaging the fabric by taking out the stitching more than once, so I just went with the second attempt. Definitely more practice needed, and I want to play around with different types of stitches. 

Some of the pieces in these blocks are less than an inch, and I've only recently read about using starch on fabric prior to cutting.  I never pre-wash my fabric:  I like that vintage look that a bit of shrinkage provides. If I make the 6" blocks again, I will not pre-wash, but I will starch the fabric to stabilize those small pieces and hopefully the blocks will be a bit more precise.

Elephant Parade

Yet another baby blanket, this time for a co-worker. I started looking for elephant patterns when Lisa first announced she was expecting and found the Elephant Parade quilt pattern at SewFreshQuilts. 
Better yet, the pattern had been the subject of a quilt-along back in 2015 and many participants had linked photos of their finished blocks and quilts. I always love to see the variety of colors and variations on a pattern. I am such a rule-follower, seldom varying from any given set of instructions, and am always in awe of the ways others find to express their creativity and individuality.

I love Dear Stella fabrics and had already admired the Welcome to the Jungle collection.  The blue, black and yellow giraffes from this collection are actually my favorites, but only elephants would do for Lisa and her baby-boy-to-be.  Dear Stella also has a line called Scallop Dot, offered in a variety of colors in different collections, and the blue, green, and pink coordinated perfectly with the Welcome to the Jungle Elephants. Instead of using a pure white background, I chose a fabric with a white background with gray spirals, the reverse of the fabric used for Mr. Elephant's ear.

Mr. Elephant was very fun to make, although it makes me nervous to sew toys. The pattern called for the ears to be hand-sewn on to the body, but not wanting any parts to detach and become a hazard, I added a good half-inch to the width of the pattern and sewed the ears into a vertical seam. The seam created small tucks at the top and bottom of the ear, but elephants aren't exactly smooth so I decided the tucks are reminiscent of an elephant's wrinkles. I also machine quilted the tale pieces and sewed them securely into the seam and added a zig-zag finish to the inside seam.  Those ears and that tail are not coming off unless under extreme duress.

The spiral edge-to-edge quilting mimics the spiral print of the background fabric. I had hoped for a bit of sunshine while taking pictures, but the clouds and wind persisted. Charlotte and her sister wandered over to see what I was doing and we chatted until my fingers were too cold and numb to care whether the pictures were adequately detailed.

Home is Where the Heart Is

The Home is Where the Heart Is quilt pattern combines my two favorite quilting motifs:  hearts and houses. Kyle and Becky opted out of knowing the baby's gender before birth so the only thing I had to work with was teal, Becky's favorite color.  Emboldened by her declaration that "Boys can wear pink!" I chose prints from Maywood Studio's Roam Sweet Home fabric collection. I was first attracted to the collection by the Pennant Patchwork print, which reminds me of another favorite motif:  bunting.

I used Pennant Patchwork for the backing and the quilt was small enough that the backing did not need to be pieced. I love every single color and pattern in this fabric.

It is quilted with Loopy Hearts, which seems perfect. The quilt turned out a bit more ... well ... girlie than I had intended. But I hope all those hearts convey to Louis, born on Christmas Eve 2017, how much he is loved and cherished.

Nativity

Christmas came and went all too quickly so I am happy I started looking for a Christmas present project fairly early. I found these sweet nativity scenes on Pinterest and it turns out that the year of the house remodel was the perfect year for this project. I have an aversion to vacuuming carpeted stairs and convinced Craig to replace the carpet on the stairs with hardwood at the same time we replaced the upstairs carpet. The scraps of maple left over from the stair project were perfect and I just had to purchase heads from Joanne's. And chalk paint, which I have always wanted to try out.

I love the distressed look and read up on how to achieve it with chalk paint. Several articles suggested Vaseline and I tried that approach first. This technique is a bit messy and difficult to control the results, though I think it would work better on larger projects. Since we have a (seemingly) endless supply of every grade of sandpaper imaginable (or so it seems to me), I just painted the pieces then used a very fine finishing sandpaper to achieve the amount of distressing I wanted. I got carried away a few times and had to repaint a couple of pieces, but got the hang of it pretty quick.

I had sage green burlap on hand, left over from office Halloween decorations, which worked well for Mary's shawl. I love it when craft supplies have multiple uses!