New Scrappy Quilt

I was tidying up the scraps leftover from my Jade Garden quilt and I realized I had a rather large pile of triangles. At that moment, my brain told me I needed to make something to use up these triangles. I should have taken a photo.

I poked around and found Bonnie Hunter's Twirl Around pattern from her book, Addicted to Scraps.

Except for one 2" strip from the green fabric yardage, this has all been cut out from the leftovers. One downside of using the Cricut to cut out projects is there are often extra scraps generated because you cut off 12"-wide WOF strips to put on the cutting mats and there are often portions leftover (large hunks, but smaller than fat quarters). Those are what I used to cut this quilt out.

I'll be finishing the current border and adding two more. The two outer borders will be cut from yardage.

One reason why I don't often make quilts with so many triangles is because I am such a perfectionist I tend to cut the triangles too large then have to trim down all the blocks to the correct size. I spent 3-hours yesterday trimming these.

This has been a fun, quick project. I should be able to finish the flimsy in the next day or two. I actually have a customer quilt on my long arm right now, so I won't be quilting this right away.

Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday
Sew & Tell
Monday Musings

Jade Garden Ensemble!

The past week was spent making the bed accessories to match the Jade Garden quilt. First the pillowcases, then the matching dress for Louisa.

I spent way too long on that dress. I made a bunch of piping and did a lot of hand-basting to keep the eyelet from getting caught in seams.

Jade Garden Quilted!

It is done!! It is an oversize queen quilt (96"x96") and too large for one person to hold it up. (I do hope I'll be able to get a better photo sometime soon.)

For the most part, I followed my quilting plan. These pantographs are primarily from the Spring Sunrise Set by Christy Dillon, though I edited one of them slightly to better fit my design.

I spent about three days quilting it. Those blocks were really large! They were actually as big as I could fit in my stitching area and I had to rotate it on the frame all 4 ways to be able to stitch it out. The center block was too large and I had to stitch it out by pausing the long arm and forwarding it to stitch out the last portion, as shown in this Handiquilter video. I do also wish I hadn't skewed the outer borders, but despite that, it still turned out pretty well. 

For this project, I used Quilter's Dream Blend 70/30 batting because I was hoping it would breathe a little better during hot weather. I used Glide thread in the Mulberry color. It is extremely difficult to see the quilting because the fabric is so busy, but I did take a few detail photos.

I'm so happy it is nearly finished; I just need to sew on the binding. I'll set it aside for now until I make the next batch of quilt labels.

Jade Garden Quilting Plan

Our weather has been hot this week and my quilting "studio" is upstairs where it has gotten uncomfortably hot, so I've spent the past couple of days in our cool basement working on a number of quilting plans. I think this is the one I'm going to go with once it cools down enough to work upstairs. 

These pantographs are primarily from the Spring Sunrise Set by Christy Dillon.

I'm hoping I have enough fabric for the backing but I haven't taken the time to check yet.

Jade Garden Flimsy

The Jade Garden flimsy is finished. 

This is a large 96" square quilt. It's too big for one person to hold it up, but I'll try to take a better photo once my husband returns from his business trip.

I pulled an all-nighter to get this one done since it was too hard to stop sewing once I got started on the borders.

I had thought to quilt it with an edge-to-edge but my husband convinced me to come up with a custom quilting plan. It may take me a while to settle on a design because I often make several options before I decide I like one well enough to stitch it out.

Linking up with:
TGI Finished Friday

Jade Garden Blocks Assembled

I paced myself the past couple of days and finished sewing the Jade Garden blocks together. I love the colors and it will be beautiful when it is done.

While doing it, I realized I'd made the kaleidoscope blocks incorrectly. I just used a correctly-shaped block from Electric Quilt rather than use the specific templates provided with the pattern. Obviously, they had to be replaced.

I'm also not happy with the border blocks. I cut the triangles that go on the points the right size, but the 6-inch "arrow" pieces are ending up about 1/8" short. Not acceptable for my perfectionist-self, so I'll be spending a few hours ripping and resewing these pieces. I think I'll also cut some new oversize triangles that sew onto the top pointy edge and then I'll be able to cut them down to the perfect size.

These are the three borders I need to add before the flimsy is finished.

Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday
Monday Sew & Tell
Monday Musings

Jade Garden Blocks Finished

I've spent about five days sewing all the blocks for Jade Garden. My design wall is much smaller than the size of the quilt, so I can't show them all. I'm really happy with how it is turning out.

I need to take a couple of days off of sewing to rest my back, but I think I'll be able to get the blocks assembled over the weekend.

Paid Quilting Gig

I just finished another quilting project for a paying customer. I don't do many these days as I don't do anything to market myself, but occasionally someone hears of my services through word of mouth. 

This is a large 100"x82" quilt. It was quilted with Abbie 3 from Christy Dillon. The quilt is very bright. Really, there is no thread color that would have shown the stitching very well.

Next Up: Jade Garden

Finally, I have begun work on Jade Garden. This was a Block of the Month project offered by Wilmington Prints in around 2021. When I found the pattern offered for free and the fabrics available, I ordered them. I've looked for the pattern to link it here but it's no longer available.

I've spent the last three days doing all the cutting. Wow, what a project; there are so many fabrics! I cut out the rectangles and squares by hand with a ruler, but most of the rest of the pieces with my Cricut.

I think I am finally finished and can start sewing it together for Friday Night Sew In. I think I'll assemble it from the center out.

This is how far I got by 3AM. LOL It is so difficult for me to be a responsible adult when pieces are just lying there ready to be sewn together!

Fibonacci Fleurish Flimsy!

Jeff's fibonacci quilt has been pieced! It actually went together pretty quickly. I spent a bit of time fixing a mistake I made when I assembly-line pieced these block sets, but it didn't add more than a couple hours. 

I think these fabrics are really amazing. As I recall, they are Island Batik's Morris Mist fabrics I bought on clearance last year.

I'm going to let my husband quilt this one. He wants to do a nerdy math-inspired custom quilting job.

Linking up with:

Brag About Your Beauties
Finished or Not Friday
Off the Wall Friday
TGI Finished Friday

Recent Finishes

I guess I got so busy with sifting and selling off my excess fabric bolts I totally forgot to post my recent finishes. Many I've already posted progress, but I never posted the final photos. I'd been trying to clear some UFOs before I start new projects.

This was the quick Scot's Plaid pattern made with a large-scale Hawaiian fabric I fussy cut for the squares. 

This is the Broken Bricks pattern with the leftover Hawaiian fabrics scraps. Even the border is scraps. I quilted it with Hibiscus Tea by A Bit Orange. And the batting is made up of scraps of Quilter's Dream Green.

This is the Nine Patch Twirl I didn't particularly like last year. I still don't love it, but it has grown on me now that it has been quilted.

All of these quilts are in the pile to find a new home. If someone in the family doesn't claim them in the next year or two, they will ultimately get donated to Comfort Quilts.

Fibonacci Fleurish Design

Many years ago my husband designed a fibonacci quilt and I finished it in early 2010.

We ran across the spreadsheet he made at the time and we decided to try and write it up into a real pattern that could be shared. I've been working on it this week. I've never written up a quilt pattern before so I'm just trying to be as detailed as I can be.

He actually decided to somewhat change the pattern and make it larger. Now it finishes at approximately 70"x70". 

I'm mostly finished with my first draft so now I'm going to test the pattern.

Another Quick Finish

Sometime in the past few years someone from the Northwest Quilter's Guild gave me a big bag of scraps and in it there was a pile of these WOF strips.

There were also quite a few of approx. 4-inch square blocks as well. I had to do a bunch of trimming to actually make them a uniform size. (I would not be surprised if that is why they originally ended up in the scrap bag.) 

I had times when I questioned myself why I was spending time on this project. These are not fabrics I ever would have chosen, but not everyone has the same taste (at least that is what I keep telling myself).

I don't know what the pattern is called, but I've been calling it Basketweave. 

I almost always use Quilter's Dream Green batting. I quilted it with Christy Dillon's Harrison E2E. I used a light purple MaxiLock thread because I hoped it would bring out the purple in the light fabric, but it is almost invisible on the front. It does show up on the back.

I'm actually proud of the binding as this was my first flange binding and I made it from the leftover strips, which weren't wide enough. I found this Flange Binding Tutorial helpful.

Huge Fabric Score!!

Just when I thought I had my fabric shopping tendencies under control, a crazy good opportunity fell in my lap.

I met a retired long arm quilter a couple years ago when she was selling fabric from her stash for $4/yard. I went and bought a lot at the time. After calling her last fall to see if I could schedule another visit to take a friend, she mentioned she was now selling by the bolt. On a lark, I asked her how much she would sell all of them for. She didn't have a price. But about month later, she offered me a price and I accepted it. 

It was 425 bolts! We took over a friend's hatchback and our compact car and it took two trips with them both filled up.

This is what I'm keeping. It's about 140 bolts. I bought the shelves too.

I'm planning to re-sell the rest. I don't have the space to keep it.

Update about a week and a half later:

I sold virtually all the extra fabric (there are about a dozen bolts left). I invited my friends to come shop and then when they were done, I posted photos to my Northwest Quilter's Facebook group and the rest went within just a couple of days! I should not have worried about finding homes for all this fabric!

Finally Made a Quilt

My husband and I have spent the past few months sifting our garage and storage areas and decluttering. In June, we had a garage sale and then donated virtually everything leftover. The house is looking much tidier at the moment.

Last week, I had a couple of paid long arm quilting gigs so it finally spurred me to spend time in my sewing room. There was a pile of bright hibiscus and coordinating fabrics stashed under my long arm so I gathered them up and decided to make something with them. Finally. They've probably been there for two years.

I decided to fussy-cut hibiscus flowers into 4.5" squares then I just made a quick Scot's Plaid block pattern. It was a quick one-day project. I had been planning to add a border with the hibiscus fabric, but it is a large scale print and I decided it wouldn't look good sliced into strips.

I long-arm quilted it with Christy Dillon's Hibiscus Hideaway pantograph with Dark Rose Maxi-Lock thread. As usual, I used Quilter's Dream Green batting.

Of course, once I had the scraps spread all over my table, I couldn't resist working on another Broken Bricks quilt for the Friday Night Sew-In. That is my favorite scrappy quilt pattern. I'll probably finish it this weekend.

More Bags in Progress

I've really grown fond of my denim circle tote bags—they're fantastic for shopping—so when I found a stack of old jeans I decided to make more. Although they're quite time-consuming to make, the effort is definitely worth it.

I've already devoted a full day to cutting up jeans into circles and I found I had enough for three bags. Sewing these pieces together, along with securing the flaps, usually takes another couple of days. I’m currently done with one of the panels and have two more to go.

After I sew the fabric into the panels, I sew them into tubes, then add the bottom and top pieces and attach the handles. Then, because I don't think these bags are strong enough, I make another bag from heavy fabric to line it. Once finished, these bags hold a lot of weight and my husband really loads them up when he's shopping.

I probably have at least another three days work on these bags to complete them. This process would no doubt be quicker if I had written down the measurements during my last round of making these bags. This time, I am.

Linking up with:
Put Your Foot Down

Still Playing With Denim

I'm not sure why, but I'm still in the mood to play with my denim scraps. I decided to make three more of these circle denim tote bags. I've finished cutting out and sewing together the panels but I haven't decided what fabrics I'll be using for the "windows." I'm not sure why I'm struggling to decide this time.

While I was trying to figure it out, I saw the big pile of odd-shaped scraps that were leftover from cutting out all the circles. I was inspired to start sewing them together to make crumb blocks. I'm not sure what they're for (yet). Maybe I'll use them as external pouches on more of the insulated shopping totes.

We've signed up for Costco so now we'll be doing less frequent, large shopping trips so it would be handy to have at least a couple more totes. I'm starting to run out of tired, old jeans so I might have to use other fabrics.