The year is coming to a close. I didn’t complete what I had planned to do, but I’m happy with what I did. I’m fortunate to be back to quilting even though it’s slow going. My goal (not a resolution) for this year is to complete as many ufos as I can and start a few new ones.

I’ve finished a quilt that I started in a class with Kimberly Einmo in Vermont several years ago. It kept coming to the top of the pile so I thought that I should finish it. After it was quilted, I liked it much better. It is going to one of my daughters.

The Marble Mystery Quilt is up to date. New instructions should come soon. This month was easy. Just some cutting and a few combining of pieces already made.

The large nine blocks were cut on quarters. This is a great technique for four corners.

Flying geese were added to squares.

One of my granddaughters favorite color is blue so she will get this quilt. It’s much more enjoyable to make a quilt when you know that it already has a home.

The Illusion quilt is coming along also. The 36 ten-inch squares have been cut and matched with the background fabric.

After sewing around all four sides, the squares were cut on the diagonal.

After all of the half square triangles were sewn, they were made into a pinwheel

There is a lot more cutting, sewing and pressing. It looked so easy and fast on YouTube. Of course, Jennie Doane only made one block. All the other bolcis were made off Camera. Making these two quilts will be my day job. My night job is appliqueing the Hexagon star onto the background. Dear Jane is in a time out for a while until I can finish the Hexagon Star.

Have a great day and happy quilting. .

Does it matter if deadlines are met? Especially self-made deadlines. I have finished only one of my self-made deadlines since September and the world is still turning. The last three deadlines for the Dear Jane quilt have not been made, but some progress has been made and there is hope for her. Eventually Jane will be finished. The Hexagon Star has been sitting in a basket for a month. No sewing at all so it has no deadlines.

My only deadline that was made was to finish all the small pieces that I wanted for the community craft fair. Everything is organized and ready to go. The fair will be tomorrow, Then I will be able to get back to quilting Jane and the Hexagon Star.

I missed the deadline for the Marble Mystery block of the month. I did finish it early in November just before the November instructions came out. I like my colors. This month we’re making square in a square. It will be first on my to-do list so I will meet the deadline.

Last month, I went to the Clueless Quilters quilt show in Stetson, Maine. It was an awesome show. I belong to the guild although I don’t live in Maine anymore. Some of my quilts were in the show. The show is held in the Stetson Meeting house.

View from the balcony.

My daughter’s breast cancer quilt

View from the front

Small and miniature quilts

This row held three of my quilts. Miss Molly’s Bad Day was a memorial to her. Sadly, I lost my quality control inspector early this summer. She loved to inspect all my quilts.

Viewers Choice It is a one block wonder quilt.

The binding is sewn on two quilts. One was quilted by my longarm quilter, and the other was quilted by me. There are a lot more finished quilts to quilt. The question is do I quilt them or make a new top that is rolling around in my head. Deadlines do not apply.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I wasn’t going to start another quilt until I had finished a few ufos. But the name of this one intrigued me. It is the Marble mystery quilt. The instructions come once a month on the first Thursday, so I had most of the month to finish the parts that I needed to do.

The first month was choosing the fabrics. I had three piles out and auditioned them. This pile won.

The second month was cutting instructions. In the downloads are labels that tell which fabric, the size and number of pieces. I keep each set of cut fabric in a baggie.

The third month is sewing some of the pieces together. It’s easy when the fabric is already precut, marked and ready to sew.

This month called for sewing two different nine patches.

Four of the above colors and five of the below colors.

The instructions are excellent. The seam pressing is shown by arrows.

Also, this month we made 36 flying geese.

They were made four at a time so didn’t take long. I’m looking forward to the fourth month.

In the meantime, I’m working on the border triangles of Dear Jane. It is slow work as all the sewing is hand sewing at this point. The top row is almost finished.

There are three community quilts that are basted and ready to be quilted. This is taking longer than expected as I have a new, great sewing machine to quilt with. It does much more than my last machine and will be wonderful when I learn where the buttons are and how to use all the new features. Fortunately, there is a lady om Utube who explains the manual one step at a time. She is my new best friend.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I’ve decided to quilt a little at a time. That way, things will get done. My binding bin is now empty. All the quilted quilts are bound and ready for new homes. I have several community quilt tops sewn and ready to quilt. They are paired with batting. The backing is waiting to be added and after quilting, the binding box will fill up again.

finally, the Hexagon Star is ready to applique on the background. This has been a long, long project. The background is white, not pink. There are a few gray hexagons that still need to be sewn in. I’ll do that when I get to that spot.

Dear Jane has come out to be hand quilted. Most of the border triangles are pieced or cut. The four corners a and a few appliqued triangles are left to finish. I had to decide how I was going to finish the triangles. Should I just piece them together or sew them as a potholder quilt. It’s logical to use the potholder method as I did in the center of the quilt. This is another long, long project. But, with a little at a time, it will get done.

The four patches became sixteen patches.

Four sixteen patches sewn together.

Finished top waiting for a border.

There are a few squares left in the box. Eventually they will be placemats.

I didn’t intend to make another new top, but the Marble Mystery quilt instructions came out. The first month was choosing the fabrics. The second month was cutting and labeling the pieces. All the fabric is cut and labeled, except the background. I have until the end of the month to do that. That makes a nice beak from sewing. The quilt will be finished a little bit at a time.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I’m on vacation for a few days. The state of Maine is beautiful.

Before I left New Hampshire, I pulled all the 2 1/2″ squares out of the box that I found on the shelf. The box was full of different size squares that I had cut after watching a video on organizing scraps. It was a good thought if I had the box at hand and really used them.

After making two patches out of the 2 1/2″ squares, and pressing them, I made four patches.

When I pressed the four patches, I swirled the seams so that they would nest when I made eight patches. The plan is to continue in this manner until the piece is large enough for a community quilt. Two eight patches will make a sixteen patch and so on. I’m not sure how many quilts this pile of four patches will make. I’ll just keep sewing until they are all gone.

I’m at the home of one of my daughters. She started making hexagon quilts one year ago and has a unique way of storing her fabric.

Each piece is wrapped around a hanging file folder and hung in a filing cabinet. You can see all the fabric at a glance.

I brought the Hexagon star with me to work on in the evenings. I may have the star finished before I go home. I can only hope.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

If you want a quick and easy quilt, make the potato chip block from Lea Louise. There are a few cuts. No matching seams and it’s a stash breaker.

My top was finished in a few part time sit downs at the sewing machine.

You can make any size. Choose the size of your center square. I wanted mine to finish at 4″ so I cut the center squares 4 1/2″. The rectangles are cut 1/2 the size of the finished square plus the seam allowances. My rectangles were cut 2 1/2″ x 4 1/2″

You need one center block and 16 rectangles for each block. Sew a rectangle to the top and bottom of the square.

Now, sew six pairs of rectangles, end to end. Sew the remaining two rectangles to two pairs to make three attached rectangles.

Add two rectangles to the sides of the block.

Add two rectangles to the top of the block.

Add the remaining three rectangles to the sides of the block.

If you choose to not use a sashing, every other block is twisted so that a three-rectangle side meets a two-rectangle side. I decided to put a small sashing between the blocks. There were enough rectangles left to make an outer border. I’ll bind it in black for a finish.

It’s a very busy quilt. I was thinking of making another one with different color rounds. It would tame it down. Thanks to Lea Lousie for her pattern. A Potato Chip – You can’t eat just one.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

I’ve taken over a month off from the sewing room. It was not intentional. I woke up one morning with swollen and very painful hands. They were stiff and did not work. After two rounds of medication, they are better, but still not back to where they should be. Along with that was total exhaustion.

I couldn’t sew or quilt, but I could organize the sewing room. During this time, I completely checked out every drawer, bin, and box in the sewing room. Notions are back where they belong. I found fabric that I forgot I had. Also blocks that I forgot I had. There was also the overwhelming amount of ufos.

Everything that I do is on slow speed, but at least it’s getting done.

Finally, all the Kaufmann Japanese fabric is in one spot. I could make Mile A Minute blocks. On that block, the seam allowance doesn’t matter. The seam just has to be straight. I could use my left hand to keep it straight. An orphan pieced block would be the center. Now it’s another community center ufo.

I found some Cat’s Cradle blocks and rail fence blocks and made placemats.

There is enough Japanese fabric to make my new favorite block. I subscribe to Lea Louise, and she was showing the Potato Chip block. You can’t make just one. It is so easy and no matching seams. It will take me a while to cut the fabric as my hand does not want to use the rotary cutter. I did make one with different fabric. This block is great for leftover jelly rolls.

This block is a scrap buster.

In the meantime, my garden is growing all by itself, with no help from me.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

Inspiration comes from many places. The community quilt in the last blog was ready to quilt and I was thinking of ways to quilt it. My quick and easy way to quilt small quilts is in a grid with wavy lines. Three of my daughters came for a visit While they were here, they asked me if my grandmother had ever made a quilt, I just happen to have one of her quilts and brought it out for show and tell.

After they left, the quilt was folded and placed on a footstool. On top was the community quilt. As I looked at them from across the room, I noticed that the colors were similar, and they were both made from squares.

My grandmother’s quilt was tied, and she had hand embroidered a decorative stitch on all the seams. That is what I would do. Except, I would not take the time to hand embroider. Searching the built in embroidery stitches on my machine, I found one that was similar to my grandmother’s quilt. This was the inspiration that I was looking for.

The fabric on the back of the quilt is beautiful.

The community quilt is finished.

One thing that I would do different the next time is to machine embroider with a thicker thread so it would show better. I have some Sew Sassy from Superior Thread. It is an 11-weight thread. I’ll experiment with that thread the next time.

Inspiration keeps moving on to other thoughts.

The least favorite thing in quilting for me is basting the backing, batting and top of the quilt. I would either thread baste, or pin baste the quilt depending on how I felt at the moment. I saw a YouTube video about basting with Misty Fuse and thought I would try that method. It was so easy to do. I laid the batting on the ironing board first. I laid little torn pieces of Misty Fuse on the batting and added the backing. After this was pressed, I turned it over and did the same adding the Misty Fuse and the top. The package held together during all of the quilting. One corner was a little off at the end, but I was able to pull the package apart and iron it straight. This will be my new method of basting small quilts. There are no pins to remove while quilting or thread to get in the way.

This quilt was a joy to make. There is always something new to learn.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

Years ago, a Guild member showed us a pattern for a quick and easy quilt. Where I’ve been working on the Hexagon Star and Dear Jane for a while, I wanted to relax and make something that was quick and easy.

The original pattern called for 5 1/2″ squares. I had received two stacks of 5″ squares for my birthday. I would use them. From the top of the stacks, it looked as if the fabric was color coordinated, but it was not. Where this was a quick quilt, I would use them anyway.

The pattern calls for eighty squares. Thirteen of the eighty squares are the same fabric. I used a mottled gray fabric for the alike squares. The quilt is sewn together in ten rows of eight squares. The gray squares have their own spots.

Press the first row to the right and the second row to the left. Continue down the quilt in this manner.

Now the fun. The quilt is sliced down the gray squares.

Then the top is brought to the bottom and sewed.

I forgot to take a picture for the next step, but the quilt is sliced across the gray squares. Then, the top is brought to the bottom and sewed. Now all the gray squares are half square triangles around the perimeter of the quilt. The sides are now on the bias. Carefully measure the sides and add a border. I used the same gray fabric for the border. It was cut at 3 1/4″ but could be any size.

This is the prefect size for a crib quilt or a lap quilt. It could be made with any size squares. I might make it again using baby prints. There should be at least eight different fabrics. Maybe more if there were a lot of scraps left over from other projects. Or I might make it using floral prints with green as the alike fabric. There are many possibilities.

Machine quilting with an even feed foot in a cross hatch would also be quick and easy. This is a great quilt when you need one in a hurry.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

When you work on long term quilts, it seems as if you never finish anything. The Dear Jane quilt border is worked on in the daytime and the Hexagon Star is worked on in the evening while watching TV.

The Dear Jane was a finished quilt without the border, but I decided that it needed the border to look better.

There are 52 pieced triangles and 48 plain triangles in the border, along with the four corners. Most of the pieced triangles have to be paper pieced. Some are appliqued and some have curved piecing. They will all be finished in the potholder method before placing them around the center quilt. When I piece a block, I make a backing out of the colored fabric and if there is enough fabric left, I piece two plain triangles. Triangles of batting are also cut at this time. All the units are in a box waiting to be hand quilted and bound.

Hopefully, when the triangles are ready to be quilted, the Star Hexagon will be finished. Then, my evening work will change from Dear Jane to the Star Hexagon.

The Star Hexagon is coming slowly. I have finished a few star points. Several more to go. There are ten points on the star. Almost half of them are finished, but not on the main body of the quilt yet.

The SAHRR is finished as is the Mile A Minute quilt that was made out of the leftover scraps.

I have also sewed the binding on two quilts that came back from the long arm quilter. They were made with the batch of quilts that I made to use up the Japanese fabric. Thankfully, there are just scraps of this fabric left in the Mile A Minute bin.

Maybe by Summer, I can move on to something else.

Have a great day and happy quilting.