Scrappy Thursday: Clementine Quilt Month #3

February 10, 2022February 8, 2022Leave a comment

It only occurred to me now, as I sat down to write this blog post, that this isn’t actually a scrap project. BUT…it was in my scrappy project bins for some reason; I’m thinking I threw the blocks into whatever bin was handy as I packed up my craft room three years ago, and I didn’t think beyond “What’s in the scrappy project bins?” when deciding what projects to put into the Scrappy Thursday rotation. Oh well. It’s been a long time that this has been waiting, and this is the way I’ll be able to get it done the fastest, so I’ll just go forward with it.

Of course, just because I put some of the fabrics into the project bin didn’t mean I put all of the fabrics into the bin, so I spent a large portion of my sewing time trying to locate the background fabric for this quilt. It was tucked away with a completely different quilt I was working on when we had to pack up, and those two quilts were jammed into the back of a Christmas drawer, despite not being Christmas-related quilts whatsoever. (I never want to move again.)

Alright, Month #3 is the Peaches & Plenty block, and geez…these blocks took forever to make! I don’t know if I’ve gotten extremely slow or what, but I think I put at least six hours into these. Not my favorite pattern, but it doesn’t matter anymore because they’re DONE and now I’ll move on with my life. Woo hoo!

It was nice to revisit this project and look through it again and start getting excited. It’s an interesting-looking finished quilt that is different from anything else I’ve ever made, and I’m looking forward to the completed project…which should hopefully happen in May. Slow and steady…

Month 3 blocks are the ones on the right. Building up a collection!

I was supposed to get these done last month, but it didn’t work out that way. I’m hoping to get onto the Month 4 blocks this month as well, but we’ll see how well that pans out.

Scrappy Thursday: Brickhouse Quilt: Blocks 1-4

January 6, 2022March 14, 20253 Comments

It’s always a good thing when you make a goal and you complete the first part of it! I’ve completed the first occurrence of my new “Scrappy Thursdays” goal to work on getting the scrap bins down to a more manageable level each Thursday. This week’s scrappy project in the rotation was the first four blocks of my Brickhouse quilt.

I am really liking this pattern. It uses slightly bigger than I normally use pieces, so it eats up fabric a little better, and the construction is super easy. I’ve decided to use aquas and turquoises for the roofs of my houses, and pinks and reds for the bricks. And then I’m pairing all that with scrappy low-volume prints for the background. It turns out that I was pretty low on skinny red scraps, so I’m actually having to dive into my next-larger bin of scraps for the reds.

I’m thinking I might make multiple Brickhouse quilts this year because I like this pattern so much. House quilts are adorable anyway, so having lots of them would be so cute.

Alright, one Scrappy Thursday down, fifty-one more to go! Anyone else have scrappy goals for this year?

Inspired by this scrappy pattern? Wanna make one of your own? You can download the free pattern here.

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 8: Rail Fence Star

October 2, 2020April 11, 20211 Comment

OK, let’s see if my blog is finally going to let me publish an actual post…it’s being weird this week, and coupled with how lousy I was feeling yesterday, I decided to just wait out the bug. A few hours late shouldn’t hurt anyone’s plans, I hope…

We are getting so close to the end, you all! How exciting!

You can download the pattern instructions here:

sew-many-stars-bom-pattern_block-8-rail-fence-star-block Download

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing!

Crystal Quilters Block of the Month: Sew Many Stars! Block 7: Shoofly Star Block

September 4, 2020September 3, 20201 Comment

We’re starting to get close to the end of our sew along! School has started, and hopefully that means a little extra time in your sewing rooms! Alright, this month’s block is the Shoofly Star Block:

You can download the pattern instructions here:

sew-many-stars-bom-pattern_block-7-shoofly-star-block Download

If you’re posting your block to Instagram, please make sure to tag it with the #crystalquiltersbom (If you’re a member of the guild) and #sewmanystarsquilt hashtags so we can find your blocks!

Happy sewing!

Nature Trail Quilt for Blank Quilting

July 31, 2020July 31, 2020Leave a comment

I was beyond thrilled to open my July box from Blank Quilting and find the Nature Trail fabric collection within! It’s a woodsy collection filled with all the cute, scurrying things in the forest, along with colorful mushrooms and bugs. I’d been stalking the potential choices for July, and had already decided that if I received Nature Trail I’d use it to make some sort of quilt that featured Maple Leaf blocks. Because, hello, Canadian.

You know how you get about halfway through a project and start to second-guess yourself like crazy? I did that with this quilt so hard, and now, as I look at it in its completed form, I have no idea why that even happened. I absolutely love it, and it’s going to look fantastic with my autumn decor, which is super heavy on aqua and teal. (Well, let’s be honest, almost everything in my house is heavy on aqua and teal. Why would autumn be an exception?)

The collection is designed by Ingrid Slyder of Nutshell Designs and it’s a lovely mix of forest things. The scraps are dear to me and will be used very carefully because I love them so. There’s also two panels that come with this collection, and I have an idea stewing in my mind for one of them, and a general idea with no specifics for the other. Maybe I can get to those after I get through with mask-sewing. Because, hello, masks. *grumble, grumble*

Thank you again to Blank Quilting Corporation for this truly enjoyable opportunity to make beautiful things from fun collections.

A quick internet search shows that you can pre-order this fabric from Bug Fabrics here in Washington State (who I’ve ordered from in the past and they’re quick with shipping!), and it looks like Eclectic Maker in the UK will also carry the collection at some point.

Clementine Quilt Along Block #1

January 25, 2018January 24, 20186 Comments

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YES! It’s Clementine Quilt Along time! Fat Quarter Shop has designed a new block of the month program to help raise funds for childhood cancer research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

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I signed on to sew along, and here’s my block:

It’s called “Watermelon Wheel,” and, if I may, I have some advice about putting it together (aka “Don’t Be Dumb Like Cara Was”)

When you go to sew up the diagonal components of the block, don’t go on auto-pilot and turn them into flying geese, and
After you re-cut the pieces for the diagonals, CHECK THEIR DIRECTION before starting to sew them, or you may end up with a whole lot of diagonals that go the wrong way.

However, once you finally remember how to sew like a good little sewist, this is a nice little block to make. It looks great when you’re done, and part of the fun of this particular quilt along is that you’ll make two sizes of each block:

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I think it’s going to look pretty great when it’s all done!

I’m joining other bloggers to get the word out about this great fundraising opportunity, and we’re all sewing up Clementine blocks of our own. If you’d like to see the other blocks out there, here’s who’s sewing along:

April of April Rosenthal (@amrosenthal)
Bonnie of Sunset Family Living (@sunsetfamilyliving)
Cara of That Crafty Cara (@thatcraftycara) <—that’s me!
Carrie of Moda Cutting Table (@modafabrics)
Denise of Pieced Brain (@piecedbrain)
Elise of Elise and Emelie (@eliseandemelie)
Gina of Carpe Quiltin (@gina_tell_carpequiltin)
Heather of A Creative Pursuit (@acreativemama)
Hilary of By Hilary Jordan (@byhilaryjordan)
Jan of Cocoa Quilts (@cocoaquilts)
Jen of Heritage Threads (@heritage.threads)
Joanne of Quilts by Joanne (@turtlequilterjo)
Kairle of Kairle Oaks Handcrafted Goodness (@kairleoaks)
Kendra of Good Starter (@good_starter)
Kristen of 3 in the Nest (@threeinthenestraleigh)
Kristina of Center Street Quilts (@centerstreetquilts)
Leah of Ponderings from My Heart (@ponderingsfrommyheart)
Melanie of A Bit of Scrap Stuff (@mellierc)
Melissa of Happy Quilting (@happyquiltingmc)
Pat of Pat Sloan (@quilterpatsloan)
Pat B. of Life in the Scrapatch (@scrapatches)
Patty of Elm Street Quilts (@elmstreetquilts)
Rebecca of One Wee Bird (@oneweebird)
Sarah of 123 Quilt (@123quilt)
Seema of SSK Craft Shop (@sskcraftshop)
Sherri of A Quilting Life (@aquiltinglife)
Sondra of Out of the Blue Quilts (@sondradavison)
Stephanie of Quilt ‘n Party (@quiltnparty)
Tanya of Tanya Quilts in CO (@tanyaquiltsinco)
Teresa of Aurea’s Kitchen (@aureaskitchen)
Vickie of Crocheting Vixen (@crochetingvixen)

Fat Quarter Shop has kitted up fabric for both the top and also for the backing, in April Rosenthal’s newest fabric collection, Mama’s Cottage.

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For more information about the sew along, including this month’s pattern download, you can check Fat Quarter Shop’s Clementine Sew Along landing page.

If you’d like to sew along, Fat Quarter Shop is asking for a $5 donation for each block pattern download, which you can donate here, to help them reach their goal of $40,000 raised to help in the battle against childhood cancers.

Gingham Block pattern

February 6, 2016February 6, 20161 Comment

We have a sewing group in my neighborhood, and we’re running another quilt block swap this year. The pattern that February’s queen bee wants cannot be found online, so I’ve written one up for us. It’s going to be pretty cute!

Gingham Block pattern.docx-page-001

Gingham Block pattern.docx-page-002

Just right click on the images, save, and print.

Or, you can click here and view the file in PDF format.

And, to answer the oft-asked question: The “medium” and “dark” color should be shades of the SAME color. (ie. “medium PINK” and “dark PINK”)

Uniquely Yours Quilt Block Swap 2015

February 24, 2015February 24, 20151 Comment

I thought I would be brave this year and join an online quilt block swap, but every single one that I went to sign up for had already closed its registration. So, I posed the idea to my friends on Facebook–anyone wanna do a quilt block swap with me this year?

Happily, seven other women thought it sounded like fun, and so here we are in our first month of our swap. Our members range from not knowing how to thread their sewing machines to blue ribbon winners at the local Fair. It’s pretty awesome–we’re all sharing what we know, and we’re asking questions when we don’t know what we’re doing.

Seeing that we have such a range of experience, our swap is starting with the easiest types of skills and blocks and then taking it up a notch each month. By the end of the year we should be masters of half-square triangles, quarter-square triangles and corner piecing; but first we’re starting out with straight square patchwork.

This month’s “Queen Bee” chose the “Streak of Lightning” block from QuiltersCache.com, but with a twist: she wanted each colored block to be different, and to tell something about the creator of the block. I made my block, plus one extra for a friend who doesn’t have time this month because she’s moving, and settled back to bask in my awesome “I’m all done”-ness.

But then I went to square up my block to 12.5″ and found, to my horror, that my block didn’t even measure in at 12 inches! Sigh. I ripped out all the seams and tried again, taking extra care this time to get my seam allowances to be truly scant. My second attempt measured in at a near perfect 12.5″. Whew!

I won’t post a picture of the swap blocks just yet, so as to keep their appearance a bit of a surprise for the recipient, but I have decided that I’m going to make a Swap Sampler Quilt with some Michael Miller “Spring Couture” precuts that have been waiting patiently in the stash for such a thing. and I will show those blocks to you:

I was feeling rather springtime-ish when I started making these up, so I went with some fresh greens. Upon further consideration, I probably should have gone with some pinks and purples, seeing that this was February’s block, which would suggest Valentine’s Day. Oh well, I’ll try to remember that for next year.

I ran into some seam allowance problems with these as well, and couldn’t figure out what was wrong with them. Turns out that my 2.5″ strips are actually 2. 625″ strips–a full 1/8″ larger than they’re supposed to be! Ugh. Oh well, now I know, and I’m just going to keep them as is as a “sweet” memory of all the seam allowance problems I had with this particular block. They’re still pretty.