New FREE BOM And FREE Mystery Quilt

 Happy Halloween Quilty Friends!  Today post will be as short and and sweet as candy corn, one of my favorite seasonal treats.  If you've never had candy corn and cashews together, you need to give it a try.  It was my momma's favorite fall treat.  I was leery about the combination at first but it's wickedly addictive!

Now onto some sweet treats with no calories.  Free quilt patterns!  The first one is Bona Lisa's Sweater Emporium.

You can get all the details for this quilt FREE BOM at the following blogs.  Be sure to visit each blog so you can see their take on this quilt.

MooseStash Quilting

Just Let Me Quilt

Creating in the Sticks

Here's a little snippet of my favorite of the three.

Now onto the FREE 

Quiltville Scrappy Mystery Quilt

This is a huge yearly event in the Quiltville Open Studio on Facebook.  Thousands of quilters are up early today waiting anxiously for the launch this years quilt.  

You don't need to be a member of the group to participate in the Mystery Quilt.

Every year on Halloween, sometime around 8 or 9 A.M. Bonnie will post on her blog the basic plan for the mystery quilt.  You know...color pallet, fabric yardage and any tools you may need.  

On Black Friday the first clue will be released on her blog.  This gives you a month to find the perfect fabrics for your quilt.

The Facebook group goes wild!  So many pictures of quilts being made.  I don't always participate but I always watch the Facebook groups progress.

Today and for the next month the group will be full of quilters posting pictures of their fabric pulls.  I really do enjoy the all the excitement around this mystery quilt.

Well that's the basics on this mystery quilt.  If you want to check it out for yourself here's a link to Bonnie's Blog  Hop over, sign up for her newsletter or emails so you never miss a mystery clue.  Don't worry Bonnie doesn't send out a lot of  emails or newsletters.  Maybe one or two a month.

UPDATE

You can find the mystery introduction here

https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2023/10/indigo-way-mystery-introduction.html

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Star Of Hope Mini ~ Quiltville Sew-Along

Hello Quilting Friends!  Today I'm sharing with you a very tiny little mini quilt.  This little mini was inspired my Bonnie Hunter's new Sew-Along called Star of Hope. 

The sew along started a couple weeks ago. You can find all the information about this Sew-Along by clicking here.  It was very tempting join in on the fun.  But the year is quickly coming to an end and I've other self imposed commitments to accomplish.  In order to get the "want to" out of my system I decided to make one star block.  It worked.  I don't want to make an entire quilt of these cute tiny blocks.  

Now before you go hopping over to Bonnie's blog and thinking you are going to get directions to make the star I made...You're not.  Below is her block.  She chose to paper piece.  Lea Anne doesn't like paper piecing.  Not even one tiny block.  

So I went into my EQ program, made a few changes so I can make the entire block of 60 degree triangles.  My block is the same size as Bonnie's, just more pieces.

I printed out the templates and grabbed my 60 degree ruler.  I didn't cut out and use the paper triangle template. Instead, I laid the ruler on top of the triangle so I could see what line I would need to use when cutting my fabric.  I chose not to use the side templates of this block.  More triangles to the sides, then trimmed the block down to size.

It didn't take long to find everything I needed in the scrap bins.  There's no duplicate fabrics in this block.  I love it when I can accomplish no repeating fabrics in a block.

My goodness this was a dilly of a block to put together.  So many tiny pieces and lots of pinning.  A whole quilt of these?  Not for me, not at this size.  Maybe someday I'll make a quilt using this block but BIGGER.

When it came time to trim it to size I was a little disappointed.  The block height was a quarter inch short.  I'm pretty sure this was caused by the bulky seams.  The block was stitched with scant quarter inch.  If I ever make this block again, I will use a super scant seam allowance.

I thought pressing those last three seams open would give me a little room for trimming, obviously it didn't.

Since it's just one block, it's no big deal.    

She's a little wonky but still pretty darn cute.  This little block did just what it was intended to do.  My urge is gone.  I've no interest in making more of this block anytime soon.

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Back Door Beauty Quilt Finish ~ UFO #8

Hey Friends!  My Back Door Beauty quilt is UFO quilt #8 for 2023!  It's been a few months since finishing a UFO quilt top. 

The last UFO completed was Scrap Buster Baskets on April 15.  If you would like to see more of this quilt you can find it here.   Sometime near the end of the year I need to tally up how many quilts were finished in 2023.  I made a few gingham quilts, quilts for the grands, and charity quilts.  I'm pretty sure it will be the most I've ever made in one year.  Most of them were simple quilts with simple quilting but it still counts as a quilt.

 

After months of simple quilts with simple quilting I was ready to quilt something to death.  I think the quilting on this one falls somewhere in between quilted to death and lightly quilted.  Quilting inside the seed applique and diamond shape surrounded by feathers would have tip the scale to quilted to death.  

 

One of my favorite things about a single color backing is the quilting.  Had I used a print fabric for the baking, the quilting would be hidden by the print.  

The print fabrics on the front are from a line called Miss Kate by Bonnie and Camille.  I had planned to use the scraps from the layer cake to make the binding.  While looking for the layer cake I found this Bonnie and Camille gingham.  You all know how I feel about gingham, right?  Well if you're new here, let me fill you in on gingham.  It's the best!  I love it.  Every quilt needs gingham in somewhere.  And it is most definitely the best binding option for almost all quilts.

The one thing that is really hard to see in these pictures is the light colored fabric used in this quilt.  The background for the quilt is a white with light gray crosshatching.  It reads gray in my studio.  The backing was made with two scraps of 108" wide backing fabrics.  One was white and the other is cream.  If you scroll back up and look at the backing you can see the bottom half the the quilt is cream. 

I do have one regret with this quilt... I wish it were bigger so I could put this little cutie on my bed.  I love it!  

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Sneak Peek

 

I Need Some Bright And Happy

 Hello Quilty Friends!  After months of working with not so loved fabrics, it's time to recharge my quilty soul.  Nothing makes this gals heart go pitter pat like a bright and happy quilt.  Oh, I have a ton of ideas for new quilts but I also have a ton of quilt tops needing to be quilted.  So I grabbed the one on the top of the stack.

This one was made back in 2014 and is called Back Door Beauty. It took some digging on my blog to find the start date and quilt details.  If you're looking for a good coffee spewing chuckle this morning, you really should hop over to this link and read my original post about how I acquired this fabric.  

The fabric line used for the applique is a Moda line called Miss Kate by Bonnie and Camille.  The applique is fusible raw edge.   This fairly small quilt barely used half of a layer cake.  Hopefully I can find the rest of the layer cake to use in the binding.

As with most of my UFO quilt tops, this one became a UFO because I couldn't decide on a quilting plan.  Today is no different.  She's loaded and ready to be quilted and I'm drawing a blank.  Sounds like  a good reason to wandering around Pinterest and Google and maybe fall down a rabbit hole or two.

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Denim Quilt Finish

 Mr. Podunk's camping quilt is finished.  He's one happy camper!  The denim and flannel in this quilt were cut from old jeans and flannel shirts collected over the last 2 to 3 years.  A big thank you to the extended family who donated old clothing destined for the trash or thrift shops.

This girl is heavy and should keep him nice and warm this winter on his hunting trips.  The squares were cut at five inches so they finish in the quilt at 4.5 inches.  The quilt measures about 67 x 90.

When cutting the jeans I chose to use the imperfections such as holes and bleached spots.  This gives the quilt a little character.  Some of the back pockets were removed in order to use more of the denim.  This also added a little more visual interest. 

For the first time in many years I did not use 100% poly batting.  I wanted 100% cotton batting but Hobby Lobby only had Hobbs 80/20, so 80/20 it is!  A blue wide backing from Hobby Lobby for the back.  To finish her off I pulled an old blue homespun plaid from the stash for the binding.  

Working with denim and flannel isn't hard but it definitely requires a little more patience.  I broke a needle while piecing the rows together.  Then came the shredding of thread due to a bad spool of thread.  The Coats and Clark quilting cotton spool was tossed in the trash after about the third shred and break.  The piecing and quilting was finished with Guterman serger thread and I had no shreds or breaks.  But when I put this girl on the frame, my old quilter decided to literally fall apart.  I made 3 quilting lines, well 2 and half, when the thread guide fell off.  

How this didn't break the needle was pure luck.

It took about an hour to remove a few parts and reattach the thread guide.  After this it was smooth sailing.  No more problems, the quilt was quilted and bound by the end of the day.  

Until next time...

I hope you find the time to stitch up something sweet!

New Camping Quilt and Shipping Quilts

 The Halloween quilts and pillows are on their way to the grandkids.  Finding a box large enough was impossible.  So I had to split it up into two boxes.  The four quilts and three pillows were stuffed into large vacuum bags and I used the vacuum cleaner to suck out the air.  Of course granny added a few fall themed treats and goodies.  

Now it's time to start on Mr. Podunk's camping quilt using old blue jeans and men's shirts.  I deboned and cut up the jeans and shirts back in August so this should go together pretty quick.  Just lay out the squares and start stacking.

I'm pretty sure I can make more than one quilt.  This quilt will need 315 squares.

I didn't count all the squares when cutting but it looks like there's more than enough.  Here's the picture I posted back in August when I gave up on counting.

After stacking the squares it was time to lay them out.  I did not plan for it to look uniform.  I don't like the way it looks.  So I asked for Mr. Podunk's opinion, after all he's the one that will be using it. He said he didn't care if I changed it or left it as is, it's just a utility quilt.  Great!  This is staying as is!

Denim fabric is notorious for breaking needles.  Let's hope all goes well because I only have two heavy duty needles on hand.  One in the machine and one extra.

I'll be using Coats and Clark Quilting thread for the piecing and the quilting.  I haven't used this stuff in years but it is what I used in my first jean quilt 20 yrs ago.  It worked out fine way back then so why not use it again.

Then while sewing together the first two pieces, this happened.  Of course I immediately blamed the cheap Coats and Clark thread.

But as I dug out the tangled thread I noticed the filthy bobbin area.  This might be the issue and not the thread.  I can't remember the last time I cleaned the bobbin area.  I used to be really good about cleaning it out after every project.

Well, looks like I owe Coats and Clark an apology.   The first to rows went together without a hitch after cleaning. 

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!