September Recap: A Lot of Life and Finally A Lot of Quilt Stitching!

Unlike the Summer months, September started off with a lot more "life stuff" than quilting stuff. 

Life:  Travel and Gardening 

For the Labor Day Weekend, my DH and I went camping with some of his co-workers to Watkins Glen State Park here in New York.  It is known for its gorge and waterfalls! 

One of my husband's co-workers is a Nascar fan so we also checked out the race track in the area.

We got to watch cars run the track and then visitors got to bring their personal cars onto the track and drive a few of laps around it! 

On this trip, for the drive up and back and for sitting around the campfire, I brought my "Open Your Heart" cross stitch project with me.  When we got back home I continued working on it and got another page of it completed! 

The left side of this is what I worked on. 

In our community garden, the new beds are still under construction.  

My husband and I had demo'd our old bed back in May and I had to move whatever we had in the bed into Grow Bags and keep them on our terrace until we had a bed again.  Then in June we were assigned one of the beds that had been renovated last year since the members who had that bed are no longer using it (although they are still members of our garden).

I returned the pots of mint and the Swiss Chard plants I had salvaged from our old bed although the garlic starts I had planted last Fall didn't survive the move.  I planted a new Collard start that settled in well and we were able to harvest some which we cooked for one of the meals on our camping trip.  I had also seeded a bunch of tomato plants but admit it was a bit too late of a start for those.  I also didn't go over to the garden much due to the very hot Summer weather so only two plants grew enough to fruit and ultimately neither yielded much.    

Determined to do better for the Fall, I watched videos of some of my favorite gardeners on "You Tube University" for tips on what to plant in August but then never got that done.  So I watched what to plant in September and finally got a late start on that during the second and third week of the month.   Luckily, at this point things are starting to sprout so I'll see how it goes as the Fall progresses into Winter.  

Finally A Finish!

As I had talked about in Part 1 of my July Recap, this was the month I finally quilted my "Apple Crisp" project that I started back in June. 

The full finish report is here.

 More Cross Stitch

Cross stitch is slowly but surely becoming the kind of obsession for me that quilting is, LOL!  Despite having "Open Your Heart",  two "Christmas In July" starts and the Summer Camp project going,  I started yet another new cross stitch project!   

If you've read my cross stitch posts, you know I love "snarky" cross stitch designs.  I also love that crafting (either cross stitch or quilting) helps with decorating.  I've had an area on one of my dining room walls that I've long wanted to fill.  I have plans for a mini quilt for it but had also thought about adding cross stitch to the space. Then I saw this kit and had to have it:

However, at almost $35 it was expensive for an impulse buy!  However, I realized that a lot of what was in the kit I already had in the house.  The only thing I needed to purchase was the pattern and frame.  Fortunately, the pattern was available on Etsy.  The frame looked like the ones I have purchased before: 

Sure enough it was and I ordered it, bringing the total cost of the supplies down to $13!  Score!  This turned out to be a relatively quick stitch for me and I got it done in about a week.  In order to prep it for framing,  I realized that a Gadget Fanatic opportunity also presented itself:

I'd long wanted this ruler because the pattern seen here and purchased back in 2021 needed it.  Well now I can justify the ruler purchase, LOL!  Once the cross stitch piece has been washed and cut with the ruler, it'll be ready for framing and hanging!

Pat Sloan Quilt Alongs

This month I started following two of Pat Sloan's quilt alongs.  The first is one I am actively participating in: her  "Ode To Our National Parks" Block Wednesday quilt along.  This is the first time I've been ready to participate in one of her quilt alongs while it is actively going on!  This was partially due to the fact that I knew right away what I wanted to use for it and already knew where to find them.  

I had become familiar with what was offered in Riley Blake's National Parks fabric line when I had shopped for a panel to make a quilt that will chronicle our own National Park journey.  So I mapped out which prints and colors I wanted to stash.  This is what I got:

I'll also be adding some "Grunge" and "Freckles" tone-on-tones to the mix.  One of the prints I wanted to get was the black one in the middle which was on sale at Missouri Star Quilt Co.  Ordering that gave me the opportunity to add something else to the order I had long wanted to buy:

I needed these for the other Pat Sloan project I am following!  Pat has been doing another quilt along for the "Piece and Quilt Sampler" from the book "Celebrate With Quilts" by Lissa Alexander and Susan Ache.  She is using fabrics designed by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree Quilts for that.  Rather than doing the sampler, I decided that when she worked on hers I'd work on catching up on my "Scrappy Figs" project.  

I was inspired to make that project when Pat made Joanna's "Christmas Figs" sampler back in 2018.  I started on this project as a self-directed BOM in 2020.  I had made a few more blocks for it back in January when the project came up on my APQ UFO Challenge list.  Now Pat can help me move it further along!  

However, one issue I've had as I have stashed Fig Tree fabrics for this project is storage.  Until now I had used this bag...

...but it was getting difficult to keep the fabric organized and to easily see what I had.  I had seen the MSQC bags earlier this year and figured they might help corral the stash.  Since I was ordering the National Park fabric (and admittedly a few other things during their Labor Day Weekend sale), I decided to also get the bags.  What's lovely is now my Fig Tree stash is neatly stored and visible!

Admittedly though while I did the cutting for one block and pulled stash for another, I didn't get to sew them up.  Sigh!  Oh well, when Pat works on this next month I'll be ahead!   

Quilt Stitching On National "Sew A Jelly Roll" Day 2024

When I saw announcements early in the third week that it was once again time for "Sew A Jelly Roll Day", I decided it was the perfect opportunity for me to continue what I'd been doing!

The term "Jelly Roll" when referring to a rolled up bundle of 2-1/2 inch precut strips was coined by the MODA Fabrics company so they take the lead on promoting this quilty holiday.   Each year they also offer fun free patterns to get your quilt along motors running!  However, all of the quilting fabric industry has enthusiastically embraced this pre-cut which can be also found under names like Rolie Polies, Maple Rolls, Roll Ups, Pixie-Strips or Bali Snaps.  So you can celebrate the day with strips no matter what they are called!

I did so last year with a kit bundled with strips from Windham Fabrics "Gala" line in order to make a quilt I'd wanted to make for years:  Bonnie Sullivan's "Over and Down Under" quilt.  

Last year I spent Jelly Roll Day cutting and piecing the parts and then finished putting the top together about a week later. I had started quilting it right after that but ran into some snags.  My then relatively new Juki 2010Q didn't seem to like the monofilament thread I was stitching with and broke constantly.  Also I had wanted to outline stitch along the "woven look" strips and my Juki walking foot didn't have a guide bar so I had to tape off the rows and columns adding considerable time to the process.  As a result I wound up setting the project aside partially quilted in order to move on to other projects.

Since that time, I've discovered some things that have helped address those problems.  I learned there actually is a guide bar contraption that can be attached to the Juki walking foot and got that.  

I also picked up some tips about working with monofilament during the virtual "Free Motion Quilting Summit" I viewed in August.  The other good news about this project is that since I am currently participating in Pat's "National Park" quilt along, I'd love to finish this quilt during that series for this reason:

I had purchased this Riley Blake Pillow Panels yardage to insert into the back of this quilt for two reasons:  the colors went so well with the strips from "Gala" and I had started the quilt right before my DH and I took a camping trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 

I had actually hoped to finish the quilt to take with us on that trip but that didn't happen.  We were supposed to go back to the park again this year but we've been so busy with other trips that we did not start the planning for it until late.  By that time there was so much news of increased Bear activity and wildfires in the park that we decided to hold off and do the trip another time.  Good thing we did too since now there's the issue of the hurricane storm damage in that area.  Now that this quilt is a little closer to being finished, one day it may still get to the park!!

So for this year's Jelly Roll Day, I was able to move the quilting on it a little further along which encouraged me to continue stitching on it until it is complete.  It was also great to find another way to enjoy this quilty celebration whether you are able to work on an old or new project!   At this point I am about three-quarters of the way through on finishing the quilting up.  

Unfortunately, I will have to break off from it to work on a deadline project but will probably finish it up when we come back from North Carolina later this month.  

Last Stitching Project:  Heartland

In my August Recap post, I talked about finding inspiration for free-motioning a Fabric Cafe 3 Yard Quilt design that I had made the top for last year.  I had tried to longarm it at my MIL's earlier this year but couldn't get the machine to stitch out the pattern I wanted.  Armed with a design learned in the "Free Motion Quilting Summit",  I've got this one about half way done too!

As with the "Over/Under" quilt, this one will now have to wait until we return from our upcoming trip down South to be completed.  

Lastly, Another Big Quilting Industry Loss

This month I also learned of another loss to the quilting industry.  On Kimberly Jolly's Jelly Roll Day live stream, she mentioned that Daniela Stout of  Cozy Quilt Designs had passed.

I have many of Daniella patterns but admit I haven't made any yet.  Interestingly, Kimberly noted that while Moda gave the name to Jelly Rolls, it was Daniella who started the whole thing about cutting and using 2-1/2" strip cuts for workshops in her store!  Then eventually the quilting fabric industry picked up on the idea of adding strip pre-cuts to their fabric line offerings.  Once again another huge light in the industry has gone out and she will be missed!

Now that I'm all caught up, hopefully I can keep up to date on posting the progress of projects as we zoom towards the final quarter of the year! 

August Recap: RSC, Cross Stitch Summer Camp, A Favor for a Friend and More FMQ Inspiration

Re-Visiting the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

After a busy July, things did not slow down for August!  My plans for the month started off with pulling the number for my American Patchwork and Quilting UFO Challenge  list.  In the piecing category (this year I made a separate list for projects that need to be quilted), the number that came up was for my "Twisted Ribbons" project which is one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.

I checked in with Angela's So Scrappy RSC information page and the color for the month was Orange.  What was good is that I needed that color in my other ongoing RSC projects as well so I pulled together pieces from stash and scraps.

Unfortunately, in order to work on "Twisted Ribbons",  I would have needed my design wall and as noted in my last post, it was still filled with the layout for the Christmas Scrap Squares project so that was not possible.  

However, I took the time to review all the RSC projects and I saw that my Log Cabin Hearts is probably the closest to getting to a finished top.  So I did cut the strips needed for an Orange block for that.  I had already cut sets for colors called earlier this year.  Since the RSC page now also had the color call for September, I added added more color block sets for that too.  

Now I will be taking this project with me on our upcoming trip to visit my MIL as one of the projects for our mini quilt retreat. 

Cross Stitch Summer Camp

Every August, Sheri the Colorado Cross Stitcher hosts Cross Stitch Summer Camp.  For the months of June and July she will give prompts which guide stitchers in choosing a project to work on for it.  For August the prompt is always the same:  "Try Something New".   For me that was the perfect excuse to start a project I had come across after viewing Flosstubes discussing the new patterns that debuted at the Nashville Needlemarket in early March.  

I saw a kit for a pattern that was said would be stitched in wool.  Having made wool quilt projects, I was curious about how that translated into cross stitch.  

The wool floss is on the left.

I admit I started on this late so by the end of August had not gotten far with it.  I've continued to work on it after August and here is where it is now. 

Commissions, Commissions.....

That month I also got a quilt commission request.  A long time friend of mine called to ask if I had an "African themed" quilt I might part with.  She had a co-worker who would be traveling to that country and wanted to give a unique gift for an upcoming birthday party for her.  I admitted I didn't have one but that I did have a fabric stash as this is something on my quilty wish list!

We put our heads together and came up with the idea of me making a jewelry roll like the ones I'd made her and another friend of mine.  She picked out the fabrics she liked and I made it up.

Unfortunately, this gift was not as well received as my friend expected.  So I had to have the "Quilt Gift Reality Check" conversation with her that we quilters have come to understand:  just because you like quilts and handmade items doesn't mean that others do or appreciate them.  I even passed along a number of links to her to articles that would let her know that this is a situation that is not as uncommon as she would think:

https://www.reddit.com/r/quilting/comments/ew94tv/how_do_i_recover_from_gifting_quilts_and/

https://www.epidastudio.com/7-things-to-consider-before-giving-a-quilt-as-a-gift/

https://www.badassquilterssociety.com/stop-giving-quilts-as-gifts/

https://scissortailquilting.com/finished-projects/giving-quilts/

Although I was able to calm her down a bit,  she was still a bit miffed and at least I got something out of it too:  she has vowed to never ask me to make a gift like that to give to someone again!  That has not however, freed me of the obligation to finally get to work on the memory lap quilt she has commissioned from me for herself, LOL!!   

The other thing I was able to do was to remake a tote bag I had made for her a while back.  She was carrying that one when she went for a mammogram.  Leaving the facility, she was on the elevator with a woman who was visibly upset, having received a rather grim diagnosis.  The woman asked my friend if she could take a picture of the encouraging saying on the front of the bag.  My friend felt so bad for the woman that she gave her the bag and then wondered if I might be able make another to replace it.  

Fortunately, the panel it came from -- Ruby Society's "Pep Talk" is still readily available so I got another panel.  I still had more of the original backing fabric that I had used for her first bag and shopped for a new lining fabric.  I was also able to upgrade the bag straps to cotton webbing which I think is sturdier than the nylon webbing I used the first time.  The best thing was that I was able to deliver both to her in person, making for a nice opportunity for us to meet up as well!  

Free Motion Summit

As I had in July,  I got the opportunity to attend another virtual workshop series: "The Free Motion Quilting Summit".  Hosted by Mary Davis of Mary Go Round Quilts, this was a free three day event (although you could pay for extended access to the videos) that introduced me to many quilting teachers I was not familiar with and re-introduced me to a few I did know.  

What was a big help to me was a workshop by Adria Goode on her "Big Flower" FMQ motif.   

This is an interesting stitch pattern in that it can be used either in blocks or in borders.  If you like it too, she has the free workshop available on her website as well!  

This was just the inspiration I needed to attempt to try to finish another quilt!  I had pieced "Heartland",  a 3 yard quilt back in Fall 2023 and had tried to longarm it when I visited my MIL back in May.  

I had picked out a computerized design and sized it on the quilt but wasn't able to figure out how to get my MIL's machine to stitch it out.  Since that time I think I've figured out what I did wrong and had planned to take it back to my MIL's when we go down to visit her.  However,  I felt the "Big Flower" motif would work well on it so I decided to instead quilt this one on my DSM.  I started that quilting in September and it is currently in progress:

The longarm instruction at the Summit made me also think about my plans for the next time I get a chance to use my MIL's longarm.  To that end, I pulled out another project long over due for finishing.  Looking at it for the first time in years, I could see a new plan for quilting it on her machine.  Armed with that and a new understanding of how her machine works and how to approach longarm projects in general,  I think I'm ready to take a stab at trying to get it done.   It is now packed up to go with us when we leave at the end of the week.

A Big Loss In the Quilting World

Towards the end of August,  I read that another light went out in the quilting firmament:  I learned about the passing of Freddie Moran on Jennifer Sampou's blog.  

For most of my quilty years, Freddy Moran was always talked about for her vibrant use of color and pattern, particularly polka dots.  I gained a new appreciation of her belief that "Red is a Neutral" when I worked on Red and White quilts these past few years.   

There is another tribute to her on the C& T Publishing blog.  Two more tributes to Freddy's work (done while she was still alive) can be seen in two videos by The Quilt Show here and here.   

In honor of her passing, I picked up a copy of her book "Freddy's House".  What's cool is that the used copy I got is autographed! 

She was also well known for her collaborations with the also dearly departed Gwen Marston.  I still want to try to get at least one of the books they wrote together.  

So that's it for August!  Last up will be a summary of September!

July Recap: Part 2 - Christmas In July: Quilting and Cross Stitch

In my previous post I talked about having plans for doing a lot of quilt stitching.  However, also in July I followed along with the crowd and got this year's Christmas projects underway for holiday decorating.  Two are quilty ones and two are cross stitch projects.  I should note here that I had really planned to start these along with another really big cross stitch project at the start of the year but you know how that goes....

Quilting for Christmas

The primary project I worked on for "Christmas In July" is "Letters To Santa" from the MODA Fabrics quilt along from 2022.  

For the quilt along, MODA had designers make up the letters in their signature Bella Solids and used the lettering designs from Primitive Gatherings Mini Alphabet Quilt pattern.  I recognized the letters as half size versions of the same ones offered by MODA during their "Spell It With MODA" Bake Shop pattern series back in 2016.   

The good news is that I still had the patterns I downloaded from that earlier quilt along.  I also had experience in converting the letters -- which were designed to be made from Jelly Roll strips -- into half size letters using 1-1/2" strips.  In 2019, I had used the half-size letters to make Vanessa Goertzen's MODA Bake Shop "When Life Gives You Scraps" pattern as a wall hanging for my MIL for a Christmas gift.  I'll note here that my lap-size version of the same quilt using the full size letters and that I started that same year is still a UFO, sigh!  

Since I was already used to adjusting the letter patterns which would give me a result similar to the Primitive Gatherings letters,  I was "all in" when the new quilt along was announced!  I started corralling fabrics for it from my scraps and stash, pulling together any Christmas or Red or Green fabrics I thought might make suitable letters.  

However, my plans that year changed when I decided to instead make Red and White quilts for the holidays.  As I had shopped for fabrics for those,  I found a background print that I wanted to use for this one so stashed that as well.  I also pulled some of the leftover Reds from the R&W stash into this project.  As time went on, I picked up more things as I came across sales on holiday fabric.  I will note that different from the MODA quilts, all of my fabrics are prints and some offered opportunities for fussy cuts.

When I finally went to start this, I was caught up short:  I had not looked at my notes for this since I had first decided on doing the project back in 2022.  And clearly in those notes, I had planned to purchase fabric to expand the width of the patterned quilt to be wide enough for a bed quilt.  Unfortunately though, sometime between then and now, I had decided that I was making this as a wall hanging for the wall at the top of our entrance stairs.  On the downside, that meant using far fewer words.  Fortunately, MODA provided a planning sheet during the QAL which helped me map out what I wanted to "say" in the amount of space I had:

Using the layout map I made, this is how far I got with the words:

Please excuse the wonky layout!

With the words all finished, I still needed to make the pictorial filler blocks to go between the words.  I continued working on this into August and managed to finish up the center of the top.

At this point I still want to add a small border and already have my binding picked out.  I intend to do a pieced back using two colors  of the "post-marked envelopes" print from Riley Blake's "Nicholas - Letters to Santa" by J. Wecker Frisch line that I have.  I will also be adding a few more words into it.  

I'll probably go back to work on this in November with the goal of having the top ready for the start of December at the latest (she said, fingers crossed)!  The other good news is that given the now expanded color scheme of Red, Green, Gold and Black,  I don't need to make a coordinating tree skirt since the first one I made all the way back in 2010 already channels that!  

I did still need a "back of the couch" quilt and I've already got a handle on that too.  I've long wanted to do a 2-1/2" scrap squares quilt like Pat Sloan:

I could never decide on the color scheme I wanted to do for one so embarking on "Letters" this year is perfect to help with that!  As I made the words and filler blocks, I started cutting squares from the stash gathered for "Letters".  Sewing pairs of squares was a great "leader/ender" for the word sewing.  

Then I saw a great Christmas panel of larger squares that had the perfect colors for incorporating into the scrap squares layout.

MODA's "Cheer and Merriment" Panel

Once again Pat is my inspiration in doing this.  She incorporated a large applique block in the center of one of her quilts and a large unicorn panel in the center of another (yes, she has made a lot of these, LOL!).  

To date, I still have a ways to go in laying out the squares for mine:

I love when a project can accomplish multiple crafty desires!!  

Cross Stitching for Christmas

On the cross stitch front, the "Christmas In July" project plan also started with a "Letters To Santa" project that was also inspired by another stitch along!

This Fat Quarter Shop stitch along was also in 2022.  I had first seen it on Pat Sloan's daily videos (of course!) but waited to buy the pattern until I was ready to actually make it.  I even purchased the FQS DMC floss kit since I didn't have any of the floss colors for it already on hand.  What was harder was getting the Charcoal Aida cloth for it but I eventually found that on eBay.  

Back in June, I saw this pattern on the Annie's Catalog site:

Is this just too cute?!?  I love ornament designs so this was right up my alley!  What I loved even more was that Cinnamon sticks will be used for the "logs".  Luckily for me, when I was ready to set this up along with the FQS piece, a few of the floss colors for it were the same ones called for in the "Letters To Santa" piece.  I was able to gather all the rest of the supplies for it from my small (but growing) cross stitch stash!  This is where both are now:

So I am happy to say that Christmas is already well underway and I look forward to being ahead of the holiday game for once!!  Stay tuned, there's more Summer recap coming!

July Recap: Part 1 - A lot of FMQ Plans and Summer Camp

All the FMQ Stitching Plans

July began with a project teased in June:  

With an upcoming Angela Walters "How Do I Quilt It" Free-Motion Quilting Challenge I was pushed to start Apple Crisp,  a project which I had long wanted to do (the link is to the free pattern).

This is a picture as it originally appeared in the Oct 2010 APQ issue.

I spent the end of June and the first half of July piecing the blocks for the project.  I changed the patterned blocks in it from eight inch to six inch so I could use my Accuquilt Snowball block die to make the cutting and sewing easier.  

Trying to meet the deadline, I even pieced some of the blocks while away on a camping trip!

During the FMQ Challenge,  Angela was going to discuss stitching patterns that could be used to fill Chevron, Snowball, Log Cabin and Curved blocks and Applique borders.  

She covered Snowball blocks in the second week of the challenge.  I watched that episode and for the first time watching one of her challenges, I did not immediately get ideas for how to stitch my top.  However, as I looked beyond the stitching she did in the blocks, I did find ideas for filling other spaces in my top.  That combined with some of my own ideas led to what I used to eventually finish this one up.  

Since I spent most of August trying to come up with a definite stitch plan, I didn't actually get to layering this until the start of September.  It is now done and you can read about how it finished up here.

Since the Challenge also covered Log Cabin blocks, that encouraged me to also pull out the Rainbow Log Cabin top I finished back in 2023.  I was hoping I could keep up the quilt stitching momentum and get another UFO completed. 

However I had the same problem with the Log Cabin stitch patterns from the challenge: she showed some great designs but none I really liked for my top.  Then just like for "Crisp",  I did take one cue from how she stitched the dark side of one of the blocks she demo'd and figured I could combine it with another simple plan on the light areas.  Angela had also suggested just using filler designs to stitch some blocks and that was something else I decided I could accept for doing the stitching on this project.  

However, I never did get around to actually layering or quilting that top because of road blocks I had hit with deciding on the final combination of stitch patterns to use on "Apple Crisp" which I considered my first priority.

Summer Quilt Camp

In mid-July, I participated in a series of workshops called "Quilt 2024: Summer Camp" which has now been renamed Quilt and Learn.  For this event, you could sign up for free to watch five days of workshops.  There was also an option to pay $20 to get an extra week of access to all of them or $49 for six months access.  Here is a list of the workshops presented:

Click on the picture to enlarge.

There were a lot of great workshops covering a range of creative techniques and the majority of the instructors were new to me.  This is the first time I had done something like this and I am looking forward to participating in it again when they run it in January 2025.

In addition to all the FMQ planning, I also did a lot of "Christmas in July" stitching but I will talk about that in the next post!