Finished or Not Friday: A July Recap of Sorts

 With August starting,  I'm checking in with everyone over at Quilty Girl Alycia's for this week's Finished or Not Friday link-up!

The past few months of Summer have been very scattered for me.  I have worked on many projects but most not within the project timeframes or deadlines I'd planned.  The extreme heat we had often left me too drained to stick to my plans.  Added to that was numerous community garden days and my DH on vacation for a week which pushed my already scattered attention to the wind so my project plans got even more interrupted than could have been anticipated!  

And yet, when it comes to quilting the projects must prevail!  So here's a few things I've managed to either get done -- or not!

A 3 Yard Quilt-A-Thon!

First a big finish: a three yard quilt for a future raffle:  Fabric Cafe's "Checkmate" pattern with a gardening theme!

Front

Back with label area.

The "Checkmate" design was featured as their June "Quilt of the Month".  Inspired by a kit in their video,  I made my own and finished the top in June but didn't finish the quilting until late July.  

The motif on the Checkerboard squares was done using the Silly Moon Quilting Co.'s "Picket Fence" ruler.

When my quilting focus was so scattered, I found that for all of May, June and early July,  I was consumed by watching new and old Fabric Cafe videos.  Watching their videos are always so inspiring especially since their designs always seem like they will be so simple to "fabric fund", cut out and piece. 

Of course all of that quilty inspiration (or should I say enabling) resulted in a bit of a "Fabric Cafe 3 Yard Quilt-A-Thon" with some purchases and project prep!  In late June, over the course of three days, I managed to cut out three more 3YQ kits!

One for St. Patrick's Day

One for Mardi Gras

A flannel kid quilt, possibly for donation

I've longed to make quilts for the two holidays because they often fall within the same week or sometimes even days of each other.  My plan is to quilt them "back to back" so I can just flip over to the side needed when each begins and then only have to store one quilt but can honor two holidays!  

While the fabrics for the St. Patrick's quilt are new, the two other kits have been in my stash for years so it's good to finally get them headed toward being made up.  

Catching up on my "Alaska BOM"

I had started making Edyta Sitar's "Alaska" design back in June of 2025.  I used a Red, Pink, White/Cream and Blue colorway that I saw posted on Edyta's blog back in 2019.  I had managed to stay pretty much on track making the blocks -- that is until this summer, LOL!  I was supposed to make the last of the blocks I needed for the center back in May and when I didn't get it done that month or in June, I was determined to get them done in July.  I finally did although that didn't happen until the last week of the month.

 These were eight mirror image blocks so now this is the completed layout of the center of that quilt:

Of course now I need to sew all of those blocks together!  Unfortunately,  I am still not finished with the block making as I plan to make an addtional pieced outer border of blocks following another version of the design I'd seen on Edyta's blog when she was asked how to make the original design bigger.

Alaska with an extended border

So the BOM block making will continue probably well into September.

Other Red, Cream and Blue Quilting

"Alaska" was also one of the projects that was on my list of things to work on during this "patriotic season" from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  And while I have other projects from past periods that were supposed to also fill that production time, instead something NEW came up in the quilt project crosshairs!  Do you remember when MODA offered "Frivols" tins back in 2016?

What it included

This is the second one in the series of twelve offered that year.  It features fabrics by Minick & Simpson from their "Polka-Dots & Paisleys" line.  I have picked up a few of the different Frivols tins over the years on the secondary market and when this one came up at a great price I had to snap it up!  I did have good reasons though:  I'm a big fan of those designers having made my Brrr! quilt back in 2013 from one of their lines and in this kit the fabrics are in the "patriotic colors" of the current season.  

Then there is the fact that looking around, most of the offers for this tin were selling at premium prices way above what they originally retailed for so finding one below the retail price was a score.  The biggest reason was that often the projects in these tins required purchasing additional background fabric in order to be made but this is one of the ones where the fabrics in it covered everything except the backing and binding.  Needless to say I couldn't resist making it up!

Top and backing and a label was part of the kit!

Further proof that this was "meant to be" was that when I went looking to see if I might still find fabric from the line for the backing and binding, I found something even better!  Someone on eBay was selling just the fabrics from this same tin and also at a decent price!!  How lucky was that?!?  Even so I still needed to fill out the back a bit and had seen two prints from a more recent line of theirs called "Union Square" and picked them up too.  The two prints were of -- wait for it -- Paisleys and Polka Dots LOL!  

I had hoped to have been able to have this quilted before I had to post but just finished these up last night so this is in the category of "Finished But Not (Fully) Finished" as we cross stitchers say.

The other good news is that back in 2022, I had signed up for Minick &  Simpson's “Blue Pear”  Block of the Month.  The blocks in it were colored with Blue and Lime Green fabrics on neutral backgrounds.  Later that year after seeing Pat Sloan's “Hometown Charm” quilt colored in Red, Cream, Blue with Lime Green accents, I decided to source and add M&S Red fabrics to the BOM kit stash with the idea of now making it up to look similar in coloring to Pat's quilt.  So with the extra kit fabrics, I also have some extra Red and Red on Cream fabric squares to add to that project stash.

Once Again, Something to "Show"

Another project that was supposed to have gotten done earlier this summer but didn't happen until July was that I finally made up the bowl cozies commemorating the "House of the Dragon" TV series.

Flying Dragons and Dragon Scales prints

Flying Dragons and what I call the "Harrenhall" prints

I have a good friend who also loves the show and had a birthday in June so my plan had been to have had these ready for her to choose one then.  Didn't happen but luckily we both had to attend a community meeting this past week so I was able to let her do that then.  I gave her the option of taking one or both and she chose the "dragon scales" one.  Fortunately I have enough of these fabrics left to make another one.  

What was supposed to also get done during this time but didn't was to quilt the dragon quilt top I made back in 2022.  The show's current season began airing back on June 21 and there is now only two more episodes to go.  I'm hoping that now that I finally got the "Checkmate" quilt done,  I might be able to focus on getting the dragon quilt quilted so I can have it ready for when the next (and last) season of the show airs two years from now. 

Not Much Either For "Christmas In July"

The last thing I had planned to work on last month was to finally quilt the two tops I finished back in 2024.

Needless to say that didn't get done!  However, I have a real simple plan for the top quilt in the picture ("Christmas Trip Around the World") so might still try and get that done as an August project.  I'm due to visit my MIL and her longarm in September so am thinkng I might take the bottom "Letters To Santa" one with me on the trip and try to finish that one there.  There are two other CIJ projects that still need piecing.  I may try to make the easier of the two this month but the other more involved one will have to wait until October or November to get back to.

I did however do one little thing for CIJ:  in July the Quilting Books, Patterns and Notions website had a clearance sale and I picked up this:

The ornament on the right was the one I really wanted but was already "out of stock" when I was on the site.  However,  I also liked the one on the left so got it.  I liked that it was Red and White so would go with my Red and White Christmas decorating.  

I had liked the other one for the black plaid behind it which would go with the Red, Black, Green, White and Gold decorating scheme I plan to do this year (that is, if I finish those CIJ projects!).  When it arrived,  I realized I had just the thing in stash to make BOTH desires work!

I just sewed two fabric circles slightly larger than the ornament together,  stiffened them with interfacing and taped them to the back of the ornament I had purchased.  So I can use it this year and remove the backing circle when I want it to just be a Red and White ornament.  Problem solved!  

So that's a taste of what a scattered summer quilt mind looks like!  Hopefully your Summer has been a little more organized and you were able to complete some projects.  I guess I'll find out when I head back over to Alycia's and read what everyone else has posted for "Finished or Not Friday" this week!

Happy Fourth of July!

Cross Stitch design by Susan Ache from her "Summer Memories" book.

And a happy 250th birthday to the United States of America!  May we unify to work towards all the promises that inspired its founding.

Finished Or Not Friday: Did You Ever Quilt a Rainbow....

Okay, the post title happened because when I started writing this post, this popped in my head:

Joining in once again over at Quilty Girl (and new Grandma) Alycia's for this week's "Finished or Not Friday" linkup!  

I present my finally finished "Rainbow Scrappy Log Cabin":

Front

Back

I say finally because this was one of the six (!) projects I started back in 2021 when I decided to finally dive into Angela's (of the So Scrappy blog) Rainbow Scrap Quilt Challenge. This pattern is the one that comes with Accuquilt's Log Cabin die although they call it the "Scrappy Star Log Cabin".  I wonder if that's because Pam Heller,  Accuquilt's Cutting Expert always cites this die as a good one to use to cut up your scraps. 

After learning about and following the RSC, I immediately envisioned using the pattern for the challenge since that would absolve me from having to choose a colorway for the quilt.  Use all the colors in the rainbow and you don't have to pick a specific color direction!

Funny thing was that of all the projects I started that year, I wound up only picking and die cutting the fabrics for this during the challenge since I realized that I wanted to have all of the fabrics gathered and complementary before starting to piece the blocks.   As a result the actual block sewing didn't start until 2022.  However as usual with a lot of projects on my plate, I only made maybe three blocks that year and then this got lost in the project shuffle.

It got revived again in 2023 when the American Quilters Society teamed up with Accuquilt and held a quilt along for this pattern.  I got the top done but then the next usual question/issue was how to quilt it and so it sat again.  In 2024 Angela Walters held another of her free motion quilting challenges called "How Do I Quilt It?"  that covered stitch patterns for Snowball, Chevron, Log Cabin and Curved blocks and Applique borders.  That year I also had a Snowball block quilt that I was looking for inspiration for the quilting.  I did get that one done but unlike another time when I got two quilts finished because of one of Angela's challenges, this time I wasn't sure any of her approaches worked for me.   So once again it sat! 

Then this year the guild I belong to long distance with my mother-in-law announced that their challenge project for this year would be making a log cabin quilt!  Perfect!  Ever since owning the die I've longed to make a lot of Log Cabin quilts so pulled out all the ideas that I had for them.  However, in the end since this one was already pieced and ready to go and only needed to be quilted, it became the one to get done!  Another push was having a deadline since finished quilts were to be presented at the guild's June meeting. 

My expectation was to get it quilted by the end of May so I could mail it down to North Carolina in plenty of time.  Well you know what they say about the best laid plans:  it still took me until last week to decide on what wound up being a very simple quilting plan:  evenly spaced straight lines across some of the major directions that the piecing followed.  

Even then such simple quilting, done free-motion with a ruler, took me a little longer than I expected.  Then I decided after the quilting was done to add a flange accent to the binding I had planned to do using the outer border fabric. I was able to once again use up some of the leftover Log Cabin strips that I had and sewed them together to form the accent strip to create the effect.

It's a subtle touch next to the busy border fabric but I like it!  Even better, a flange binding is my favorite kind of binding: completely applied by machine!  

I finished it up on Sunday and mailed it out on Monday.  Unfortunately I'm still on pins and needles as it was estimated to arrive to her by yesterday.  It was in NC by that time but as of today is still listed as having been transferred to the postal distribution center in the next big town.  I really hope it gets to her by tonight otherwise after all of this effort, it might still not be part of the guild presentation tomorrow!

Well at least I can say I've checked off another UFO on my master to-do list --- even if it's not the one I was supposed to be working on this month LOL!  This month the number that was pulled on this year's UFO Challenge List (I'm following The Quilted Forest's picks on YouTube) was #1 which on my list is my "Scrap Vortex" quilt. 

That's another one that's only waiting to be quilted but has stumped me up until now.  Mostly because I have some vague yet also specific ideas on what I'd like to do on it but haven't quite worked out how to make that happen.  Hopefully this finish will inspire me to get that one done too.  Not to mention I still have to finish the quilting on March's UFO pick, still layer and quilt April's and cut out the "Newfo" picked from the list for May.  Never a dull moment in my quilt world!

And it's also never a dull moment in the worlds of the quilters that gather at Alycia's each week for "Finished Or Not Friday"!  So head on over there to see what everyone has worked on this past week whether it was finished or not!

To Do Tuesday: Trying To Get Back on Track for June

Ooh, it's been a while since I connected with everyone for Carol's weekly "To Do Tuesday" over at Quilt Schmilt!  The end of April and all of May were busy and only got busier as each week progressed!  It was hard to make time to get to my stitching spots --- whether the couch for some hand work or at my sewing machine.  As a result I feel like I've neglected some of my favorite family members --- my craft projects!!

Some of the life events that got in the way of crafting during this time:  There's been a slate of community association meetings and a related conference to attend.  The community garden season started so there was spring planting,  hosting the 5th grade of the local middle school for their annual Spring visit and attending a virtual eco-gardening course I signed up for.  

Part of our plot in mid-May

Since my last post we've also been on two camping trips with my DH's co-workers: one early season one to test out some new equipment we had purchased and the other our 3rd (for us) annual Memorial Day Weekend trip.  That weekend was also my birthday weekend when I hit a milestone one: the big 6-5!

Just part of our group and a rainy weekend saved by canopies and tarps! 

  

On the crafting front, in late April after finishing the second of two Quilt of Valor tops for the guild that I belong to long distance, it was my plan to then work on quilting a Log Cabin project to submit for their June challenge or to try to work on or finish two LC projects-in-process for the same purpose.  

However that got pushed aside mostly because there have been an over abundance of new quilt project idea "squirrels" that completely overtook my attention and wallet!  I also signed up for both the Quilted Life Summit and the Machine Quilting Summit again this year.  Good thing I opted for the VIP extended access membership for both since I have yet to be able to sit down to watch the sessions!   All of these beautiful distractions and "what ifs" knocked my focus totally off.  While enjoyable and exciting they were all horrible for my productivity!!

All of the same has also been true for my cross stitch productivity as well!  Back in April I couldn't resist embarking on a new Spring themed CS freebie by Jardin Prive.  My hope was to stitch it up quick, finish it using Helen D's "floss wrapped hoop" technique and then also "fully finish" the Lizzie Kate Spring-themed design I stitched up two years ago.  The plan was to put both out on display for Spring before April ended.  

Nope, didn't happen!  This was where the "Peace 'N Love" stitch was as the life events and squirrels got in the way of stitching on it reguarly enough to get it done.  However I'm glad to say that I got in enough time during the Memorial Day camping trip and while doing laundry when we returned to finish it up!  

So now I still need to "fully finish" it as planned.  Unfortunately,  I'll need to get a bigger hoop than the one I originally planned to use to do that since I'd like more space surrounding the stitching in the finish.  

However with June now underway,  I want to focus on "patriotic season stitching and decorating".  In past years I followed the Fat Quarter Shop when they did their "Red, White & June" stitch alongs but I don't see any mention of that on their site this year.  That's probably because they are doing the Celebrating 250 Years of America Quilt Along that started back in February and runs until the same month next year. 

I already had my projects lined up for "RWJ" stitching for both cross stitch and quilting.   For the former there were soooo many great cross stitch patterns being offered to honor the country's big occasion when I looked them up at the start of the year:   

Click the picture to enlarge and excuse the few non-cross stitch images here....

I did finally settle on purchasing just one pattern to try to make:  

I liked this one because it is done in the tiered cake stand format.  It will be similar to the London themed one I made last year from Erin Elizabeth's series of patterns.

I had picked out this Susan Ache design three years ago when she released her "Summer Memories" book:

I had hoped to start both in May for "Cross Stitch Maynia" but I've already shared how May went off the rails for me.  In addtion to those two cross stitch projects,  I can also continue in the patriotic colors theme by getting back to work on my Laundry Basket Quilts "Alaska" BOM project that stalled due to all the other things that came up last month:  

I only got to three and a half of the next eight blocks I needed to get done. 

Additionally there's the possibility of (finally) FFO-ing my Primrose Cottage "United We Stand" WIP and to finish up my "Seeds of Glory" quilted pillowcover since I want to try the same edge finishing technique on both.

The good news is that despite all of those plans, goals and dreams, my actual "To Do" list this week will be super short:   

1. I need to finish quilting my "Rainbow Log Cabin" project to be presented at the June guild meeting in NC the Saturday after next!  

This is my one and only priority right now even though I hope to also still do some cross stitching in the evenings as well.  

Needless to say there's never a dull moment even if it's not always doing the crafty things I love.  So I am glad to jump back in by linking up with everyone for  "To Do Tuesday" at Carol's Quilt Schmilt blog and look forward to seeing what everyone else will be working on this week! 

P.S.  If you are a Tula Pink fan, you've got to check out reports (article here and video here) of her career retrospective that was displayed at the recent H + H industry show.  Very fun, colorful and inspiring!!

To Do Tuesday: Not Much Accomplished But Definitely Something to "Show" For It!

It's time again for "To Do Tuesday" with Carol and the quilters gathering at "Quilt Schmilt"!

Not a lot to report on last week's "To Do" list but it was a thrill filled week none the less!  I had a long list of things I had hoped to get done but only got to two of them:

I did add the last two borders to finish the "Picture That" QOV top that was Item #3:

And its pushing maximum density on my design wall!

I'll be sending it down with the other QOV top made and both will be given to the guild member who will quilt them.  Now that it's done I really need to work on the Log Cabin WIPs I also want to finish.  I want to send at least one of them down along with the QOV tops to my MIL in May so it can be presented at the guild's "Log Cabin Challenge" meeting in June.   

I also did get to Item #5 and made up the first of the two "Alaska" BOM blocks for this month:

Two down six more to go!

The reason I didn't get to anything else this week was because of two special occasions:  the first was that my DH and I celebrated our anniversary!  My gift for the occasion was actually something I had asked him about a month ago:  We attended the American Quilters Society New England Show held in Hartford, Connecticut!

I had known that the show was scheduled for this past weekend but hadn't put two and two together that our anniversary was the day after the show opened because I had already planned to go on the show's last day on Saturday.  However when my husband asked what I wanted to do to celebrate,  I asked if he could take Friday off from work so we could go to the show that day instead.  I figured the crowds were likely to be a little less if we did that and he could use the next day to rest after walking the show with me!

It was my first time attending an AQS show.  I thought they had held this show here before but it was actually the first time the show has been held in CT.  It is also only the second time they have held a show in the northeast since the first one held in Syracuse, NY in 2016.  

As we entered the show (after a stop at the "show swag" booth),  we got to see a display "in the round" of all the big show winners:

For me, this one was particularly influential.  I had talked last week about adding applique to my "Hexie Snowflake" quilt but had been debating about whether I "should" really do it by hand since the hexies had been done that way.  Well this quilt and most of the others in the show were done with fusible applique and machine stitched and all were gorgeous!  

So that settled that for me because the applique I wanted to add would be easier done that way any way!  There was also another quilt in this show by this quilter that excited me but more on that later.

There was a great exhibit of landscape quilts called "A River Runs Through It: The Farmington River Quilt Experience".

All the quilts in this exhibit depicted quilted renderings that captured the beauty of this Connecticut “Wild & Scenic” waterway.   The quilt pictures were designed so that the image of the waterway "flows seamlessly from one quilt panel to the next".

The latest Cherrywood Challenge quilts were also on display with the theme of  "Abyss – Creatures from the Deep":

This is just one wall of two!

There were also a lot of Quiltworx by Judy Neimeyer quilts on display:

There were some more versions of this particular design as well as a few other Quiltworx designs in the show.  It occurs to me now that years ago when quilt and fabric designer Jackie Kunkel still lived in Connecticut, she was a popular Quiltworx instructor and held many classes at her shop Caton Village Quiltworks showing quilters how to construct these patterns.  So it's no surprise that there are still so many Quiltworx enthusiasts among CT quilters.  Jackie and her family moved to Arizona in 2016 where she still runs her quilt business.

I attended a lecture on entering quilts in an AQS show given by Michelle Thompson, the AQS Contest Coordinator.  She said that for most patterned designs (or images used to inspire a quilt) you have to get and submit written permission by the designer or image artist along with your entry to use their work in the competition.  However,  AQS already has a "blanket permission" from Judy Neimeyer for any Quiltworx designs so you would not need to supply that if entering one of those designs in one of their shows. 

There were a couple of "Dear Janes" on display:

This particular one was set "on point".

I had a wonderful conversation with a group of ladies who have seen the original at the Bennington Museum in Vermont.  They say it's phenomenal in person and is displayed horizontally (not hung) and the museum only puts it out on display once a year (in September)!  Yet another of my "quilt bucket list" items I really need to plan to go see!

The first of two big surprises for me was that Ricky Timms "The Visitation" was on display at this show:

This quilt had won "Best in Show" in Houston in 2025 and it won 1st Place in the "Large Quilts - Stationary Machine Quilted" category here.  I had seen the video he made about making this quilt so it was a big thrill to get to see it in person!!  Even my husband was very impressed with it.  

The other unexpected quilt sighting was to see another Pat Holly quilt --- this one made with her sister Sue Nickles:  the original "Jubilee Album" quilt was on display!

This one was part of the "Threads of Liberty: Celebrating 250 Years of American Spirit with AQS Instructor Quilts" exhibit.  

Back in January when I made the label for my "Beth Dutton - Yellowstone" quilt it had been because I saw the cowboy boot block on the cover of an issue of the Fons & Porter Love of Quilting magazine from 2003.  That issue had been one of the issues that year that this quilt had been patterned in as a series quilt. 

 

I had this set of magazine issues because at one point in the past I had thought about making this quilt.  Making the label block revived my interest in making this quilt but this time as my "America's Semiquincentennial" quilt.  Hmmm, is this one of those signs that the Quilt Muses are telling me to "go for it"?!?

Needless to say there were many, many, many more quilts we saw that day!  Added to that was the vendor mall (and two CT LQS that I have visited in the past were vending) and an opportunity to sew up a few blocks for the "Quilters for a Cause: Supporting Local Heroes" charity at a booth staffed by members of the Greater Hartford Quilt Guild.  Yes, it was a great anniversary activity and I look forward to attending this show again when it returns to Hartford next year but it will be in August then.

Our Community Garden had its first meeting of the season the day after we attended the show.  I only saw the announcement of it after we came back from the show so it was a good thing we had changed the day I had originally planned to go to it!  Although the garden's official opening will be late this year (not until mid-May due to continuing garden bed construction work),  there will still be times I will need to start going in to prepare our bed for planting.  So Sunday was a total "chill out and recuperate" day for both of us!!

Now that the "glow from the show" is starting to recede, the new "To Do" list for this week is:

1.  (Once again) hoping I can continue and finish quilting "Modern Twist".

2.  Layer "Lady Claire Boxtrot" so I can start quilting on it before this month ends.   

3.  Test out doing some of the fusible applique motifs for the "Hexie Snowflake" wallhanging and decide if it can get done this year.  

4.  Piece two more of the "Alaska" BOM blocks.  

5.  Make the final stitching decision for the "Rainbow Log Cabin" top and layer it.

6.  Start making the alternate blocks for the RSC "Rainbow Log Cabin Hearts" layout.  

Another long list that I'm not sure how much I will get to.  So I look forward to seeing what everyone else will be trying to get done in the coming week on the "To Do Tuesday" lists over at Carol's "Quilt Schmilt"!