Design Wall Monday: Another Project Re-Joins the Design Wall!

Last week's "Design Wall Monday" post was chock-a-block with projects and the wall hasn't had a chance to cool off since!  

More On Continuing Long-Term Projects

In follow-up to the reporting in the last post,  I have completed sewing the rows together for the center of  the "Alaska BOM" top!

Once again, this work got done courtesy of some more leader/ender work!  This time it was when I began sewing the blocks for the "back-to-the-wall project" to be discussed later.  

I should note that this process didn't go perfectly smoothly.  You see the last three blocks on the end of the second row?  When I laid this out to view the finished piecing, those three blocks -- which had been sewn together as a section when assembling the row -- had wound up being sewn in flipped around when I added them to the rest of the row.   

So I had to go back and "un-sew" that section, turn it around and sew it back in.  Despite that one snafu, I was really pleased with how easily and quickly this center got sewn together, all while also working on another project.  This is why I love, love, love "leader/ender" sewing!

As noted in a prior post, I still need to piece even more blocks to make a pieced border that will enlarge the design.  Because we will be going away twice in the coming weeks, progress on this project will be interrupted while we are away.  So I will continue working on this but not until October!

New Backing Fabric for the Gift Quilt

I had also discussed in the last post that I was making a quilt to gift to my HSBFF:

My original plan was to back it with this wide back fabric I had purchased during a Keepsake Quilting clearance sale and had already cut the piece from it that I planned to use.

I had even used that fabric when doing a stitching and thread sample for the project.

However, I admit I liked the fabric more because it was purple, pretty and already in house than I did as something that went with the look of the top of the quilt.  I figured "it's just the back" so could settle for using it.  

However, when I went to look up links for the last post, I saw another fabric in (famous longarmer) Angela Walter's "Quilting Is My Therapy" online store that I really thought would look sooo much better with the quilt top!  It has since arrived and yes, I do like it better.   

At 118" x 49",  the remnant piece as sent isn't totally wide enough to span the top (and allow extra on the sides for quilting take up) so would need to be pieced a bit to make a suitable backing.  

However that presents a new opportunity:  I had planned to make up a special label for this and print it on fabric.  With the original wide-back print I had planned to use already cut to size, I expected to hand stitch the label on after quilting this.  Since the new backing fabric will need to be pieced together,  now once I've made the label I can piece it into the backing which will save me from having to do the hand work and will be securely stitched in when the quilting is done.  Score!    

Halloween in August Continues

I'm pleased to say that the layout of the top for the fun Halloween banner is now completed:

Finished banner layout and pieced backing on the left.

The Star appliques I needed to apply have been added and everything is fused down.  What was good about having waited all this time to get back to this project is that working on this now, I could use my Accuquilt die cutter for the appliques.  I have their Star die and the sizes on it were exactly the size of the patterned stars.  

Ironically, I had already traced out the stars onto the fusible when I worked on this originally but when I pulled them out, I realized that I had done the tracing on the fusible web side not on the paper side.  Okay, why?!?  I don't remember but now that I could die cut them, it didn't matter, LOL!!  At this point I still have to satin stitch down all the appliques to fully complete the top. 

Oh and I learned my lesson: I'm storing this until I get to the satin stitching rolled up around a cardboard tube not folded!

In the picture of the top you can also see the backing that I've made for this.  I love that Moon fabric and had purchased it thinking I would make the whole back out of it.  However it is a directional print and I only purchased a half yard which would have been fine if the print ran vertically and not horizontally.  As such I could only cover about half the banner with it so added the Stars (for the label area) and the Candy fabrics from my stash to fill out the rest.  In fact, you'll see that Candy fabric again next!     

In more Halloween project news:  the Halloween "9 FQ Disappearing Nine Patch" top is also done courtesy of the new fabrics coming in that I ordered to add to the five piece FQ bundle that started this off and the two fabrics from my stash that I added to them.     

From a simple Nine Patch.....

...to a more fun top!

I already have backing fabrics from my Halloween stash picked out and will make it up this week.  As noted on my last post about this project, I already have a fun stitching method that I want to try on this quilt courtesy of something learned at the recent Free-Motion Quilting Summit so am looking forward to getting to sit down and work on quilting this.

"Back To the Wall" For Upcoming Trip Preparation

So the project that has come back to the wall for me to revisit/continue is this one:  

These are two new blocks I've pieced up for my "Sparkle & Shine" Log Cabin project and was the primary project for the "Alaska BOM" leader/ender work.  

I went back to this in the hopes of completing this one (both top and quilting) before we head to my MIL's in two weeks.  The last time I worked on this I had made these blocks:

So as of today, I have six of the nine blocks I need for this project.  The plan for the rest of the week is to sew up the last three.  The next step after that will be to lay out the blocks to decide their final placement in the top, add sashing between the blocks and then vertical sashing between the columns to finish the top.  

I am hoping to then get it layered and quickly quilted to take with me on the September trip to North Carolina.  My MIL's guild which I belong to as a long distance member had run a "Log Cabin Quilt Challenge" with finished projects presented at their June meeting.  I had finished mine in what I thought was enough time to make it there for that but mail delays meant it didn't get presented until the July meeting and my MIL had to do that for me.  

Since I will "be in town" for the next meeting, I'd love to have this ready to personally present it for "Show & Tell" this time around.  I am also considering taking and presenting my "Lidia" mini quilt that I made during the pandemic as yet another example of the versatility of the Log Cabin block.  

I had wanted to start many other desired LC projects for the challenge but this was the only one that I was actually able to get underway.  Who knows, maybe I can get another one started and completed by the end of the year?  We'll be back to visit my MIL early next year so I'd love to be able to present another one on that future trip too.

The design wall should cool off a bit in the comng days as I focus on making up backings and setting up things for quilting.  At this point, I think it'll need the break!

Design Wall Monday: The State of My Quilt Nation

It already feels like August is starting to wind down.  At this point my husband and I are starting to look towards our plans for September and October.  We are scheduled to visit my MIL in North Carolina from mid to the end of September and the first week of October we're headed up to Maine for our third trip to Acadia National Park.  We're hoping to catch the Fall vistas this time and visit the Schoodic Penninsula for the first time.  

As such I am also reviewing the plans I had for the summer and trying to map out my ongoing quilting plans for the Fall.  Which projects will be interrupted by those Fall trips and which can come along on them?  What deadlines do I have to meet after the trips and can I set them up to work on between now and then or do I need to completely reorganize them to be worked on later?  As of this week here is what I have going on or want to work on:

Leaders and Enders Get the Jobs Done!

As I worked on projects over the sumer I've been leader-endering two projects.  In the case of the first -- my "Alaska BOM" -- many times it has been the primary project.  In my recap of things I worked on in July, this is what had been up on my design wall at one point that month:

I had noted that I had finished making the last of the blocks for the center of that quilt.  So this month I have been sewing the rows of blocks together.  For that process "Alaska" became the leader/ender for another project which will be discussed later.  The good news is that I finished sewing together the seven rows of blocks.

Next up will be sewing the rows together to complete the center of the top.  As I had noted back in JuIy, I have plans to expand the size of the top by adding an additional pieced outer border of blocks.  So there will be more block making (that may be the primary or the leader/ender of other projects) as this month continues and we roll into September.

The other leader/ender work that I'm thrilled to say is done is for this project:

This is the "Magic Cube" pattern that was originally published in McCall's Quilting Nov/Dec 2020 and that I downloaded as an individual pattern during one of Quilting Daily's pattern sales.  The reason I started making this one was this:

Back in 2024 I fell in love with Bonnie Hunter's (of whom I am a big fan) "Shoo Fly Shoo" free pattern which had been her leader/ender project for 2019.  She made two quilts of mostly all Shoo Fly blocks out of the blocks she pieced over the course of that year.  I had planned to just leisurely collect appropriately sized scraps and sew up the blocks until I had enough -- or got tired of making them, LOL! 

Well, the minute I later saw the "Magic Cube" design,  I had to pivot!  First because the Shoo Fly blocks in the outer border of it were the same size as Bonnie's blocks but meant I had to make a whole lot less of them.  Second, the large center star and one of the borders are pieced with strings.  I've been really wanting to make more string designs at the least to start winnowing down my "string collection":

Just by chance, that strip hanging out of the bag was from the border fabric of my recently finished "Rainbow Log Cabin" quilt.

I'm hoping this can be the follow up to the "Scrap Vortex" string top I also made in 2024 (and is unfortunately still awaiting quilting) so was thrilled this gave me two opportunities to make something that will use up some more of them.  Finally, it's a "kitchen sink" scrappy quilt so any scrap is welcome.  What's not to love?!?

So I immediately took the six Bonnie blocks I had made up to that point and moved them to a project bin for this.  Although it has taken me much longer than planned, I'm pleased to say that I've now finished up -- as leader/enders -- the 40 blocks I need for that border!

My plans earlier this year had been for these to have been pieced months ago and for this to have already been a finished top by now in the hopes of taking it with me to longarm at my MILs in September.  However, I'm grateful for the progress that has been made and am still encouraged to continue on.  Next up a whole lotta string piecing!!

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Edited 8/25/26 To Add:  Just saw that Quilting Daily has a "Back to School" promotion going on right now and everything on their site is 40% off until August 30!   

A New Gift Project

My BFF from high school and I are still in touch and both hit milestone birthdays this year.  When we spoke back in December she mentioned she would love a quilt.  I have only made her two things prior: a jewelry roll pouch (the second one in this post) and a mug rug when she had to help homeschool her grandson during the pandemic.  Both were made up in purple fabrics, her favorite color.  I had been musing in recent years that I didn't often purchase purple fabric so began picking up a piece here and there with the intention of finding an inspiration for a project "some day".  Needless to say when she mentioned a quilt, that day arrived!

So with what little I already had in stash and two good Keepsake Quilting Year-end and New Year's clearance sales, I picked up a bunch of new purples.  I had bundled together three sets of fabrics with ideas for three possible projects.  The first (because it was expected to be the quickest to get done) was to make one of my now favorite "9 Fat Quarter Disappearing Nine Patch" quilts (and if you'd like to see the ones I've made click here).  However when I tested a layout of the prints I had bundled together for that, it didn't spark me.  

Okay, second choice was this pattern I had picked up at some point because it also could be made with Fat Quarters:

When I sorted through the bundle of the variety of prints I had pulled for it, I was intrigued.  So this became the primary project for those other two leader-ender projects and the bundled set of fabrics became this:

I've since moved some of the squares in it around a bit more.

I had planned to use the border fabric in the center of the quilt but a re-read of the pattern showed that I'd need some yardage to make this design lap size and I really liked that fabric for it.  So I pulled it out of the layout, replaced it with other things and then had to search around for more of it to have enough for the borders.  Luckily, the only source I found it at also had it on sale.  It was meant to be!  

Of course, the next issue is, "okay how will I quilt this?"  One thing I did think was that I really wanted to quilt it in purple thread but I didn't have any cotton threads that color.  I consulted an Aurifil color card and considered what I felt would work.  However the nearest quilt store to me doesn't carry Aurifil so I would have to order it.  I was not thrilled about ordering thread on the speculation that a particular color "might" work so might also mean having to make additional orders to find just the right one.  

Looking through my thread stash again, I did find two threads that seemed like they would work:  a medium-dark gray Aurifil (#2605) and a polyester Glide thread in Lavender.  Okay, I need a test!

I pieced together this test sandwich from the fabric scraps and the good news was that both threads worked!  The gray not only works on the top but also works on the purple wide back fabric I had also purchased during the clearance sale and was glad to have on hand when it came time to set this up for finishing.  However,  I was also surprised how well the Glide thread worked too.  As long as I kept the quilting simple, it provided just enough color and a little sparkle to the whole thing.  

The original idea was to stitch straight lines but I admit that when I sketched that out, it added too many additional visually linear elements to a top that already presented with a lot of lines from the piecing.  So I will be opting for ruler quilted wavy lines using the same ruler I used to quilt my "Roaring Waves" quilt last year.  Now this will be easy to stitch and the waves will add a little more texture and visual variety to the whole thing.  Good!  Now to go through my batting stash for this!

Project Plans From Now to October

For years I've set up projects for Halloween sewing but then never get around to geting them made up in time for the holiday.  Taking a cue from the practice of doing "Christmas in July" (which I should note, I still have projects from last year that I need to finish up for this year, LOL),  I figured if I want to get some done, maybe I should start now and see what I can accomplish by the time the ghosts and ghouls are on the prowl for candy!  To that end I have two:

This is "Whoo Is It?",  a banner project started all the way back in 2014 from the Fons & Porter's "Quilting Celebrations" Fall issue that year.  It had been cut and laid out since then and now needs a good pressing in order to finish it.  What I've learned in the years since is to roll up applique projects like this on an empty paper towel roll or pool noodle to avoid the kinds of folds and wrinkles I'm going to have to deal with getting rid of now.  I'm hoping to work on it and maybe get it at least to a completed top by the end of this month.  

And speaking of Halloween and my previously discussed favorite Fat Quarter design there's this:

The Annie's Attic company ran another of their infamous pre-cut bundle sales and I should have known better than to go look!  But look I did and saw a cute bundle of five Halloween prints for under $10 and couldn't resist!  I've added some fabrics from my Halloween stash (and actually one from the "Whoo" stash bag) and so far have shifted the fabrics around and worked up two layouts.  However, I am still not sure I like the way they work so have already ordered a few more prints that I think might punch it up better.  

This is a really quick design to make up so would really bolster my enthusiasm for working early on Halloween projects if I can settle on a layout.  Fingers crossed that I can do that and also get this to at least a top or even better finished and quilted by month's end.  I already have an idea for the quilting that I learned in the recent Free-Motion Quilting Summit so I'll see what happens!

And so ends the details of all the traffic on my design wall in recent days.  With all of this putting things on and taking them off, I probably need to do a little clean up of the batting on it now!

My MIL gifted me a couple of these little Temu tools a while back and surprisingly they do work! 

Finished Or Not Friday: RWB Edition

 I'm back to join everyone at Quilty Girl Alycia's for "Finished Or Not Friday" with a quick follow-up to last week's post.

A Frivols Finish!

In July I had picked up one of the old MODA Frivols kits.  I got the #2 tin with fabrics by designers Polly Minick and Laurie Simpson and featuring their "Polka-Dots & Paisley" fabric line.  

If you want to know how the whole "Frivols" thing started, check out this MODA Schoolhouse video from 2015 here.

In honor of the current "patriotic season",  I've finished it!

Front

Back with label area

The fabrics in the tin were enough to make the whole top for this small wallhanging the designers named "Faithful".  I lucked up on someone selling just the fabric set from this same tin so used some of those to make the backing and the binding.  The label square came with the full kit.  To help bring the backing to size, I added a Paisley and a Polka Dot print from a more recent M&S line called "Union Square".  It is quilted with a simple all-over meander pattern.

This little quilt is just the right size to swap out with the "Americana Lone Star" I have hanging up now and I can enjoy this one from now through Labor Day.  

I eventually hope to follow in the footsteps of the bloggers at "Occasional Piece & Quilt" and "One Stitch at a Time" and continue the process of making up the other Frivols tins I have.  I also remember seeing a post somewhere on the MODA blog showing how to make a padded lining for the empty tin to turn it into a decorative storage box.

In Other Red, White & Blue News....

I had plans to work on two cross stitch projects as part of celebrating the country's 250th birthday.  I had finished stitching one and posted it for July 4th and now it's "fully finished"! 

This is the "Peace" design from Susan Ache's "Summer Memories" book that features quilt and cross stitch projects.   I love that I was able to use some scraps leftover from making a QOV top a few months back to finish up this little pillow.

However, the second project is still very much a "WISP": a Work In Slow Progress:

Digital pattern purchased on Etsy.

I was surprised to find this one a bit of a struggle for me as I had thought I've done enough projects on Evenweave to be more comfortable working with it.  Well, I'll keep plugging away and eventually it'll get done!

As always I look forward to seeing what others have in progress or completed this week for "Finished Or Not Friday" at Quilty Girl Alycia's!

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 for my community garden:  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 is 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.

Edited To Add:  You can now see it "fully finished" here!

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.  

Plan:  Color this to look similar to this

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.

Dragon Scales and Flying Dragons 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 in July 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/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!