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!

(Last) Trip Recap: Mini Quilt Retreat and a Special Stop on the Way Home

As noted in previous posts, my DH and I traveled to North Carolina for his last vacation of the year.  For the first part we camped and for the second part we visited my MIL.  She and I shop hopped during the first few days of our stay with her.  The remainder of our time was to be a mini quilt retreat for she and I.  Well, for all the shop hopping we did, I must say I got a lot less actual sewing done!   

Although it was not like that's what I planned to do:  as usual I took my trusty Featherweight (in the red tote I made some years ago) and a bag full of projects to work on:

Our stay was shortened due to the camping trip, the three days we spent shop hopping (and visiting a relative) and the need to leave a day earlier than we normally would have.  All of that cut into the time in the quilt room!  Sigh!!   

The first thing I set up to work on were the scraps I had brought that I am using for the APQ Scrap Happy QAL.  I wanted to continue adding to the blocks I had started making before we left home:

I managed to get ten blocks done during the trip.  I had hoped that I'd make enough blocks to be able to finish the whole top but I guess I'll still be working on those.  To help augment my scraps, I went through a big Rubbermaid tub of scraps my MIL had been holding for me.  After sorting through all the goodies and cutting some for use in my project, I bagged up the rest to take home for further sorting through:

I also brought the materials to get a travel-related project done.  Two years ago I made the large version of an iron travel tote for a Sunbeam travel iron I had at the time.

That tote was also big enough to carry a full size iron.  Unfortunately, that travel iron burnt out early this year so I purchased another mini iron to use at my sewing table and when traveling.  Not long after getting it, Gay Bomer at Sentimental Stitches offered a pattern for a cute little mini tote.  I really loved the idea of having a scaled down version to carry the new iron.  Knowing we'd be going to my MIL's, I kitted it up with fabrics from my stash to work on while there.

I'm very happy that I did manage to get this finished!  I also helped my MIL make one for her own mini iron made from some Tula Pink fabrics she bought on the Hop.  She was finishing it up when we left.

I had brought last year's Shop Hop book with me on this trip as I planned to work on one of the projects offered in that book and that I had purchased fabric for last year.  I also wanted to make Annie Unrein's "Piecekeeper" bag which was offered in this year's book (but can also be picked up free on her website).  I'll be making that one from fabrics from this year's Hop.

Well, all I got done was the cutting for both projects. 

And this was a chance to use a fun new notion!

I cut and appliqued two fussy cut motifs from another print onto that border print.  

That red fabric is one designed for last year's Hop that I was still able to purchase on the Hop this year.  The fabrics designed for this year were all sort of busy, big and bold motif prints and I wanted some of the colorful small print and tone-on-tone coordinates they had offered last year to fill out this project.  

Now that we're back home, I'm going to work on getting both of those bags done.  This way I can bring them on the next trip down to hold purchases and projects!  I had two other projects I planned to make using the Shop Hop themed fabrics that I also didn't get to as well as two other non-Shop Hop projects brought along.  One of those is a Halloween themed project that it looks like will have to be pushed forward onto next year's "To Do" list.

A Very Special Stop

On the way home I was able to indulge in a special treat!  I watch Pat Sloan's daily videos and as a Virginia resident, she often promotes the Virginia Quilt Museum.  In fact, right now she has a quilt auction going on with them for some of her quilts.  I've long wanted to go to the museum but always thought it was too far west in Virginia to be able to veer off course on our travel route either down or back.  However, this time when I mapped out our return trip,  I realized that it was not that far off the return route the GPS had mapped out for us.  So on the drive back, we stopped in!

Located in a 19th century house with it's own extensive history,  I got to view the exhibits on display.  What was cool is that two of Pat's auction quilts are hanging there.  One of them, "Hometown Charm" is the one that influenced me to augment the Minick & Simpson Pear BOM that I've been receiving kits for.   

My plan is to change the coloring of this to be similar to this. 

So cool to see the inspiration quilt in person!

As we were making our plans for the trip home,  I also happened to read Lori DeJarnett's Humble Quilts blog and learned that she too had a quilt on exhibit at the museum!  There is a group exhibit of quilts replicating the Buhl Bushong Quilt in the museum's collection.  

The antique quilt

So I got to see Lori's and other reproductions of the original quilt too!

Reproductions by Nancy Swanwick (in Grunge), Antonio Munoz, Lori DeJarnatt and Ellen Malenfant (in Kaffe)

The museum also has a great vintage machine collection....

....and a current exhibit of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) juried art quilts....

....as well as an exhibit of 9/11 blocks.

Another surprise nod to my own project intentions:  in my last post, I talked about shop hopping for fabrics to make a red and white version of this quilt:

Needless to say I was thrilled at discovering a blue and white version on display here!  Oooh, don't tempt me....

Big reproduction fabrics fan that I am, I also purchased raffle tickets to try to win a reproduction of a sampler crib quilt in the museum's collection:  

The antique...

The raffle reproduction

I am SO glad I had a chance to visit!!  Now that we are back home and October is coming to a close, I am setting up my project plans for November and the end of the year.