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! 

February Trip Review #2: The Mini Quilt Retreat

 My MIL is also a quilter so when my DH and I visit, she and I also have a mini quilt retreat!  Athough with all the projects I brought with me (and one picked up during the trip) this was more of a "maximalist-mini retreat",  LOL!!  This covers the two weeks we were there so this is your advance "long post warning"!! 

As usual, I brought a lot of projects down with me as I can never be too sure what I will get to or feel like working on day to day.  So here's all the stitching and quilty doings during our stay: 

#1.  I had brought down the "Year of the Red Horse" cross stitch project I had been working on.  When I left home it was here:  

I was able to get everything including the numbers for the year (but not the orange highlights) and brown outer border line done before we left on Sunday.  I finished the highlights on the numbers and the border and center floral accents in the car during the the first half of the drive home.

Now it's ready for "fully finishing"!

#2.  I was also able to finish stitching down onto its background the last half of the "Hexie Snowflake" block I had set up before we left.

Pinned....

Stitched!

I actually brought all four of the blocks for this wallhanging project as I was hoping I could get them all done and bring them home ready to constuct the top.  Nope!  

After stitching that block, I only managed to get the papers pulled from half of the next block.  Part of the reason was that I forgot to also bring my "Sixth Finger" stilleto tool.  Ironically I saw one at the Quilt Con show we attended but at almost $20 I decided to try to just find a tapered cuticle stick to use temporarily.  That turned out to be hard to find too but eventually I got one from a manicure kit sold in Dollar Tree.

"Sixth Finger" Stilletto vs Cuticle Stick

Since it is thicker than the stilletto, it was a little harder to work the glued fabric loose from the papers  so it took longer to release them than it had for the first block.  As a result, I only got half of the papers in the second block out during our trip and then finished removing the other half in the car on the last leg of the drive home.  When we got back home was I able to pin it to its background so it's now ready to be stitched down.

#3.  I've visited my MIL enough that I had often attended her guild meetings with her if they were scheduled during our trip.  As a result, last year I joined the guild as a "long distance" member!  We arrived on a Friday and the next day was the Guild's monthly meeting.  There was a great show and tell and some of the Guild members did a presentation on one of my favorite topics:  adding labels to quilts! 

After the meeting,  my MIL and I went to purchase a ruler table and foot for her Handiquilter Moxie longarm.

We agreed to go "halfsies" on the purchase.  I had brought down with me all the rulers I have that can be used on a longarm.  

The plan for this trip had been to try learning to do ruler quilting on her machine.  To facilitate that I brought my "Modern Bohemia" project with me as I originally had plans to ruler quilt it at home anyway.  

When we got back to her house, my DH helped us install the table onto the machine.  Later we took it back off the supports that hold it on the machine as my MIL had a project we needed to quilt but would be using programmed stitches for that.  

In the end, we never did get around to doing the ruler quilting lessons so it looks like those will have to be a project for our next trip down!

#4.  Long aside for a back story:  Each year "our" Guild (still feels a little funny saying that) does a member challenge.  Sometimes it's a specific project, other times it is making a quilt in a specific color or using a specific type of fabric.  Prior to us coming down, my MIL let me know that the Guild had announced that this year's challenge is to make a Log Cabin quilt.  It can be in any design of your choosing for presentation to the membership at the June meeting. 

This is right up my alley!  Every since buying the Accuquilt Log Cabin die as my first BOB purchase, I've been obsessed with the idea of making a lot of Log cabin quilts.  I think this block is one of the most versatile in quilting next to HSTs or Flying Geese.  I believe that you could spend your whole quilting life just making LC quilts and never make the same design twice.  Heck, you could make the exact same block layout but color it different ways and still have them all look different!   

So this was my opportunity to bring down two projects that I've long wanted to make.  

Years ago I regularly followed the blog of Elaine Adair and back in 2006 she designed a quilt called a "Rebuilt Log Cabin" (the one on the left).  I always thought it was such an innovative and unique looking Log Cabin design so of course wanted to make it.  However, this was also well before I had the Accuquilt die so while I collected red fabrics for the block centers,  I never really focused on all the other cutting that needed to be done for the rest of the blocks.  However, once I had the die, I planned to make it using scrap strip cuts like the ones stored in the box shown.  

Eventually, I discovered another design that also became a "want to make priority" that could use the same scrap cuts:  Carrie Nelson's (of Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.) "Raise the Roof" (on the right).  I generally kept these two patterns sitting by each other as I believed if I had reason to make one,  I'd also start making blocks for the other.  So with the Guild Challenge in mind, I brought both patterns and the LC Strips box down with me figuring I'd see which I wound up working towards.  

At the Guild meeting they announced there'd be an open "Sit and Sew" session the last Saturday of our stay.  So I figured if I didn't get to these before then, I'd get a chance to sew some blocks up on that day.

However, I also had another "must make" priority LC design I've long wanted to do.  

From the American Patchwork & Quilting December 2020 issue.

In the spirit of Quilt Con, this one is a bright colored log cabin quilt made in what I like to refer to as "mod" fabrics.  The fabrics I put towards this came from the stash I built when I had decided to make the "Modern Boehmia" quilt referred to earlier.  I pulled some background prints from my stash to put with them for the lights.  I also added a bunch of fabrics purchased in 2024 when Keepsake Quilting had the Andover Fabrics "Century Black on White" line on sale which I thought would also work well for this.   

This project has been sitting in a project bag ever since.  When I did the Just Get It Done Declutter Challenge earlier this year,  I thought this would be an easy one to tackle in order to free up the bag.  So I also brought it along on this trip to add to the Log Cabin fun!  I should note that it is a little diffferent approach to LC as the blocks are pieced "Courthouse Steps" style and the "logs" are made using 2-1/2" cut (aka "jelly roll" but not pre-cut) strips. 

I figured the priority was to cut the fabrics for this project first but that wound up taking two days to get done.  Then busy with other things and interrupted by the four days spent at the Quilt Con Show,  in the end I only managed to leader/ender the center of one block before we went home.   I should note here that we got word the day before the "Sit and Sew" session that it was being canceled because the heating sytem malfunctioned at the meeting center they were going to hold it at.  

#5.  Also in the spirit of Quilt Con, I brought the pattern, a sweatshirt and charm squares from my scrap stash to work on a "Charming Hoodie" that I hoped to wear to the show.  I picked up some addtional supplies I needed from Hobby Lobby once we got down to my MIL's.  

However, even though I started working on it about five days before the show, I had to alternate focus on it with some of the other projects that follow.  So I only got the sweatshirt deconstructed and prepped for adding the charm squares to it.  

I did get another coordinating charm pack of tone-on-tone prints at the show so am actually happy about what they will add to this once I can get back to it.  

#6.  Another benefit of being in the Guild is that members lend out Accuquilt dies they have.  I've enjoyed making Bowl Cozies for a while now using square ruler cuts and templates to round the corners and cut the darts.  However, I've long wanted to try the Small Bowl Cozy Die to compare the finished size of it to the method I've been using before committing to buying it.  My MIL let the member who had it know and I was able to pick it up at the meeting we attended.  

I had brought fabric for four Cozies (three "Yellowstone" and one for "Bridgerton") and immediately cut them so I could return the die ASAP. 

I did get them all stitched to their batting.  I started the darts on one of them and got another one pinned and ready for stitching around the perimeter but that's as far as I got.  However, I plan to work on finishing them up them so I can add them to my next "Finished Or Not Friday" post.

#7.  For Black history month my MIL volunteered to make an "Underground Railroad Quilt" for a presentation at her church of the "Quilt Codes".  A few years ago she had borrowed the one I made and used it for a similar presentation and ever since has wanted to make one for herself.  Using the Eleanor Burns book as I had, she had been piecing it over the last couple of months but was having problems with a few blocks.  So when I arrived, we worked out the kinks on those and I helped her decide on the final sashing and border fabric.  

This was the first project to get longarmed on this trip.  We discussed potential stitch patterns to use and finally settled on doing "Baptist Fans" which I was familiar with from having quilted one of my quilts on her machine using that pattern two years ago.  This is when we took the ruler table we had purchased off the machine.  

The good news is that we spent the two days before Quilt Con getting it done which gave her time after our show days to trim the quilt and prep and apply the binding for the presentation that Sunday.  

Since Sunday we'd be at the last day of the quilt show,  my DH was given the task of delivering the finished quilt to the church and helping set it up for display.  The presentation was made by one of her church members and assisted by my MIL's friend (also a quilter) who had retired to her town last year.

On display at the church.

#8.  The day before the first day of Quilt Con, we went to the home of one of the chairs of the Guild's "Patriotic Bee" to pick out fabrics for "Quilt Of Valor" kits.  This is also the member who owns the Bowl Cozy die so I returned that on that trip too.  

The guild had been able to purchase fabric for members to make these quilts because of a grant they had been awarded.  It was my intention to get fabrics for two kits:  one was to fill out the additional fabrics needed for a pattern called "Picture That" that I plan to use with a panel I am donating.  

I was able to get the fabrics I needed and since I only brought the panel down with me, I'd wait until I got home to add in the other fabrics I have and work on that one.  

I also picked up enough fabrics to make another top called "Freedom Stars".  My hope was to try to get this one to a top before I left.  I got it all cut and partially laid out and where I could, I pieced the star points.

I did them as Flying Geese as it was also an opportunity to give my MIL a hands-on demo of the Eleanor Burns method I use to make them.  I had also brought down the rulers I use to trim them even more quickly than with a regular ruler so I could demo those too.  

She had also looked at the "4 at a time method" and wasn't sure she was doing that right either.  I had originally learned to do that method and only abandonded it because there is less cutting with the EB method and to get the exact size geese needed, the math for that method wasn't as simple as for Eleanor's method.  

However my MIL showed me a tutorial that gives a simple math formula for doing the "4 at a time method" with oversized squares so now I can go back to using this method in those cases when I need to use different colors for the two "sky triangles" and need to control where the colors are placed.

But back to the QOV:  I did lay out the squares I cut but as I got down to the last of them,  I was finding it hard to keep the variety of prints evenly distributed which left me with a few holes in the layout and kept me from starting to stitch the rows.  

It wasn't until our last Friday there that we went to run what was supposed to be a few errands and make two fabric stops.  Well that turned into a mini shop hop as we wound up making stops at four fabric shops but the good news there was that I found another print at one of them that depicted all the armed forces:  

It was perfect for filling the holes in my layout!  So as I completed the layout...

...and while continuing to work on longarming my quilt (the other  UFO --- details to follow),  the next day I did get to leader/ender this project a bit and get four of the rows stitched up before we had to leave.

And now they are home on my design wall!

  #9.  So the only big thing I actually finished on the trip was that I got to longarm the other of the two UFOs I brought:  a quilt I call "Pulpit Tile".  

A closeup of the different stitch patterns used around the quilt.

I pieced this all the way back in 2006 in my early quilting days.  Made with "Jack in the Pulpit" and "Snowball" blocks, it has sat for so long because after I made it I could never decide how to quilt it.  In my mind, I thought it needed very traditional patterns like Feather Wreaths and other advanced patterns that were definitely not in my wheelhouse at the time.  Then once I gained some of those skills, I had moved on to other styles of quilts so finishing this wasn't a big priority.  

It came around now because I thought I might be able to actually get this done simply using stitch patterns programmed into my MIL's longarm tablet.  I was also looking forward to learning to connect continuous patterns to fill borders which is something I really haven't done up to now.  On my last visit, I had taken a picture of all the stitch pattern screens so I could sit down and figure out possible designs to use for the blocks before I arrived.  

I had my choices mapped out but things went sideways (figuratively) once the quilt was loaded!  This was a doozy that didn't progress at all the way I planned.  Due to throat space limitations and not remembering to bring the right thread for this,  I had to change my pattern choices on the fly.  However,  as usual I learned a lot of longarm lessons.  I won't go into further detail here,  I'll also save that for the next FONF post.   

CODA:  I should note, I also brought two more things that I didn't get to work on:  I had my scrappy "Magic Cube" Shoo-Fly blocks to also use for leader/enders.  

Had I got to do more sewing they might have gotten worked on but the good news is that needing to work on the two QOVs at home now (and on deadline) means they will get done now!

The second thing was that during the December Accuquilt sales,  I had lucked up on getting two of the June Tailor "quilt-as-you-go" kits to make covers for the Accuquilt Go! machine.  

I got one for my MIL and one for myself and had gotten the fabric bundle of the Accuquilt fabrics.  We split the eight fabrics in it between us (she took the light/white/blue fabrics and I took the lime green and orange fabrics).  We both had to add two additional fabrics to our sets because the kit requires having six fat quarters to make the cover.  I added the white and grey and the turquoise prints at the top to fill out mine.  Both of us also made some cuts at the Accuquilt booth "make & take" station at Quilt Con that we hope to add to our covers.  So that too is another project for future sewing or the Fall trip back!

So a lot attempted but definitely not as many things finished up as hoped.  Our next visit in September will be quieter as the annual NC Shop Hop dates have been changed to May/June so we won't have that to participate in.  We will be coming in time for the guild meeting that month.  If DH and I come down on the Friday before as we did this time,  that will also lessen the impact on the rest of the time spent there.  And thus ends the maximalist-mini retreat report!       

To Do Tuesday: Not Long Before the Month Ends!

We are getting closer to Thanksgiving and the end of the year is already starting to feel like it's rushing to a close!  Heck, even Bonnie Hunter will be releasing the start of her annual Quiltville mystery a week early!!  So before the holidays step on the gas and I get run over, let me check in for another "To Do Tuesday" chat along with everyone gathering at Carol's over at "Quilt Schmilt"!  

I managed to stay mostly on track during the last week so moved a few of the things on my "To Do" list forward.  

So the plans from the last report were:  

1.  Continue stitching the "New York Skyline" cross stitch project.  I'm expecting it will take me until a little past next week's check-in to get through Page 4 of the pattern.  

It is moving along but in doing so I realized that "Houston, we have a problem"!  I am here on my fabric....

And like the year, the end is near!

... but I have this much more of the pattern left to do!

When I finish that building, I have a whole bridge still to stitch!

Oh no, what happened?  Well, what happened is that I am still a cross stitch-Noob and misread the pattern!  For some reason when I started this, I thought this was the last page and stitch count:  

So I started in the middle here:

But in fact the pattern is one page longer and the end stitch count is this:

As experienced (aka: not me) CS-ers know, most good cross stitch patterns have a marker that shows the midpoints (both horizontal and vertical of the pattern.  This one was no exception:

But of course I didn't look for that or even notice it until now, sigh!!  Needless to say I've already stitched too far to consider starting over and love it too much to abandon it.  

I actually think I may be able to save this by taking off some of the excess fabric I have on the left side and somehow attach it to the right side to extend it, even if it means I might have a visible seam on one side of the finished piece.  Another option is to leave off the bridge on the right side or stitch it split onto both sides.  I'm not sure I like either of those options.  

So I'm going to keep stitching and finish this page and then give some more thought to a potential solution before starting in on the last page.  Definitely a hard but very good lesson learned for future projects!!  

2.  Finish stitching the remaining three September "Alaska" BOM blocks.  If I can, I might also try to start the cutting for the October blocks but there's no pressure on getting to that.  

Done and Done!

September blocks completed.

Next up to bat!

I had some issues stitching the blocks this time around:  they were a lot harder to get flat in the center.   After stitching the second of the four blocks,  I went back to Marti Michell's instructions for making these Kaleidoscope blocks and followed them closely like I did when I began this project.  The last two came out a little better but still not as flat as my test block had been.  

One thing I did learn was that for these blocks with pieced triangles, it is actually better to piece the blocks a little differently than in Marti's instructions:

There are options when adding those corner triangles.

Marti instructs that you can add the last corners either to the corner triangles first (which she preferred) or add them after.  When using the plain triangles, adding them first works fine.  However, I found that for the pieced triangles, you had more flexibility on which way you can flip the seams to butt the intersections if you wait until the end to attach the corner triangles.  I also think that I was probably rushing to get these done so might have stretched some of the diamond points this time around which I didn't do to the test block.

Fortunately, the blocks I will be doing this week (technically the blocks I should have cut out and stitched up back in October) are also made with pieced triangles, so I will get another shot at improving my technique for making them.

In the course of sewing the BOM blocks, I also got a few more of the scrappy Kaleidoscope blocks I've been making done as leader/enders as well as another "Scrappity-Do" block too.

3.  Continue to think about plans for "fully finishing" the two Christmas-In-July cross stitch pieces. 

I'm thinking of continuing with the ribbon theme so now have to decide whether to go with a fabric strip to channel that or consider making another "pieced ribbon" to extend down from the bow.

4.  Start work on the new Fall wool wallhanging.  

The only thing done there was that I printed out all the applique templates onto freezer paper so now need to iron them onto the wool I'll be using and cut them out.

In addtion to the "To Do" list items, when I talked about the quilts I finished during Sept and Oct , I had mentioned a new project related to one of them.  I had made another quilt using Shelly Comisky's "I Love Sn'Gnomies" flannel fabric line for Henry Glass Fabrics and had discovered two rag pillow designs also using fabrics from that line.  I picked up a kit for one but when it came, I decided I wanted to incorporate more of the fabrics I had left over from the quilt just made since this pillow will reside with it.

Note the differences in the kit picture and the fabrics I've cut out.

Then when I realized I'd now have a bunch of the kit fabrics I wasn't going to use,  I also realized that the two Fat Quarters from the line sent for the pillow backing was another of the kit prints I'd like to preserve.  But then how to fill out the backing?  

Turns out it was not a problem as my flannel stash came to the rescue!  Actually in this case, it was once again leftovers from a long ago project in that stash that saved the day.  

I had used this fabric for the backing of my "Brrr!!" quilt back in 2013.  It was not only perfectly colored but also perfectly themed to fill the bill for this new project!  I did have to do a little "poverty piecing" so I could keep the integrity of the directional fabric to make the two pieces needed for the pillow back.

So everything for the pillow is now cut out.  I put the fabrics I took from the pillow kit with what I have left of one of the original set of fabrics I purchased and it looks like that will be the start of yet another stash of FQs for yet another "Sn'Gnomies" and/or 9FQ quilt!

And the FQ on the left will be added to my flannel stash.

So my plans moving forward for this week:  

1.  Continue stitching the "New York Skyline" cross stitch project.  The question is how will I resolve the issue of placing that last page?

2.  Stitching up the October "Alaska" BOM blocks.  If I can, I hope to also start the cutting for the next (November) blocks but like last week, there's no pressure on getting to that before next Tuesday.  

3.  Continue to think about plans for "fully finishing" the two holiday cross stitch pieces. 

4.  Start cutting the parts for the new Fall wool wallhanging.  Even though it already feels like winter, I'd love to get it made before the Fall season officially ends!  

5.  Construct the Sn'Gnomies rag pillow.

I know that a lot of people have been busy working on projects in honor of Fall or to prepare for holiday decorating and gifting.  I'll bet we'll both find many of them over at "Quilt Schmilt" for this week's "To Do Tuesday"!