Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
I finished Clue 2 FINALLY!
I am very behind, but not giving up. These Flying Geese took a long time, but I was working on the HSTs at the same time.
Clue 5 will be easier, I think, as it is block making and I might jump to it before I get back to the HRTs and HSTs.
N.B. Bonnie will remove the posts to which I have linked from her blog sometime in February 2026. Download or save the clues now if you want to make this quilt.
I have bought several different fabric substrates lately. You saw that I replenished my supply of vinyl. Cutting and sewing that is no problem. The only thing I think about is whether I need a dedicated vinyl rotary cutter.
As I was sewing the vinyl this time, I used Tim’s Teflon foot. Honestly, the foot felt like plastic to me, but it was a GREAT. It really did work. I didn’t have to use any tissue paper. Don’t get me wrong, tissue paper works great and you don’t have to buy a new foot.
I made a lunch bag as a gift and decided to use ripstop nylon for the interior. I wanted it to be somewhat water resistant, though I knew it wouldn’t be very water resistant.
What a pain.
I followed Lynette’s directions for pressing the ripstop and it got all bubbly and didn’t look as flat and perfect as hers did. Mine might have been thinner. Or lesser quality. I don’t know. Not sure I’ll make another project with ripstop. This and the Falabella might be my limit, though I have more of the fabric. We’ll see.
During the Sewfisticated sale, I also bought some different substrates to try make more robust bags that wouldn’t get as dirty and would hold up under pressure of daily use. I want to make the Pandora Charisma for a gift and I want it to be sturdy. One of the substrates was VibrantVue Canvas (not shown). Something easy and/or small to see how my machine handles it? The other was Diamond Quilted Vinyl. I don’t know what I will sew with the former, but I will use the Diamond Quilted Vinyl for the Pandora Charisma.
Not exactly substrates, but I also bought of their Sewfisive Foam Stabilizer. I don’t know that I would buy it again as it looks and feels the same as Soft & Stable. I am reserving judgement until I sew with it.
It is good to try new things. I am looking forward to trying out these different substrates, assuming my machine behaves.
As I said, I am trying to stay ahead of the crowd, so after the BAM Holiday Party, I quickly made a Friendship Star.
In general, I have a tough time with this block. I think it looks much better small. The 12 inch size just looks like it has too much fabric, though a 12 inch block with the star made from a blowsy, large flower fabric might work better.
I do think that using the Friendship Stars as cornerstones, like a donation quilt I made, works well.
The best use of Friendship Stars I have found is making a wreath out of them. I got inspired by Camille Roskelly and then made Flying Around using the Friendship Star wreaths. I’d like to make one for this project. We’ll see if I get to it.
I have been working on and off on Lupine, especially after I finished some gifts.
A week or so ago, I finished the Lupine & Laughter First Clue. I wasn’t sure how the black would look as a background, but I am pleased with the combination. It has a little bit of a 1954 vibe. I know you are thinking “WTH? How can she be so specific?” I have a book called 100 Years of Color** by Katie Greenwood. It gives a palette for each year for 100 years. While 1954 doesn’t have the black as part of the palette, it does have the feeling that occurred to me when I put the combo together.
One concern I have with the black is that the fabric seems to shred very easily. Not within patches, but as I trim shreds of fabric embed themselves in my rotary mat. As I mentioned before, I have had this fabric for a long time, so it is possible that the quality is different from current fabrics. Fortunately, I have a number of blacks with colored dots that I will use for this project, so not all will be subject to this problem.
I am simultaneously working on Clue 2 and 3. I sewed quite a bit over the weekend. It was kind of rote sewing, but it was good that I didn’t have to think too much. I also did quite a bit of trimming, though not enough. There is a lot of trimming in this quilt.
Bonnie always has different ways to make the various units. Friend Julie says that she likes to try the various methods in order to practice and to find the method she likes best. I usually just use a method with which I am familiar. For the HSTs, I am using the 8-at-a-time method you can find under tutorials. Her comment gave me something about which to think. I did use the Essential Triangle Tool** to make the QSTs, which was new-ish to me.
N.B. Bonnie will remove the posts to which I have linked from her blog sometime in February 2026. Download or save the clues now if you want to make this quilt.
**Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
I made another EPP Ball, which I will give to my exercise teacher. These are super fun to make. I love having a hand project and babies and toddlers really like them.
I also like using the 5 inch squares I cut from scraps. I have a ready supply so I always have a lot of different fabrics from which to choose.
These are a little hard to photograph. It is hard to get all the different sides. The photos below give you a good idea of how it looks.
I got a peek at Triumphant the other day when I went to pick up Chain Link. Colleen had it on the longarm and let me take a look.
I was really pleased to see it in process. I had hoped to have it back by now, but I don’t really need it so it is ok.
I wanted feathers in the white space and Colleen is doing a great a job at fitting them into the odd spaces created by all of the HSTs.
Click on the photos to see more stitching detail.
I went to visit Colleen the other day and picked up Chain Link. I need it as a Christmas gift, so time is of the essence. I probably have enough time to finish it before Christmas. I have been working on hand stitching down the binding each evening since I got it back, so I am making progress.
I will hand it over on Christmas Eve so the recipient can open it at home on Christmas. I don’t want it opened in front of the whole family since there are still family members who have not yet received quilts.
I finished the Cosquilla pretty quickly, considering I only started it a few days ago. In general, this pattern has only a few pieces, so is easy to cut out. The instructions are excellent and there was only one confusing part where I needed to watch the video to complete.
I was able to use one ByAnnie 30 inch double pull handbag zipper for both of the zippers needed in the project. The yellow of the zipper doesn’t go exactly with the fabric I chose, but I think it looks good. There are not as many zipper colors as fabric colors.
This is the first time I have used the same fabric for both the exterior and interior. I don’t know why I never thought of it before (DUH!), but I think it worked really well. There wasn’t a lot of exterior and there were some focus type motifs that I fussy cut in order to make the parts interesting. I still wanted the whole pouch to read as yellow, so I kept that in mind.
This pouch, as you can see, has a lot of vinyl. I recently replenished by supply of vinyl. Mostly I like the glitter vinyl, but this time I also bought some vinyl with stars printed on it. I like the glitter vinyl, because it doesn’t interfere with the pattern on the fabric. In this case, I used the star vinyl and I think it allows the fabric motifs to shine as well. The other thing I like about these two vinyl patterns is I can use every inch. I don’t have to worry about the motifs on the vinyl being in the wrong direction when the bag is finished.
The pattern had a really interesting piece for the bottom and the sides. It was a long oval piece that had to be quilted before cutting it out. There are fewer seams when one piece makes up the sides and bottom.
I really don’t know how Sara thinks of these bag designs, but I am constantly impressed. Having the sides wrap around the bottom/sides piece was really clever. I like the way it went together.
Sewing it together was no picnic, but it wasn’t as difficult as the Pearce Sling I made for Mom. They share that curved shape, but this pouch is much bigger and that curve was easier, though not easy to navigate.
Anyway, I got SIL#4 a couple of gifts off her list, but also made her this as a bonus. I like to receive things I want, so I always make sure I buy someone something off their list even if I make them something.
Tim and I had a Sew Day the other day. We use sewing as an excuse to catch up. Fortunately, we both accomplished a lot while we were talking.
Tim is a really good listener, so I don’t mind talking to him.
I worked on the Cosquilla pouch. It is another Sew Sweetness pattern (big surprise, right? LOL!). I know I haven’t mentioned it yet since so much is going on. I chose my younger SIL#4 in the family gift draw. I chose some items off her wish list and also decided to make her a bag. She is a knitter and can use this as a project bag.
My machine has been giving me fits, so it was a bonus to use Tim’s machine where the stitch quality was excellent.
Tim was working on binding quilts that he will be giving for Christmas. He was able to finish a quilt he completely designed himself.
After finishing this quilt, he worked on putting another quilt on his longarm.
I had to leave on the early side to make an appointment, but it was a good day and I got a lot done.
A few years ago, Julie sent me a super fun Advent Calendar. This year I received a box late in November that I couldn’t remember ordering.
I was pleased to find several envelopes filled with surprises and a lovely note on “how to operate” the envelopes.
I have been faithfully opening the envelopes for the past few days and getting surprises.
There is a mix of fabric styles, but all from Art Gallery, so high quality. Julie bought herself the box as well and is receiving different fabrics than I am.
It’s super fun!
I went over to my niece’s house to drop off the pillowcase I made for my nephew. While I was there I found that Michaela didn’t have her Christmas pillowcase (another to do on my list). We determined that it probably still lived at her parents’ house. In the process of figuring this out, she brought out the Tufted Tweets pillowcase. I made this pillowcase back in 2011! I found that the cuff was half ripped off.
WTH?
I suggested that next time she let me know before things got really bad and took the pillowcase home to repair, which means that I needed to completely remake it. If the fabric weren’t so great, I would have just made her a new one. I love the Tufted Tweets fabric and you can’t get it any more.
This repair job is definitely a learning experience. This is one of the my older pillowcases, so I am hoping that the newer ones don’t wear in the same way.
All of the edges are unraveled. There was sort of a French seam – an early effort – so this was kind of surprising.
What was not surprising was the color fading. It happens when quilting fabric is used and this pillowcase is definitely a favorite, thus used.
As an aside, the stitch quality was really good on this pillowcase. I used my old Janome 9k machine. The stitch quality has been awful on my 6600 lately, so I really noticed the difference.
I needed to finish this block so I could get the Patchwork Palooza blocks up on the wall.
Mission accomplished.
It doesn’t look anything like it did when I first cut it out. I think it looks better now.
I am really enjoying using the solids I bought for this project and I am glad I took that leap.
I think the bolder colors in the new version really make this much more interesting than the original version.
3 down, 6 to go. I had better get cutting.
Because of the holidays people have two months to make the next two blocks. Month 2 and 3 blocks are due at the January Meeting. I made a set of Checkerboards very quickly right after the meeting. Since I am one of the leaders, I really want to keep ahead of the others as much as possible.
Once things had settled down a little for me, I made another checkerboard block from the book Cyndi lent to me, Use Scraps, Sew Blocks, Make 100 Quilts** by Stuart Hilliard.
I don’t have the wide variety of fabrics that would make this block look like the one in the book, but I am pleased with the way it came out.
I cut up the Philip Jacobs print to make the middle then used the others (added some additions since the start) around the outside. I want to work with this block again at some point. Still, I like the way it came out. I keep looking at it.
Although blocks were not due at this meeting, people brought some, so we put them up to illustrate when we introduced the new block.
It is so fun to see the different designs that appeal to the participants.
**Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this blog.
I spent the last few months planning and creating the officer gifts for the guild. I couldn’t have done it on my own. Many guild members contributed to the fund, Carrie wrapped everything and MaryC helped me sew the Multi-Pocket Organizers.
I am pleased with how they all came out. I think the fabrics I chose worked well together and coordinate or match with last year’s gifts.
I really like the binding and lining of SueS’ Multi-Pocket Organizer.
For Lee Ann’s I chose a similar fabric to the fabric I used last year. This one has a little more color in it – some purples, especially, which look really nice.
Melinda’s uses a couple of coordinating, but older fabrics from my fabric closet. I am told she likes purple, so this on the purple side. It’s maybe more of a red-violet, but something she will like.
I made a special effort with Joelle’s to coordinate with some of the quilts I associate with her style.
It’s a very small effort at mimicking her style. I think it looks nice and my fancy math worked out.
I didn’t get to see all of the packages opened, but I took a photo of the officers with the gifts.
I finished all of the Patchwork Palooza blocks and am now waiting for the finishing instructions. I can definitely finish this without them, but I want to see what they say. I was annoyed not to receive the email last Friday despite receiving other marketing emails. I may just have to make my own instructions for finishing. 🙁
Julie was working on her PP blocks at Sew Day so I was able to see that sashing provided the blocks with a little bit of space. I think it needs the space just by looking at what I have on the design wall.
Some of the blocks look complicated or busy, but that is somewhat because of the fabrics I chose and where I decided to place them. I can also see where making some half alternate blocks might look nice in the border. We’ll see. I’d like to get this finished, so I might not want to make it more complex.