Month: January 2025

I played pickleball early this morning and got my dogs out for a walk this afternoon while the sun was out. It was beautiful, but chilly. It finally feels like winter has arrived. But no snow yet. I’m fine with that since it was a year ago now that I went four days without power in frigid temps. I’m happy to have relatively nice weather a year later.

I had the evening free so decided to dig in and sew my BQ2 blocks together. There are only 20 blocks so It didn’t take long. I think I had it done in about 90 minutes.

I’m still going to add borders to this but my calculations tonight presented some bad news…

I need 7 width of fabric strips 4 inches wide which translates to 28 inches of fabric. I only have 25 inches of the sunflower fabric. So I went ahead and ordered another yard. I’ll be happy to have some left in my stash since I love this fabric so much.

While I was at it I bought a few other pieces because my sewing room is not quite filled to the top with fabric.

There is something very satisfying about pressing a quilt top when it’s all sewn together.

It’s a great opportunity to relish the colors in these gorgeous fabrics.

So now onto the special gesture…

A few days ago I received a package from Wendy at www.sewcolorful.com. She wanted to send me a package to help spur my creative juices.

She sent me a fat quarter bundle of some of the new William Morris fabrics that were colorized by Kaffe Fassett. It’s really fun to see the fabrics because it’s unlikely I will see them in person in any of my local fabric stores. Of course the colors are amazing!

She also sent some chocolate truffles, which did NOT last very long, and a packet of wonder clips with some adorable doggie paper clips.

Huge thank you to Wendy for this kind and caring gesture. I’m already well into planning what I’ll do with these fabrics. . .

I’ve been wanting to make a quilt called Kavala for several years. I first saw it on Instagram posted by Mrsmagillaquilts in Australia. The account owner, Tanya, has a really cool style to the quilts and other stuff she makes. You should definitely take a look at her Instagram page.

Anyway, she made the Kavala quilt several years ago and I fell in love with it. Here’s her version.

The pattern is from an old magazine and has been unavailable for years. I was incredibly lucky to get a copy of the pattern. But even without the pattern it would be pretty easy to figure out.

When I looked at the Kaffe/William Morris fabrics from Sew Colorful, I thought it would be fun to use them for this quilt. So I dug into my KFC stash and started pulling some smaller scale fabrics to pair with the fat quarters.

I selected one KFC fabric for each of the fat quarters. I went with small scale prints so the new fabrics will be the star.

I like all the combos but am having a bit of a challenge with the one in the lower right. I ordered a couple fabrics that might work better with that print. There is the tiniest turquoise vein running through the blue leaves. That’s the color I’d like to use with this print. But I’m going to try a few options to see what works best.

I’m pretty happy with all the other combos. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to make two blocks out of each combo but I have no idea if the fat quarter will be enough since the blocks are so big. The blocks are 15 inches so it won’t take very many. I’m going to wait a few days before I dig in on this new project.

I think I’ll finish up the brown batik quilt top while I’m ruminating on my version of the Kavala quilt. It will go together quickly.

I was waiting for more of the lovely green guinea flower fabric to arrive so I could finish making the final strip sets for my green and purple B2Q quilt and it arrived a couple days ago. So I dig in after work tonight and started cutting and sewing.

I needed three of these strip sets to finish the remaining 12 blocks. I had them done in no time and cut into sections.

You may wonder why I have that metal ruler on my ironing board. I use it to make sure that my strip sets are straight before I press them. I made a video a couple years ago on how I use it. This trick has revolutionized making strip sets for me.

I used to make terribly wonky strip sets which made my blocks a bit of a mess. This method helps me make strip sets that are straight and true.

After getting the three strip sets sewn and pressed I cut them into sections.

And in no time I had the remaining 12 blocks sewn, pressed and up on my design wall.

I might move a few blocks around but this won’t take much time on the design wall before I’m able to sew it together.

This has been a ridiculously quick project. And I’m glad because I’m not a huge fan of making the exact same block over and over.

Once I sew the blocks together I will add a couple borders to make it a better size for a throw quilt.

While I was waiting for my fabric to arrive I decided to dig through my batiks and pulled out a bin of brown batiks. I don’t know what possessed me to purchase these brown batiks in my quilting past. Brown is just not my thing. I decided to use these brown batiks to whip up a quick quilt top that I will donate.

I selected a pile of the browns and pressed them all. then I cut them into eight inch squares.

I actually like all these browns together. It might not be quite right to call them brown, but they are all in the brown family.

I’ll make them into the same pattern as this quilt top that I made last spring.

I’ll combine the browns with this yellowish batik that a friend of mine brought me back from her vacation a number of years ago.

Here’s a look at how these fabrics will look together.

The pattern is called All Inked Up. You can find a video tutorial on making it here. I’m making mine with 8 inch squares rather than 10 inch squares.

It’s likely that I will dig deeper into my stash of batiks and make more of these quick quilts to donate. I might find some inspiration as I see all these fabrics that inspired me to purchase them.

I recently saw a quilt that someone else made off of my Brandon Leftover Quilt and they added two borders. I really like the look of it so I pulled some fabric out of my stash to see how it would work.

I like it and have enough fabric to finish it. But I’m thinking it will make the quilt a bit of an awkward size. Right now it measures 64 x 80. If I add the borders it will be too big for a throw and not big enough for a double bed. I’ll think about this for a few days before I decide but I’m thinking it will be done with no borders.

We’ve got some lovely yet cool weather coming up over the next ten days. We’ll actually have a good number of days with sun, which in our winters means that it will be cooler. We’re actually going to get down below freezing for a few nights.

I’ve seen some spectacular sunsets on the way to my early morning pickleball sessions the last week.

I’m a night owl. I don’t see many sunsets. It’s sort of a treat.

I wanted to take advantage of the spark I’m sensing so decided to dive in last night and start cutting the fabric for my next quilt top. It’s one I’ve been thinking about making for some time. I purchased the fabric for it several months ago and it’s been sitting on my cutting table.

I cut the main fabric first. I’ve seen a good number of quilts on this pattern that have employed a lot of fussy cutting for these main blocks. I’m not a fan of fussy cutting. I don’t like doing it. I don’t like all the waste. And, most of all, I don’t love the look. Too much fussy cutting can feel a bit tortured and forced to me. I much prefer a more organic feel to the cutting of the fabric. So I just cut these square where they fell.

And I love the way they look. There are plenty of full blooms in the blocks, but it feels organic and more natural to me. And I saved hours of time and lots of odd scraps.

Here’s the pattern I’m making.

I’ve seen a good number of these made from Philip Jacobs large floral prints and other Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics. Those large focal blocks are really perfect for Philip’s designs.

I decided to start cutting the rest of the fabrics for these blocks and got everything cut that I could and started making the units that make up the blocks.

So after playing pickleball with some friends from 8-10 this morning, I dug in and started sewing, pressing and cutting. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough of the green fabric so will have to wait to cut the rest. I have some on order that should be here in the next few days.

I made all the units that I could. I need to make more of the units on the bottom of this photo. Twelve more are needed.

I had enough units to make up 8 blocks. The blocks are big… 13.5 inches. So this will go quickly. I got 8 blocks made this afternoon and up on my design wall.

I’m planning on making this 4 x 5 blocks. Even with these large blocks it will be a small quilt top, so I will likely add a double border when I’m done. Here’s what I’m thinking. A thinner border of the purple fabric the same width as the strips in the blocks. Plus a 4 inch border of the focal print.

The addition of the borders will make this a better size in my mind. My friend made one and it’s in my spare bedroom right now since we took it to my long arm quilter when she was here in the fall and I just picked it up recently. It’s 20 blocks and a little small for my taste. It barely covers the top of the double bed in my guest room.

Here’s a bit of a close up of my new project.

We had another really rainy day today. My poor dogs are not happy with all the inactivity this wet weather brings. I hid some dog treats around the living room this evening and let them sniff them out. Then tossed treats around the room as they had to hunt for them. That gave them a bit of mental stimulation that goes am long way when they don’t get any physical activity.

But they are bored.

Luckily, we will have a little bit of “dry” weather tomorrow. This time of year here that means it’s “not currently raining.” It’s still damned wet out there! The park near me has standing water all over the place and the paths are like rivers.

We will likely get some time outside tomorrow. Then a friend of mine is bringing me some home made minestrone soup for dinner! That sounds so good!

I’m enjoying a luxurious five-day weekend. Jan 1 is a holiday, and I’ve taken off Thursday and Friday. I have plans to play pickleball every one of those five days.

I played this morning from 8-10. It was a really fun session. Especially the final game. I got to play with one of my favorite pickleball friends. He’s a retired philosophy professor. He’s smart. He’s irreverent. And he’s a heck of a lot of fun to play pickleball with. I haven’t gotten to play with him for a couple of months and we really made up for it by trying some new stuff. We arranged ourselves on the court so I was in the most aggressive position. It requires a lot of movement and switching sides mid play. We totally confused our opponents and it was a fun and exciting win!

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things. I got soaked just getting from the car to the store. We had a steady rain all day. So that meant that one of my days off was spent shut in the house. So I decided that I would be productive and not just sit on my but all day watching TV.

So I hit my sewing room and decided to finish up the economy block quilt that has been clinging to my design wall for months. I think I might be feeling some interest in starting a new project, so I wanted to finish this first. I sewed the remaining three rows then sewed all the rows together. Then I pulled and picked all paper piecing template paper from the back of the blocks. I really hate that part.

I do love the precision the paper piecing gives me, but I really don’t enjoy pulling all that paper off. The good thing is that these pieces are pretty big, so no really fiddly corners to deal with.

Once all the paper was picked off and the blocks were pressed, I dug in and got the double border put on.

This quilt really needed that border! The blocks are a bit muddy. The border sort of contains it, defines the top, and frames it all nicely. It was blah without the borders. And I love that border fabric! It’s a Philip Jacobs design.

Here’s a couple different views of the quilt top.

And a bit of the close up to see the border fabrics really well.

As a reminder, here’s the tutorial I riffed off of to make this quilt.

One of the pieces of fabric I bought online a couple weeks ago is a backing for this quilt. I’ve loved this fabric since it was reissued last year. It’s in the quilt top so it will work nicely for this quilt.

I have an idea for which quilt I’ll make next. It only uses three fabrics and I’ll have to make the same block over and over again. Luckily, the blocks are big so it won’t take too many for a quilt top. It would be a simple way to jump back in.

I had left over tamales for dinner. My boss brings me a lovely bunch of tamales every New Years Eve. She’s done it for years. So I get to enjoy leftovers for a few days.

I decided to make ANOTHER cranberry cake. I made one from my leftover thanksgiving cranberries, then I made another for Christmas Eve dinner, and had enough cranberries left over to make yet another one. So after dinner I whipped another one up and had a little piece as my evening snack.

It’s a really good cake and a great way to use up leftover berries. Here’s the recipe I used. I don’t follow all the fussy instructions. I just whip up the wet ingredients and then add them to the dry ingredients and the cake turns out fantastic!

I just might have cake for breakfast tomorrow.

Last week at Rico’s sheep herding our teacher just happened to see this guy in the mud.

He’s a salamander. The photo is a bit deceptive. He was around five inches long! You can see that he’s regenerating some toes on each of his front feet. He was also regenerating his tail. Looks like he got into a tussle!

We’ve had a really wet fall and winter. Luckily it’s been quite warm, with temps up in the low 50s most days. We did manage some blue sky a couple days ago.

I’m playing pickleball tomorrow afternoon. I’m hoping the weather will give us a break and I can get my boys out for a walk before then.

I just might start a new quilt tomorrow. It feels a little odd to have the desire to start a new project. I guess it’s been a good thing to take a few months off.