ANTUMN NIGHTS MYSTERY QUILT ALONG

At last with just having finished off 2 more charity quilt tops I am finely getting on to some fun projects of my own.

Last week I stumbled on to this Fat Quarter Shop Autumn Nights Mystery Quilt Along.  The patterns come out once a week.  I was able to print off the first three, and purchase fabric for them and started it this past week.

I got the three pumpkin blocks done in no time at all and they were fun.  They measure 7.5" by 8.5".  I only ran into one problem.

You need to cut the fabric strips after joined with a 7.5" square ruler on the diagonal.  I don't have one, I have an 8.5, 9.5, 10.5,12.5 and a 16.5.  I tried using the 8.5" planning to cut down to 7.5", but that didn't work.  I am not going to run all over town looking for one.  So plan B was to make myself one.  A quick trip to the recycle can in our back yard, pull out a wine box that we had just tossed in there after restocking our wine refrigerator and I made myself one, thank you Trader Joe's.

This is the last baby quilt top I made for my charity group when they requested baby/children's quilts.

This quilt is also going to the charity group, however it originally was not planned for that purpose.  I have been working on these blocks as a wedding gift for a family member and was ment to be king size, 100 ten inch blocks.  I had 30 done when the couple decided to end their engagement.  So decided I wasn't going to have them sitting around for who knew how long.  No one in the family close to thinking or old enough to get married.  I had exactly the number of blocks needed for a 50" by 60" quilt top and was able to cut a binding and off to the charity group it goes.

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DE-STASH FAILURE

 I have spent the last 5 months or so working on charity quilts with my guild's Warm Wrappings program.  At least a good part of my motif has been an attempt to de-stash some of my old fabrics that have hung around in the bins and closet for years.  Frankly it has not been all that successful but well worth the try.  

I think this is number 17.  Most of these are left over William Morris fabrics.  My plan was to keep this one, but once I got down to the last row to finish have decided I am not that excited about it.  I am sort of done and have plans to do something else for a while in the sewing room.

De-stashing has really not worked very well.  This is the reason why.  I went on a bit of a shopping spree.

And a second shopping trip as well.  The Fat Quarter Shop is addictive, and my oldest daughter helped with a Mother's Day gift card from Connecting Threads that I have been saving, and another I just got from her for my birthday.  Now just have to dig up a pattern or two and get busy.     

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END OF THE CHARITY DRIVE & BUTTONS SAVED THE DAY

 This past week is the last week of getting quilt tops finished up for my charity group to complete their final end of the year donations drive.  In October we will send off to 5 various agencies in our area  a total of approximately 350 finished quilts.  Then I am off to working on some fun projects for myself.  I just ordered two fall fabric Fat Quarter Bundles so cannot wait to dig into them. 

This is my last three.  I love the simple child's quilt with the elephants on it, and I think this blue, red, and yellow quilt could make a fun older child's quilt too.  Nice to be finished with this latest project.

Last week's blog had me lamenting about my pumpkin wall hanging quilt's leaf error.  It took me a couple of days and lots of wonderful advice from comments to decided that it was still worth hanging it in our entry hall.  I decided if I could find a caterpillar button or some other garden bug button sewing it onto that leaf would be a fun idea.  Unfortunately I was not able to find any of those, but in my button box, a carry over of hundreds of buttons my husband's mother gave me, I found these two little bumble bee buttons.  Yesterday I finished the binding and hung the quilt up in the entry hall.  We love it!

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QUILTING'S UPS AND DOWNS

The quilter returned two of my recent finished projects.  I still have my Rosemary and Thyme quilt top to get off to her over the next week or two.  Putting quilt backs together is my least favorite chore so we shall see how that goes.  

Yes my pumpkin wall hanging is done and if you have not immeditately noticed it in this picture, you have a much better eye than me.

Yes that lower left leaf.  Dispite putting all the blocks together, joining all the rows, I missed this.  I did not discover it until it was returned by the quilter.  She never noticed it either, as she would have immediately called me to get it back and fix the issue.  Will I hang it in the entry hall this coming fall as planned.  Yes, maybe and see how many of my family and quilting friends notice it. 

The quilting on it is beautiful, I think that is the most irritating thing about the whole situation.  Am I toying with making it over again, but frankly I am more likely to just hang it in my sewing room on the wall above where I sew to remind myself, perfect isn't always going to be obtainable.

The second quilt top returned after quilting has come back at least in my mind perfect.  I did have custom quilting done on it and it is just really nice.  This will go into my guild's quilt show in January.

While I am pretty disappointed with the pumpkin quilt outcome the New York Beauty quilt has just come out so nicely.  Best to just laugh at myself and move on to the next quilting project.

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LOTS OF FINISHED

I have spent this past week just working on finishing up quilts for the year end give away of Warm Wrappings my guild's charity group giveaway in October.  

I did decide to keep this batik quilt I made last month.  It was part of my plan to de-stash some of my batik fabric hoarding, which although I made 2 other quilt tops that went to my charity group was completely unsuccessful as the bin is just a full as it always was.  However, my husband liked this one and I decided to have it quilted and keep it.  Well we are not keeping it after all.  It is being given away today to our oldest granddaughter for her 33rd birthday instead. 

My quilter did a lovely job on the quilting and I think my choice of a backing was perfect for it.  
 

These are the last two of my baby/child quilt tops completed.

And these are two of my adult quilt tops finished.  I do have another two more to work on and finish.  Off to the charity group with these  once those are finished off time to start on a fall appliqué project I have had sitting in a drawer since May of 2024.

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ROSEMARY & THYME AND PLACEMATS

 This week I finally decided to shift from working on my guild's baby quilt charity requests and do a couple of personal projects and finishes.  

I finished my Rosemary and Thyme quilt top.  Those last 3 missing blocks were a real chore for me for some reason, but I finally pulled myself together and got them done.  Now just to do a back up and off to the quilter.

This delightful little one is our Yorkshire Terrier Zoey, and she likes her breakfast and snacks on a placemat.  Her old ones have been wash thousands of times and were looking pretty worn out, so I happened to find this fabric given to me in a bundle of scraps.  Just enough to make two new placemats for her.  

While digging out all my fabrics in order to finish the last 3 blocks of the Rosemary and Thyme quilt top along with some other this and that fabric scraps I ran across this scrappy placemat pattern.  We use placemats on a regular basis for our meals so placements for the various seasons are regular table settings for us.  This pattern however takes scrap quilting to a new height.  I always make four so this little project consisted of (224) 2" blocks, (8) 2" by 2.5" blocks, (4) 1" by 2" blocks, and (8) magic corners from 1.5" cuts.  I have taken scrap quilting to a new dimension.  I made the four pumpkin sections first and at that point of was just hooked.  Cannot wait until late September or early October to start using them. 

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BABY QUILTS REQUESTS

My quilt guild's charity group put in an urgent request for baby/children's quilts. Annually in October we donate approximately 350 finished quilts to 5 different local agencies.  Quilts for men/boys and young children it seems are always hard to come by.  

I finished up this one from left over fabrics from a quilt I had made years ago for  one of my grandson's when he graduated from fire academy.  He is now a fire fighter working for CalFire.  I think some little boy would love it.  It measures 45" by 45".

This one I think could be either girl or boy.  The little dots in the blue fabric are green, orange, and pink.  Not a lot of pink, so maybe. 

This one definitely a girl quilt.  I still have another two cut out and partially sewn together.

I still have a bit of a stash of children's quilt fabrics, there is not much of a demand any longer in our family of a need for them any longer.  When eventually there is there is always the ability to go on a fabric shopping spree.  

A month or so ago I finished all the blocks on my Rosemary and Thyme quilt by CottonStreetCommons, or so I thought.  I laid it out this past week on the design board and discovered, I had a problem.  Three blocks missing, I miss counted.  Now to dig out all the fabrics that were stashed away here and there and see about coming up with three more blocks. I have my work cut out for me this week on this now.

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FROM BATIK FINISH TO CACTUS RUNNER

 I seem to be making a dent in my UFO's pretty well over the last few weeks.  I have three quilt tops with prepared bindings going to my guild's charity group.  My attempt to de-sash my batiks really didn't make much of a dent, but fun trying I guess.  

I did finish this last batik project.  All along I was in a quandary as to whether I would give it to my charity group or keep it.  My husband voted for keeping it, so it is off to the quilter in a week or two.  

The blocks were paper pieced.  A YouTube demo I stumbled across on the TV.  

Simple trick with this 8.5" paper that I was able to just lay my fabrics down on and they came out perfectly  pieced together.  

I did fuss around with this little cutie.  I have a friend with AccuCut dies of these little guys that was able to help me with the design of them for me.  I  just took a bit of time and adjusted the size and with bits and pieces of other appliqué patterns I winged it.  I am not much of an artist, but they came out really fun.  Plus decided to step up my quilting skills from serpentine stitches and used an oval circular template to quilt them.

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DE-STASH AND DONATE

 I spent most of this week continuing to work on trying to reduce the stash of batik fabrics I have collected over the years.  They do no one any good sitting in the closet.  I certainly do not need to add more quilts to the closet full and two quilt rakes stacked with finished quilts that reside in our guest bedroom.  I have other projects I would like to work on but I am on a mission and intend to finish it before I move on.

I finished up this Jelly Roll Race quilt this week with my leftover blue and purple/lavender batiks 2.5" strips.  It is 50" by 50" and has a binding prepared for it.  Off to my quilt guild's charity group to quilt and finish.

This batik quilt top is still a work in progress.  While trying to de-stash my huge batik fabrics I found that I did not have enough turquoise batiks to finish off the color way.  Now is that not the height of craziness.  Buying more fabric in order to de-stash what you already have.  However, while this top was originally supposed to go to my charity group, I now think I might not be able to give it up. Plan to finish it up this week and see how I feel about it when it is all done.  It is not a large quilt, only 48"square.  

My daughter mailed this quilt top to me this past week.  She lives in Colorado, I am in California. She took up quilting about 3 years ago.  Loves making the quilts but, how many of them can you keep.  I have often said my love affair with the quilt ends when it is finished, and she now agrees, how many can you keep.  It is give them away as a gift or find someone willing to take them off your hands.  This is the third quilt she has made and donated to my charity group in the past 18 months.    

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SCRAPS, ELEMENTS, AND NEW YORK BEAUTY FINISHES

Over the last two weeks I have spent some time trying to de-stash some of my batiks.  Frankly it is a lost cause, I am not getting anywhere, but it has been fun trying.  

I had a difficult time with this batik quilt top.  While I thought I had tons of different scraps, it seems there just is never enough variety.  However, I figured that it is not supposed to be a masterpiece, the idea is to get rid of some of my batiks. Once I got it all together it seems to have come out rather nicely.  It is going to my charity group and I hopefully someone will love it.

This is my finished NewYork Beauty Tim Holtz Elements quilt top.  I am really pleased with this piece.  It was so much fun and something I have never done before.  Everyone says New York Beauty blocks are difficult to make.  There was a bit of a learning curve with them, but they are paper pieced and that system really does make things easier to get those little sharp points.  The best part was you can put colors and shapes together next to each other and get away with it that you can't anywhere else.

The pumpkin wall hanging is finished as well.  It needs to go off to the quilt this coming week along with the NewYork Beauty.    

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