Together Quilt and Sew Along

I am hosting a Together We Sew Along for a private Facebook group to which I belong. We are using Sherri McConnell's Together quilt pattern and many of the participants are using the Sincerely Yours fabric collection. 

I've been doing my demos for the Sew Along using the same collection, but I'm making my quilt out of fabric from my stash. I will be giving my quilt away to an individual who is retiring after 30+ years of teaching elementary students. She is a wonderful person who is very patriotic. With that in mind, my blocks are all made using a variety of creams, blues, and reds. 

All of the blocks are sewn, and I will be introducing the sashing and cornerstones to the participants this week. I am loving these blocks!

Did you notice that I put them up on the wall in the shape of a heart? Ok, it's a pretty rough heart, but it's still a heart.  hahaha

I'll share pictures soon of the top when it's complete. I am looking forward to finishing this and gifting it. 

Special Quilt from 2013

Jack and I made a quick trip to the library Saturday to pick up some books that had been ordered in for us. There was also a special Lunar New Year celebration that sounded interesting, so we scheduled our trip around that. 

Ring in the year of the tiger at our sixth-annual, all-ages Lunar New Year party! We'll celebrate with plenty of food you can take home, games, and crafts for attendees. Learn about the lunar calendar, nosh on traditional and Asian-fusion treats, and have an all-around fantastic Saturday!

Pick up a take-out container filled with handmade dumplings, noodles, sticky sesame wings, rice cakes, and more. Stick around to make tiger masks and pellet drums, and be prepared for plenty of fun! 

We enjoyed ourselves, learned some interesting things, and even walked out with lunch. :-)

While we were there, I took a few minutes to go to the Children's Section. 

In 2013, I was honored to make a quilt for the re-opening of the library. I blogged about it HERE.

The quilt hangs on the back wall of the Children's Section and can be seen from the main area. Of course I've seen it many times over the years, but I hadn't really looked at it closely for quite some time.

I will admit that this was a bit challenging for me, as all of the blocks had been made using paint - sometimes multiple layers of paint - and the blocks were stiff. Looking at it now, I wish that I had found a more fun way to lay out the blocks, but I am certainly NOT criticizing my work. 

I think the thing I like best and remember most about this quilt was being present during the unveiling. It was fun to see youngsters looking for their blocks and showing them off to their parents. I was also excited to meet the artists and let them tell me about their blocks. 

Sometimes it's just plain nice to look back at the quilts we've made and reminisce about the process.

Reveal - Color Challenge

 It's time to reveal my 2021 Color Challenge project!

I enjoyed participating in the Color Challenge hosted by 

Jen - of Patterns by Jen. 

Not only did we get awesome quilt block patterns, there were quarterly door prizes provided by some wonderful sponsors, we learned a lot about a nice variety of fruits and vegetables, and we even shared some delicious recipes. 

All in all, it was a wonderful year! 

Be sure to read all the way to the end of this post to find links to some of the other bloggers who are sharing their finished projects today.

For the past three years I sewed two blocks each month and created two quilts from those blocks. In case you missed them here are the 2019 quilts and the 2020 quilts 

I went a little rogue with my project this year and am quite happy with my choice.

I still made two blocks each month, but this year I made one 12" block and one 6" block. The 2021 theme was fruits and vegetables.

All of my 12" blocks were made using one consistent fabric (bright green) and one fabric that had the featured fruit or vegetable in it. There were a couple of months that I couldn't decide which fabric to use, so I made two 12" blocks that month. That was fun!

My 6" blocks were made using Mosaic Masterpiece by Cheryl Lynch. 

I chose to use this fabric right after the 2021 challenge was announced because I knew it would be perfect. I met Cheryl at a workshop back in 2019, right before this fabric, her first collection, was introduced. I fell in love with the fabric and ordered some right away. She has since designed a second collection and has yet another one coming soon. If you read my post a couple of days about my Secret Sewing Reveal, you know that I used these fabrics in another quilt - a scrap quilt, and I love the results. 

So what does all this have to do with my finished 2021 quilt? Well...I decided that I didn't want to make two quilts, or even one for that matter. Since the theme was fruits and vegetables, I decided to make placemats and mug rugs instead. 

Using the 12" blocks each month I sewed 1" fabric strip to the right side of the block and then either a single 4" piece of the featured fabric or a 4" pieced section that included the featured fabric. (Actually, the January block was made with a 6" pieced section, but I decided that was too large, so I scaled it back to 4" for the rest of the year.)

All of the placemats that feature fruit were backed with this fabric. 

And all of the vegetable placemats are backed with this fabric.  

The binding was chosen based on the 1" fabric strip that was used. 

The mug rugs are all backed with the consistent green fabric used in the placemats so they work well with the placemats. Like the placemats, I made a couple of extra mug rugs and am that I did. As you can see, there are a few mug rugs that do not include the Mosaic fabric. When I started the project, I had a fat quarter bundle of the fabrics shown above. For some of the months I didn't have the right color, so I didn't use it. In those cases, I used the light mosaic fabric instead, and substituted a solid (or one that reads solid) fabric to correspond to that month's color. 

The mug rugs were not bound. Instead, I stitched a 1/4" all around them to give the appearance of a binding. 

All in all, I am very happy with these placemats and mug rugs. It makes setting the table fun for the grandkids, as they each choose which one they want to use; and there has been no arguing yet.  Yay!

It's fun to see this pile in the kitchen and even more fun to watch the kids go through it and decide which one they want to use. 

Thank you Jen for another wonderful and colorful year!

Check out the finished projects by these bloggers...

Patterns by Jen

Daybrook Designs

Frances Quilts

True Blue Quilts

Create with Claudia

Secret Sewing Reveal

I've been working on a couple of secret sewing projects and it's Reveal Day for one of them. I've shared some sneak peaks on social media over the last couple of weeks, but in case you missed them I'll share them here too.

In November, I received a box from Cheryl Lynch filled with Mosaic Masterpiece scraps. I was excited when I opened the box and saw all this gorgeous fabric. 

Since I wasn't sure what I'd be getting, I'd only given a little thought as to what I was going to make. The plan was for me to add some of my own scraps and create a quilt. After seeing the scraps, I came up with a plan and decided to add one constant fabric, a very light green. 

I then went to my "Small Scrap Bin" and pulled a variety of fabric and started cutting 1.5" x approx. 5.5" pieces. I stacked the cut pieces on one side of my pressing table so I could see if/when I needed to add a new color.  This is a very mixed group of fabrics, but it's exactly what I wanted. 

I have to laugh at the comments I received when I shared this picture on social media. Yes, it really is a jumbled mess of fabric and could actually have turned into a hot mess, but I was sure it would work. I got busy sewing and paid no real attention to which strips I pulled. They just had to contrast with the strips near it. 

I completely forgot to take pictures of the small block units to show here, so I will just share the completed quilt now. I don't think this picture does it justice, but I think you get the idea.

I am very happy with the results! 

I tried to take pictures outside because the lighting is so much better, but the wind and cold temperatures didn't want to cooperate, as you can see in the picture below.

Here are a few close ups of the quilt.

This quilt was created using a foundation piecing technique. I started with a 5.5" square of the constant fabric. I drew two lines to create what I call a kite. I then sewed strips onto each side. The first and third rounds were sewn using the Mosaic Masterpiece fabrics. I used my fabric scraps for the middle strip. 

When I was sketching this out, I was thinking about the star that would be created from the unsewn constant light green fabric when four small blocks were sewn together. I was pleasantly surprised (thrilled, actually) with the secondary design that was created when those blocks were sewn together. Jack thinks it looks a bit like a Medieval coat of arms. I don't know what it looks like, but I like it!

I used my favorite black and white stripe for a border to frame the blocks. I usually reserve this fabric for binding, and that was one of my original binding options; but after I had the inside of the quilt sewn together, I knew that this would be the perfect first border. I added a plain border of the same light green fabric from the blocks and then bound this with scraps of the Mosaic Masterpiece fabric.

I quilted in the ditch around all of the strips and created the illusion of the blocks continuing into the border. I was very happy when that turned out to look like I had envisioned. Yay!

Earlier I said that I used an interesting mix of scraps from my stash. Here are just a few examples of some of those fun fabrics...

Doesn't everyone have Hot Wheels and toy truck fabric in their stash?

I have quite a bit of fruit and vegetable fabric because that was the theme of the 2021 Color Challenge project hosted by Patterns by Jen. Check back Friday for the reveal of that challenge. 

I also included at least one piece from each of the ten reading pillows I made for the grandkids' Christmas gifts. I think they'll enjoy seeing pieces of fabric from their pillows in this quilt. 

Speaking of pillows, I made a few extra blocks (on purpose because I wanted to have options while laying out the blocks), so I made two 18" pillows to go with the quilt.

Isn't this backing fabric fun? I had that in my stash too. 

If you've been a reader of my blog for any length of time, you know that my husband Jack is my official quilt holder and quilt namer. Here he is smiling, despite the 16 degree temperature and strong winds. I am one lucky woman!

I have to share a conversation Jack and I had regarding the making and naming of this quilt. I think it's kind of fun.

As I'm pulling fabric from my scrap bin...

Jack: That's your small-pieces bin. Are you using those for this quilt?

Me: Absolutely! I'll be using pieces that measure 1.5" wide by about 5.5" long.

Jack: Oh, ok. I don't see it, but I trust that you know what you are doing.

As I cut fabric, the conversation continues with:

Jack: You realize that you just cut strips of Hot Wheels, olives, and toy trucks right?

Me: Yep! And I'm adding the other fruit and vegetable fabric that I used for the Color Challenge project. Plus, fabric that was used in each of the grandkids pillows (all 10 of them) will be in there too, along with whatever I pull out next. 

Jack: This should be "interesting."

I made a few blocks to test my pieces and put them on the design wall. The conversation continued:

Jack: I'm sorry Hon, but I am not loving this...

Me: Give it time. Do you like the individual blocks?

Jack: Yes, sort of. This may be a challenge for me to name. 

I added more blocks to the design wall and the stars (both the pieced ones and the solid ones) began to show.

Jack: I get it now. I'm kind of liking this and will start thinking about names. 

Me: I already have a name in mind. The goal here was to make a scrap quilt using the mosaic fabrics along with my stash. In my mind, I needed fabric that compliments each other and "plays well together."  That's what I want to name this: Plays Well with Others

Jack: BINGO! That's perfect and I think the quilt is pretty darn cool. 

Fast forward to the finished quilt and picture taking:

Jack: This is one of my favorite quilts that you've made. You know I don't love scrappy bindings, but that mosaic fabric is perfect! 

Me: I agree!   

Me: Since I made extra blocks, just to be safe; I made two pillows also. I am smitten with those as well.  :-) 

Jack: After we take pictures outside in the freezing cold, I'm going to use that quilt to warm up and sit by the fire.

That's exactly what he did!  :-) 

Quilt Facts:

Quilt Name: Plays Well with Others 

Quilt Size: 48" x 58"

Technique: Foundation Pieced

Machine Quilted in the Ditch and straight lines on my domestic Bernina 180

Fabrics: Scraps of Mosaic Masterpiece from Cheryl Lynch and whatever was in my stash, Hoffman 1895 Sea Grass for the constant light green, QT Fabrics Digital Blanc Et Noir Stripe Black, and Fossil Fern by Patricia B. Campbell and Michelle L. Jack for Benartex for the backing (Other than the fabrics from Cheryl, all of the fabrics came from my stash.)

Pillows: 18", with zippered backs made from the same fabric as the quilt backing 

I am thrilled with this quilt! I hope the new year brings you as much joy in your quilt making as this quilt has brought to me!