Louisa Enright's Blog

“Umbrellas” is on the longarm. I thought to finish it yesterday, but an ongoing AC problem happened again, so I got “waylaid and parlayed” as my Southern family would say to explain a delay of some sort. The good news is that my AC folks came today with the ordered new part, and as I write it is getting installed.

My second “Patches and Pinwheel” leader/ender quilt is done–“Patches and Pinwheels 2”–it’s a free pattern on Bonnie Hunter’s Quiltville web site–and it uses up small stash fabrics. In this case I used pre-cut squares from my 2-inch scrap bin and 3.5-inch strips mostly from my strip bins or my pile of small stash pieces.

This quilt will be a donation baby quilt for Patchwork Gals, and it is 42-inches square. The backing and binding also came from my stash. Patchwork Gals‘s donation reach is wide, and its members produce so many beautiful donation quilts and pillowcases yearly: needy women, foster children of all ages, quilts of valor, and a current project for Tunnels to Towers. Members also make sewing projects that are sold in the fall fairs in order to earn money for quilt fabrics, batting, and longarm quilting.

I think that a quilt top that is this busy needs a quieter backing. I quilted with the pantograph “Bayside” and used a soft grey Signature cotton thread.

The “Cross Tiles” quilt top (Emily Dennis, Quilty Love) is done. It’s 78 inches long, and the 4 yards of fabric I had on hand and thought to use isn’t long enough, so I spent some time this morning online looking for a sale fabric that would work. I ordered 5 yards of one that I think will work, but you never know until it arrives. I think a quilt like this one needs a print backing that has at least some of the right colors and is interesting.

I am loving this graphic quilt. The blocks are 14 inches finished and make up REALLY FAST. They are also easy to cut–and I have a new ruler toy that came highly recommended by my quilty friends here–the stripology ruler designed by Gudrun Erla. I will write more on that topic later as I’m still learning all that this ruler can cut. The book I ordered also was back ordered and is now on its way to me. But so far, the strips and squares I have cut happen so fast that my head whirls AND each piece is perfect. PERFECT, every time.

Anyway, I am loving the medium grey field fabric (Kona Titanium) as I wanted a soft look for this quilt. A white or cream backing would be dramatically nice, too, but not soft and cozy like the grey. Plus, a white field fabric would be harder to keep clean if the quilt is used a lot, which I hope it will be.

The leader/ender project “Scrappy Stars” from Leila Gardunia is growing. Leila used bright squares in her sashing, and I started feeling like they were distracting from the stars. I tried various soft colors, but settled on Kona Silver, and I’m liking their quietness, but presence, much better. (The circle block is my design.) The field fabric is Kona white.

The other leader/ender is Bonnie Hunter’s “Tulilp Swirl,” a free block pattern released in July for her annual leader/ender project. I have been steadily making these blocks and now have a whole pile of them so will be adding more of these 16-inch squares to the design wall as there is now room on the design wall for these blocks to expand. I’m thinking 4 blocks by maybe 5 rows, but who knows. I like the secondary patterns emerging now–and how the eye can trace the central finished star down the row of them that is forming.

So, that’s where I am right now–and I’m really enjoying this summer time for daily sewing. And for recently completed big projects.

Where did July go? The summer is flying by so fast.

As July winds itself out of this year’s calendar, I’ve finished or am close too finishing three quilts that took months to make–because the blocks were challenging or involved intense sewing. I worked on each a bit here and a bit there as a mood or inspiration stuck. “Flower Pop” was one of those quilts.

(See https://louisaenright.com/2026/07/13/flower-pop-quilt-is-finished/)

My pineapple quilt “Bright and Beautiful” is done. I’ll post all the information when I’ve mailed this quilt to its destination in mid August. I used a 10 1/2 inch pineapple ruler to make this quilt–and the fabrics all came from my solid stash.

“Umbrellas,” a pattern from Rachel LaBour (Stitched in Color) is loaded on the longarm. Today I’ll finish setting up the quilt and will start the actual quilting. Rachel named this block “Spinny,” but one of my friends said the blocks look like umbrellas, so… (I still want to try the alternate color idea: warm in the center and cool on the outside. Maybe just 4 blocks for a table topper…)

My second quilt from Bonnie Hunter’s “Patches and Pinwheels” is quilted, trimmed, and bound. I’m sewing down the binding at night while watching tv. This pattern is free on Bonnie’s blog (quiltville.com). See the top banner to access her free patterns. All the fabrics came from my stash or my 2-inch cut square bins, and I will donate this quilt.

The design wall now has some room to breathe.

On the right is “Cross Tile” from Emily Dennis (Quilty Love). This 14-inch block makes up FAST. I am really liking the medium grey background (Kona Titanium) as it makes the quilt softer and less graphic than white or off-white). It will be 5 rows long and 4 wide, or a nice lap size quilt. Trust me that blocks and the crosses are getting moved around a lot as I make each new block. That’s part of the creative fun.

On the upper left are the completed blocks from Leila Gardunia’s 8-inch Scrappy Stars patterns. I am foundation piecing these using Tara Faughnan’s folded paper method–so no ripping out papers and the ability to use the paper pattern multiple times. (The circle block is one I designed for fun.) Leila G. has 25 patterns in this PDF download for $12. This morning I printed out the blocks I have not yet used. I just cut out each block’s center part as I can reuse the paper side pieces over and over.

I’ll set up this block later below today, and I’m making these when I just want to play and take a break from other projects.

Hmmm… Note that Leila Gardunia has now released patterns for very pretty scrappy diamonds. See leilagardunia.com

On the lower left of the design wall: Bonnie Hunter released her 2026 “leader/ender” block this July. She called it “Tulip Swirl,” and it is chewing up my smaller stash remnants as it is fast and easy to cut and sew. There are so, so many ways to use this block, and Bonnie has some really good ones in her FREE pattern (Quiltville.com, look at the tabs at the top of the blog.)

Warning: this block is like eating potato chips. You can’t just eat one…

I chose this larger block arrangement, which finishes at 18 inches. One could separate it with sashing, but I sort of like the secondary patterns that emerge when these larger blocks go together–see below.

Secondary patterns emerging:

Each “Tulip Swirl” block can be made from a light and dark 2 1/2-inch by 6-inch rectangle layered together–if one uses a half-square triangle ruler to cut the two needed half-square triangles (see below next to the bright yellow ruler at the toe left of the picture). I’ve also been using that ruler to cut the two 2.5-inch squares. Note: pay attention to the pressing directions as they work to make all butt together.

The pile at the bottom is waiting to be cut, and I try to cut up about 10 a day to have work ready for a leader/ender need. (There are several makers of this half-triangle ruler–one cuts the needed triangles from strips, so when layered one gets two pieces ready to be sewn together.) Note: The white and orange fabrics to the right are part of a block set-up for another Scrappy Star.

So that’s it, folks.

Have a great rest of the week.

Tara Faughnan just released her patterns from this past year’s Blocks3 online class, which I took. As always, I was engaged and challenged.

“Garnish” became this table topper–which feels like spring to me.

Inspired by this table topper idea, I made this piece from the leftover triangles cut from the XO quilt blocks. But I digress from today’s topic…

Pillars might be my favorite–and I may return to this idea and make a piece that is slightly bigger. But this one fits so nicely under a vase of flowers.

Star Brite feels like July 4th to me.

“Shift” is small like “Pillars” and maybe I will swap them out soon. Tara’s method of machine sewing hexagons is…ingenious and easy, but does need to be surrounded by the stars so this method would always form straight lines.

This form of “Shift” might be good as a table topper as it is a bit bigger. Who knows?

“Crosswalk” became stretched canvases. I kept these two and they are hanging in my quilt room:

Three of these were gifts and one will be a gift.

Tara had a guest designer for one month, Jen Carlton Bailly, who named her project “Shattered.” Bailly’s method involves curves, and her line of templates come in many sizes.

I made three pieces: two I put on stretched canvas, and they are hanging here. One went into my recent improv quilt.

And:

This piece went into the improv quilt:

So, that’s a wrap for Blocks3.

Will I do Blocks4? I haven’t decided.

But in reviewing this year’s work, maybe I will.

The Charleston Modern Quilt Guild challenged us to make a patriotic postcard as a gift for another participating member, whose name we each drew in secret. The recipient was to be a surprise until we mailed the postcards in July–for America’s celebration of our 250th birthday as a nation.

I had such fun choosing a pattern and patriotic fabrics. I mailed mine in an envelope to protect it.

And here’s what arrived in the mail for me. Along with a quilted notecard saying the maker guessed I would support citizens taking the time to vote.

If I am recalling our instructions, all the postcards will be shared at our July meeting. And I can already tell you they each will be clever and fun to see.

“Flower Pop” is one of the prettiest quilts I’ve ever made, if I do say so myself.

The pics don’t do it justice. The colors are so rich, and the texture of the quilting just works so well. The pattern is from Sew Kind of Wonderful and involved a speciality ruler and a fairly intense learning period to get the feel of the pattern and the ruler.

It took me a fairly long while to make it as I would choose colors for each block as I went along, and sometimes I needed to just see how the colors were working together before I added another block. Of course, blocks got moved around rather a lot along the way. And a blog reader helped me think outside the box of the pattern and mix up the tall and shorter flowers. In the end, color drove the block placement, not the size of the flowers.

The backing is “Tomales Bay” by Katie O’Shea from Art Gallery Fabrics. The panto is “Check and Chase” by Hermione Agee. And the cotton thread I used is Mustard, from Signature threasds. The quilt is a good lap size at 56 by 75.

The binding is from my stash of solids. I wanted a soft color that wouldn’t draw the eye away from the quilt itself, and I think this soft dull green works well.

Here we go into another week. It has been hotter here, but the topical pattern of late afternoon thunderstorms is in place alongside the heat. We’ve gotten something like 8 inches in a span of 4 or 5 days. The grass and plants are so happy and lush and our ponds are almost full again.

Have a great week everyone!

I had such fun making these color-drenched placemats for a friend.

I alternated solids and prints in diagonal rows–using 2-inch squares from my bins.

The backs are all from the same fabric as I had enough of that fabric on hand.

Here’s my friend with her placemats. She recently bought a new home in this area and told me she “needed more color” in it. I knew she liked blue, but didn’t know she also likes yellow, so the placemats’ backing was an accidentally good choice for her.

My friend is my DIL’s mother, so my DIL and my son had both of us mothers over for a sweet gathering of the four of us–and so that I could gift the placemats.

And we’re off into another summer week.

It’s hot here, and so far no thunderstorm in the late afternoon to feed plants and grass. Maybe today…

My six placemats are done, and I’ll post a pic when they are gifted.

“Flower Pop” (Sew Kind of Wonderful) is having its binding sewn on at night. I’ve almost finished two sides. I am really really loving this quilt.

“Bright and Beautiful” is on the longarm.

The design wall is…happy, and so am I.

On the bottom left, the Bonnie Hunter “Patches and Pinwheels 2” top is done. I have a backing for it. On the upper right, Rachel LaBour’s “Spinny” that I’m calling “Umbrellas” is growing–it has become more of a primary project at this point. I bought a backing for it the other day. It will be 4 rows by 4 rows. I may not add a batting as it is…heavy. I’m still tempted to make a warm center with cool borders as a table topper, but time will tell.

On the top left are my growing number of Lelia Gardulnia’s “Scrappy Stars,” each with a different foundation pieced center. I make one, then kit one, and sew it when the mood strikes. (I use Tara Faughnan’s foundation piecing method, so no paper to rip out.)

Under “Umbrellas” is a trial block for Quilty Love’s “Cross Tiles.” It’s a big block and this quilt will make up fast when I really get cranking on it. I saved one of my Tara Faughnan’s palettes to use in this quilt, and I can add from my stash if needed.

Bonnie Hunter released her 2026 “leader/ender” project the other day: “Tulip Swirl.” She does that in July. It’s a free pattern on her blog: quiltville.com.

Of course I had to make the 4-inch trial block. And then, of course I had to make more of them. Bonnie explored so many ways to combine this block–I’m not yet sure which one I’ll choose, or if I’ll go with the stars and use a sashing to unify the project. I’ll make some blocks first. They are so easy–just 2 half-square triangles and 2 squares cut from two 6-inch rectangles, one light and one dark. Each block can use up a lot of small scrap pieces, so that’s a win-win for me. (The pattern has pressing instructions which are needed to best combine the block with others.)

Have a good week everyone!