Month: October 2025

I’ve been playing with Tara Faughnan’s Blocks3 month 1 block for 5 or 6 days.

Here are my “Crosswalk” versions–made with Tara’s palette for this month.

As usual, Tara gives us MANY different ways to think about shape, proportions, and color use.

Note that I hand quilted some of the blocks I put on stretched canvas–a practice I learned last year in the Blocks2 class. And a little water sprayed on the far right canvas in the first picture below will erase the clamp marks.

And–note that the block on the right is an alternate setting method that has also ONE background color :

Two blocks went into the developing improv quilt on the design wall:

(The blocks on the bottom are for a different project.)

I think I’m done for this month now. But boy was this block fun!

Now, the leaves are calling for Rachel LaBour’s “Under the Maple Tree” sewalong. As is the small quilt that needs to go on the longarm.

Who was the person whining about no rain and a drought in recent months?

Yep, that was me.

My prayers have now been answered as we have gotten 12 inches of rain in my little rain gauge from Wednesday to Sunday night.

So, I….sewed.

I had a happy little retreat right here in my house.

The pink gift quilt for my backdoor neighbors’ baby girl is getting its binding sewn down. Said baby girl is due around Thanksgiving and is a first child. Our neighborhood is now full of young children and lots of new babies and young children–all of which I find delightful.

I’ve named this quilt “Girls in Trees” due to the Heather Ross print on the back with which I’ve fallen in love.

The low-volume donation “Stacks’ quilt top from Tara Faughnan’s first “The Color Collective” year (2019) is on the longarm and is waiting for me. I found a bright orange fabric in my stash for this quilt and the rusty orange fabric in some of the triangles on the front will be the binding–and it is made and ready.

The donation quilt made from a Bonnie Hunter free pattern called “Patches and Pinwheels” is done. Boy did it use up a lot of my 2-inch blocks in that bin of blocks which get cut as I finish a quilt project. I’m organizing a backing from my stash: those backing pieces are cut but not yet sewn together.

The six new placemats–also made from that 2-inch bin of blocks–are done. I hand quilted the bindings. BUT, our Patchwork Gals president Patti Gramling and quilter Rick Sanchez have released the video they made of how to sew down binding on a quilt. Patti’s work is the best I’ve ever seen with this method. Here’s the Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3UoCPmPuV4

These gift placemats all have the same backing, which works really well with them and uses up more of that very big pattern.

Here’s my first attempt at Tara Faughnan’s Blocks3 online class–using her palette for this month’s “Crosswalk” block. It will go into the in-process improv quilt on the design wall. Next I’ll make a version with narrower pieces as these seem a little fat to me. The object here is to play with color and with the fabric sizes in terms of pattern width, height, and so forth. Play is…everthing…in this online course.

BUT, BUT, BUT–I have been totally obsessed with working on Rachel LaBour’s Sewalong using her newly developed “Under the Maple Tree” pattern. I cleared the area on the left of the design wall, and this is happening.

Along the way I realized which rulers I could use (or in one case NOT use) while making these blocks–and that was fun too. Well, sort of… I have had to make a zillion half-square triangles for the leaves and for those tiny gold triangles in that “Breeze” block on the border. Part of the bigger gold “Sunlight” block is a Cat’s Cradle block–so using that ruler makes quick work of those units.

Here’s a picture of Rachel’s first quilt. She is now working on a second one using very different colors. My quilt uses her background fabric (Tilda’s Soft Teal) and the gold accent fabric (Free Spirit’s “Spark Gold” by Denyse Schmidt) as I loved them at first sight.

Today will be a short sewing day due to other commitments.

Bah! Humbug!

LOL, I’ll survive. It’s good to interrupt…obsessions.

But first, I took this picture of a live oak’s trunks the other day. These twisted and interlocking trunk parts call to children to climb up, climb up…

These branches call to me as well, but I know better at my age. Still, they invoke lots of memories.

Here’s the design wall a few days ago.

This “Stacks” quilt version with low volume fabrics at the center is sewn and ready to go on the longarm now–and I organized a backing and made binding for it. First though, I have to quilt the pink baby quilt that is loaded on the longarm. “Stacks” is a Tara Faughnan design from the first year of The Color Collective (2019).

This version is not as dramatic as the one made with solids I just finished. but all the patterns will, hopefully, intrigue a child. This one will be a donation quilt, and I think the binding will stop all the eye motion.

“Patches and Pinwheels”–a free quilt on Bonnie Hunter’s blog–is growing. It will be a donation baby quilt and will finish at 42 inches square. I am using up scrap strips for the pinwheels and the 2-inch square blocks in that bin.

The improv quilt is growing too–but more slowly as I am having fun going through my ruler collection and playing with making blocks using the solid scraps. The circles on the top left and the “Lil’ Twister” strip at the bottom were fun to make. AND, I just found in my rulers a mini “Lil’ Twister” ruler that makes small twisters from 3.5-inch squares. Hmmmm…

Bonnie Hunter designed this block below and was it on her blog some weeks back as a leader/ender. It was published in her column in Quiltmaker magazine some years back. I don’t have the right name or year as I can’t find it. Sometimes she goes back and makes quilts from the blocks she has designed for that column. But Bonnie has once again shelved her blocks and has since moved on to other projects.

I made a few–they can make up fast using fabric strips and an already cut 3.5 inch block AND the rulers that cut half-square triangles with light and dark strips layered AND the Simple Folded Corner ruler for the flying geese block. Maybe I will continue, but I have some other projects that are drawing me more. Maybe a leader/ender? It is a cute block…and one can make light and dark variations.

Now to go work on the longarm for a bit this morning. I’ll soon need a binding project again, and a quilt top is waiting in the wings.

Have a great upcoming week everyone.

I’m at my older son’s house this morning, having spent the night here with my granddaughter and the two family doggies while the family traveled to visit my oldest grandson in college.

I gave my DIL this little pieced quilt last year during the Blocks 2 (Tara Faughnan) class–six months of playing with fun quilting ideas. Sometimes we forget how pretty the things we make are. I had such fun hand quilting this one, too. Plus, it was nostalgic as Blocks 3 just started this month.

The idea for this particular Blocks2 month involved the hourglass block, and I fell in love with the split rectangle version of it–and went on to make a whole big quilt using that block.

Almost every time I come here to visit, this piece is somewhere in the living area creating a spot of color and pattern that beckons one to come, look closer. How fun is that?

Here’s the big quilt I made–it’s a good lap size. One’s eye forms diamond images big and small everywhere if you slow down and just look at it. Eyes can make the most amazing patterns, which is a whole other subject.

I brought my current batch of six placemats made from 2-inch scrap blocks from that bin in order to sew down the binding while I listen to my current book. I’ve been listening to Freida McFadden‘s mysteries, and they can really wind you up as they always involve a young woman who is about to go into the house that we all know is haunted. But McFadden ratchets up that storyline with lots of plot twists–and all ends prettily happily. LOL, so far.

Each of these six placemats uses the same color family: blue, red, etc. They are meant to be a birthday gift for my special neighbor, who loves my quilty work and has loved the other placemats I made. She now knows this six will be hers as I can never keep such a secret when the intended recipient is petting something I’m making, like the ones she saw I was hand binding on my couch.

The backing is a piece from my stash where there was enough to use for all six placemats. It could make the placemat reversible, for sure.

I packed up for the night in a bag I made way back in Maine–using scrappy fabric slabs crafted to make the bag really fun to see.

I love this bag and don’t get to use it all that often these days. It has a big sturdy zipper and two zippered pockets on the inside. It’s perfect for an overnight or two.

We are hoping to get some rain these next few days. Hope is the thing with feathers…