Category: Gardening in SC

Hello all! It’s Sunday again.

The scrappy quilt top from Bonnie Hunter’s 2025 Leader/Ender FREE block, released in July each year, is done and will go on the longarm next. This top is the 2-inch version and finishes at 6 inches. It is 60 by 60 and will be a donation quilt, though I LOVE IT. Once I made a few of these blocks, this quilt immediately turned into a primary project. Note that there are alternate settings suggested that involve sashing–and that Bonnie used only two color families that alternate for the diagonal rows. So, lots of room for differences in this project, including not making it scrappy at all.

Leader/Ender projects are meant to be…slow…with block pieces to be sewn instead of sewing on a little scrap between the sewing on your primary quilt project…or instead of breaking your thread. I’m addicted to this block and will next make another gift quilt with the 8-inch finished version. It is already started, LOL.

Here’s a link to to Bonnie’s “Four Patch Fun” leader ender project. ***Pay attention to how to feed the block parts through your machine so that you can “swirl” the joins in your units AND so that ALL the seams butt up to each other. Bonnie’s patterns always contain tons of “how to” pictures and other information.

2025-leader-ender-challenge-four-patch.html

Scroll for printer friendly version.

The third and last of my quilt series using the large and small Cat’s Cradle rulers and this fabric palette is off the longarm, trimmed, bound, and is now my nightly tv watching and hand sewing project. These three quilts are so handsome.

Taking the place of “Four Patch Fun” is “Stacks.” This Tara Faughnan pattern and design dates to her first “The Color Collective” year (2019 I think). I made a big one for a wedding gift, but had a lot of cut pieces and a lot of fabric leftovers. I put them all in a big bag when I moved to South Carolina from coastal Maine. I still like this quilt a lot. Since this picture, I added two more rows to the length. So it will measure 63 by 67.5. ***This block would lend itself to prints. Of course it would. And I’m wondering about making the main part of the block in neutrals, as I have a lot of those in my stash still. I will try that idea soon maybe as it could be a good leader/ender project.

Believe it or not, my stash fabrics are diminishing in places, but there is still a long way to go. And occasionally I do buy fabric for backs and sometimes will buy for specific colors or patterns that I need. Some of my stash colors are now…limited.

One of our local quilt shops is switching from Kona solids to Northcott–and they put their remaining Kona on sale at 30% off. So as I was there, I did get some of the sale brights to add to the Log Cabin on the design wall. (But, let’s just say I also have alot of colors in the solids now.)

Northcott is fine. It has about the same density as Kona. But it does not have as big a color selection. I am sick about this store change (done as Kona has had some recent supply problems), but I will now be getting my Kona online. This local store was the only one with a big Kona solids selection.

Here’s a pic of the hibiscus plant I’m fighting the Mealy worms to save. That situation is better but not yet cured. It required daily attention. The front porch plant had to be dug up and thrown out. It had a big ant bed nearby, and though I have poisoned it with pellets twice, the damage was done. Ants “farm” mealy bugs for their sugary “honeydew secretions.”

The ants: the escapees just move to a new spot and are a real problem here. These ants can produce a HUGE ant hill in what seems like overnight. And if they bite your bare feet when you don’t see a hill that has emerged overnight, the pain is intense. Maybe with my Histamine Intolerance issue, their chemicals are stronger. Maybe this pain is why these ants are called “fire” ants, if that is what they are. In my case, it takes both lavender and Purification essential oils to stop the pain. and I have little blisters for days afterwards.

I am now savoring the last Jan Karon book in her 14-book Mitford series.

I will truly miss these characters. Mitford is likely meant to be somewhere in the North Carolina mountain area–and maybe is meant to be a smaller town, but something like Asheville, NC.

We have a hurricane that is now a category 5 moving toward our coast named Erin. Projections are for it to NOT hit the coast, but it is huge and the wave action will be intense.

I’m hoping that he models will be correct and it will stay out to sea.

Yesterday we had what I call a “gully washer” thunderstorm. The rain gauge said almost 4 inches in about 2 hours. The front ponds are now full again, and the fountains are working again.

Have a great week everyone! Find joy in the small moments of your lives and pause to drink them inside fully. This morning when I checked the rain gauge outside, I could her a bee buzzing on the roses, the locusts singing, the frogs calling after yesterday’s rain, the crows talking to each other, a slight coastal breeze moving the spectacular clouds–all a moment celebrating summer so I paused to let it all happen.

I will recall it this winter.

The third and my last quilt top in this current series exploring how blocks from the small and large Cat’s Cradle rulers might work together is done and folded up on the design wall while it waits its turn on the longarm. There is now, too, a purchased backing that is…”wild.”

I used the same fabric palette for these three quilts. The middle quilt, “Spring’s Song” is on the longarm now.

The first quilt that started this journey, “Fall’s Splendor,” is getting its binding sewn down.

And I will confess, I had another idea of a way to combine these blocks but if I go forth with it, I will use different fabrics.

Bonnie Hunter has released this year’s leader/ender project–“Four Patch Fun.” She starts a new leader/ender project on July 1st every year. One is meant to just sew one of these block components in the place of breaking thread on a primary project. Or, to sew one of these components instead of using a fabric scrap to keep sewing without breaking one’s thread.

I have fallen in love with this 6 1/2 inch block that uses 2-inch strips. (She included measurements for 2 1/2 inch strips for an 8-inch block as well.). These block components are easy to cut and easy to sew. Here is what I have done so far, and I can tell you that these blocks are addictive to make all on their own. No way will this one stay in the leader/ender category long for me, LOL. Nevermind how they look together on my design wall as I’m sure there will be a lot of moving blocks around.

Bonnie included, as she always does, a lot of “how to” in her directions AND numerous ways to set these blocks. I like the way the blocks form diagonal braids, but one could also group 4 blocks to make a circle pattern, with the light cross in the middle, and to maybe separate those blocks with narrow sashing and cornerstones. I have no idea where my blocks will go, but I’m…addicted to making them. For sure.

One project that has been ongoing as a leader/ender project for me is making a dozen placemats from the bin of 2-inch squares. I had a lot of fun devising various patterns using color, but also just making scrappy blocks. I had enough leftover fabric in one print to back the whole dozen. And enough of that fabric to make some bindings too, though not bias binding which I prefer. The rest of the bindings will be made from leftover bias binding strips I’ve saved along the way.

BUT, another goal with this project is to figure out how to install binding on BOTH sides with my sewing machine. I have been lousy at that task. Yet many quilters here that I know do this work beautifully. I tried with the placemat you see on the top. It was…terrible. I had to take the whole binding off and start again and to sew down the binding by hand.

I’ve watched some videos now and have some new ideas–especially with how to handle the corners. And I’ve ordered a Janome foot called a “left bi-level foot” that let’s the needle lie right on the binding edge while the right side of the foot is higher to accommodate the binding thickness. (There is also a “high bi-level” foot available for other projects that have two levels of thickness involved.)

Wish me luck as I’ll try one idea for sewing down the binding later today.

I went through all my saved solid strips and culled the really narrow ones–and pulled out all the bright colors. I’m making log-cabin blocks (14.5 inches unfinished) with these strips. To what end, I don’t know yet.

There is one lone one on the design wall, with the second to follow later today. The wonky strip below is as yet not exciting me… Maybe I’ll try one more. Maybe not.

I think, next, I’ll pull out one of the projects from The Color Collective where I had a lot of leftovers already cut and a stash of those fabrics saved. That project would make a good donation quilt at the very least and would move that fabric along nicely.

I’ve apparently been AWOL. But I’ve been…summering. And, yes, always, sewing.

First, look at my beautiful Crepe Myrtle tree. It just bloomed, and it’s growing and filling out now. It seems so happy.

On the gardent front, the grass is thriving from the rain brought by the thunderstorms we’ve had, and the Japanese Beetles are slowing way down for this year. I think I picked a thousand off of my roses and adjacent plants like the now-blooming Vitex (a drought resistent Mediterranean plant).

Second, my 16-year-old (almost 17) granddaughter starts TODAY sailing across the Atlantic to Spain from the British Virgin Islands in a 2-mast wooden boat–after a week of preparation and sailing refresher days that also included scuba diving in the BVI islands.

This young woman LOVES sailing, and this trip meets educational requirements that will serve her well if she pursues this interest as crossing the Atlantic in a sailboat opens all sorts of doors. The boat is the ARGO, and we can track the route online at seamester.com, which many family members and friends are doing. The “first stop” across the Atlantic is the Azores, which will be reached after 18 or 19 nonstop days. The students and crew will sail the boat, night and day. There is no “parking” this boat. The students will have harnesses on at all times (whew!) and have come equipped with all the necessary foul weather and foot gear.

Here’s the Argo at rest in the BVIs:

What an adventure! I am of course glued to the online interactive map of the Argo’s progress, reading the daily blogs, and looking at all the pictures. The students will rarely have access to their phones until they reach the Azores and, later, when they get to Gibraltar and then go on to the Spanish coast.

Three, “Dancing Kites” is now finished. It is a baby quilt for an upcoming little girl, arriving sometime in July.

I used a 5-inch Kites ruler, and I will be using it again. There are so many blocks one can make with a kites ruler–and they come in many sizes. The fabrics all came from my stash–but I did buy a backing fabric. I quilted with a pale pink thread, using the “Folk Hearts” pantograph (Urban Elementz: Beany Girl Quilts / Benay Derr).

For this quilt I wanted lots of kite movement, so I contrasted the groupings/rows of 4 kites of the same color with up/down “sashings” of single kites in downward rows of 4 kites and sideways rows separating the 4-kite groupings. Truly, these kites ARE dancing.

I am in total love with this Tilda backing fabric:

Could it be more fun or more perfect for this quilt?

I don’t think so.

Have a wonderful weekend folks. ENJOY summer!

And, the scrappy log cabin quilt done during Rachel Hauser’s Sitched in Color online sewalong–Scrap Cabin–is on the longarm. I haven’t named my version of this quilt yet.

And, the block for the online class Blocks 2–month 6–the final month–from Tara Faughnan dropped March 1st. It’s called “Grid Work.” What a very fun year this class has been.

And, I’m sewing down the binding on the improv quilt I made called “Improv Sandbox.” (The mural background below is the Ravenal Bridge which is famous here in Charleston, SC.)

Here’s the very busy design wall:

The wedding ring quilt (month 5 of the Blocks 2 class) kind of speaks for itself. I’m entranced with it. I have one more row to make it 60 by 60 and have the fabrics for that row organized. I would like for it to be bigger, but… I’ll likely call it a day on this one as 80 by 80 means another row plus 4 more end-of-row blocks.

The quilt on the left is the 4th and last of my series on the half-rectangle triangle ruler made using Latifah Saafir’s Hurty ruler: “Gradations.” The outer border is working well–all the pieces are cut and sewn, and I’m really liking the fabric choice. So far, the math for this border is…mathing. Whew! I’ll sew more of that final border later today. So, this quilt will be off the design wall soon.

Above the wedding ring quilt is the start of a scrappy something–using the smaller Cat’s Cradle ruler’s 4-inch size. The sewing and cutting are proceeding as leader-ender blocks. The big block up there is made using the bigger ruler at the 8-inch choice. Not sure where this one is going…just playing and using up a LOT of scrap pieces in my stash.

Yesterday I went to Home Depot to get a folding lawn chair that isn’t one of the “beach chairs” that are so low to the ground. I want to sit in my driveway or back yard to get some sun. I, came home with plants and wearing a shirt that got dirty while carrying the plants to the cashier as I didn’t get a basket along the way.

Pansies and a red cyclamen.

Spring is almost here. The birds are all singing again. And the grass is trying to green up.

Tonight we will have thunderstorms and, hopefully, some rain.