The Monarch butterflies are, once again, here–on their way to their breeding grounds. What a pleasure it is to see them flittering around the red roses when I sit on my porch.
“Stacks 2,” a design taught by Tara Faughnan in her first “The Color Collective” year (2019?), is on the longarm. It is interesting to me that Tara has never released this pattern, as she did for many others from The Color Collective’s five years. I still find it very graphic and interesting. I used the remnants of cut blocks and fabric from this project that I saved when I finished the first quilt. So, six years and a new home later…
It’s a handsome quilt.
AND, I just signed up for Tara’s new “Blocks” class, which will be starting October 1. I debated, but these classes really do give me so much room to play.
“Four Patch Fun 2”–made with the free 8-inch version of Bonnie Hunter’s 2025 leader/ender block, released in July–is ready to be sewn together. Note that I used the setting version that adds sashing. I might still be moving blocks around–I moved some yesterday–so I’ll let this one simmer a few more days while I play with other design wall projects. (This quilt’s destination will be a baby girl who will arrive in my backdoor neighbor’s home late November–and this quilt will be the third that I have given to new babies in our neighborhood.)
Play Progress:
I won’t proceed with “neutral Stacks 3” until I finish the new “Four Patch Fun” quilt and the “Crayon Colors” log cabin quilt made from solid strips AND have played with more blocks for whatever is happening above “Crayon Colors.” That is some sort of improv project… And I did add a block to the grouping yesterday. Play like these blocks will use up some of the cut solid strips and bits, but play like these blocks also gives me MORE creative energy and ideas.
The new leader/ender project seems to be making more placemats. Four are now layered and an orange one is almost ready to layer. The goal is six placemats. Then I’ll switch to another leader/ender project with these 2-inch cut squares. I have an idea…
I will try again to put on bindings using my sewing machine to sew down the front side.
My Charleston Modern Quilt Guild challenged its members to make a scrappy donation quilt for a local organization that manages foster children–to be due at our September meeting. Meanwhile, Bonnie Hunter shared her 2025 leader/ender free block in July. I loved the block and could not limit using it to a leader/ender project. So, it quickly became a primary project. This is the 6-inch block, and it is easy, fun to make, and uses up LOTS of scrappy strips.
I bound this quilt with this adorable grey backing fabric with its school of swimming fish–which is fitting in our tropical coastal location. So, I used a medium grey thread to quilt, and the pantograph is “Garden Frills Too” as I thought it needed some curves.
I wanted this quilt to be gender neutral, and I think it is. And I wanted to use lots of colors, which I did.
My younger son’s family LOVES to hunt for beach treasures after a storm. Sharks’ teeth are a coveted find. After hurricane Erin’s winds crashed on our shores, they went out to hunt.
Here are their finds: small shark teeth…
And TWO really big ones, which are a rare find.
They showed me with faces still lit up with excitement and joy.
Go no further than Mexican Train–a dominoes type game that is so fun. Indeed, quilter Bonnie Hunter revealed a bit ago in her long-time daily blog that she and her husband and friends spent an evening playing “a cutthroat game of Mexican train.”
My two families here love games: board games and card games of all sorts. And it doesn’t have to be a rainy day for any of this crew to enjoy some time playing a game.
My younger son’s family recently introduced me to Mexican Train, and it is my new favorite board game–mostly because it can be played by younger children who know their numbers and have the attention span to play and by adults who who would play at a more complex level.
My son Bryan Enright is slowly developing a web site called “Shore Things” that is all about the Low Country. (He does work full time so adds to this site when he has time.) He has included a section on “Rainy Day Games” that lists lots of games they like, with links to where to buy them–so you can see what each game costs.
On this “Shore Things” site there are lots of pictures of our beaches, for instance. And, some of this area’s rich history. And, some advice on practical issues that arise here, like handling the humidity.
Know that this effort is a work in progress, but just google “Shore Things.” Or use this link:
First, I DID go back and take apart the first quilt in this series so that I could fix the blocks that were reversed. And can I just say that I NEVER, NEVER, EVER want to have to do that job again. (Many thanks to longarm quilter Wendy Currie for walking me though how to go about making this repair and for the encouragement to go ahead and risk doing it. Wendy lives in Thunder Bay, Canada, and we connected online years ago. She knows me well, for sure.)
Fixing the two blocks was possible I think because they were on the edge of the quilt. If they were more to the center, I don’t think I could have taken them out with the batting and backing in place and the longarm quilting done. Fixing blocks in the center would have required taking apart the quilt from the flawed row to the bottom edge. As it was, it took me THREE days to complete this task: unsewing the longarm stitches, removing the two blocks and resewing them in a very tight space, loading the quilt back on the longarm without using sturdy pins that could have harmed the quilt top (I used bull clips), lining up stitches with the pantograph, requilting, then burying LOTS of threads, and then sewing the binding back in that area.
So, here’s the first quilt in my series, “Fall’s Splender.” To remind, this series started with wanting to use the Cat’s Cradle big ruler again and the palette I put together using a Kaffee Fasset fabric I bought on sale at least 15 years ago. It is Beach Balls, and comes in varying colorways. Looking at it years later, I thought it looked like the colorful fall winter squashes so common in New England in the fall. Eventually I researched the fabric and found it wasn’t squashes at all.
Now I’m happy and feel like I can gift this handsome quilt happily. I let this issue simmer for weeks and weeks until I knew I could not live with it, even if I ruined the quilt trying to fix it.
To remind, here’s the fabric that generated this quilt series. (The pink in this photo of the quilt front is actually a quiet salmon like the color in the backing.). And, LOL, I still think these are squashes and not beach balls.
The pantograph is Check and Chase by Lorien Quilting. The cotton thread is a warm gold from Signature threads.
I have the small and large Cat’s Cradle rulers, and I wanted to see if I could combine using them in a quilt. Oh yes, I could! Here’s the second quilt: “Spring’s Song”–made with 4-inch and 8-inch blocks created by the Cat’s Cradle rulers. The small one stops at 4 inches, and the large one at 8 inches. (If you try something like combining these blocks, press all of your seams open.)
Mercy! I love this quilt! I can see all sorts of other combinations to use based on what I’m seeing here. This kind of creative play is what I most enjoy in quilting.
Here’s the backing, which I had in my stash and which produced the name and the spring green cotton thread color from Signature threads. I LOVED the spring green of the trees in Maine, which made them look all soft and fluffy. The pantograph is Arcadia from Patricia E. Ritter.
And here’s “Summer’s Solstice”–also made with the Cat’s Cradle rulers using 4 inch and 8 inch blocks. I had thought to use the small blocks like sashing between the large blocks, but that didn’t work for me as it was way too busy.
And here’s its gorgeous backing–“Shooting Star” designed by Anna Maria. (It isn’t this pink and has lots of the rich green/brown that is in this palette and more of the orange shades.). The thread color is a warm brown from Signature threads, and the pantograph is Garden Frills Too.
These quilts are all 64 by 64, which makes a nice lap size, so here’s a pic to give you a sense of the size:
So, now I am done with this series and will put this palette away. But I’ll be using the rulers again, especially the large one. These 8-inch blocks make quick and easy graphic donation quilts that are a perfect size.
And finally, here’s a picture of the first quilt BEFORE I fixed it. Look to the bottom left, third row up.
No, no, no…
I hope I don’t make a mistake like this one twice in almost 30 years of sewing quilts. And the mistake I made was sewing rows and putting them on the ironing board to join to the previous rows on the ironing board, which prevented me from seeing the two reversed blocks. Usually I put sewn rows back on the design wall before sewing chunks of rows together so I can see the whole pattern.
If so, don’t look at this post from Rachel LaBour of the blog Stitched in Color. I bought TWO more of her patterns for scraps. You have been warned, LOL.
Here is a lovely Sunday gift for you–assuming you like quilts. It comes from a friend in Maine who often sends me interesting posts she thinks I will like. I loved this one.
At our July Charleston Modern Quilt Guild meeting members Kim McPeake and Rick Sanchez challenged us to make a “scrappy” quilt to donate to our ongoing work with organizations that manage foster children.
Their example was this WOW quilt featuring a curved log cabin block–that they swear is not hard. They made it together and also swear it only took a few meeting times to complete the top. Both Kim and Rick also have longarm quilting businesses, but Rick quilted this one.
How fun it was to see this charming and very different scrappy quilt! But Kim and Rick stressed that the challenge quilt tops did NOT have to be elaborate. In essence, they had a good time together working on this project.
There is a ruler used to make this block’s curved corner–made in solids by Kim and Rick. And there is a pattern. Here’s a link to both on the Sew Kind of Wonderful web site.
In our Sit and Sew Saturday morning meeting last week, I shared my own quilt top for this challenge project–using Bonnie Hunter’s recent 2025 “Four Patch Fun” leader/ender block. There are all kinds of ways to set this block or groups of this block with sashing. And Bonnie used two color families, not all of them. (I can never resist COLOR, but I also think this top would be ok for girls or boys.)
And I shared many patterns that lend themselves to scrappy tops (or not) that are perfect for donation gifts. Scrappy log cabins are, for instance, a great choice and will use up scraps in your stash.
Here’s a link to Bonnie Hunter’s 2025 leader/ender project. Scroll down to find the print version.
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.
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.
