A Wow! Curved Log Cabin Quilt

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.

https://sewkindofwonderful.com/products/curvy-log-cabin-quilt-pattern-paper

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.

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

I’m behind on donation quilts, so one goal for this fall’s work will be to create some donation quilts for my two quilt groups.

Mid August 2025 Sunday Update

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.

“Spring’s Song” Quilt is Done

Good Monday morning to all. Here we go to another week.

We’ve gotten a good amount of rain in recent days, for which we are grateful as it has been a long drought this time. I hope this rain will help with our front ponds which are lower than I’ve ever seen them. Their fountains are turned off as a result.

***And I didn’t note in my recent post that ANTS farm Mealy bugs. Guess what is right next to my front plant that is the most infected? A big ant bed. I treated the original nest, which was nearby, but the surviving ants just moved to a new spot around the corner from the original nest.

Nature is fascinating.

“Spring’s Song” is the second quilt in this series of three quilts, using the same palette and the big and small Cat’s Cradle rulers. The third and final quilt is on the longarm now.

“Spring’s Song” is quilted with a “spring green” color cotton thread, and I really love how it looks on the quilt and on the backing. Cotton thread “stands up” on a quilt, and I like that look, especially with the beautiful Innova longarm’s stitch. The pantograph is Arcadia (Patricia E. Ritter). The quilt is 64 by 64 inches.

This backing of trees in spring helped me choose this quilt’s name. And it also plays off of the first quilt: “Fall’s Splendor.”

Below you can see how the big 8-inch blocks are working with the 4-inch blocks. Basically I just made some of the blocks in both sizes and played on the design wall with them until I saw this pattern start to emerge. Play is everything for me in quilting. That’s where the creativity happens.

Let’s have a great week folks!

What Is That White Fuzz on My Hibiscus Plant?

And on a new prennial in the new front garden by the porch?

It’s Mealybugs.

Here’s a pic of what they look like that I found online. I sprayed the tops of the infected plants with 50% alcohol and water, but it didn’t get the underside of the leaves on the plant outside–and we’ve had a fair amount of rain that will wash off the alcohol too.

Ugh! I’ve got the Hibiscus on the porch mostly under control. But not the front area plant that is NOT on a porch. So more spray this morning to include trying to get at the areas under the leaves.

Mealybugs, says the video below, can really be a plague in greenhouses.

And here’s more info on the Mealybug life cycle, if you are interested. There is a fly form involved too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mealybug

I have not yet dared to go around the house to check other plants. And there will be more rain today, which we still really need.

Quilty Update–Early August 2025

“Spring’s Song” is off the longarm, and the quilting in lime green looks so pretty.

This quilt is now trimmed and bound, and I’ll start sewing the binding at night. Look how pretty the backing is with its trees in spring green.

The design wall is once again…FULL of fun projects–organized from the piles on my cutting table: strips of bright solids, a pile of fabrics and a quilt pattern, and print strips waiting to be cut for desired blocks.

On the left is the almost finished top made with Bonnie Hunter’s 2025 Leader/Ender block “Four Patch Fun.” More stash scraps are getting used. I am aiming for 60 by 60. The light and dark braids that form are visible now.

Here’s a link to Bonnie Hunter’s 2025 leader/ender block pattern–scroll to get to the printer friendly link.


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

The long rows growing in the middle of the design wall are from leftover fabrics and cut block parts from a Tara Faughnan early The Color Collective quilt project called “Stacks.” I had a lot of leftovers that I put in a big plastic sack when I moved from Maine. This project goes back to the first Color Collective, in 2019 I think. I’ll make a smaller quilt and then call it a day on this project. The first quilt was big and was gifted as a family wedding present. *It feels good to be moving this bag of fabrics out of the stash.

The solid bright improv log cabin type blocks are 14 inches and are using up solid strips and fabrics. It is so cheerful! A lap quilt would need to be at least 4 blocks wide and maybe 5 long–which I will do as I don’t need another wall hanging.

The 4 rectangle blocks above the log cabins are just improv play with the leftover solid log cabin pieces–and longer ones too. Who knows what will happen here, if anything. I’ll just keep on playing.

It’s been hot here off and on, but overall this summer has been cooler than summers for the past two years. July is the hottest month here. I would have thought August would be hotter, but data says no.

I’ve been able to eat on my wonderful screened porch for all but a handful of these summer days. And the other day I had some hamburger and thought I had not made a stir fry in some time.

So this pan of goodness happened–and fed me for two days.

As you all who read this blog know, I cook by what I have on hand. And this stir fry contained summer sweet onion, sweet red pepper, some carrots chopped into small chunks that will cook quickly, some garlic, and a mixture of “Italian” dried herbs. I added my bunch of kale torn off its stalk and roughly chopped when the firmer veggies were soft. I added the handful of frozen peas that were the last in a bag with the hamburger.

I sauteed in beef tallow and added the kale when the veggies were getting soft. When the kale was wilted, I added the frozen peas and the hamburger and just turned the mixture until the hamburger was lightly cooked to pink. (I don’t like overcooked meat as the nutrients get killed.)

This day was an indoor eating day, sadly. The fruit is ripe canteloupe.

I’ve been trying to lose weight to hit a long-term goal for me, so I’ve cut all starchy carbs for the moment. And I seriously control the amount of fruit I eat twice a day. This morning I saw a number on the scale I have not seen in years.

I was very excited!

Teri’s Charleston Quilt

My sweet, sweet neighbor Teri used to sew garments a lot.

She loves my quilts and wanted to try to make a quilt. So one day she bought this quilt kit, which is squares and rectangles and easy sashing and border.

We went slowly as she didn’t really have quilty equipment. She had a new upgraded sewing machine, but we had a time figuring out the settings for her quarter-inch foot.

BUT, here’s her almost finished quilt, quilted by longarm quilter Kim McPeake, who also installed the binding. Next Teri will learn how to sew down the binding. **That border is a luscious warm navy.

The backing is the rich red floral.

The feature fabric is this quilt is the “rainbow row” houses in Old Town Charleston. And here you can see Kim’s beautiful floral quilting in a pale blue.

Here’s Teri with her quilt.

The quilt is beautiful, but the woman is too (inside and out).

This pattern is a Wild and Wooly quilt kit, and Wild and Wooly is one of our local quilt (and knitting) shops. They have an online store.

A Dozen Scrappy Placemats

These placemats have been my leader/ender project for some time now. I used cut blocks from my 2-inch square bin.

Six are scrappy, but I did play with color organization in some. And six are made withone color family.

All the bindings save the green one came from my saved bag of leftover bindings. How fun is that.

I had enough of this fabric for all 12 placemats–and as they will be used here in coastal South Carolina, the “watery” theme will be fun.

Here’s what a pile of 12 placemats looks like. They won’t take up much space in a drawer.

And there is one other note. I have been trying to learn to install a binding on a quilt with my sewing machine. The president of Patchwork Gals makes these bindings beautifully, so I was inspired to learn how to do this task as well as many quilters now do. In her extensive demonstration, she made for us recently, I learned a lot.

But, only one of these placemats has machine sewn binding. It is ok, but not as pretty as what others can do. It takes practice they say–and figuring out what works for you and your machine.

I’ve ordered a special foot for my Janome that might help: a left side bi-level foot. It is meant to work with things like bindings.

We’ll see. Meanwhile, I hand-sewed 11 of these placemats, and I’m happy with them.

Next up: more placemats using the 2.5-inch bin of squares. Maybe I’ll try machine sewing this batch.

Time will tell.

Indigo Dyeing and “Fall’s Splendor” Quilt is Done

Last week I made a quick trip to one of our local quilt stores, Wild and Wooly, and look what they had hung out to dry:

Indigo dyed pieces of fabric!

And some with very pretty patterns laid over a table:

I did a post on the history of indigo and indigo dyeing in South Carolina some time ago. The growing of indigo was pioneered in South Carolina:

Indigo: “The Blue That Enchanted the World”

To recall first, here’s the backing.

This older Kaffee Fasset fabric (which I saw as winter squashes like one sees in New England in this colorway) of “beach balls” started my recent play time with the 8-inch Cat’s Cradle ruler. This piece of fabric had been hanging out in my stash for, literally, years. I chose the fabrics for this new quilt series from those used in this fabric.

The first quilt is “Fall’s Splendor,” and it is done and bound.

BUT, there is a problem that is driving me more than a little crazy. When I sewed the rows, I didn’t put them back on the design wall as I went. So, I didn’t notice that I had sewn two blocks out of order on the third row from the bottom on the left until the top was quilted and bound. The reversal throws off that pattern of the small squares going up the diagonal line.

Ugh!!!

This quilt is otherwise so handsome. But what to do??

I tell myself that no one is going to hang this quilt on a wall or spread it over a bed. It’s a lap quilt. It’s meant to be hugged and loved. I tell myself I didn’t even notice until it was finished.

I also tell myself that I might be able to take off the binding in that spot and to take out the quilting stitches–which would involve more than those two blocks–and to sew the blocks in correctly and redo the stitching using the pantograph.

Can I do that? I don’t honestly know. It would be tricky–and I don’t want to hurt other parts of the quilt pinning it back on the longarm. Could it just be draped over the longarm rollers.

The current quilting is beautiful, so can I replicate that impact?

Honestly, I don’t know what I’ll do yet. I’m just letting this problem simmer.

BUT, I would hate to give away a flawed quilt.

An Adventure With a Duck

Yesterday I ran some errands after 6 pm when it was a bit cooler and the weekend traffic out to Isle of Palms had slowed down.

As I came home and turned right onto my street, a young looking female mallard duck was in the middle of the road. I couldn’t see if she had moved away from the car, so I stopped and got out.

Mommy duck had five babies hidden in the grasses on the island. Here I talk to her in what is my “pet” voice–which is way too highly pitched, LOL.

I called my neighbor, and she and I helped the mommy duck to safely walk her babies to the water in our neighborhood’s front ponds. From experience, I know that’s what ducks do. They nest away from water, and when the babies can do it, the mother “walks them to water.”

This task took both me and my neighbor and the mommy duck. The babies were newly hatched and weak, and it was so, so hot. The mommy duck led the parade and kept to places she could hide the babies until we helped her move them along–past front porches and fences and up to the pond.

My neighbor checked this morning, and the duck and her babies are all still in the front pond. So I walked up to take some pictures.

Nope they aren’t in the big pond where she went first yesterday.

Here they are–in the quiet part of this pond away from the fountain–and near the woods. It’s a much better spot for her and her family. At some point she crossed the street with them.

This little family will be very fragile for some time. There are so many predators around then: a passing alligator or river otter, a hawk or owl, and so forth.

We will see. But my neighbor and I did what we could.

PS: And on Friday, when I left Costco, a mother goose was crossing a very busy road with 9 half-grown little ones following her in a straight line. That area is too busy for me to have gotten a video.