Sea Glass

 For a long time now I have wanted to make a Sea Glass quilt.

I saw one on Pinterest a few years ago and knew I had to make one.

Last year I asked my Bee Mates in the Gridster Bee to send

some scraps to use in this quilt and they sent some good ones! 

 

Last month I pressed the small pieces of fabric to

Steam a Seam and drew the shapes on the backing.

After cutting them out,

I began to have fun.

 

 

 

 

I probably made my glass pieces a bit smaller than others have,

but I'm really happy with the results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One things I learned is to cut a lot more than you

think you'll need.

A big variety of fabrics is nice, too.

 

 

 

  

 

These are all pressed to the backing,

so it's ready to quilt.

This is going to take a while!

 

Happy Quilting! 

Zinnia's

 I love zinnias.

They are one of my favorite flowers.

I love that the more one picks them,

the more they produce.

AND the deer and rabbits leave them alone.

 

When I was looking for backing fabric recently,

I came across this gorgeous zinnia fabric.

It would have worked well with the big

print quilt I made recently,

but once it arrived, I couldn't use it on the back

of a quilt. 

Instead, I made 8 napkins and a table runner

for my summertime table.

 

 

 Isn't this fabric gorgeous?!?

I'm excited to be growing zinnias again in my garden this spring.

In the meantime, I'll enjoy them on my table. 

 

 

Happy Quilting! 

Protest to Winter

 Planning ahead with my quilting projects

is not something I usually do,

but last month I had made a list of quilts

I want to make this year.

One of the quilts was made using 9 patches

in solid fabrics, along with some other blocks.

 

After pulling out my solid fabrics,

I cut a bunch of 2 1/2" squares with my

Accuquilt cutter and was ready to do some

mindless sewing.

 

The 9 patches were made and placed on my design wall.

After making a bunch of them,

I decided to change my plans and make something simpler.

Now I needed a fabric to alternate with the 9 patch blocks.

To the quilt shop I went.

 

My thought was to find a neutral fabric, maybe white

with some colorful polka dots or design.

I carried my 9 patches around the quilt shop

and found this fabric.

 

 

 

 

 

It was perfect!

It has all of the colors I used in the 9 patches

and has so much movement to it.

It isn't for the faint of heart, though!

Another quilter saw me put the 9 patches

with this fabric in the quilt shop

and said she loved it together.

SOLD!
I'm not the only crazy one. :)

(My daughter asked me what drugs I was taking

when I was shopping for the fabric.:D) 

 

 

 

 

I'm calling it "Protest to Winter" because

it's nothing like what I am seeing out my windows right now.

It's drab, blah and white outside and I need color!

 

This will be simply quilted... it doesn't need anything else!

 

Happy Quilting! 

 

By the Sea Finish

 A dear friend of mine has a beach house

in the Outer Banks and has invited me to join her

a number of times over the years.

 

I had pulled the beach/sea fabric to play with

and decided to make this friend a quilt for her beach house.

I was amazed that I had all of the fabrics in my

stash except for the striped backing fabric I used. 

 

 

 

 

 

For this quilt, I kept the quilting very simple.

 

 

 

 

 

I did want to do a little something in the peach squares

and stitched a starfish in the middle of each one.

 

 

 

 

 

I have used the frixion pens for years

and have had no problems with them, 

except on solid fabrics.

(They leave a bleach line on solid fabrics.) 

Before using it on this quilt,

I tested it on a piece of the peach fabric

and it ironed out perfectly,

so I traced the starfish on the first block and stitched it.

When I ironed it out,

these lines were left on the fabric.

They are lighter in person than they are

in the photo, but they are still noticeable. 

I debated on what to do about the lines

and decided to just leave them.

Anything I would do to correct it

would be more noticeable than the lines.
I don't know why this happened,

but I'm going to have to be very selective

when using these pens. 

 

We live and learn!

 

Happy Quilting! 

 

 

Knitted Blooms Finish

 January was a great month for getting quilts finished

in my house.

I had taken three quilts to Jennifer, my awesome quilter,

so had these to bind.

I had also made and quilted two other quilts that needed binding.

What a perfect activity to be doing with snow and ice falling outside

and it being a little chillier inside.

Thankfully, we never lost power during this storm.

 

Here is the third quilt I had sent to Jennifer to be quilted.

It's Knitted Blooms by Lo and Behold Stitchery.

This pattern was a bit challenging to make

because there is so much information in the pattern.

It took me reading it a number of times

before I knew what I was supposed to cut for this quilt.

It was a kit from them... I love the color combination.

 

 

 

 

 

Even though it was a kit,

I didn't follow the color placement on the pattern.

My seam ripper was very busy in the construction

of this big quilt,

but it all worked out in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

I love the quilting design and pink thread. :)

 

 

 

 

Since this quilt says Christmas to me,

I chose this poinsettia fabric for the backing and love it.

 

It's good to have this one finished and ready for this coming Christmas.

 

Happy Quilting! 

 

The Ori Quilt Finish

The Ori Quilt is designed for layer cakes

and, since I was on a roll with using Kaffe fabrics,

I pulled out a layer cake I had of his fabrics.

 This pattern is great for showing off these big prints

that are often challenging to use in quilt blocks.

 

In addition, these blocks went together very quickly

and were easy to make.

 

 

 

 

Kaffe is one of my favorite designers,

so it was fun to make these blocks with his beautiful prints.

 

 

 

 

For the backing fabric,

I found this beautiful floral with hummingbirds.

It isn't Kaffe,

but I loved it.

 

 

 

You can see how large these flowers are in this fabric...

perfect for backing fabric.

 

  

 

Jennifer did a beautiful job on quilting this one. 

 

Onto the next quilt!

 

Happy Quilting! 

 

Carbonation is Finished

 When I saw the Carbonation pattern online,

I knew I had to make it and I knew it would be

made with Kaffe fabrics.

 

I really enjoy sewing circles,

which is a good thing with this pattern!

Those tiny circles were challenging, though.

A few had to be seam ripped and made again.

In the end, I love the quilt!

 

 

 

 

This background fabric is one of my favorites.

I wish I had ordered a bolt of it!

 

 

My longarm quilter, Jennifer,

did a beautiful job on the quilting,

as she always does. 

 

This one is now hanging in my family room.

 

Happy Quilting! 

Peanut Butter and Blues

 I have two more finishes to share for this month.

The first quilt was started in 2025,

using the pattern Peanut Butter Quilt by Then Came June. 

This is a free pattern and is so fun to make.

 

I had a lot of a backing fabric left over from one of my quilts

and thought it would be fun to use this fabric with a bunch of solids.

 

 

 

 

It sure is a colorful and happy quilt.

If I were to make this again,

I'd use a solid black or a fabric that reads black for the

corner stones  It's all good, though.

 

 

 

 

This colorful fabric is one of my favorites for backings.

It comes in three colorways and I've used them all. 

It comes in 108" wide, too, and can be found at 

Whittles in all three colorways right now.

It's called Gradients Auras by Moda.

 

This next quilt was made with a jelly roll I've had for years.

It's not my usual color scheme at all, but I think I bought

it to make something for my mom and never did.

A friend has a blue and cream family room

and is going through some health issues,

so I made this for her. 

 

 

 

 

This was totally mindless sewing and went together so quickly.

 

 

 

It will be delivered soon.

 

Lastly, I belong to the Gridster Bee and these blocks

are for January's Queen Bee.

The free pattern can be found here. 

 

 

 

Happy Quilting! 

Wind Drifter.. First Finish

 So far 2026 has started off great with LOTS of sewing!

The weather has been cold and windy,

which makes for perfect conditions to stay inside and sew.

 

My first finish was made with some fabrics

my dear friend and neighbor brought me back from Alaska last year.

 

I found the pattern, Wind Drifter, by Robin Pickens

and love the results.

 

 

 

 

This is a wall hanging size

and came together very quickly.

 

 

 

I decided to quilt this myself and am pretty pleased

with the results.

I do need to practice my swirls more.

They are a little funky.

:) 

 

 

This was hung right up once it was finished.

 

  

 

 

From some of the scraps, I made my friend two

Hemingway Bags.

This is such a fun pattern to make.

I put the binding on the outside of the bag

instead of on the inside. It adds more interest

and is easier to make this way.

 

Happy Quilting! 

Quilts and Books

 This past year wasn't quite as productive as other years have been,

but I have no complaints.

 

Here is a collage of all the quilted items I made in 2025.

 

 

 

I have four quilt tops finished and three are going to my quilter

on Monday.  The fourth one I hope to get quilted soon.

 

 

It was a great year for reading for me!

Thankfully, I love audio books.

I listen to them while I drive, while I quilt, while I garden,

while I clean and while I'm sitting with my husband while

he watches sports on tv.  I'm not much of a tv watcher,

so I spend a lot of time listening.

 

 

  

 

 

I'm looking forward to much more quilting and listening in 2026.

 

 

End of 2025

 The last week of 2025 ended up being

pretty productive for me.

I was at my daughter and son-in-laws home

helping with the 3 littles because daycare was closed for the week.

 

While I was there, I was able to get three quilts bound and finished. 

I had quilted them before I went up and was surprised that

I was able to finish them all.

 

First up was a Christmas tree skirt for my cousins daughter.

She was married in December and my traditional wedding gift

is a Christmas tree skirt.

 

This pattern is called

 Stars from Above Tree Skirt Pattern and

 I ordered it from Miller’s Dry Goods.

It went together so quickly and was fun to make.

 

 

 

 

This pattern uses a layer cake, which I trimmed

down after cutting the pieces.

I hate those zigzag edges!

 

 

 

 

Surprisingly, I had some yardage of the same line in my stash,

so I didn't have to buy backing.

 

 

 

 

 

Next up was this quilt made from binding scraps.

I had pieced the top months ago and it sat

patiently waiting to be quilted.

 

 

 

 

I cut my binding strips 2 1/4" wide

and had a LOT of scraps.

A smaller version was finished earlier this year.

 

 

 

 

 

This little baby quilt was made using 2 1/2" squares and then

polka dotted rectangles.

It was a leader/ender for me for a while and was fun to do.

 

 These finished 2025 with a bang for me!

 

Happy Quilting! 

 

Peanut Butter Blocks

 A few months ago, one of my Bee mates in the Gridster Bee

asked us to make these

Peanut Butter Blocks by Then Came June 

and I was hooked.

These blocks are really mindless sewing.

 

After having one of my quilts long arm quilted,

there was a lot of this backing fabric left over.

I kept looking at it and seeing it with solid fabrics.

Then I thought....

Peanut Butter Blocks!

 

 

 

 

 

For a couple of months I've been using

these blocks as leader/enders for other sewing

and then just finished making the blocks recently.

 The main fabric is one of my favorites for backings

and I've used all three colorways. 

 

 

 

 

 

 I finished sewing the rows together yesterday and

now have a decision to make.

 

Do I need to add borders or is it finished?

 

The border fabric would probably be the same

fabric as the blocks unless I can find a stripe or something

with all of the colors.

 

This is one happy quilt!

 

 

The other day I made a few gifts from the faux leather vinyl

from Zipper Valley.

This vinyl is so easy and nice to use in these bags.

No quilting is needed.

The zipper tape and pulls came from Zipper Valley, too. 

 

 

 

On to the next project!

I really need to get some backings made for quilts

that have been patiently waiting to be finished.

Maybe today will be the day!

 

Happy Quilting! 

Bucilla Kits Over the Years

 After making a comment in one of my recent posts 

wondering how many sequins I've sewn onto Bucilla felt kits

over the years, I decided it would be fun to look back on all

of the kits I've made.

 

The following photos are of most of the things I've made.

The very first kit was a Christmas tree skirt that I made

for my daughter.

A friend at church had made one and brought it to show

us one day.

I'd never heard of Bucilla before and that got me started on 

making these kits.

 

 

 

  

In any event.... I've sewn a lot of sequins onto felt pieces

and continue to love making these kits.

 

Here are all of the stockings I've made

over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Here are some of the ornaments I've made: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There mice are my favorites!

 

 

Here is the other tree skirt I made.

 

 

 

And then there are the wall hangings and a pillow.

 

 

 

I made a small plain quilt and stitched the

snowman tree to it for my daughter.

It's much easier to display this way!

 

 

the

 

 

This has been a fun walk down memory lane! 

These have kept me very busy over the years

and will continue to do so when the mood strikes.

 

Happy Quilting!