October Flying Geese and Pumpkins Completed

This post continues my work, many my FMQ, on the October banner from the Pieceful Patchwork Banner for October from Shabby Fabrics that I assembled in my previous post. "Quilt as Desired." That phrase used to strike fear in me but not so much now. I break down these wall hangings into sections and try something different in each area. I also mix up ruler work with free-hand, not just for variety in the quilt, but also for my own sanity adn skilll building. 

Flying Geese
For the orange and black flying geese bodies I used Angela Walters' shape by shape inspiration and her ruler Slim to denote direction. I wanted the pointed angularity to give a sense of motion and to echo the V-shape in the sky of migrating geese. I would address the cream speckled sky later. I used this same ruler in the pumpkins, leaves, and stems. It is my very favorite because of the convenient hand-held size, the light and dark lines, and the 45° guidance indicators.

Pumpkins Proper
For the pumpkins I wanted to call attention to each central sawtooth star so I echoed around its outer edges. I planned to go ½" apart but I goofed and so was committed throughout to ¼" spacing. That was a lot of dense quilting that I felt obligated to repeat in the second pumpkin. I chose not to go so dense in the pumpkin center. I've been told that one of the rules of quilting is that there be equal density throughout, but I flaunted that guidance.

Leaf and Stem

The grid fabric of the green leaf seemed to call out for a grid quilting. I explored that option at first, but then decided I preferred a veined approach for the leaves. For the adjacent stem, vertical lines could have been appropriate like the stem on a real pumpkin. Instead, I chose to echo the diamond from the pumpkin center below. I auditioned my options on a clear page protector with a dry erase marker, then overlaid them on the top itself for the final decision.

Thin and Wide Borders
Using an orange thread in the thin inner border, I stitched a zig zag using the concave right angle of the Handi VersaTool. 

For the wide outer border, I stayed with the orange thread and used the HQ Wave E template, the steeper wave side. The curvature seemed to work out well with the scale of the haunted mansions in the border print.

Background and Sashing

For the background and sashing I switched to a cream colored upper thread but left the orange in the bobbin. I reasoned that even if my tension did stray, tiny bobs of orange peeking up in the speckled fabric would be OK. Orange top stitching would have been a distraction. By the time I got to the background and sashing I wanted to give my ruler concentration a rest. I did my standard arcs free-hand in the background triangles of the flying geese blocks. The arcs are hard to see but they do give texture and do not distract from the geese. I did loops in the striped sashing using the wide black lines to guide my spacing. 

For around the pumpkins, meander at first came to mind, but that is still not my strength. The theme of loopy tendrils at the top of pumpkins gave me the inspiration for doing a meandering loop. The meandering loop is in the same thread as the background so the imperfections are not obvious. Non-smooth glitches are still there but they are passable while I continue to practice my meandering.

The non-smooth glitches show up more clearly on the backing as well as my slightly imbalanced thread tension. Uneven tension bias was intentional on my part. I'd rather cream bobbles on the back rather than orange bobbles on the front. The next two photos are front and back close-ups of the same area of pumpkin. The stem can serve as a source of orientation. I need more practice to get smoother.

Labels

My grosgrain labels were black thread on orange grosgrain ribbon read DIC_OCT_2026 and FLYING_GEESE_AND_PUMPKINS. As is my tradition for these banners, the OCT stands for the theme month and not my month of completion. Here are the labels before and after attachment to the quilt corners.

 

Completed Banner
The completed banner measures 31" x 31" and will be hung outside my sewing room doorway come October 1st. For completeness I have also shown the back with the hanging sleeve.

Here are my completions thus far for this series from Shabby Fabrics.

• JAN    Snowmen and Snowflakes (2/10/26)
• MAR  Shamrocks and Irish Chains (4/6/26)
• APR   Bunnies and Carrots (3/6/26)
• MAY   Roses and Pansies (9/11/25)
• JUN    Strawberries (9/6/25)
• JUL    Flags and Pinwheels (6/24/26)
• AUG    Bees and Sunflowers (9/21/25)
• SEP      Log Cabins and Schoolhouses  (8/5/26)
• OCT    Flying Geese and Pumpkins (this post 8/26/26)

Three more to go. I am really looking forward to the November banner, which has acorns!

October Flying Geese and Pumpkins

The theme for the  Pieceful Patchwork banner for October from Shabby Fabrics is autumnal. There are two Flying Geese blocks (... call to mind migrating birds...?)  and two Pumpkin blocks. The color tones are subdued oranges, charcoals, and blacks like Halloween but not particularly garish or scary or witchy in theme. As usual, I cut out the fabrics and organized the pieces in my tray with Alphabitties. I used blue Alphabitties for the pumpkin blocks and black Alphabitties for the flying geese blocks.

Flying Geese Block
The instructions were for making the flying geese by attaching speckled-cream squares, which are the sky, at four corners of a larger color square which is the birds body. This method yields four flying geese rectangles at a time with very little waste. There will be no bonus pinwheels for me from the sew and flip method for flying geese that yields one rectangle at a time. I happened to have in my tools the Bloc-Loc Ruler to make 3" x 6" flying geese. Sewing and trimming by this method made short work of generating 16 flying geese units, four each of a black/speckled-cream or orange/speckled-cream color combination. I also put into service my rotating mat to speed up the trimming. 

These 16 units are joined into two 8-unit blocks. The blocks have opposite polarity of the center pinwheel and they will go in opposing corners of the banner.

Pumpkin Block
Each pumpkin block has a saw tooth star at its center, made from flying geese units. The instructions called for a finished flying geese unit to measure 1½" x 3". The closest sized Bloc-Loc ruler I had was for 2" x 4" finished. That was OK. I used only the top edge where the point was to get that edge accurate using the ridge feature of the Bloc-Loc ruler. I trimmed the bottom edge using a regular ruler so that the height was 2". Then I trimmed to two side edges, once again with a regular ruler to measure 1¾" out to each edge from the center, giving a 3½" width.  Yes, having the desired size Bloc-Loc ruler would have been easier, allowing trimming all four sides without switching rulers. But Flying Geese Block-Locs are pricy, on the order of $40 each. They are certainly worth the convenience for making many units but I had only a few to make and so I improvised. I had two saw tooth stars to construct, each needing four flying geese units.

After adding orange borders to the top and bottom of this star, central to the pumpkin, I then used the flip corner technique, chain stitching to efficiently add on a yet different orange background corners. Once I fed one star through, I fed the second one through without breaking thread, repeatedly bringing the rear star around to the front. The cut off corners however were too small to make bonus pinwheels. I suppose I could have. but the effort would have been extreme for the small finished size.

When I used the same flip corner technique to add the speckled cream background corners to the full size pumpkin, I was able to salvage the four corners from each pumpkin and have two pinwheels as a bonus.

The stems I made one at a time because I wanted them to be mirror images and I was afraid I'd get confused if I tried both at once. The second photo shows the two pumpkins as reflections of each other.

I added a striped sashing between the blocks, satisfied that both the flying geese blocks and the pumpkins blocks had mirror images in diagonally opposed positions on the banner. Aa a last assembly step. I add the inner charcoal and outer black borders.

Next up is the sandwiching and quilting. Then I will add the labels, a hanging sleeve, and finally the binding. I have to remind myself that for these banners, the assembly of the top takes me less time than the quilting and completion. Once I acknowledge this fact, I become more patient about the time commitment to finish the final stage. I consider my self primarily a piecer, and only secondarily an FMQer.

September Log Cabin and Schoolhouse Completed

For the piecing and assembly of the Log Cabin and Schoolhouse banner for September from Shabby Fabrics see my previous post dated 7/14/26. This post is about the FMQ, labeling, binding, and completion of the September banner.

Log Cabin Blocks
Since these monthly banners are not very large (31" square) they are excellent candidates for practicing my FMQ on my HQ Sweet Sixteen. I try out different options with a white board marker on vinyl sheet protectors until I am content — or get bored and want to just get on with it. I wanted each round of the log cabin to be different. All but the circles were quilted free hand. The channel of circles was made using the 1" diameter circle option from my HQ Mini Circle Templates.

Schoolhouse Blocks

I was less adventurous with the FMQ on the Schoolhouse block. For the most part, I chose echo stitching to help the door and windows stand out. I got a little more flowery with one of my go-to FMQ patterns from Angela Walters' dot-to-dot method over the floral print of the roof. When it came to the sky I wanted the printing of the fabric to remain unobscured and readable so I tried a labyrinth approach. that lined up with the direction of the lettering. Angela Walters' ruler Slim was used for the straight lines.

Sashing and Outer Border
For the inner sashings I wanted something simple but thought a straight line down the center would be too plain. I spiced it up a bit with some evenly spaced asterisks. On the outer border, I repeated the dot-to-dot pattern like on the roofs. In retrospect, it was more effort that it merited since it barely shows up on the red plaid fabric. Oh, well. The FMQ looks good on the back. Note in this photo I have added the detail of a button door knob on the door of the schoolhouse.

Labels

I machine embroider my usual grosgrain ribbon labels on my Pfaff. They are attached diagonally on the two lower corners of the banner before binding. September refers to the theme of the banner and not the month I completed it.

Completed Banner
Here is my completed September banner, front and back, displayed on its designated location on t he wall next to my sewing room door. This location is temporary just for the photo. This spot is displaying the August banner this month.

Here are my completions thus far for this series from Shabby Fabrics.

• JAN    Snowmen and Snowflakes (2/10/26)
• MAR  Shamrocks and Irish Chains (4/6/26)
• APR   Bunnies and Carrots (3/6/26)
• MAY   Roses and Pansies (9/11/25)
• JUN    Strawberries (9/6/25)
• JUL    Flags and Pinwheels (6/24/26)
• AUG    Bees and Sunflowers (9/21/25)
• SEP      Log Cabins and Schoolhouses (this post 8/5/26)

Four more to go. I am really looking forward to the October and November banners!

September Log Cabin and Schoolhouse

The theme for the  Pieceful Patchwork banner for September from Shabby Fabrics is a home and school focus. There are two Log Cabin blocks and two Schoolhouse blocks. The color scheme is made up of deep reds and autumnal oranges for the log cabin blocks. The central cream of the log cabin block has typeface on it, which is a favorite feature of mine. The school house blocks are navy, teal, and deep brown, with a calico like floral pattern in some that makes me think of Little House on the Prairie. As usual, I cut out the fabrics and organized the pieces in my tray with Alphabitties. I used blue Alphabitties for the warm tones of the log cabin and black Alphabitties for cool tones of the schoolhouses.

I made two log cabin blocks at a time. They seemed straightforward enough that the risk of me messing up twice was small. I am usually more cautious. September’s kit seemed simpler than other months.

I then moved on to the schoolhouse components. I also made both of these blocks at the same time. The roof and part of the front wall are shown in the next photo.

Next are two side walls with two gold windows and two completed front walls with a teal door each. When I assembled the schoolhouse parts, I also made a pinwheel from the corners cut off at the roof.

All blocks are ready to be assembled with green sashing, brown inner border, and red plaid outer border.

I have sandwiched the top with bamboo batting and cream colored backing. I usually procrastinate on this step, so I am proud I did not delay for September’s banner. My binding and hanging sleeve are ready to go. So now I am prepped for free motion quilting. This is when I need to stare at it for at least a day or two to decide the motifs to stitch. No. This delay is not undesirable procrastination. It is my normal, justified thinking time.

July Flags and Pinwheels Completed

For the piecing and assembly of the Flags and Pinwheels banner for July from Shabby Fabrics see my previous post dated 6/11/26. This post is about the FMQ, labeling, binding, and completion of the July banner.

Flag Blocks
FMQ on  flag blocks was wavy lines on the stripes to simulate the flag waving in the breeze. The wave is in every other stripe, namely the cram colored ones and also in the teal borders at the top and bottom of the flag. I used the deep wave side of my Handi-Quilter Wave F ruler.  The 4" wavelength worked out perfectly for the 12" width of the flag; I used the shallow 0.75" height as being the right proportion for the width of the stripes on the flag. For other info I have complied on Handi-Quilter wave rulers and their reissue under other names, check out my blog post for 10/1/25.

The sawtooth star section has straight lines set ¼" in from the outer edge seams. This offset seemed to bring out the star more than a stitch in the ditch would have and I like that the center seems to puff up.

Pinwheels
FMQ on the blades of the pinwheel blocks was inspired by Week 2 of a dot -to-dot video class by Angela Walters. On the outer edges I free-formed some curvy lines and vortexes to represent the airflow streams around a spinning pinwheel.

Sashing and Outer Borders
The gingham sashing between the flag and pinwheel blocks is FMQd with a simple zigzag echoing the 45° slant of the gingham. The stitching is not very noticeable but that's OK. For the outer borders I have always like piano key borders. I decided to modify this border by varying the spacing of the lines. The closer lines seems more like "stripes" when they alternate with the wider gaps. I got bored with doing these ruler-guided lines (¼" and ¾" apart) after the first side though, so I mixed it up. There is no rule all four borders need to be the same. 

Something different was needed for the top and bottom borders. What better goes with stripes in July but stars? I used the smallest 1½" star from my my Amanda Murphy star template set make stars on the top and bottom borders. 

I started in the middle and worked outward toward the left with just the tops of the stars, back inward toward the right with just the star bottoms, switching in the middle to continue star tops toward the right, then all the way left toward the middle to finish the star bottoms. No breaking thread, right! Except, I ran out of bobbin thread during this "continuous" process. Aargh! Photos show star border near completion and after it is all completed. In retrospect I wish I had used a heavier thread so the stars stood our more. The side piano borders have double stitching out and back. That may be why the stars look a bit weak by comparison. Oh, well, lesson learned and something to keep in mind for the future.

Labels
My tradition is to make my labels from grosgrain ribbon which I embroidered on my 20+ year old Pfaff. I have a stash of grosgrain ribbon of course, but it is not in a color or width I wanted. I miss JoAnn's. After a commando raid to my local Michael's I learned they did not have grosgrain ribbon. Seems like all the general population seems to want is wired ribbon or satin ribbon.  The clerk in Michael's did not even know what grosgrain ribbon was. I wound up having to order it from Amazon. Though not as convenient as a car ride away, I eventually did  get my grosgrain ribbon delivered the next day from Amazon. The assortment I bought was QingHan Grosgrain Ribbon 5/8 Inches 40 Yards (20 Colors x 2yards). I am used to buying Offray as a familiar brand name, but the quality of these ribbons was fine. I should be really set for grosgrain ribbon for quite a while. 

I embroidered my labels for the back lower corners, choosing navy for the ribbon color, even though originally I was looking for ecru. I embroidered them in ivory and set them on the diagonal in each lower corner. They read DIC_JULY_2026 and FLAGS_AND_PINWHEELS.  July stands for the theme month of the banner, not the month I completed it.

Completed Banner

This is the front and back of the seventh banner I have completed in this monthly themed series. I am just beyond halfway there to having an entire year of months represented. To preview how the July banner will look I snapped a photo and hung it outside my sewing room in a designated spot that I switch out monthly. I will change it back to the June banner, since the Strawberries theme has about a week of display time still due.

Here are my completions thus far for this series from Shabby Fabrics.

• JAN    Snowmen and Snowflakes (2/10/26)
• MAR  Shamrocks and Irish Chains (4/6/26)
• APR   Bunnies and Carrots (3/6/26)
• MAY   Roses and Pansies (9/11/25)
• JUN    Strawberries (9/6/25)
• JUL    Flags and Pinwheels (this post 6/24/26)
• AUG    Bees and Sunflowers (9/21/25)