Make It Merry Assembly and FMQ

My goodness. It has been nearly a year since I posted about this quilt. My last post was 10/27/25 where I had completed the sixth month of the blocks and was ready to assembly them all. I'll admit to dragging my feet a bit when it came to assembling those 36 blocks in the center. Would my points meet where I wanted them to? I was nervous for no good reason. I methodically made three columns of six pair each, sewed the pairs into six rows, and then joined all the rows (minus the ribbon ties) into a a central section. Even those eight pesky perimeter blocks with a four patch as a diamond in each center from month FOUR trimmed up square with a bit of ruler magic before joining. This next photo was taken 11/20/25, and then my progress on this quilt came to a screeching halt. 

Apparently I added the border but never blogged about it because now I am deciding the FMQ. I have no photo assembled and with borders despite the fact that the flimsy hung over the railing in my living room for months. I reviewed my past posts to jog my memory and generated a diagram to help me decide how to FMQ the blocks. I knew I did not want to quilt an allover pattern.

• 06/14/25 Make It Merry Month ONE star with nine-patch centers (8)
• 06/21/25 Make It Merry Month TWO  3x3 grid stars and 4x4 grid stars (4+4)
• 08/16/25 Make It Merry Month THREE crosses (6+2)
• 09/01/25 Make It Merry Month FOUR on point four patch in center, (6) loops on bow (2)
• 10/24/25 Make It Merry Month FIVE  pluses for center (4), red central diamonds (4)
• 10/27/25 Make It Merry Month SIX ribbon tails (2)

I draw on clear sheet protectors with whiteboard markers to preview candidates for the FMQ. Month ONE block was the sawtooth star and I decided to echo-quilt the star shape. Echoing on only the inside seemed insufficient, so I also echoed ¼" on the outside as well. I started by FMQing the blocks in the green portion of the wreath with green thread beginning with the ONE star blocks,

A go-to FMQ shape of mine is petals from Angela Walters book. Petals worked with month THREE both singly and double outlined. 

Petals also seem to work with months FIVE (left) and FOUR (right) again with an extra outline of echoing to fill in the shape.

Here are the star on ONE and petal option on FIVE side by side having been FMQ'd.

Looking back at the crosses of the block from month THREE, I decided to try a design of my own — holly leaves in the arms of the X's — and it seemed to work.

I liked the holly experiment so much I planned for it on the block TWOs even they are are basically stars like the month ONE blocks. For the four TWOs at the wreath corners (left), I did one leaf and two half leafs, avoiding the diagonal white half of the block. These were a 4x4 grid. For the four TWOs at the extreme corners of the quilt itself (right), I did three complete leafs, omitting a fourth leaf that would extend into the white corner square. These were a 3x3 grid so I needed to guess more where the points of the holly leafs would fall. In practice I had to leave my cell phone on nearby displaying a photo of my clear auditioning sheet marked with critical dots as a reference.

Here is that holly motif stitched in the eight TWOs: four 4x4-grid TWOs at the wreath corners, and four 3x3-grid TWOs at the exterior corners. 

I pillow stitched inside the two bow loops. I did not agonize at all over this choice.

Now I pause again to make decisions. 

• How should I do the borders?
• Treat them as long lines, not a series of blocks?
• What pattern in the border? 
• Maybe something different in each of the three border fabrics? 
• The outermost fabric lends itself well to a diagonal grid. 
• I could do feathers ignoring the different fabric bands, but feathers seem too formal.
• Perhaps a curved band of holly leaves in lieu of feathers? 
• Should I switch to cream thread so contrasting green does not distract from the wreath?
• What about the ribbon and bow? Should they be in stitched in red?
• Perhaps just parallel lines in the red bow and what spacing? 

Maybe I can make my quilt labels while my mind is making these decisions. But what name shall I give this quilt....? Too many decisions!  Sigh. To be continued... and hopefully sooner than one year!

Bowl Cozies

At the Pleasanton Craft Fair I attended on Friday 9/25, I bought two kits to make bowl cozies. My friend raved about how great a cozy was for taking hot things out of the microwave. I made up one cozy and it took less than 30 minutes. Here are the steps to its assembly.

The kits comes with two 10" squares of cotton fabric and two 10" squares of a thin batting. The corners are rounded and notches or snipped out of each straight side. First stitch an X to keep the cotton and batting from sliding relative to each other. Then stitch darts out of the four notches in each half with ¼" seam allowance ". These darts shape the flat fabric into two bowl shapes.

Mate the two bowls, right sides together, stitch ⅜"around the perimeter leaving an opening, and then turn right sides out. Looking back I wished I'd left a bigger opening than the 2½" suggested. It would have made turning much easier with the bulk of the double batting. Last step is to top stitch all around the outer edge about ¼" in. The following photos show the bowl before turning and then both the inside and outside of the bowl after turning and top stitching.

They fit really nice, also. I do not know if there is a standard for bowls and I just happen to meet it with my bowls but the cozy fits super great.

Here is a summary of the pre-assembly dimensions for making another cozy without having another kit. Two squares for cotton and two squares for batting are 10" x 10" each. The notch for the dart is about 1½" wide and 1⅝" deep. The corners are rounded to a 1" radius, which is 2" diameter circle.

I made up the second kit and here is that cozy. The outside has the chickens and the inside has the swirls, but I suppose it can be used in reverse if preferred. This time I was wiser and left a larger opening to make turning right sides out easier. This project will be great for gifts and for nibbling away at my partial layer cakes.

Pleasanton Craft Fair

On Friday, September 25th I met up with my friend Tekoa to take in the Pleasanton Quilt, Craft, & Sewing Festival at the Alameda County Fairgrounds. We arrived shortly before noon and spent about three hours there, breaking midway for lunch at the outdoor picnic tables. Tekoa and I prioritized visiting with each other over visiting the vendors. Nevertheless, we walked by every booth two or more times, entering and lingering in some for longer. The yellow colored booths on the map are where I bought something.

Here is list of my purchases, not necessarily in the order I bought them and not necessarily grouped by where I bought them. I had rough guidelines for this outing. I forbade myself from buying yet another kit to join those accumulating in my closet at home, waiting patiently to be chosen for my next project. I also wanted to minimize my purchase of novelty prints and restrict myself to basics and blender fabrics.

The first item that caught my eye at the show was this green/white pinstripe. It fit the criterion of being basic and is always useful for bindings. The one yard green/white pinstripe is from Sew 2 Cute (booths113-114). Later in our looping around, I added the  half-yard black/white wiggly stripes from Workman Farms (booths 201-204).

The time of year put me in the Halloween mood. I spied this witch hat pattern and thought it might be fun to make hats for the grandkids. The Spellbound Hat  inspired me to look at the Halloween fabrics. Yes, they are novelty prints; but if I use them up right away and do not design a whole quilt around them, do they really count? What if I make my first hat and find out it really is rather difficult and time consuming? Throwing caution to the wind I bought the fabrics anyway. How hard can it be? The witch hat pattern was from Quilter's Hollow (booths 611-613), one yard dark pumpkin fabric was from Elk Grove Sew & Vac (booths 501-502), one yard each orange mini-pumpkins, purple skulls, and white ghosts were from Workman Farms (booths 201-204). The Fibonnaci's Fancy pattern also called to me from Quilter's Hollow (booths 611-613). It is very effective in the cool monotones but I wonder if a rainbow effect would be pleasing as well.

Tekoa told me that a friend of hers had made several of these bowl cozies and gifted them to her. She uses them all the time. They work great for taking hot items out of the microwave, kind of a custom hot pad/glove option. I bought two packages from Patticakes Quilt shop (booths 306-309). I plan to make the red one for my own use and give the other to someone with a chicken themed kitchen. The package contains the fabric and the batting with instructions. No, this does not break my "no kits" rule. That is why I referred to this collection of supplies and fabric as packages and not kits.

At Material Girlfriends (booths 511-514) I bought a half-yard of a gray ombre fabric for making the Christmas Morning Delight Wall Hanging which I have admired for several years but never built up the courage to start. I have the pattern but not the kit. The center is appliqué which is not my first love nor my strong suit and the gray ombre that I think is critical to the effect is hard to find. I am now inspired to make at least that center section. The technique is raw-edge iron-on appliqué so I should be able to handle it.

Ok. Now the practical purchasing gives way to the impractical impulse buys. This scenic 36" x 43" Santa panel has such an icy-cold feel it called to me and I could not pass it up. My husband claims when he handled it, it gave him the chills. Not all fabric needs to be made into a quilt. I may just back it with cuddle (red or white or even gray) or staple it onto stretcher bars. I wonder if those bars can still be found or ordered in the sizes I would need. Hmm... maybe just taping it onto foam board would do instead. The Santa panel came from Material Girlfriends (booths 511-514).

I found this Hawaiian-ish print fabric to be uniquely interesting and it called to me. It did, however, meet the criterion of my novelty fabric ban. I walked away from it twice, then carried it around in my hand for a while deciding. With its 8½" vertical repeat it would make a great backing. I eventually caved and my final impulse buy was the one yard length of this Hawaiian-ish print fabric from Patticakes Quilt Shop (booths 306-309). 

It was a fun, inspirational, afternoon day spent visiting and indulging in some shopping therapy. I have already made up one of the bowl cozy packages. I no longer need to feel guilty about rationalizing it as "not a kit" to avoid adding to my pending kit count. Its making will be the subject of another post.

Jolly Tree Farm Completion

The first tree I quilted was from Week Three. I too was Feelin' Pine & Dandy because I'd been inspired with a quilting pattern. I did curves on all the triangles but intentionally did not stitch curves around the seam in the pieced triangle pair I wanted to look like a diamond (midway down blog post). In retrospect perhaps I could have lined up the polka dots better but that did not occur to me at the time of cutting.

Next up I quilted the week one tree Spruced Up. I managed to do all three trees, nine total boughs, without having to break thread. Here are those three trees and a closeup of the bottom center one over a trunk.

Next I quilted the week four tree Tree-mendous Holiday. It was already pretty simple with all those rectangles and I decide to keep the quilting simple, too, to show off all those luscious prints. All of the curves in these trees are freehanded so they are not identical.

While I was deciding how to quilt the week two tree I did a star. I quilted a star ¼" inside its perimeter and ¼" outside its perimeter, using a ruler to get straight lines. I used a very pale gray thread rather than white since I thought the houndstooth had equal parts white and gray.

For the week two Rejoice Fir-ever tree, my delay due to indecision was resolved when I overlaid a sheet protector and doodled triangles. Three triangles in the lowest bough, two triangles in the middle bough, and two smaller triangles with a diamond in the top tier seemed to work. This doodling auditioning is my response to the dreaded phrase "quilt as desired". Now I, too, could "Rejoice Fir-ever" once a plan had been decided and executed.

I then proceeded to quilt the remaining four pieced stars. After that I took a break to write this blog post since the conundrum of what to quilt in the background loomed. Whatever it was, it had to weave in and among those trees and stars. Waves using a ruler was not viable with so many interruptions in the flow. In the open areas it occurred to me that I did not need to do a continuous stitching filler. Some individual stitched stars like the pieced ones would fill in the area nicely. I could also do them in different sizes. 

I made myself a few templates and marked only the eight corner points of each star. Connecting these dots in the correct order would form a star. Normally I do not like marking my quilt tops. I am timid that if I do not cover the marks completely they may show if they fail to come out.  Tiny grey dots covered by pale gray thread disappeared. Here are some of my templates and the order for connecting the dots. After is a photo of the corner dots having been transferred to the quilt top. Those dots really are teeny tiny. I scattered stars of different sizes to fill in blank areas.

In the upper left,  among the week one Spruced Up trees, I put wedges to accentuate the triangular shapes. Stars would have looked too uniformly lined up here since they were randomly placed elsewhere.

I stitched the outer border with a simple zig zag, creating triangles that echoed those within the trees.

Here is the link for the free pattern series. I will caution that the fabric requirements are overly generous. The finished size is 31½" x 36½" which calculates out to an area of 1250 square inches. Looking at the background and border fabric requirements only (not backing nor binding)

1.5 yards background = 1.5 yd x 44inchesWOF x 36 inches/yd  = 2376 square inches

Layer cake  = 42 squares x 10 inches x 10inches = 4200 square inches

Sum of yardage + layer cake = 6576 square inches 

Yes, I realize seams take up some yardage, but not five times as 1250 sq in versus 6576 sq in. I had nine untouched squares left over from the layer cake.  There were also large scraps from partially used squares. Basically there is a pile of corals, a pile of greens and a pile of light/mixed. It is very fortunate that I love the Pointsettias and Pears fabric line so much.

Truly this quilt can be made from a stash of Christmas fabrics and does not need a layer cake. When you use a layer cake there certainly is less work and fewer time-consuming decision making than is involved when pulling together from a variety of fabric lines. With a layer cake, however, be prepared to be adding to your scrap pile/box/bin/bag/nest ... a lot!

I hand stitched my two labels diagonally in the lower corners of the back, and bound the quilt in green. For the backing I picked the coral background fabric from the Moda Pointsettias and Pears line by Sherri and Chelsi.

Here is the finished quilt. It measures 31½" x 36½".  Links to previous posts for this quilt follow the photo of the completed quilt.

The list of my five blog posts for this wall hanging follows.

Jolly Tree Farm Week One: Spruced Up (8/31/26) 11½” x 18 ½”

Jolly Tree Farm Week Two: Rejoice Fir-ever (9/14/26) 8½” x 11½”

Jolly Tree Farm Week Three: Feelin' Pine and Dandy (9/17/26) 12½"x 20½" 

Jolly Tree Farm Week Four: Tree-mendous Holiday (9/21/26) 14½"x 20½"

Jolly Tree Farm Completion: Assembly & Quilting 9/27/26 (this post) 31½"x 36½"

Jolly Tree Farm 4: Tree-Mendous Holiday

 Tree-mendous Holiday is the week four block for the Jolly Tree Farm Mystery quilt offered by the Fat Quarter Shop. It is made from the Poinsettia and Pear line by Sherri and Chelsi. I am still in love with this color palette. Once again I strove to make all the houndstooth in the background face the same way as I have done in previous weeks. One sawtooth star this week had houndstooth print also, so I had to pay attention when assembling it.

Sawtooth Stars
I will admit, I was getting a bit bored with sawtooth stars by this fourth week. The color palette still enchanted me but I made the two stars, two at a time so I could chain piece wherever possible. I was careful to cut two D rectangles vertical and two D rectangles horizontal for each star in the background houndstooth. Cutting the coral houndstooth was not as much an issue since all the those pieces were square. I just had to pay attention during assembly.

In the upper star section, the top two rows out of five rows total, included the tip of the tree. In the background houndstooth rectangles, C was cut vertical, A was cut horizontal, and B was square so its orientation for cutting was irrelevant.

Tree Section

Three more rows completed the lower section of the tree and its trunk. It was a nice relief to just do straight stitching instead of all those 45° angles with associated flipping and trimming. I lined up all those rectangles in order and then chain pieced as much as I could into two rows. I then added a trunk row at the bottom.

Here is the completed week four. It was by far the easiest of the weeks. It measures 14½"x 20½".

Assembly

It wasn't until Week Five that assembly instructions were given but I decided to include the sashing and borders in this post.  I very carefully figured out how to orient the borders so that the houndstooth continued to face a consistent way... and I did it wrong for the two longest pieces, borders D and E. Fortunately I could salvage E horizontals from the wrongly cut longer D verticals. I had to piece the D verticals because I did not have enough fabric length in the correct orientation.

 

Assembled, this top measures 31½" x 36½". I am on a roll... I even prepped my binding and made my labels. Let's hope I do not come to a screeching halt as I often do when it comes to the sandwiching.  The size is small enough that I suspect I will not procrastinate too much.

The list of my four blog posts for this wall hanging follows.

Jolly Tree Farm Week One: Spruced Up (8/31/26) 11½” x 18 ½”

Jolly Tree Farm Week Two: Rejoice Fir-ever (9/14/26) 8½” x 11½”

Jolly Tree Farm Week Three: Feelin' Pine and Dandy (9/17/26) 12½"x 20½"

Jolly Tree Farm Week Four: Tree-mendous Holiday (this post) 14½"x 20½"

Jolly Tree Farm Week Five: Assembly (this post) 31½"x 36½" 

One more post for this quilt remains for me to publish — the quilting and binding.