May Roses and Pansies Completed

This post is the follow-up quilting of the assembly of the May Roses and Pansies post from 8/14/25. This is the second banner I have completed from the Shabby Fabrics' Pieceful Patchwork series.

Pansies
Full, four-petaled motifs would fill in the block proper nicely. This motif is one on my go-to choices, I used it on my June Strawberries quilt post dated 9/6/25. As for the two HSTs with leaves, I wanted to add parallel lines to look like veining. Learning from my strawberry blossom post, I took a best guess at the direction of veins running from the source stem  and made the parallel lines vertical on the lower leaf and horizontal on the upper leaf. The directionality is somewhat camouflaged by the gingham fabric but a least I know I made a somewhat logical decision.

Roses
Undecided on how to quilt the yellow rose, I did the leaves first while waiting for inspiration to hit me.  For the central stem of each leaf, I sewed the spine from corner to corner, even though this deviated from a 45 degree line. This skewed approach saved me from having to deal with weird corner voids and let the veins radiate horizontally and vertically from the central spine. I used the pindots as a quasi-guide and free-formed the squiggles. For the white background however I was stricter and spaced the diagonals equidistant with the aid of a ruler. My final "aha" moment was for the yellow rose. I remembered I owned Amanda Murphy's Good Measure Every Daisy template set of four flower sizes. I quilted the largest one first, and then thought I'd insert the smaller ones concentric within. When I tried to outline the next one down in size, the template slipped and slid all over and was hard to control. Hmmm. The largest one had been manageable with the non-slip backing it came with. I picked out the sloppy mess. Then I added some extra sandpaper grippers to the back of the third one down in size and it worked beautifully. I decided not to press my luck with the second largest and the smallest. My bamboo batting can be quilted as spaced out as 8 inches so two concentric daisies were sufficient.

Here are the rulers I used for the rose and pansy blocks. I am not a slave to a specific brand. They all have their strong points. I rarely use the large HQ Right Angle ruler to guide my stitches. It is just too large for my hand to hold securely while stitching on my sit-down HQ Sweet Sixteen long arm. But it is great for setting right angles and I can use just the corner for zig zags on borders. I used it to mark my position where my point fell on the side edges of the rose block. I used the shorter Angela Walter SLIM ruler for stitching the actual straight lines. It has a gripping back and, with markings both in white and black, it is very versatile. Though hard to see in the photo, Slim also has 45 degree markings that help me stay tilted just the right amount throughout my diagonal grid. Also shown are the two sizes I used of Amanda Murphy's Daisy four template set.

The next photo is a quick comparison of the quilting patterns I chose for the two flowers. Sashing and borders are yet to be stitched.

Sashing and Borders
The inner sashing is rather narrow but leaving it without stitching seemed unfinished. Plus the sashing is a very dark purple, and I thought white thread would be distracting and purple thread ... why bother since it would not show up? As a compromise, I stitched a few arcs, six per side of a block or basically half the 3x3 setting. These arcs I stitched using the blocks themselves as a uniform spacing tool. I did use the curved edge of a HQ Versatool ruler for aid in sewing smooth contours and uniform sizing. Any curve would have sufficed but this one was a convenient size for my hand. For the mini floral print outer border, I stitched free form wishbones, referring to Angela Water's YouTube guide Machine Quilting Border Corners to navigate around the corners.

Finishing Details
I added my grosgrain ribbon labels. I also added the hanging sleeve before attaching my binding. On the Strawberries kit for June, I made the sleeve in the same fabric as the binding per the instructions. It shows up rather glaringly on the the back. For the June kit, I made the hanging sleeve out of the same fabric as the backing. Enough extra backing fabric was provided in the kit that I could do so. The sleeve is well camouflaged along that upper edge; and, by the way, so is my FMQ on the backing. I much prefer this same fabric option and will repeat making the sleeve out of the backing fabric whenever there is enough. I intend to make other months of these Shabby Fabric Pieceful Patchwork kits.

Voila! Another month of Pieceful Patchwork banners is completed. It is shown in the next photo hanging on a special heart scroll holder.

I thoroughly enjoy these 31" x 31" whimsical, interesting kits from Shabby Fabrics. They give me a reasonably sized opportunity to practice my FMQ, while granting me the satisfaction of quickly completing a project. There is enough repetition to get better, but not enough repetition to get bored.

June Strawberries Completed

This post is the followup quilting of the assembly of the strawberry wall hanging post from 7/8/25. Travel to Oklahoma and Visitors from Colorado stalled its progress somewhat but most of the delay was my indecision on how to quilt it. I was pretty clear on what  I wanted to do with the strawberry blossoms, but the strawberries themselves did not speak as loudly to me.

Strawberry Blossoms
Full, four-petaled motifs would fill in the block proper nicely and two-petal half motifs along the outer edges would complete the look. I was unsure how to navigate the corners and put in half size four petal motif which I did not like (second photo). Later it occurred to me I did not have to change the scale, just the number of petals. I know the adage that to be a better quilter it is wiser to ignore the little goofs ... wiser to get better at quilting rather than get better at picking out.  In this particular case though, I did pick that tiny motif out in favor of a same scale one petal, quarter motif.

As for the squares with leaves, I wanted to add parallel lines to look like veining. One of my goofs here I left in. Another I had no choice but to pick out. On the left, the gingham square leaf is "upside down" looking at the vein directions. I did convince myself that the mis-directionality gets lost in the two-tone plaid of the gingham print. If it bugs me, I can always pick it out and fix it later. The one on the right I caught myself in one leaf when I had forgotten the center line to act as a spine. Not only would this not look like leaf veining, but the error really shows up on the solid fabric. I took the time to pick out and re-quilt that leaf.

Strawberries
As an alternative to having a plan, I chose a "decide as you go" approach. As a no brainer but still moving forward I quilted parallel diagonals in the white background around the strawberry. I needed ideas for FMQing the sawtooth star inside the strawberry and I found inspiration with Angela Walters. She treated each pair of triangles as a diamond-like parallelogram. I sewed straight lines as in Angela's sample but in the future I might make them arcs.

The remaining components I impulsively quilted whatever caught my fancy and was within my skill set. Pebbles may have looked cute in the strawberry, but my pebbles are awful — not awesome, mind you — awful. Instead, in the RED area I opted for echoing the inner star and scalloping the outer edges. In the GREEN leaf areas, I placed arcs around the edges of each leaf at the top of the berry and squiggles at the top of the strawberry cap beneath the stem.

Sashing and Borders
The inner sashing were plain zig zags and I could use the fabric as my guidelines. The outer border was graced with a single line of scallops using my  HQ Mini Scallop Ruler. Less is more; also, less is conveniently lazy.

The Final Finishes
I embroidered my two labels and attached them to the back corners of the wall hanging. On the left are my initials, year of completion, and the month the quilt represents; the unimaginative name I gave the quilt is on the right.

Here is the strawberry quilt, finished at, 31" x 31". I splurged and bought the heart scroll holder. Initially I balked at having to pay an additional shipping charge because of its length. I caved and mollified myself, reasoning that I planned to make this wall hanging for several other months' kits and the shipping cost could be shared by those future wall hangings. I was already getting the kits and holder at a discounted sale price from Shabby Fabrics. Waiting within my stash I have the kits for April, May, and August and the pdf patterns for February, March, and July. So far September does not have a huge appeal to me for kit or pattern. That heart scroll holder will get used.

The back shows the quilting. I followed the instructions exactly and hence the hanging sleeve is the same as the binding fabric. For the next kit I do, I believe there is enough backing fabric to make the sleeve out of the backing fabric instead and I think I will do that. This was a fun project and I look forward to working on playing with the other months.

O's (with X's) Completion

My previous post about this quilt was dated 3/30/2025. The blocks had been a joint venture in piecing with the ladies of my Cut-Ups Group from our September get together. Each member made one or two blocks with red or gray or black fabric from their stash. This way there was a nice variety of the O colors. I asked the ladies to send along the O blocks intact without the four outer right angle corners trimmed. I trimmed those stray right triangles uniformly and made them into pinwheels to brighten the mood and give the quilt a whimsical tone. I assembled the eighteen blocks into five columns. The completed size of the O blocks quilt is 45" wide by 53" tall.

Since the quilt top was slightly wider than one usable WOF, I needed to piece the back. Three grays in an offset arrangement added interest. I thought a red, gray, and black combination would be too garish as a backing. I used the Handi GADGETS Swish Template to FMQ the quilt sandwich, creating a kind of mustache motif. This Handi-Quilter video shows the template being used and other variations possible with it. The swish portion of the video begins one minute in.

The binding is alternating red, gray, and black fabrics joined to echo the colors of the O's. All that is left to do before donating O's to community quilts is to add an AVQ label. Yay! I am happy and proud with this one.

FMQ Completed on Bin Project

This project was initially resurrected in February 2024 to empty a bin containing blocks from a 2006 Block of the Month activity. In my post for 2/19/24 I described the assembly of blocks along with fabric choices from my stash for sashing and backing. In my post for 2/27/24 I described my designation of blocks as either a 2x2 or a 3x3 array and how I intended to FMQ them. There are nine 2x2s and seven 3x3s. Then all progress halted for about six months. Now work on this quilt has resumed and I intend to see it through to completion. I have some momentum going and I am determined to refrain from tabling it again.

Once I started the FMQ I realized that I did not like the low quilting density on some of the 2x2 blocks and decided to treat them as 4x4 blocks. Here is a sample of 2x2 block quilted as 4x4 followed by a 2x2 block quilted as a 2x2. Since the four petal motif landed centered in each of the four striped squares, I decided to leave this four square 2x2 block as is and not quilt it more densely.

I then got the idea to quilt the brown speckled sashing in a centered repeat of the leaf motif in the blocks and to embellish each red cornerstone with a four petal flower. This pattern is a go-to for me. Yes, I was not very adventurous in my FMQ with this top but since it had been languishing in a plastic bin since around 2008, I just wanted it done. My goal is to have completed it by Thanksgiving since its colors reflect the mood and tonality of that holiday. On the edge sashing I biased the quilt pattern away from the edge so the petals will appear centered once the binding is attached. The binding will be the same fabric as the red cornerstones.

Next up is making the label, attaching the binding, and taking final photos.

Tipus and Treetops - Completion

This is my completed quilt from Lotta Jansdotter feature modern fabric in a teal and gray colorway and a 5 x 5 block array. I've titled it Tipus and Treetops. Tipus and Treetops'  predecessor and inspiration, made for the same Lotta Jansdotter fabric line and titled uncreatively Orange and Grey, had been  presented in my post published 8/10/2016 and is shown after its teal and gray cousin.

 

My Tipus and Treetops post for 6/30/2023 displayed fabric choices and construction. The main focal fabric choices from Lotta Jansdotter were a teal mesh and white background fabrics with tipus (little chicks), treetops, and balls and leaves. My post for 7/4/2023 showed the block arrangement, pieced backing, and striped binding. To FMQ, I chose a light gray rather that a white thread which really pops on the dark grays, does show up a bit on the whites, but still is fairly hidden on the really busy mesh and critter fabrics. These next photos show the different FMQ patterns I chose in order of inner rectangles and outer borders. The patterns include: 1) echo quilting + clamshells, 2) curved grid +  parallel piano keyboard stripes, 3) wavy lines + echo quilting, 4) diamond grid +  diagonals to match tipu angle, 5) dot-to-dot four-leaf clusters + straight lines, and 6) echo quilting + dot-to-dot four-leaf clusters. I am most pleased with the curved grid because I have been wanting to do this for quite some time and I finally figured out how to do it.

1. echo quilting + clamshells

2. curved grid +  parallel piano keyboard stripes

3. wavy lines + echo quilting 

4. diamond grid +  diagonals to match tipu angle

5. dot-to-dot four leaf clusters+ straight lines

 6. echo quilting + dot-to-dot four leaf clusters

I finished off with my standard labels of grosgrain ribbon with lettering from my Pfaff domestic. 

Tipus and Treetops measures 48" x 48". Here are the front and back of Tipus and Treetops and my attempt to display it an aesthetically pleasing way. My FMQ is improving (as long as it is planned and not too freeform) but I need to work on the artistic part for my draped displays. 

Midnight Crossing - Inner and Outer Border FMQ

The inner border is 1½" wide in a gray zigzag. I considered a simple wavy line, and previewed it with a clear plastic overly, as shown in the next photo. Often times less is more. But this was too little and I thought the narrow border needed more. I decided to consider what I'd be putting in the outer orange border first and before deciding the narrow gray inner border. The two border designs do need to complement each other after all. The outer border of this quilt is a 3½" wide orange mini-floral. How to quilt it?

I considered a diagonal grid to carry out the "X" theme, but decided it was too prone to being crooked. I considered a scrolling vine with sporadic pumpkins but the required marking spooked me. Then I just stopped and looked at the fabric. In reality it is a stripe. I thought a piano key border aligned with those rows of roses would accentuate the stripe and, although somewhat tedious, would be fairly easy for me to do with a high probability of success. Yes it was more ruler work but it was sure to be textural even if it did not have visual impact. I did complete it all in one day, several hours of careful lines stitched up and down with a ruler as a guide at the same spacing of the rose rows. I used a thread color that matched the background orange.

Back to the inner border. I considered stitching a simple loop design sometimes called traveling vine; I learned this design as Lazy L since my first teacher described stitching it as a cursive capital L. I considered one loop for every border straight line, then a wider spread look with one loop every other border straight line. I started with one pass of Lazy L's. I could always fill in the wider spread with a second pass to make it denser.

After seeing the effect, I ended up doing two passes offset from each other so they formed X's in the center. The X's fit in with the X theme. The quilting barely shows up here, either, like my stitched hearts in the blocks, but with much less effort expended. I am pleased that the double pass holds the inner border with a more evenly distributed texture. These Lazy L's were quick to quilt even though I did two passes.

As my FMQ skills grow, I am becoming braver with the designs I will attempt. Clearly, however, I need to get better at my choices of thread color. I prefer quilting with prints rather than solids, so I think if I want the stitching to show my thread colors need to be bolder. Most tutorials are with solid fabric and contrasting thread. Uh, oh. I have now introduced more analysis paralysis to go with my quilting endeavors. Next post will address my labeling, binding, and completion.

Midnight Crossing - Layering, Binding Prep, Thread

I aim to piece my backings to be 2" larger than the finished top in both dimensions. The backing fabric was a small enough scale print that matching the piecing seam went well. Using glue to keep the seam aligned until I stitched it, I then pressed it open to even out bulk during the upcoming FMQ phase. I cut my bamboo batting 1" large in both dimensions then popped it in the dryer with a damp cloth to ease out the wrinkles and folds. I crawled around on the floor (ugh, my least favorite part) smoothing the backing, batting, and top layers together, then peeled back each layer to spray baste with Odif 505 temporary adhesive for fabric. For the quilting, I ordered thread in several pale orange colors, but need to wait for its arrival to down select. 

Meanwhile I worked on the binding. I fussy cut 8 widths of the remaining backing fabric in 2½" strips, a multiple of the X images, so the pattern did not drift around the bound edges. I joined the strips on the diagonal; I was pleased how well I was able to match those seams, camouflaged where the dog tails stick out before removing. Then I trimmed ¼" off along the entire length to arrive at my desired 2¼" binding width.

It was pouring rain that afternoon, September 20th, a welcome downpour for my drought tortured state of California. I felt snug in my sewing room gazing out the window while leisurely and carefully cutting off that ¼" along greater that 320 inches. I still need to press it in half along its length... but all in due time.

 

All this while I was thinking about my FMQ pattern to distract me from my tender knees and fickle back from layering and to waylay my impatience from waiting for my thread arrival. My thread finally arrived  – less than a week but still I mildly grumble finally. Here were my color options from palest to darkest from Essential Threads by Connecting Threads: 21582-Cantaloupe, 21120-Apricot, 21581-Chai. I chose Apricot, the medium of the three shades. Cantaloupe had too much pink and Chai was too strong.

I am in the process of quilting a band of petals in the sashings and quilting pillowcase edges in the checkered nine-patches on my HQ Sweet Sixteen sit-down. I am still contemplating what to do in the blocks themselves. I played with some heart templates but have not yet come up with an option that truly appeals. I will keep thinking and experimenting in PowerPoint while I continue stitching on the sashings and posts.