Finishing the “Rabbit Hole” quilt

I had some much fun making this quilt when I had no plan to make this quilt…..does that make sense?

Yesterday, I had started piecing 9-patch blocks for the borders.

Let’s add some more red!

I used my “10-minutes per day” sewing time to get them attached……

First step was to sew them into strips…..

The first one was short and super easy to attach…..

It was just a matter of pinning each corner…..

….and then laying it out, pinning between the corners and sewing.

ONE DONE…..

I continued working for a few minutes each day and added the final border….

I LOVE how this looks…..

I picked a backing and put it away until I have time to quilt it.

Now I need to get back to the original scrap project!!

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Lemoyne Star Coincidence??

Have you ever made a Lemoyne Star quilt?

The Lemoyne Star is a classic patchwork quilt pattern with a rich history dating back to the 19th century. It is characterized by its intricate design featuring diamond-shaped pieces arranged to form a star with eight points.

I have a quilt that my Grandmother made using the Lemoyne Star block……

Check out this post if you want to learn more about this quilt and it’s maker…..

An OLD Lemoyne Star

So, what has made me think of this quilt now……

While I was at the gym, and watching YouTube videos as I exercised, this is what I saw…..

Am I wrong, or does the quilt in the background not look EXACTLY like the one that my Grandmother made??

Since printed patterns and pattern books were not prevalent back in the 1940’s and 1950’s, my assumption is that the pattern appeared in the Kansas City Star newspaper.

Have you heard of it??

The Kansas City Star began featuring quilt block patterns in its weekly “Women’s Page” in the 1920s. These patterns were typically accompanied by detailed instructions and illustrations, making them accessible to quilters of varying skill levels.

What made the Kansas City Star’s publication of quilt patterns significant was its broad readership and influence. The newspaper’s circulation extended beyond its local area, reaching rural communities across the United States. As a result, the published quilt patterns became widely known and cherished by quilters throughout the country.

The Lemoyne Star pattern, in particular, gained popularity through its inclusion in the Kansas City Star. Quilters appreciated the geometric precision and visual appeal, and many sought to recreate it in their own quilts.

I am guessing that my Grandmother and the maker of this other quilt both used the pattern in the KCS for their respective quilts……

HOW COOL IS THAT!!

So, now I want to make one just like it. Whose with me?

And, for full disclosure…. much of the research for this post was done with ChatGPT!

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One of my favorite things about quilting is motivating others and helping them in their quilting journey. As part of this endeavor, I LOVE to present programs and workshops to groups and guilds around the world. All of my programs work well with Zoom meetings, and I would love to speak to your group.

You can find out more at this link…..

A Touch or Two of Red

Yesterday I shared the centerpiece to the “down the rabbit hole” quilt that I started……

Now it was time to add some borders. My first thought was to add a 2-inch red border…..

….but it was apparent that 2-inch was too wide. So, let’s look at my 1.5-inch red strips…..

I chose to cut them into various sizes, ranging from 2-inch to 4-inch…..

The nice thing about doing various sizes is that you don’t have to worry about ANYTHING matching up, and that is always a good thing!!

I sewed them into couplets…..

…..quadruplets……

….and kept stitching until I had one strip long enough for all four sides…..

I chose not to iron this strip until I had finished all of the piecing. While ironing, I tugged lightly at the strip to be sure that it stayed straight in the pressing process…..

Now I was ready to attach the borders. Some people spend a lot of time measuring and cutting but my process is a bit easier. Here it is…..

First I lay the border strips down the middle of the top……

…..and trim the borders to fit the top…..

Now both border pieces are the exact same size.

Next I mark the center of one border strip and match it up to the middle of one side of the top, and pin in place…..

Next, move to a far corner and pin the strip in place…..

Repeat for the other side…..

Now I look at the area between the two pins. In this case you can see that there is more fullness in the red border than in the quilt top……

This is where we can laud the stretchy qualities of cotton fabrics!!! I slightly tugged the fabrics so that the two edges lined up and then I held them in place with a pin…..

When it comes time to sew, I work between the pins, again stretching the fabrics slightly if needed……

After pressing both borders out……

…..you start the process over again with the other two borders…..

Quick as a flash, the first border was on…….

Now what will I add for the outside???

I won’t have time to work on it again for a while, so I will have plenty of time to figure that out!!

Down the Scrap Rabbit Hole!

Have you ever gone “down a rabbit hole”?

You know….you are working on one thing and then magically, you are headed into something completely different!!

That is what happened to me this week.

I was enjoying my 10-minute scrapping sessions but felt like I had enough blues squares….

…..and maybe it was time to switch to a different color.

The only problem was that I still had SO many blue scraps left, particularly in that “marine blue” color……

And then I had tons of 4-patches……

….and even more 2-patches…..

I REALLY wanted to use them up before I moved on.

WHAT……TO……DO??

Of course….. let’s make 9-patches, alternating the pre-pieced 4-patches and the blue squares!

After three 10-minute sessions, I had these pieced……

Since I had worked hard at my desk during the week, I decided to give myself two hours in my studio on Saturday morning.

Again, the question of “WHAT…..TO…..DO”?

Let’s keep making 4-patches, using up ALL of the pre-pieced couplets……

Then I started adding blue squares…..

….and before long I was ready to lay it out on the design wall….

….make two more blocks to finish the design, and….

VOILA…..it was ready to piece together…..

Isn’t this a fun center for a quilt??

I love the sparkles of color.

And, best of all, I finished with 2-minutes to spare out of my 2-hours….

Tomorrow I will add one border!!

Meet Christie and her “stash trash”

Earlier this week I sent out my monthly newsletter (you can subscribe at the end of this post). In it, I talked about some of my goals for 2024 and asked my readers what they were planning.

Christie Frey immediately wrote back and I wanted to share her thoughts…..

I have set a goal to make one hospice quilt a month. I have been given fabric and orphaned blocks from others in my guild so I only have to pay for batting to do this work. So far in January I completed three quilt tops so now I am working to machine quilt them to complete my first quarter goal.

Here are two very different looking quilts made from a stack of pre-cut orange peels. I am enjoying improving my FMQ skills on my domestic machine as I finish these projects

I find great delight in making treasures from others “stash trash”. So thankful these can become a bright spot of comfort as people transition to their final home.

First of all, how special to be making quilts for hospice. I know that these quilts mean so much to the recipient and also to their families.

Secondly, what a great term…..”STASH TRASH”! I think that I may adopt that one myself!

Here are the two “Orange Peel” quilts…..

They are so bright and happy!!

Here is some of the quilting that she is doing on those quilts…..

I LOVE how she is using the straight lines in the curved “peels”. It makes a wonderful pattern.

Christie’s 3rd quilt is using remade blocks and pastel strips.

It was challenging because I lean more to brights. I sorted the strips by color and made strata squares with those. I also found tucked in the “freebie” box pre-cut HST and squares of purple and lime. So that is what I used to brighten up the piece. It will be fun to FMQ designs in the open spaces of the blocks.

She is so right about the lime green and purple. They raise the quilt from boring to exciting!!

Christie has been sewing since she was 8. Her passion for quilting started when she first went to Houston IQF in 1985 with her mom who was a fabric store owner in Lake Tahoe CA. Now that she is retired, she is loving having time to spend “making”, especially working with scraps. As she said….

“Stash Trash gets my juices going.”

I first met Christie when she was the program chairman for the Metropolitan Quilt Guild in Beaverton, Oregon, and it has been fun to get to know her more through our mutual love of quilting.