A Big Kaffe Finish

Over the last few months, I have made a concerted effort to try and finish some of the many UFOs I have hidden around my sewing room.

I think I cut the fabrics for this quilt back in early 2016.  This quilt is made using the block pattern I had published in an old Quilty magazine called Letters of Love.  

When I cut the fabric, I wanted to use up some of the stash Kaffe Fassett prints I have collected for decades.  I used prints and shot cottons in fall colors.

I think I planned to use this quilt on my bed but like so many projects that sit around for years, I am not that in love with it.  So I am not really sure what I will do with it.  It is a nice big 80 x 80".

I quilted a large floral quilting pattern on it called Camelia.  The blocks are each 16" square so the big 8" flower works really well.

I even had a big cut of Kaffe Fassett fabric already put away for the backing.

It does look pretty on the nice green grass!

My UFO/project list now stands at 26...it was 23 but my bestie (otherwise known as my "scrap dealer") gave me two giant bags of scraps and three projects were started before I could get them all put away.

I will be sharing more information on those soon!

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My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

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If you are fan of the Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics, did you notice that Connecting Threads is carrying the new Veggies collection by Martha Negley?  Boy are they lovely!

Ratification Stars

Recently, I watched the 4 hour American Experience documentary "The Vote".  I realized I had forgotten so much about the struggle women endured for generations to obtain my right to vote.  I highly recommend the show.    Here is what is said about the show:

One hundred years after the passage of the 19th Amendment, The Vote tells the dramatic culmination story of the hard-fought campaign waged by American women for the right to vote — a transformative cultural and political movement that resulted in the largest expansion of voting rights in U.S. history.

In its final decade, from 1909 to 1920, movement leaders wrestled with contentious questions about the most effective methods for affecting social change. They debated the use of militant, even violent tactics, as well as hunger strikes and relentless public protests. The battle for the vote also upended previously accepted ideas about the proper role of women in American society and challenged the definitions of citizenship and democracy.

Exploring how and why millions of 20th-century Americans mobilized for — and against — women’s suffrage, The Vote brings to life the unsung leaders of the movement and the deep controversies over gender roles and race that divided Americans then — and continue to dominate political discourse today.

I could relate to the suffragists sewing stars on their Ratification Banners as each state ratified the amendment.  Above is a photo of Alice Paul hanging her completed banner after the 36th state (Tennessee) made the amendment the law of the land.

I decided to add some ratification stars in purple and gold to my "Vote" quilt to honor those three generations of women who fought for my vote.

I decided not to applique my stars - instead I used ThreadBareCreations' Christmas Star pattern.

You can download it for free and it comes in lots of sizes.  I made mine 4".

I think maybe I will put them between my big letters as shown above.

So far, here are all the blocks I have completed to date.

If you want to read any additional information on any of the blocks above, you can do a search of my blog for "vote".

The 19th amendment was the culmination of more than 70 years of struggle by woman suffragists.  It is important that today's women honor that fight by voting.

Please make sure you are registered to vote - above are the deadlines by state to request a vote-by-mail ballot for the November election.  

Please take any necessary measures as soon as possible!

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Oh Scrap! : Selvage Progess

I found another scrappy project that needed some blue blocks made July.

I am still working on sewing up all of my saved selvages.  This last week, I worked on completing the teal/turquoise and blue strips.

I decided to put them all up on the wall.  I still have to trim them to length, finish the two purple strips and then add the background fabric.  I am so close to a finish on this one.

...and done with saving selvages in the future!

What scrappy goodness have you been working on!

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It is now your turn to share what you are making with scraps.  Here are the details for linking up: 

• This linky party is for any scrappy project - It can be in-process or a finished piece.
• You can link up your blog post (not your homepage please) or Instagram photo from the past week that features your use of scraps.
• If you are linking to a blog post, I ask that you link back to my blog somewhere in your post. So if you are writing about scraps, just get into the habit of including a link as there will be a linky party available every week!
• If you are using Instagram, please use the hashtag #ohscrap.
• This is a party so remember to socialize and comment on the posts of others.
• Following my blog is not necessary but it sure would be great if you do! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Linking Up:

Love Laugh Quilt (Monday Making)

So Scrappy for RSC19 

A Charming Christmas

Summertime is almost here so that means the new collections of Christmas fabrics will be arriving in the stores soon.

So it is the perfect timing for the Fat Quarter Shop to release another one of their shortcut quilt patterns.  This festive project uses Charm Packs.

The Fat Quarter Shop asked me which Christmas collection I wanted to use and I picked Little Tree by Lella Boutique.  I knew it was going to look great with the White Grunge fabric I wanted to use for the background.

And here is my finished quilt!

Isn't it fun?

This shortcut pattern is called Charming Christmas.  

You can download the free pattern here.

The quilt finishes at 59" square.  You can easily make it a little bigger by making the outer border a bit wider.  The Fat Quarter Shop also has the pattern written so that it uses mini charms.  You can find that pattern here.  The mini finishes at about 26" square.

It is hard to see in the full photo, but I quilted some holly leaves and berries on this one in a white thread. It is a pantograph that I have had forever.  It gives the quilt a nicely quilted texture.

If you make the quilt, I do have a little trick to share.  When you make the triangles for the tree, the pattern has you just cutting off those bonus triangles,  I sewed an additional line and ended up with these 12 nice sized HSTs.  They can easily become some potholders or my plan was to make a table topper.  

You can see the finished mini here.

Photos of white quilts are so difficult in the summer months.  In the sunshine they are so bright, and I didn't have a spot of shade without any sunlight sneaking in....but I am not complaining!

If you are interested in making one of your own, the Fat Quarter Shop has kits available in a similar fabric line. Or order some holiday charm packs or mini charm packs and get started early on some holiday gifts.

I am not the only one making this quilt - If you want to see more versions, you can check out the Jolly Jabber blog post about them.

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A Scrappy Finish

I have a lot of scraps....A LOT!  I finish a lot of quilts each year and I have been quilting for decades.  And when you don't throw away much, you end up with lots of little leftovers.

But I don't love all of my scraps.  There are some unloved colors, or fabrics I am really tired of seeing.  So when I see a design that will help me to focus on some of these unloved bits and make something that I think someone will like, I am super happy.

Such was the case when I spied a rug I thought could be translated into a fun quilt.

Here is the quilt all finished up!

I was drawn to this design because I knew my brown scraps would be a great way to get started.  As I went through my scraps, I saw a number of them had blue or teal in them.  This helped me to decided to purge out my blue bin next.  Those led me right into those dark golds.

The hourglass blocks were easy enough to pull some black and white scraps for.  I liked the look of them going in different direction.

I thought about adding some of the thin sashing details like I saw in the rug but that meant I would need to cut from some stash fabrics - I really wanted to just focus on my scraps bins for this project.

Many of these squares were cut using my AccuQuilt 4.5" die.  When I am pulling the scraps I want to use, I can press them and lay them right onto the die.  This makes the cutting process go really quickly.

I was really worried about not having a backing for this quilt but I did find this teal blue fabric I had bought from Connecting Threads.  It was perfect!

You can see how I simply quilted in some serpentine quilting along the squares.

The quilt is a really nice size. 52 x 60"

This one will be listed in my Etsy shop.  It was a great way to make use of a bunch of unloved scraps and I think it will be exactly what someone is looking for!

I feel like it has been a long time since I shared a big quilt finish.  Now I have four other projects nearing completion so there should be many to share soon!

Have a wonderful weekend Everyone!

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My Quilt Infatuation (Needle & Thread)

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From Bolt to Beauty (Brag about your Beauties)
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***This post contains affiliate links.  Thanks for the support!

A Mini Quilt Show

It has been a while since I have shared some of the photos others have sent me of quilts made form my patterns.  I love to see what people make and thought you might like to see them too.

This sweet quilt was made using my Summertime Blossoms pattern.  It was made from one of the students in a class I did last year.  I love the soft colors in it.

Wiggle Time quilts are always a favorite.  Five fat quarters and some background fabric and in no time you have a quilt top.  The variations are truly endless!

Next up is some lovely Geese Migration quilts.  This is one of my favorite classes to teach.  Hopefully one of these days I will be able to travel to teach again - I really miss it!

And finally an All That Jazz quilt.  This is an old quilt of mine that I just rediscovered.  It was pulled from some older stash fabric.

You can find my patterns in my Payhip pattern shop or on Etsy.  Also in my Etsy shop are some of my quilts - all listed at great prices.  I have too many and need to offload some of them!

Hope you are having a great week!

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Oh Scrap! : A Few Blues

I did discover a current project that needed some blue scraps this month.

So I guess I did need to get my blue bin out after all.

I needed some blue log cabin blocks that finish at 5.5" for one of my scrap quilts.

I also finished up two more pink blocks.  These are made using 1" and 1.5" strips.

I have started to put them up on one of my design wall so I can look at color placement a bit.  I am not sure if I will keep the squiggle effect or make them into circle shapes - I need a few more blocks up on the wall to make that decision.

Next I think I will get out some green scraps.  Then I will be able to sew together the upper right quadrant of the quilt.  I am procrastinating making the smallest sized blocks.  For those I need 1/2" and 3/4" strips - That is tiny for me but I know they will be adorable little blocks!

Happy Scrappy Sunday!

(My fellow bloggers - is it my imagination or is the blogger creation page constantly changing lately?  I think I have something figured out and the next time I go to do something, I have to search for the buttons again!  I guess it does keep it interesting!

And if any of you have been waiting for the next Connecting Threads sitewide sales, Today is the day!  I am low on backings so I will definitely be stocking up.

*********************************************

It is now your turn to share what you are making with scraps.  Here are the details for linking up: 

• This linky party is for any scrappy project - It can be in-process or a finished piece.
• You can link up your blog post (not your homepage please) or Instagram photo from the past week that features your use of scraps.
• If you are linking to a blog post, I ask that you link back to my blog somewhere in your post. So if you are writing about scraps, just get into the habit of including a link as there will be a linky party available every week!
• If you are using Instagram, please use the hashtag #ohscrap.
• This is a party so remember to socialize and comment on the posts of others.
• Following my blog is not necessary but it sure would be great if you do! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Follow Me on Bloglovin'          Follow Me thru Email          Follow Me on Feedly

Linking up!:

So Scrappy for RSC19