Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Author Archives: Pam

I made my first quilted item as a visual aid for a math project in 7th grade. Over the next 25 years quilting was hit or miss, but quilting took over all the other crafts I've done in 2003.

Chilhowie is Ready to Quilt

I’m ready to load Chilhowie on the longarm. I just need to figure out how I’m going to quilt it. It is one row longer than Bonnie’s quilt as I want to put it on a bed. After attaching the last border, I put away all of the fabric processing the bits and pieces into my Scrap Users System. The only fabric left out is yardage for the binding and a matching pillowcase.

 

My leader/ender project this year is Rivanna. Started in August, I’m about 2/5 of from finishing all of the HST I need.

 

Meanwhile, last weekend I decided to go on a road trip to Monroe, Louisiana.  I went specifically to look at the Husqvarna sewing machines. But of course that was in a quilt shop, so a few FQ came home with me.  Eight of those pictured above are from Material Things. The other 8 are from Quilt ‘n Stitch in West Monroe.

Some yardage also came home with me.

Now off to load Chilhowie.

Chilhowie Ready to Assemble

This past week, I’ve worked on Chilhowie, the 2022-2023 Quiltville Mystery Quilt.  I kept up with the mystery this year, right up until the reveal came out in early January. That’s when I decided I needed 4 more blocks to make the quilt work for me.  But I was distracted finishing some UFOs and starting & finishing a few other projects and Chilhowie was ignored for a couple of months. But now I have the extra blocks made, along with all of the parts and pieces so it is ready to assemble.

On a separate note, I have decided to track my fabric usage like I did when I first started blogging.  Last summer I said I would, and well, that didn’t really happen. But because I spent so much money on fabric and supplies last year when I tallied it after the fact, I’m determined to do better. I want/need to use my stash.  It’s really less about the money and more about using what I have. I have dozens of projects waiting to be made or finished – most with everything  I need to complete the project. I thought I was in a better position, but then realized I had not recorded my San Antonio purchases, which included a kit.

 

 

 

 

The Fabric Did All the Work

I’m calling this Bohemia Twilight Feathers in a nod to both the pattern name — Bohemia, and the fabrics Kaffe Feathers in Cool, and Stonehenge Twilight Ombre.  The binding is Grunge Basics in Tori, and the backing is Groovy Garden Colors in Purple. Truly the fabrics did all the work.

This was a quick start/finish for me.  I bought the fabric for the top and backing Friday afternoon and had a quilt top by Saturday night.  Once I had part of the top done Saturday morning, I ran out and picked up the binding fabric.

Clearly the purples in the quilt are on the blue side and the wall color is on the red side. The first picture is closer to the real colors.

Quilt Stats:

  • Pattern:  Bohemia from Villa Rosa Designs
  • Fabrics: Kaffe Feathers – Cool, Stonehenge – Twilight Ombre, Grunge Basics – Tori,  Groovy Garden Colors – Purple
  • Legacy 80/20 batting
  • Thread: Glide 40 wt Eggplant (2 1/2 bobbins)
  • Edge-to-Edge Design – Feather Wave with -1.75 gap
  • Stitch Length: 12
  • Stitch Count: 95,404
  • Machine Running Time: 2 hours 12 minutes
  • Total time to piece, quilt, trim & bind quilt 13 1/2 hours
  • Washed size 54 1/4 x 70 1/2

A 6 Hour Quilt Top

Friday afternoon I drove down to McComb to deliver the Log Cabin quilt to my cousin.  On my way home I stopped in at Gardensong Fabrics in Brookhaven.  Did I need any fabric? No.  But since it is the largest shop around and a little over an hour away from my house, I stopped anyway.  I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, then I remembered Bohemia, a Villa Rosa Design that  I picked up in San Antonio last month.

I stepped outside to get reception on my phone and looked up the pattern to see the requirements. I then asked about ombre fabric.  They had several colors of Stonehenge.

I liked these two, so began looking for a print to go with them.

For the teal I found this Kaffe Chrysanthemum. I think this would be very striking.

For the purple/blue I found this Kaffe feather print.  I ended up choosing the feather.

I picked up 4 yards of this fabric to use for the backing. Although not a perfect match, it was on sale.  I decided to hold off on binding fabric until I saw the quilt top.

Now to get it quilted.

 

 

Raising Cane

Raising Cane is now finished.  I sewed the binding on Wednesday night and popped it into the washer.  This is another UFO I can cross off my list.

 

Napkins

Cloth napkins have been on my radar for a few months, but I didn’t know what fabric to use. I didn’t want to spend “good money” to buy new fabric and I couldn’t decide on what fabric to “sacrifice” from my stash.  I still wouldn’t have a set of napkins if it hadn’t been for 2 things.  1 – I went over to my SILs house to help her figure out the napkin pattern so she could make some and 2 – I finished the quilting on Raising Cane.

I read the instructions she had. I watched 2 different videos – multiple times.  We folded, pinned, and stitched – multiple times.  My guess is I  spent an hour trying to figure out those mitered corners, but we eventually figured it out.  Then I came home to started cleaning up the Quilt Studio.  I realized there was enough of the backing fabric left from Raising Cane to make 6 napkins — assuming I could find coordinating fabric. I pulled fabric from the FQ boxes. That probably took longer than actually making the napkins.

Eventually after I get my kitchen remodeled, I’ll make some more.

 

Progress Report

It’s nearly complete.  This is Raising Cane, a Dorothy Young mystery quilt from 2009.  I started quilting it shortly after I got the longarm with no idea of where I was going with it. Then it got pulled off the frame to be completed later.  Later was this weekend.  Is it perfect? No. Is it done? Yes. Well, it still needs to be bound and washed, but that shouldn’t take that long.  The binding is already made.

Also this weekend I attempted to make a reversible napkin with mitered corners. The instructions I started with made absolutely no sense to me, so I watched a couple of videos  Finally figured it out. I have enough of the yellow left over from the backing of Raising Cane to make 6 napkins.  The insides will all be different — whatever I can find in my stash. But nothing will happen until I put my sewing machine back together.

I noticed skipped stitches on the napkin, so I pulled the needle plate off the machine to clean it.  When I put the last screw back in I realized I left the bobbin case out. So, I called it a night.

 

Pillowcases for Frolic

Since Frolic is big enough for a pillow tuck, I really don’t need pillowcases. However I recently bought new sheets and need a couple of more cases.  I had approximately 1 -1/8″ yard of the blue and the gray that I used in the border fabric which was just enough to make 2 cases, swapping the colors.  The black accent piece is used somewhere in the piecing.

Ready for Christmas?

It’s taken 4 years, but the matching pillowcases for my Christmas En Provence are done.  And the fabric is put away.

Nora’s Notebooks

The Nora’s Notebook pattern is a padded cover which fits those inexpensive black and white composition notebooks. The pattern is exclusive to The Quilted Cow in West Branson, Missouri.

Three Fat Quarters are needed, a little bit of lightweight interfacing, Soft &  Stable (I used Pellon Flex-Foam FF78F2), and an 1/2″ magnetic closer, but a piece of hook & loop tape could also be used.

There are 4 pockets, one on the outside, 2 on the inside left cover,

 

and one on the back cover.

I simply quilted around the circles using pink thread.

My number 1 recommendation is to label the pieces.  2nd, when putting in the snap,  orient the tabs top to bottom so you can stitch around the tab and top stitch the cover when done.  I had to remake my tab so I could to the topstitching.

For my second cover I actually used 5 fabrics.  I wanted a way to easily see this is my Quilters By Hearts’ Desire notebook, so I made it to match my Pizza Box Quilt we made.

To quilt it, I did a 2″ crosshatch, with 1/2″ vertical lines behind the pencil pouch.

The tab is shorter as I oriented the fabric the other way.

The Quilt Studio is a bit neater as well. As I was working on the cover, I cut up my scraps which have been sitting in the pizza box and put them away.

I have one more I want to make for my Brandon Quilters notebook cover, and I think I’ll use the fabric I used in the mystery quilt we did last year.