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.

Current Choices for Carolina Christmas


I have continued to play in my pink and blue fabrics. Although I agree that the multiple greens added depth to the stack of fabric, I went back and re-read Bonnie’s description of her fabric choices.

a lighter yellow green all the way through to dark pine green
reds all the way from orange red to burgundy
ONE gold print to tie the scrappiness together

So, I’m going to pretend my blues are green, my pinks are red (a little easier) and my single green is gold. Won’t that be fun to read ‘green’ and have to remember to pick up the blue fabric. Clearly after I print out the pattern I’ll be taking a pen to it so I don’t get confused. My background will be one of about 6 or 7 different white on whites, all in about the same shade of white. I briefly flirted with a a single background, but the only 2 yard piece I have is beige and I decided I didn’t like it with the ‘clear’ pinks and blues.

Let’s eat turkey, then bring on the first clue. My fabrics are pressed, I know where my ruler is and I’m off to clear the cutting board so I’ll be ready Friday. – right after I drop my car off to get inspected.

Carolina Christmas or Double Delight!?

Last week I was asked if I was going to participate in Bonnie Hunter’s new mystery quilt Carolina Christmas. I love Bonnie’s patterns, but my plate is full so, I said no.

However, quilters have been known to change their mind and I might be convinced to play along. With all the chatter on the Quiltville list I’ve been pondering colors. One of my personal rules is mystery quilts have to come from stash. I have lots of pink and green, so pink and green with a white background, but what to use for the 3rd color? My husband suggested blue (hey I have a whole tote of blue), but then he qualified it “icy blue”.

This is what I came up with:

When I found 2 hunks of the green totaling 3 yards I thought I’d use it to tie everything together instead of the selection of greens I had pulled.

It wasn’t until I started this post that I realized I was looking at the instructions for Double Delight! You would think that either the title boldly printed on the top page or the fact that printout is nearly a quarter of an inch thick would have clued me in that I had the wrong pattern.

Double Delight! needs a 5th color and I have no idea what I would use. So, at this time I don’t know which quilt I’ll be making, or if I’ll stick to working on something I already have in progress. I guess it will depend on how I feel about these colors after they sit together a while.

What’s On My Design Wall? – 11/23


Half of the inner borders are now on Autumn Splendor.

See what others are up to by checking out the links over at Judy’s blog.

Stash Report Week # 47

No fabric in. No fabric out.

But with two days off this week, I hope I’ll get to the borders for both Autumn Splendor and Ladder to the Stars. That will bring me in striking distance of 100 yards. We’ll just have to wait and see what the week brings.

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 282.333 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 90.386 yards

Net Stash: +191.947 yards

See if anyone else is getting close to their goal over at Patchwork Times.

Border Decisions


A little over a year ago I walked into a new to me quilt shop, Lil’ Red Hen in Paola, Kansas and fell in love with the top FQ. They had all sorts of fall colors displayed just as you walked in the door. To top that, they had a FQ sale going on. Before I left the store, I had bought a dozen FQ to make a quilt (not that I had a pattern with me), 2 yards of the print I fell in love with and a yard of the gold for an inner border. In the back of my mind I was thinking a small Turning Twenty or a large Crazy 8.

I brought the fabric home, tied it up with a ribbon and put my Crazy 8 pattern with it. The bundle sat for over a year while I worked on my various UFOs, started and finished other projects, and started projects which only made it to the top stage. Two weeks ago I cut into the fabric and have slowly been working on it.

This afternoon I finished sewing the blocks together and it was time for a border decision.

When I bought the fabric, I knew I was going to need somewhere for the eyes to rest since the blocks and the borders are so busy.

So as originally envisioned, there would be a narrow gold border and then the large leaf border. This however was not working for me.

What drew me to the leaf print in the first place was the purple, so I pulled down my bin of purple fabrics to see if I had anything bigger than a FQ which would work. I found half a yard of border fabric left over from my Old Tobacco Road which I think is going to be just right.

So, now that the decision is made, I think I’m going to call it a night. I’ll deal with the borders tomorrow.

Josh’s Graduation Quilt

It’s done all that is left is for me to stitch down the label.

What’s On My Design Wall? – 11/16

The exact same thing as last week. I didn’t even move the blocks.

On the other hand, Josh’s graduation quilt is finished! (OK, I still have to attach the label, but it’s made!) Remind me to never use black backing. It shows everything. Hopefully later today I’ll get a picture of it.

See what other are up to by checking out the links on Judy’s blog.

Stash Report Week # 46

I’ve completely ignored my Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler blocks so far this month. Maybe over Thanksgiving weekend I’ll get all 5 of them done for the month. It will only add up to about 5/8 yard, but every inch counts.

The binding is going on the graduation quilt! I made it last night, so 5/8 yards out.


This past year I’ve reached for that fabric on more than one occasion to use it for something — the last time I stapled a note to the selvage so I wouldn’t use it and then wonder what happened to the binding fabric for Josh’s quilt.


The note is now off the fabric and the remaining 7/8 yards is in the “blue” bin so I can use it for something else.

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 282.333 yards

Fabric Used this Week: .625 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 90.386 yards

Net Stash: +191.947 yards

See how others are doing on their stash busting effort by checking out the links on Judy’s blog Patchwork Times.

The Quilting is Done!


The quilting on Josh’s graduation quilt is done! Now I’ve got to trim, bind, label and wash it. Josh graduated May 17, 2007, so it’s about 18 months late. The top was done then. Does that count?

What’s On My Design Wall? – 11/09


So close to finishing, or getting to a new stage in the projects I’ve been working on all summer I finally cut into new fabric Friday night. These are the blocks I made Saturday afternoon for Autumn Splendor.

I could have knocked out the rest of the blocks Saturday night or Sunday, but instead I worked on Josh’s quilt. I’ve got three of the borders quilted, and the 4th one marked. Once I get the last border quilted, I think I’m going to go back and stitch in the ditch between the inner and outer border. At that point I’ll have the tedious task of trimming the threads from the back of the quilt and trying to remove the dust and cat hair from the backing.

See what other quilters are up to by checking out Judy’s blog.