I joined the August UFO Challenge in Stitch On’s Quilt & Stitch Along with Sally on Facebook. Some of these projects have been lingering with no excuses — I’m looking at you, Scrappy Bargello. There’s one project that technically isn’t a UFO — Shenandoah! Others in theory shouldn’t take long to complete — or so I keep telling myself. We’ll see how far I get this month.
Apparently I don’t have enough on my quilting plate – Rivanna, Roll the Dice, 2 shop samples, a quilt which just needs to be bound, my assorted hand work projects and block of the month quilts, plus a few 3-yard quilts I’d like to finish this year. I want to make Shenandoah – from stash.
I pulled this chrysanthemum print. I found these two blenders.
I have this gorgeous orchid print which I think the fuchsia blender is on theme.
These peach roses and peach blender might look good as well.
But I think I’m going to use this magnolia panel and pink to make the quilt. There is not enough fabric in the panel to do the inner border, but I found this white dot on navy and I think it will be perfect.
Now to get a few things done so I can start this.
The Louisiana Shop Hop started last week and runs through Saturday. It’s 7 shops in southeastern Louisiana. Each shop is selling 3 FQ from the shop hop fabric and a finishing kit for ‘their’ quilt. In addition Bernina Lafayette has a finishing kit using the fabrics. That is the quilt I’ve decided to make.
Of course there were a few purchases made. Three of the FQ were in the gift bags the shops gave out. One of the things I was looking for were cloth books. I found great selections at A&A Sewing Center in Broussard and at Emily’s Closet in New Iberia.
The thread (Celery!), Binding Miter Tool and the ruler suction cup I bought. The rest of the items in this photo were in the gift bags — with the exception of the book. There was a raffle at one of the shops and I won the book.
Here are the shops in the order I did them:
If I do this again, I’ll add in Chateau Sew in New Orleans after Sew This! and move cottage Creations & Quilts after My Sewing Shoppe.
Over the weekend I finished binding Eclipse. It’s had been moved about in the quilt studio for so long, I had to repress the binding in half — only to discover it was partially attached to the quilt!
Eclipse is one of my Brandon Quilters 2026 UFO. I showed it and and Twirling Leaves at the guild meeting last night so I only have 1 more UFO on that list to go.
This past weekend was the Gulf States Quilt Association biennial quilt show. I entered my Twirling Leaves quilt in the GSQA Guest Teacher category. That does not mean I was a guest teacher but rather I made a quilts created from classes taken from GSQA guest teachers; to include seminar, quarterly meetings, and traveling teachers. Specifically, Annette Ornelas of Southwind Designs was the guest teacher at the October 2025 GSQA quarterly meeting.
The quilt finished at 60″ x 60″. Shelly Pagliai of Prairie Moon Quilts quilted it for me. The quilt has Quilters Dream Wool Batting and 7 different colors of Superior Omni Thread
I won the 3rd place ribbon in my entered class. The judge liked the dark purple and the thread color changes. But she pointed out my binding needed work.
That’s not surprising as I was still stitching the binding and hanging sleeve on Saturday morning the day I dropped off my quilt!
The quilt was started October 24, 2025 and finished June 20, 2026.
This is one of my Brandon Quilters UFOs.
April was busy. I have not kept up on my handwork this month, nor did I do my BOM Saturday. After I finished the pillowcases, I started in on this table runner and quilt. They have since been bound in the same fabric as the sashing, but I didn’t get a picture of them before they left my possession.
Around the same time, I worked with a local landscaper and she put in a flower bed along my north fence line. I can’t wait for it to fill in.
Then it was off to AQS Paducah.
My friend and I stayed in Metropolis, so naturally I have the obligatory photo of Superman and Lois Lane.
The second night we were there, we were woke up with meowing outside the door. This is Yankee. We took her to the walk-in Vet where she was scanned for a microchip -does not have one – and given a rabbies shot and ointment for her eye. She was given a clean bill of heath with an estimated age of 6 months. The front desk said she had been hanging around the motel and we were welcome to take her with us. She was well behaved in the room and on the ride home. She will live with my friend’s neighbor.
After the vet visit it was off to Hancock’s of Paducah where I walked in found the Steampunk Menagerie fabric I tried to order last fall. 1 yard in and out in less than 10 minutes.
At the show I found this gorgeous panel and companion piece at the Motherland Fabrics booth.
Not fabric, but quilting decor – I bought this garden stake of fused glass from Kos Artistic Design.
This years Brandon Quilters President’s Challenge is pillowcases for the Children’s Safe Center. Years ago I prepped 5 cases which never got made, so I finally made those, then dug through my stash to see what else I could find. I thought I was done, then I picked up a quilt to bind and found one more.
I cut the body of the case 27″, the cuff 9″ and the accent band 1 1/2″. Personally I don’t like the accent to be loose, so I stitch it to the cuff, then do the burrito roll to stitch it to the case. Once the cuff is pressed, the case is folded in half wrong sides together and trimmed to 21″ wide. I sew 1/4″ down the length of the case, press the seam and turn the case inside out and stitch the seam, encasing it. My needle position was at 1.0 from the right.
The case is then turned right side out and pressed. I then trim the length of the case to 31″, repeating the steps above to encase the seam.
I did not get far on this month’s goal. Paper piecing is a struggle for me. Recently I watch a video on how to use freezer paper to paper piece and thought I’d give it a try. I still struggled and temporarily gave up as I needed to get the shop sample bound. Alas, I didn’t think to take a picture of it bound before I delivered it.
Of course while I was at the shop, I made a few purchases. My goal was to find either a red or blue for the border of Chain of Stars. I also picked up a few pieces which just came in the shop. I left the shop with 2 shop samples to piece and patterns to write, so Chain of Stars falls to the back of the line along with nearly everything else on my plate but the pillowcases.
Last night I finished quilting a shop sample. So now I have 3 quilts to bind! On the white bench are the pillowcases I need to finish by 4/6. I would also like to finish the Disappearing Hourglass quilt by then as well. There should be enough time – if I don’t get distracted.
This past Saturday was National Quilting Day. Up early, I started assembling the Disappearing Hourglass blocks. Riviana blocks were built as my leader/ender.
The afternoon found me going with Ruby to pick up an indoor/outdoor rug for her patio. Doesn’t this look like a quilt?
I spent the evening (and the next morning) kitting up the rest of the fabric for Ritzy’s shop hop block. 58. When these are gone that’s it. We don’t have any more fabric.
