Stackables

So my latest scrap quilt was inspired by Ophelia Pang's @opheliapangg Stacking Stools, a design I've been drawn to for quilt a while. 

I chose Kona Pimento from stash for the background, but the stripes - both vertical and horizontal - all came from the scrap basket. I'd pulled and pressed a loose palette of blues/greens, lighter grays/browns, white/off-white, and even a random gold or pink-ish string. Blocks were all improv, 8-9" wide and 13-14" tall.




Before long, I'd run out of the Pimento, and grabbed some somewhat similar Kona Coral to continue the background but eventually ran out of that too. 




Eventually, I incorporated Kona Lipstick as well, and I loved the bit of contrast with the oranges. Once I had all the blocks I wanted to make, I added a skinny border of the Lipstick on the right; the Coral on the left.




Then, of course, I needed a pieced quilt back, using all the leftover pieces and bits from my original pull from the scrap basket. I added more stash yardage than I had for the last couple of backs, but I'm ok with that, especially since I used all but one(!) scrap from my original scrap pull. Plus, I'd already done a pretty good job of using the larger scraps on other recent projects.




For quilting, I went with an uneven grid, marking parallel lines with my hera marker every inch, 1.25" or 1.5" both vertical ad horizontal. Using Aurifil 28wt 2270 [Paprika] was a thicker choice than I usually use, but the color was perfect, and I think it looks ok. As my hubby rightly noticed, the quilting definitely stands out with that weight of thread.

Finished and bound with Konas Lipstick and Chili, it measures 45" x 48". 

I've lost track of where the Chili came into play - but it definitely works, and I had just enough to bind the left side of the quilt and round the top and bottom corners. Whatever, I used a good bunch of scraps in this one, as well as some smaller pieces of stashed solids. Even though I restocked quite a few neutrals this week, it's obvious I need to do the same with my reds soon. Meanwhile, I have a finish that I'm quite pleased with. 

ABC Swirl

I think it was the end of May when I received the latest Dropcloth alphabet sampler, ABC Swirl. So that means I stitched on it for several weeks. And honestly, it was most enjoyable, as all the ABC samplers have been. 

I thoroughly enjoyed mixing up the thread colors and stitches as I went. Then I chose a fun variegated thread to do a seed stitch 'border.'

It's been ages since I've shared the back of a project, so here you go! I honestly don't pay much attention to it as I'm stitching, so it's wild and colorful. How fun is that?

Improv: Inspired by Nature

Vicki Conley @vicki_conley_art_and_seattledesign and her work were new to me when I first heard of her workshop being offered by Seattle MQG, Improv: Inspired by Nature. But I liked what I saw very much and signed up. Well it took place on Saturday, and gotta say, I'm very glad I took it.

We were asked to choose a subject and share several photos with Vicki before class. My chosen subject was inspired by the goldfinch pair we'd seen at our bird buddy lately. Of the photos I shared with her, Vicki let me know it would be good to start with the one below, with wings outstretched.

Photo credit: Creative Commons

So mark the moment. I created my very first foundation paper pieced pattern!

Here are the fabrics I had pulled...yellows and a bit of black for the bird; and a range of grays and white for the background. 

SO, I made my first block, which measured 5.5" x 6.5". Encouraging us to make a range of block sizes, Vicki helped us by providing another size of our block - mine being 15" x 13". It felt pretty big, but I was happy to try.

So below are the two blocks I was able to complete during the workshop. Honestly, I don't love them for a few reasons - my use of white, period. Also, I don't like the shape of the head or the right leg/tail. BUT they're made from my very first FPP pattern, and I learned a lot. I plan to refine my pattern, as well as my fabric pull, and try again. Meanwhile, it was an excellent workshop, and my interest in the design process has definitely been piqued. 

Patchwork City Revisited

Cleaning out a cupboard of quilting books a few weeks ago, I found 8(!) quilt blocks stuffed into my copy of Patchwork City by Elizabeth Hartman @elizabethagh. Apparently, I'd started a BOM in 2015(!!) but didn't keep up and stashed them away for another day. I no longer have any of those Tula Pink fabrics, so I wasn't sure what I might do to use the blocks. Maybe something together, but maybe not.

But over recent weeks, I've been thinking I might like to continue making blocks, and was looking at scrap bags of Tula's fabric for sale, though I hadn't yet purchased any. And then..... last night at our guild meeting, I was shocked to see a good sized bag of Tula Pink fabric scraps on the free table! You bet I snatched them right up.

So I've pressed and sorted them all, and discovered that they are basically from two lines - True Colors (Wildflower, Mineral, Pom Poms, Hexy, Fairy Dust, Tent Stripe prints in a variety of colorways) and Homemade (Busy Fingers, Seed Stitch, Getting Snippy prints, also in a variety of colorways). There were more of some prints than others, but it all added up to 1.5#, or approximately 4 yards of fabric if measured by weight. And you can see that there's a stack of solid scraps also. I have no way of knowing if they are Tula Pink solids or not, but there're certainly welcome, no matter. I'm also not 100% sure the colors and prints will mix well with the blocks I already have, but I'm going to try. SO, I have a couple of quilts to finish, and some bee and BOM blocks to make, but one of these days soon-ish, I'll dig into these fabrics and see what I can do.

Garlic Scapes

Up for the random food post? If not, I'll be back soon with quilty-content, but I had an experience over the weekend that felt worth documenting for my food-loving self.

"Garlic scapes are the curly, twirly, green flower stalks that emerge from the tops of garlic plants as they grow. They can be eaten cooked or raw, and they’re as fun to look at as they are to eat! Garlic scapes have a mild and subtle garlic flavor, softer than the bite you’d find in raw garlic cloves. This makes them exceptionally versatile anywhere in cooking where you would normally use garlic."

- heartbeet kitchen

Often found primarily at farmers' markets, I was fortunate to find freshly cut garlic scapes on my kitchen counter over the weekend, thanks to hubby harvesting them from his herb garden.

Though I knew what they were, I didn't really know what to do with them. So I put out a call in my IG stories asking for suggestions, and I had several suggestions within minutes. Pesto was the overwhelming favorite, which sounded great to me. I tried the Garlic Scape Pesto recipe from NYT Cooking, substituting walnuts for the suggested sunflower seeds, as that's what I had on hand, and it was SO good. 

Note: Charles @feltlikesweets told me he blanches scapes for 5-6 minutes before using in his favorite pesto recipe, replacing the basil. So I did blanch mine too, though the linked recipe above included both the scapes and basil in it. Just fyi.

That night, I served it over grilled chicken; the next night with rustic herb bread. I can't imagine anything it wouldn't be delicious on. Some of the other suggestions I got were:

• sauté in oil or butter
• use in soups or salad
• serve over firm white fish
• use on pizza in place of red sauce
• pickle them
• stir fry with other veggies

Now that I know, I may try them a different way next time, but meanwhile, I used all of this year's crop in that pesto, and I'm definitely not sorry.

Tonal Strings

Ready for another scrappy improv quilt, I turned to Free Form Quilts & Patchwork by Jessie Cutts @cuttsandsons for inspiration. While perusing the projects, I was drawn to the instructions in step one of Project 1, "I start by tipping out my scrap basket...." so that's where I began.

Even though it's not that visible in the photo above, as I pawed through those scraps, I felt like there was quite a bit of brown. And I quickly settled on a palette for my next project. I'm not sure if it quite fits the 'tonal strings' theme of the project in the book, but this is what my scrap basket had to offer me.

Per Jessie's instructions, I began by piecing the smallest pieces together. 

And before long, I had a quilt top, about 25" square. As you can see, I tried hard to use even the tiniest bits - those were cut-offs from piecing the other strip sets. Not my norm to even keep those, but I like what they added to this piece.

I pieced together what was left on the cutting table, included the three smaller improv blocks below.

All that didn't make a large enough quilt back, so I pulled some Kona Punch from stash to bring it up to size.

I'm sharing this part of the project now, because it'll be a while before I have a finish to share. I'm going to hand-quilt this one, and I know that will keep me busy for days (weeks?). I'm already a few sessions into it, and I don't even have the center blocks done. But it's looking good, so I'll be back to share it once I'm done.

June Fabric Usage

If not for a sudden urge to hunt down a favorite Carolyn Friedlander fabric after I used the last of it from stash, I might have resisted bringing in fabric this month, as I was furiously sewing through scraps and stash. The piece from Collection CF was actually hard to find, so I grabbed two yards when I finally found it. Chances are I won't find it next time.

The biggest fabric uses this month was for a scrappy backing and binding for one scrap quilt and another front and back for a second, plus a big (60" x 90") patchwork curtain. I also made several smaller projects - it was a very productive month, I guess - which all added up to some really good fabric usage from both the scrap basket and the stash. I won't be smug, though, as I know darn well I've already ordered a fat-quarter bundle of Carolyn Friedlander's new line, Memento; and placed a restock solid order, and both of those will show up in next month's tally. So obviously, I need to just keep sewing to help even things out. 

June Fabric Usage

Used up: 17.53 yards [15.23 projects + 2.3 recycled]
Brought in: 2.0 yards
Net: -15.53 yards

Patchwork Curtain

After weeks of scrappy quilt-making, I needed to take a detour and make a different kind of project - a patchwork curtain. We have a space in our home that needed a bit of a cover. Nothing fancy, yet something we wouldn't mind looking at when we were in that space.

The flooring in that space is a bit old-fashioned and worn, but we're working with what we have. So to coordinate as best as possible, I pulled a handful of solid neutrals - Kona Snow, Bone, Cream, and others that remain unidentified.

There were a coupe of tutorials I glanced at before starting:

• DIY Projects - Patchwork Curtain from the Fabric Store
• How to Sew a Flat Felled Seam by Jennifer Wiese of Workroom Social

From them, I gleaned that I should use a 5/8" seam allowance to begin my flat-felled seams, and that the 'right' side would be the side that showed two rows of stitching, not just one. For all the stitching, bobbin and top, I used Aurifil 50wt 2000 [beige].

At the start, I knew that for our 30" opening, I would need the total curtain width to be 45"-60" for a standard look. As I began sewing, I thought 45" would be fine, but once I got that far, I changed my mind and decided to go wider, to 60". At first I thought that meant that I needed to order some fabric, as I'd worked through all my neutrals. But luckily, I found a yard of Kona Putty that I could borrow from my BOM project, which was perfect with the odds and ends I had. I figured that the best way to add the extra width was to add a narrow panel on either side, each 8" wide. And then, wouldn't you know, I decided to make the curtain just a tad longer by adding a short width of Dear Stella Dash Flow in Fennel along the bottom. THEN it was time for hemming. After unsuccessfully figuring out how to do a rolled hem on my machine, I just folded over 1/4" twice for the sides and bottom hem and stitched that down.

I'd found another good tutorial mid-stream - How to Sew Patchwork Curtains by Rachel LaBour @stitchedincolor, and she suggested that 5" tabs 1" wide work well. Due to what I had on hand, I cut fabric 2.5" wide, then folded and pressed like double-fold bias tape. Once sewn along both sides, they were about .75" wide. Rachel suggested placing tabs approximately every 4.5”, so I made 13 of them using a variety of my fabric scraps, and followed her suggestion. She also explained how to insert and secure the tabs in the top hem, and that was easily done. In retrospect, I think I'd make the tabs longer, but for this project, they look and serve well enough.

So with the addition of the hanging loops, my curtain is very nearly 90" tall x 60" wide. Though I wondered at times if I had enough fabric to make it, I barely did, though I definitely need to restock all of these colors. I'd often admired similar patchwork curtains, and though many of them were made of prettier, lighter-weight fabrics, I'm glad to have sewn through the process with this project, and am quite happy with the result.

Potato Chips

Many Hands and Many Hearts June-August 2026 block drive hosted by Cynthia Brunz @cynthiabrunzdesigns consists of making 8.5" Potato Chip blocks. Apparently, a true potato chip block, a design by Stacey Lee, is 12.5", so the version for MHMH this round has a similar flavor but is a variation. Both blocks are scrappy, and honestly, I wasn't sure if I had much to work with. Requirements asked for blocks in specific pairings of colors:

• yellow with a purple center or purple with a yellow center
• green with a red center or red with a green center
• blue with an orange center or orange with a blue center

So I checked my scraps, and yeah, I didn't really have the print scraps to make more than a block or two. But what I did have was a pretty good stash of various charm squares. So I paired what I could, and managed to come up with a decent collection of blocks in most of the various color groupings - some more, some less.

So my 22 blocks are on their way to Cynthia. If you're able to join in, there's still time!

2026 Quilting Check In Q2

With June coming to a close in just a few days, it's time to think about the quarterly check in with Melanie Meyer @mellmeyer. Like Q1, I'll basically report on my quilting finishes.

April - June 2026 Quilts

Quantity-wise, I may have made less quilts this quarter, but I feel really good about what I accomplished.

• Billows - made for the Pantone quilt challenge.

• Vessel - made for the WELCA triennial gathering quilt challenge. It was accepted as a finalist, and will be on display at the gathering in July, and auctioned off for charity.

• Banded - began during the final weeks of the 100 Day Project.

• Bonkers - my first controlled crazy quilt, and I'm pretty sure it won't be my last.

So that's it for Q2 of 2026. I'm debating what quilt to start on next. Love when it can be pretty much anything I want!

Linking up with Melanie and her 2026QuiltingCheckIn Q2 Link-Up!

Building a Village

Audrey @cottonandbourbon had been hinting for several days that a special announcement was coming soon, while showing off her latest pattern, a modified courthouse steps block. Then yesterday, the announcement came.... Audrey wanted to host a group quilt entry for QuiltCon 2027, built, of course, of Building a Village quilt blocks.

Obviously, I joined right in by nabbing a free copy of the block pattern on Audrey's site, and didn't waste any time making my block. 

Audrey will make her quilt with the first 100 blocks that arrive to her, so if you're interested, do join in. The block is paper-pieced, just 8" square, and comes with excellent instructions. Hope some of you feel inclined to join in too!

Bonkers

My Controlled Crazy Quilt, which I'm naming Bonkers, was so much fun to make. I really loved  making those scrappy blocks for the front especially, though making the back was great too. I estimate I used 4.25 yards worth of multi-colored scraps in the making of the front and the back.

For quilting, I opted for fancy straight-line, which consists of vertical straight-line quilting topped with organic zig-zags. I thought that went well with the mix of straight lines and angles in the quilt top. For thread, I used Aurifil 50wt 4668 [Strawberry Parfait], a red, pink, and white variegated thread. I originally planned to quilt with plain red, but was afraid it might be overwhelming, so the Strawberry Parfait felt like a good option, plus I'd never used it before. I'm happy enough with the result.

For the binding, there were a couple of ways I wanted to mimic the wide ribbon binding and hand-embroidery stitches on traditional crazy quilts. To prepare my quilt for that once the quilting was complete, I made sure to trim the batting and backing about 1.5" wider than my quilt top all around. This can be a little tricky, but with a block-based quilt, I was able to get it pretty square.

• Then, I used a solid Kona Rich Red, and cut binding strips 8.5" wide, piecing them with straight seams, only because at that width, it would have meant a lot of fabric loss if pieced on the diagonal. Also not my norm, but I sewed it on the back first, then folded it over to the front, mitering the corners, clipping them temporarily with binder clips. [Apologies for not getting a photo of the back before the binding went on. I marked a line 1.5" from all edges, and then lined up the raw edges of the binding along it as I sewed it on. If you need help doing a chunky binding, check out Audrey Esarey's free Wide Binding Tutorial.]

• Another detail to simulate traditional crazy quilts was to sew the binding on with a decorative stitch showing on the quilt front. I just didn't feel like this particular quilt was up for a bunch of hand-embroidery stitches, so at least the thought is there. On my Janome MC 6700P, I used stitch #106 at its widest and longest (9.0/5.0). I chose it since it kind of reminded me of the first embroidery stitch I learned, the cross-stitch, plus it mimics the zig-zag in the overall quilting.

I think it makes for a nice finish!

My priority, of course, was holding down the binding edge on the front, so placement is not always on the binding on the back, as shown below - top and third corners are front corners; second and fourth corners are back corners. But overall, I'm good with it, and I love that it's something different for me and that I tried out a decorative stitch on my machine.

The quilt front originally measured 45.5" x 54.5", but with its chunky binding, the finished quilt now measures 48" x 58".

I remember years and years ago, I thought I might want to make a crazy quilt, and even took a workshop on it. After making a small sampler, complete with hand embroidery, I decided I wasn't interested. I'm glad I waited until now, because Bonkers is much more my style. I'm thinking I might want to make another one. Don't forget! Except for the binding, scraps from my scrap basket made up every inch of this quilt. 

Linking up with Yvonne of Quilting JETgirl's Favorite Quilt Finish {June 2026}.