Liturgical Calendar Wall Hanging

These last few weeks I've been working on a secret project! I can't say I love secrets, but when I decided I wanted to make a version of the Liturgical Calendar Triptych that I made back in 2023/2024 for our son's birthday, I had to keep it hush-hush. 

I had just two weeks before we were going to see him and celebrate, so I didn't have much time! My intent was to make a smaller version that would be suitable for hanging in his office. He's a pastor, and I was pretty sure he'd enjoy this representation of what is called a liturgical calendar following the Revised Common Lectionary. As I mentioned my original post on the other project, the calendar provides a three-year series of Biblical readings for Sundays for many many denominations in the US and Canada and beyond. The major seasons of the church year are represented by color, and that is the part that both of these projects are focused on. For this one, I decided on a size of 52" wide by 20" tall, just about 1/3 scale or the original. To help me gauge that size as I sewed, I put parallel strips of blue tape on my design wall, which helped very much!

Perusing my stash, and considering the timeframe, I used mostly fabrics I already had on hand, though I did order several pieces of Marcia Derse's Palette, a fabric I had used liberally in the original triptych, and I knew it could get here quickly. Here are the fabrics I used:

Blue

Kona Blueprint

Marcia Derse Palette in Royal Blue

Essex Speckled Yarn Dyed Ocean

Alison Glass Topography in Pond

White

Kona White + Organic White

Free Spirit Arctic White + Winter White

Essex White

Alison Glass Topography Whisper Chartreuse 

Red

Kona Rich Red

Essex Crimson

Marcia Derse Palette in Cardinal

Black

Kona Black

Marcia Derse Palette in Vine Black

Purple

Kona Nocturne

Marcia Derse Palette in Concord Grape

Yellow

Kona Banana Pepper

Alison Glass Topography in Lemon

Unknown woven

Green

Kona Clover

Essex Kelly

Marcia Derse Palette in This Green

Once I had the sections pieced to their approximate size, I began trimming them vertically and piecing them together. I would sew a joining seam, press it well, then measure before trimming for the next addition, rather than cutting all the colors the widths I thought they needed to be first. This method allowed for any width being taken up in the pressing due to the bulk of multiple-substrate fabrics. 

For a backing, I continued to pull from stash, using Kona Willow, Jungle, and Pesto. 

I quilted vertical lines at increments of 1/8" to 1/2", feeling like the unequal increments kind of fit with the colored sections being different widths. Of course, I used matching threads, though using what I had, while I had the necessary colors, they were of different weights. All together, I used 40wt 2730 [Delft Blue], 2024 [White], 2870 [Green], and 2250 [Red]; 50 wt 4225 [Eggplant] and 2892 [Pine]; and 28wt 2120 [Canary]. Not perfect, but it worked ok. The 40wt seemed to quilt the nicest on this piece.

Once trimmed, I used Audrey Esarey's @cottonandbourbon Quilt Facing Tutorial, which is free on her website. For better or worse, the top and bottom facings were differing greens (the single most used color on the quilt front); though I used blue and white fabric for the ends to match those sections. Whatever, it seemed ok once it was done, and happily, the piece measured exactly 52" long, the number of weeks it represents. I must have over-compensated a bit making the colored sections on the front, but I left as much height as I could, and it finished at a smidge over 22" high. 

Lastly, I added a hanging sleeve - also a free tutorial from Audrey - thinking my son might use a rod of some sort to hang it in his office. If not, it can be ignored or removed. Considering we live a few states away, I thought it was safest to add it just in case. Happily, we are together for a few days, so I was able to gift it to him today on his birthday. Glad I was able to finish it in time!

Mushrooms

You might remember I got several little samplers in my Dropcloth Samplers 

@dropcloth Advent calendar, and recently, I've been working on a mushroom sampler. 

For its size - about 4.5" x 5" - it felt like a lot of stitching. 

Rebecca's plan from the start for this little sampler was for us to make it into a zipper pouch. So we also received, over the course of several days, a zipper, calico lining fabric, and a cute little mushroom zipper pull from Comma Craft Co @commacraftco. All that make me think,  "Why not?" 

First up, I needed to choose a backing for the pouch, and selected a brown and white dot that seemed to coordinate with the front well enough.

I referenced Svetlana Skumanicova's @sotakhandmade video, How to Shorten a Nylon Zipper, to remind myself what length to trim the zipper (1" less than the width of the pouch front) and what size to cut the zipper tabs (1.5" x 2"). It was extremely helpful, and from there I could find way.

It turned out pretty cute, don't you think? Its small size makes it seem like a coin pouch, I think. Whatever, it's always nice to make those samplers into a useable item.

Log Cabined Circles

With the start of February, Bee Sewcial received a new prompt, this time from Tia @tiacurtisquilts. She asked for log cabined circles in saturated tones. 

These were a little challenging for me, even with Tia's demo video. But I managed!

We were supposed to make the equivalent of two 12.5" blocks, but it was ok to leave them untrimmed. My first was about 15" square-ish, with plenty of room to trim. The second definitely allowed for a 12.5" block, but a little less obviously so, thus I left it not trimmed at all. Tia said she likes the puzzle of making our blocks fit together, so I'm confident this pair will be good additions for her challenge.

At the Table :: 2026 Rainy Day Bites Cookbook Club | January

Considering I've already made seven new recipes for the Rainy Day Bites Cookbook Club just in January, I thought I might should post a little oftener than quarterly. We'll see how it goes going forward.

Anyway, 2026 is Year of the Deep Dive for the club and we kicked off our four-month savory cookbook club selection with Something from Nothing by Alison Roman @alisoneroman. For January, our challenge was to Eat Your Veg: Make any recipe from either the Vegetable or Beans & Grains chapters. And boy, did I. Sorry I'm not a better food photography, but you'll get the idea.

Forever-Roasted Squash with Browned Butter Dates

Toasted Rice Pilaf with Crushed Walnuts and Dates

Browned Butter Potato Salad

Perfect Oil-Roasted Tomatoes

Spiced, Butter-Roasted Carrots with Walnuts

A Chili, because you asked

Then Baking & The Meaning of Life: How to Find Joy in 100 Recipes by Helen Goh @helen_goh_bakes is the yearlong cookbook for our last day of the month baking party.

For January, we had the choice of making one of two madeleine recipes, and I chose the Lunchbox Madeleines,

You'll find longer descriptions of each recipe if you click to my IG posts about them. But overall, it's been a really yummy month, and I'm happy to just keep cooking and baking from these two books into February and beyond.

January Fabric Usage

Ugh. Good thing I didn't make any New Year's resolutions against fabric-purchasing. Between a good sale, what felt like a necessary restock or two, a new BOM, and a secret (for now) gift, plenty of new fabric was welcomed in during January.

• A few yards of Kona Lemon (I rarely have that much of any solid, and the price point made it a no-brainer) and a Checks bundle from a Fabric Bubb detash. I knew those checks could be combined into a future project that I'd really enjoy.

• Tiny Treaters Stripe Charcoal, which I'd recently used up for finishing Shattered, and I knew I'd want more for future projects. That, and it's getting harder and harder to find.

• Solids for the afore mentioned BOM, Weave Got This!, February's Block Studies Collective palette, and a couple restocks for stash.

• Marcia Derse Palette in a handful of colors for that secret project I mentioned. Honestly, I'd love to be able to have all the colors of this blender line in my stash.

• Then finally, just a half-yard of Alison Glass Sun Print Whisper Topography in Chartreuse, which has proven to be a perfect addition for that project I can't share yet. 

So yeah, that's a lot, but already a good portion of it is being put to use. With several projects going on at once, I'm not regretting any of my choices. So the overall stats may not look so goo, but the year has just begun.

January Fabric Usage

Used up: 16.52 yards [11.47 projects + 5.05 recycled/donated]
Brought in: 15.25 yards
Net: -1.27 yards

Calendar Cascade Complete

When I dropped my Calendar Cascade quilt top off with Dionne @dinglebobbins for long-arming, I didn't really expect to be back so quick with a quilt finish to share! In less than two weeks, she'd used a lovely Fil-Tec Glide polyester thread in Clover 60577 to quilt a Modern Twist X3 design, and my quilt was ready to pick up!

Just as a reminder, Calendar Cascade was designed for our 2025 Seattle MQG Block of the Month (AKA BOM) by guild-member Naomi te Wildt @quiltingnaomi. My original fabric pull consisted of Kona cottons in Emerald, Fern, Honey Dew, Jade Green, Julep, Lagoon, Pacific, and Pistachio. In case you've missed my posts on this quilt, note to count how many shapes are in a specific row and that will tell you what month it's for - one for January, two for February, etc. Thus the design's name, Calendar Cascade.

At 70" x 92", this finish feels really big to me, and I'm so grateful Dionne was able to help me get it finished. Bound in Kona Emerald, I love seeing how the quilting undulates across the front and that pieced quilt back.

Unfortunately, there was no way I was going to be able to hold up this big quilt and get my picture with it. So this 'armful' shot will have to do for now....  At least it's a picture of me and the finished quilt.

15 Years(!) of A Quilter's Table

15 years?! Yes. I recounted just to make sure. 

Over the course of the last several weeks, I've noticed folks posting pictures from 2016. I'm still not sure why, but I thought it would be an interesting way to approach this year's blog anniversary. In 2016, I had been blogging for 5 years - not a newbie by any means, but obviously still early in my journey. But looking back, I see it was a big year for me, creatively speaking.

Mod Mood, my initial quilt with Bee Sewcial, won first place in the Group/Bee category at QuiltCon.

Steeped in Tradition was my first quilt sale, also at QuiltCon.

I got my JUKI! There was so much to love about it, and it was my primary machine until last June.

The making of Yay or Nay was a profound experience, reminding me still, "Don't be afraid of getting it wrong." 

I hosted the Crosscut Quilt-Along, and had 52 participants join in trying out this fun improv technique.

I made my second Bee Sewcial quilt, Baconrific, named by my then 6yo granddaughter, and it remains a favorite.

So why the focus on 2016, when I'm actually celebrating a 15 year anniversary? Well, I couldn't have remembered all that good stuff without keeping track of these events here on the blog. A Quilter's Table is indeed still a pretty fine vehicle for following my own creative journey. It holds snapshots of of events and creations large and small, and just as importantly, has been an excellent space to engage with my maker community. Thanks, as always, for being here, and sharing the journey.

Configured

Whoa. I've been working on getting projects crossed off my list this month, hoping I'd still have time to participate in the current QIS challenge, Modular Rhythms. Windows of time opened up over the weekend that allowed me to do just that, and it was probably the most satisfying creative time since the holidays. Meet Configured.

There are always several requirements in participating in a QIS challenge, and this was no exception:

• The palette was quite specific - Kona White, Black, Ash, Rich Red, Nacho Cheese, though a few very similar shades were acceptable. Luckily I had all the Konas on hand, so used those.
• Within the set palette, there were also minimum fabric amounts: white and red - 8" x 21" - the dominant presence; and gray, black, and yellow - 8" x 11" - accents, preferably in line-based compositions.
• Square finish, with a minimum composition size of 16" x 16". Configured finished at 18.5" x 18.5".
• Finally, with our quilted submission, there were a few questions to respond to. What does this piece represent for you? What do you want to express with this work? What was interesting about the creative process? Following is my written response:

Inspired by a multi-windowed building, my main focus was on the modular shapes and supporting strips between them. The repetition of the layered horizontal lines were one way to express the rhythm theme, while the dancing of color and size of the 'windows' was another. I found the palette very interesting to work with, especially while trying to work with the suggested visual balance. This piece was built one component at a time, deciding on the next section's needs as I went. The small size of the overall piece made that a very manageable and enjoyable way to create.

For the back of Configured (above), you can probably tell I started with my project scraps. Other than the scrappy pieced sections, I intentionally chose not to include black and white in the back, but went went a narrowed down palette. Straight-line quilting was done with Aurifil 50wt 2620 [Stainless Steel], which coordinated with the Kona Ash very nicely. I originally had a more complicated quilting plan in mind, but once I was this far, it felt like enough. I definitely did not want the quilting to overpower the design.

Finished off with a simple, yet grounding, Rich Red binding, the time spent bringing Configured to life was so fulfilling, and it felt good to stretch my improv muscles again.

Be sure and visit Quilt Improv Studio @quiltimprovstudio on Instagram to see the other entries. I think you'll enjoy the gallery!

Linking up with Quilting Jetgirl's Favorite Finish {January 2026}.

Bee Sewcial Swap

A time or two before, the members of Bee Sewcial @beesewcial have had a celebratory secret swap, as a fun way to gather together online, and we enjoyed our latest last week. I had gotten Felicity's @felicityquilts name to make a gift for, and I made her a Pop Open Pouch, pattern by Aneela Hoey.

This is one of my favorite pouches to make, and I was so happy with the fabrics (and that zip!) I was able to find in my stash for it.

 

And yes, I put it in a hand-made lined drawstring bag, using the tutorial by @sotakhandmade.

Leanne @shecanquilt made me a gift - a lovely patchwork bullet journal sleeve, complete with journal and a pretty pen slipped into the back zipper pocket. The patchwork was done with beautiful Essex linens, and the lining our own Bee Sewcial fabric designed by our former beemate, Kari Yates.

I love it, and it will definitely be put to good use! 

Upended

It was nip and tuck with this one. Just a few days ago, I was thhhiiisss close to throwing it in the recycle bag.  Though I liked what I had made by the end of the Improv for Everyone :: Fat Curves and Skinny Lines workshop with Maria Shell @mariashellquilts, I just couldn't seem to create a finished piece I was happy with.

I had added an improv 'ribbon' between the two main pieces, and a spiky border to the bottom curve. I had also pieced in more background to top and bottom, though the piece as a whole I could barely tolerate. I had even made a backing out of leftovers from this workshop and a previous one, and and had basted a quilt sandwich together.

After posting the top photo, mentioning my disdain, of course I got good advice - put it away for a bit or un-baste it and cut it up. But you know what comment got me going again? "Try turning it upside down." ahh! Something about doing that made me dislike it a little less - at least enough to go ahead and quilt it up.

Like I mentioned, I had already made a pieced backing with scraps from the workshop. Nothing fancy, but at least I found a home for those triangle blocks which were from a workshop in January 2025.

I used Aurifil 40wt 5015 [Gold Yellow] to quilt a simple, uneven grid. Then I made a binding from a variety of the scraps, including some small bits in several of the colors. Problem was, I didn't like the scale of them, so before I stitched the binding on, rather than unstitch anything, I made pleats in those smaller color areas. And yes, doing that did add to their thickness a bit, but also added some interesting texture. After a good press, I though it would be ok to at least try it on this quilt.

Finished, this piece, which I named Upended, measures 26" x 34". It definitely grew on me, and though it still isn't my favorite finish ever, I can honestly say I'm glad I finished it.