Another "Broken Dishes", Really Broken This Time!

I had so much fun making the Spring Rabbits Broken Dishes quilt that I decided to make another one.
Directional prints are a problem in half square triangle quilts. I got all the rabbits upright in my last quilt because more of the triangle blocks were solid colors and the novelty print blocks are just an accent.

I wanted the blocks in this quilt to be half print and half solids. Turned out there was no way to get the mountains all upright. I made more blocks with solids to see if I could make it work like the last quilt, but I just didn’t like that.

So I decided to just go with the Broken Dishes theme…the pieces were just “glued back” every which way.

At a distance, the print looks like a camouflage print. It’s a lap size quilt, perfect to throw on the top of the bed as it will hide both yellow and black Labrador fur!

Sometimes bindings are just bindings. This time the multi-colored strip fabric helps to connect all the colors in the quilt. And it really pops!

Overall I’d say this broken quilt is a success.

"Spring Rabbits" Broken Dishes Quilt

A few weeks ago I was at the dentist for a routine cleaning. I was early for my appointment and noticed a beautiful coffee table book on Amish quilts from the Smithsonian next to the magazines.

It’s a beautiful book, a catalog for an exhibit. I found 2 quilts I especially liked. One was a traditional “Broken Dishes” made with half square triangles and the other was an improv crazy quilt which is very unusual for an Amish quilter. I was so engrossed in looking at the book that I didn’t hear my name when the dental hygienist call me!

I had a delightful fabric from Dollbelge with rabbits, spring fairies, birds and nests at home. I wasn’t sure how to use it. But the Broken Dishes quilt looked perfect. And it was.

I wanted to use all the fabric so added a panel on the back. I think it took me longer to set in that panel that it took me to piece all the half square triangles for the front of the quilt.

Here is the back of the quilt and photo of the book’s cover.

I have another focus fabric that will be perfect for another Broken Dishes quilt. And stay tuned for the a project based on the Crazy Quilt in the book!

My "Sweet Dreams" Quilt, A Modern Quilt Studio Sew Along Project

Last month Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, of Modern Quilt Studio, hosted a one day improv baby quilt sew along. They named the quilt “Sweet Dreams”. Two of my improv loving quilt friends sewed along too, and we had fun texting, comparing our progress.

The quilt featured 3 bars which were improv pieced. The official quilt had the bars running from side to side. I wanted to make the quilt a bit larger, so I floated my bars. The colors were chosen to match the back of the quilt…which I know the child who gets it will consider the front!

Back of my “Sweet Dreams” quilt. Or is it really the front???

It took me about 1.5-2 hours to piece each of my bars, so the quilt isn’t really a one day project. I knew that my current dogs are not yet old enough to meet proficient Sleeping Dogs standards, so I sewed up my bars the week prior to the sew along. We didn’t get the final directions until the day before. I was able to complete the top the day of the sew along, but only because the majority of the quilt was pre-pieced and I just needed to assemble it.

This is a fun project and I might make it again—either with improv pieced bars or bars of using a fun fabric.

Years ago I took a great course “Designing Modern Quilts” which Weeks taught on Craftsy. Here’s another toddler improv quilt that I made using blocks from Week’s class. Interesting that it also has a dog theme!

My Version of Quilters Playcation 2026 Completed Quilt

This year Cheryl Arkison hosted her Quilters Playaction Adventure Sew Along for 30 days during January and February 2026. Every afternoon she created and demonstrated how to make the block of the day. Most of the blocks were improv but a few were precision pieced traditional blocks…or part of a tradition block.

Some of the blocks had roots in current events, some were related to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy which were happening during the sew-along weeks. In fact, Cheryl often had an event on the computer, on mute, as she was sewing the block of the day with us.

I added a corner to one block and replaced the numeric logo for the the 26 Olympics with an improv head of my Lab/Golden dog.

It was so much fun working on this quilt, especially as I had 2 guild friends also making it.

I was at loose ends when the project was done. I’d be planning my day to be free at the time Cheryl was live on Instagram each day and then realize there was no new block and I could get dinner ready at a more reasonable time instead.

I decided to quilt the block in a 3 inch square grid. It was easy to do and I love the way the grid fills the negative space in the blocks which looked mostly empty.

Such a great project. So grateful for Cheryl’s creativity and generosity in offering her free Quilters Playcation Adventure Sew Alongs.

Improv Quilt Project hosted by Chery Arkison, Halfway Point

Getting this photograph turned out to be a bit an adventure. We just had a 2 day snow storm and the drifts are deep. I thought the dogs had packed enough of the snow down for me to reach the clothes line on the fence. Well, I got there, but my boot sank down, with the snow coming up to my knee. But, I got a daylight picture!

This is the first 15 of 30 blocks in the Quilters Playcation Adventure Sew Along 2026 hosted by Cheryl Arkison. Thirty blocks in 30 days. Lots of improv piecing and a smidgen of precision piecing. Cheryl’s favorite block tend to be improv and feature one curve, or more!

Two more weeks to go to complete the project!

You can see other folks blocks on Instagram with the hashtag #qpas2026.

Improv Quilt Project hosted by Cheryl Arkison

I haven’t been doing any quilting for a while now, but this year Cheryl Arkison is hosting a 30 day 30 block Quilters Playcation Adventure Sew Along 2026 from mid January to mid February. So I jumped on board. Here are the first 10 blocks which make up the first 2 rows.

The star fabric and some of the yellows and greens were purchased as a set I curated myself years ago. Intermittently I’ve pulled out the set, didn’t know what to do with it, but still loved it. This year it had just the amount of yardage of the feature fabric I needed for this Sew Along. I always thought it would be a Christmas quilt. But as it is all stars, it’s perfect for sewing during Epiphany

Raw Edge Appliqué Snow People Quilt Blocks

I’ve been working on making raw edge appliqué quilt blocks of snow people over the past several weeks. I started off with just a plain, everyday hardworking snowman. My friends suggested a hat or scarf was needed. I couldn’t add anything to my first snow person because I’d already trimmed the block to the finished size 10.5 inches that I wanted. So Number 1 is staying basic.

Since then I’ve made 2 more. One with a hat and one with a scarf. Hopefully my friends will be happier now! Frankly, I like them all!

I cut the background block 11 inches square. Then I used a dog bowl to trace the circle for the head. (My compass wasn’t big enough to draw a circle large enough).

I used both Steam-a-Seam 2 and Lite Steam-a-Steam 2 to fuse the pieces onto the background. I found the regular product easier to work with. It was difficult to get the second sheet of paper off a circle when I used the Lite version.

I really like this fusible product. Both sides are sticky so it’s possible to put the piece of fabric down and it will stay in place. But it’s also still possible to pick it up and move it around. Once the piece has been ironed, it’s permanent. The only downside was that it does leave a bit of gummy stuff on the sewing machine’s needle. But that wipes off easily, so it’s something to look for, but I didn’t find it to be much of a problem.

Check my last post to read about how I did the machine appliqué stitching.

This project needs to be done in layers. Here’s a sequence of how I made the snow person with a scarf.

1. Three tips for sewing. Use your needle down option with the needle in the down position if your machine has that feature. That way the block can’t slip and slide away from you.

2. Use an open toe foot so you can actually see where you are stitching.

3. And finally, take your time. If you stitch slowly and adjust the fabric incrementally as you sew around the curves, you will get a great result!

I think I’m done making these blocks with just these three. But they were a fun little project!

Notice: This blog is not monetized: I do not use affiliate links. When there are links in a post, they are to give credit to another creative person, because I like or have used a product, or to help the reader easily find supplies for a project.

Raw Edge Appliqué Holiday Kitchen Towel Embellishment

I’ve been gifting kitchen towels to friends and family for years. I was sewing 2.5 x 2.5 inch squares together to make a strip attached along the lower part of the towel. I had pulled together fabrics to do something similar this year…but then I did some raw edge appliqué for another project. Why not do something new this year? So back I went to the bin of holiday fabrics to look for motifs to appliqué!

I picked up stack of towels at IKEA this past summer, so I already had those, and I did find a couple great fabrics in my stash.

I have a variety of double stick fusible web options in my cupboard, This time I pulled out Steam-a- Seam ® 2 made by the Warm Company. I discovered that I really like working with this product, especially because I can put my fabric down on the fusible and it stays put because the product is sticky. But you can pick your fabric up and move it around if you need to. That is so helpful, and makes cutting out the motif to fuse a breeze!

Once the final shape is cut out, the appliqué is fused to the fabric with a steam iron. The Warm Company states that it is fused permanently.

Then off to the sewing machine. I used my trusty old Bernina 440 to stitch around the edges of the fused appliqué. I chose the overcast stitch, leaving the stitch width the the same as the machine setting but decreasing the stitch length to 1.5 so that the stitches were closer together.

See what stitches your sewing machine has to see if there is something similar you can use.

This was a fun, quick project that I was able to complete in a half a day.

Notice: This blog is not monetized: I do not use affiliate links. When there are links in a post, they are to give credit to another creative person, because I like or have used a product, or to help the reader easily find supplies for a project.

Little Christmas Stockings

Over the past 25 years, a good friend made me two sets of three Christmas stockings for my dogs. The original ones where knit from yarn scraps and had stripes on the legs. Each dog had a name tag with a tiny Christmas rubber stamped image and their name written in calligraphy. The second set of Christmas stockings were for my most recent 3 dogs. The socks were middle sized and each had the dog’s name done with color work in the knitting. Sadly all three are now dogs of the heart, no longer on the hearth. (Though actually my house doesn’t have a hearth but you get the idea)!

My friend is in her late 80s now, and I don’t think she’s doing any knitting now. But I want to continue the tradition, so I’m making my current two dogs stockings of their own.

The pattern is on Ravelry. It’s called “Mini Christmas Stockings” by Julie Williams of Little Cotton Rabbits. She sells the pattern but the cost is very reasonable.

The stocking is knitted flat and then seamed up the back. The instructions are great, but each time I knit one (I’m on my third) I see details I missed before. But I think that just I don’t knit a lot. I can complete a stocking in an afternoon if I have some quiet time to concentrate on the designs.

These stockings are really sweet. I’m using yarns I have, so the weights don’t necessarily match exactly, but that seems to work out anyway, I love how they work up, so I’ll probably make a few more and then decide which ones I want to keep for my dogs.

"Lucy in the Sky" completed quilt

My Beatles themed Summer Challenge quilt got done in time to be entered in the contest at our guild’s second meeting.

I know the diamonds (the grey squares) were probably the blocks that should have been accentuated, but the yellow blocks are the stars that will shine best over time. So they are the blocks to which I added extra stitching. They are all a bit different. I like things a bit wonky!

On the back is a colorful dot pattern and somehow is reminiscent of musical notes, at least to me! Anyway, I liked the added color!

The binding is a black and white tiny strip. As yardage, it really boggles the eyes. But in a 1/4 wide binding, it’s great.

Check out my September 11, 2025 post for information about the quilt pattern.

Both dogs would have looked great posing with this quilt. but Zebedee was outside and willing!

Knitting Tiny Hedgehogs

My hand was really stiff and swollen after my the cast for my fracture was removed. But I had good function in my first and second fingers. They hadn’t been in the cast like my 4th and 5th fingers, but their mobility was definitely impinged by it!

One Saturday morning, walking home from the Farmers Market, I stopped in at Tight Knit, a new knitting store in the Square. There, on the front counter, were 2 small knit hedgehogs, made by a client. They were adorable! And small! I figured that my hands were probably up to knitting a tiny hedghog!

I asked the owner if she had a pattern and was told the pattern was “Hans the Hedgehog”, and could be found on Ravelry. Turns out the creator of the pattern is someone whose work I know well. Margaret Bloom is the author of two awesome books on about making peg dolls. Both of which I have in my crafting bookcase and have used extensively. Old friend, new medium!

Ravelry will redirect you to Margaret’s website, “We Bloom Here”, and the pattern I used to knit the Hans the Hedghog {Sic} is in a blog post from November 25, 2013. As I would expect, the pattern’s directions are excellent. It takes me a bit over an hour to knit the tiny hedghog (2.5 inches) plus a bit more time to embroider the eyes, nose and sew on the felt ears.

My occupational therapist was delighted when I told her I’d been able to knit and totally smitten when I showed her the picture of what I’d made. I didn’t think it was a big deal to be knitting because my thumb, first and second fingers were doing most of the work. But she told me it was great therapy for my affected 4th and 5th fingers as they are used for balance while knitting. Fascinating! I knit the larger green hedghog for her, just because she loved them so much.

Googling Hans and Margaret Bloom today, I discovered that Margaret has written a new pattern for a BIG Hans the Hedghog! He comes out at nine inches! He’s pretty cute too, but my favorite Hans is the little 2.5 inch fellow!

If you fall down the Google rabbit hole, looking for more about Hans the Hedgehog, you’ll discover that he is actually a Grimm Fairy tale. It’s a bit peculiar. But that may just be me…I’ve always found Grimm fairy tales to be, well, grim!

"Lucy in the Sky" Quilt Top

Our quilt guild’s Summer Challenge this year was to pick a title or a line from a Beatles song and use as the inspiration for a quilt, wall hanging or other quilty project. I initially was going to use the song “Fixing a Hole”, and planned to sew a house block, putting a Sachiko patch on the roof.

But leafing through catalogs, I found this pattern, “Sunnyside” by Busy Hands Quilts in a Connecting Threads catalog. The tune “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” instantly started going around my head! So that clinched that!

The cast has been off my broken hand for a few weeks, and finally I’ve had enough range of motion and strength to a bit of sewing each morning. The finished quilt is due this week. Not happening! But I’m delighted to have the top completed. Because our guild has one evening and one morning meeting a month, each with a slightly different cast of characters which warrants a second round in the competition, I hopefully can get it quilted and bound for judging at the next meeting in two weeks.

Accordion Photo Book

When my shy, big, black dog reached the end of her life in May, I knew I wanted to do something tangible to remember her. I’ve often sent pictures in to get photo books made, but Hazel was special, and I wanted to make something myself.

I finally decided on an accordion photo album. I cut two pieces of 8.5 x 11 black paper in half, the long way. Then I glued 3 of the strips together. Tacky Glue® caused the paper to wrinkle but Books by Hand® PVA glue worked beautifully.

i needed to fold the pages to fit the 4x6 inch pieces of chipboard I had for the covers. My hand is in a cast, so the folding isn’t perfect. but I’m ok with that.

I covered the chipboard with fancy wrapping paper, then glued the first and last folded pages to the two covers. Then I added some of my favorite pictures.

This book is really fun. when you reach the last page in the front of the book, the cover can be flipped and there is another sequence of photos on the other side. A little treasure book!

Slicing and Dicing Postcards for Little Accordian Books

I spent a couple days at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston this past week. I’ve loved postcards ever since I was a child growing up in Europe. We traveled a lot and visited lots of museums. The beauty of postcards is that they are inexpensive, taken in the best light conditions and provide instant gratification. This was especially great in the mid 20th century when photos were all taken with film, needed to go to the developer, and only then, days later did you know if you had captured what you had seen! And that was IF you were even allowed to take photographs.

I picked up 5 postcards at the MFA and decided to slice them up, using a technique I’d seen in some quilts. For the first two I simply cut the postcard in straight slices, the way the fabric for the quilts was cut.

The first two postcards I cut without marking the sections. Oops. I had to goggle the paintings to see how the pieces went back together!

This is “Rue Gauguet” by Nicholas de Staël. © MFA Boston.

After cutting two postcards in vertical sections, I decided it would be more fun, and more interesting, to cut the postcard into multiple sections.

This “Sun on the Lake” by Arthur Dove, at the MFA Boston.

And Winslow Homer’s “The Blue Boat”. ©MFA Boston.

A friend of mine once had a small letterhead print press in her home. The paper I used to mount the postcards was from a book of sample paper she gave to me years ago went they moved house. I need to trim off the faded edges but love being able to recycle it!

These simple little books are so much fun to make. I think I need to find some postcards!

Having Fun with Zines, Thanks to Lila!

So, my Labrador and I were having a lovely summer afternoon walk recently when we both spied a ball of sea foam green yarn in the middle of the street. My first thought was “Why?” Immediately followed with a thought about the potential for a large veterinary bill. I told Lila the yarn was not for her. But her adolescent retriever brain was way ahead of mine in assessing the situation and she instantly decided “I get it!” And she did, though in the process, she knocked me flat in the street, breaking one of the long bones in my left hand. I’m doing well, but there isn’t going to be any quilting for a least a month. So I’m on an unplanned holiday, which is actually rather nice!

I can’t to sew, but I can draw and paste, so I’ve been having fun making zines. If you don’t know, a typical zine is a little book created by folding and cutting a single sheet of 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. There are a variety of ways to fold and cut.

Here are 2 zines that I made this week.

The first is playing with colors and patterns.

The second one was made using a couple ladybug rubber stamps.The book is about one ladybug going on an adventure. So the apostrophe is in the right place! But when I found the stamp with the ladybugs walking in a row, I couldn’t resist adding it. Now it looks like there are multiple ladybugs frolicking, but it’s really just one!

The children at camp in June where I was the art director were fascinated by optical illusions. so rather than copy some, I decided to just draw and see what would happen. Bits work better than others. but I think it’s fun.

I’m having so much fun exploring another artistic medium.

Beach Glass or Beach Grass Quilt Top?

The pattern for this quilt top is Cheryl Arkison’s “Beach Grass” from her book, A Month of Sundays. This is my rendition. I was thinking more about the colors of beach glass. But also about the colors of water, beach grass, sand dunes and sky.

The center stripes can be straight or a bit wonky. I cut some a deliberately a bit wonky, but mostly I just trimmed the blocks to size, not thinking about it too much. That’s the great thing about many of Cheryl’s quilts…perfection is not required, or even desired! I think that’s one of the reasons I really enjoy making her projects.

I’ve got some great ocean floor fabric coming for the backing! Can’t wait to show you the completed quilt. But camp is next week, so it’ll be a while!

Diving Into My Scraps to make a Summery Quilt

I’ve done several year-long projects and the fabrics get collected in a bag, a box or a bin. When the quilt is completed, they just stay there! I went up to look at my stash this week and found several collections of scraps. There is almost no yardage. It’s strips and pieces. Good enough to use but difficult to put back in the general fabric stash.

Also this week, Cheryl Arkison posted on Instagram about one of her work in progress which had been in a box for years! The fabric collection was all there and she had some completed blocks, so she decided to work on it. The pattern she is using is “Beach Grass” from her second book, A Month of Sundays.

I own the book, so I pulled it out and looked at it. It’s a really simple block with some fun cutting options. And my collection of scraps looks like beach grass…or maybe more like beach glass! Either way, it looks like a fun summer project.

And here is a challenge to myself: yesterday I was watching Thomas W. Schiller on YouTube paint a watercolor picture of a view from Central Park in New York City. He was chatting to an audience in the room who was watching him work. I caught this gem in his monologue. This is a paraphrase of his comment—not an exact quote.

“Color is usually the question. Value is almost always the answer.”

Yes. As true in quilting as it is in painting watercolors! Can I pick fabrics with different values to make this a better quilt? Let’s find out!

My 2025 Recallers Challenge Dog Training Video

My dog, Zebedee, has been in Susan Garrett’s training program, Recallers, since he was 6 months old. Zeb is a great dog, but he’s inherited some of his sire’s quirkier behaviors. Neither dog likes car rides. On his first ride with some of his litter mates awhen they were 4 weeks old, Zeb was the puppy who was shrieking. Like many dogs, I think he is probably very sensitive to motion.

Suddenly, as an adolescent, Zeb just decided he wasn’t getting in the car anymore. Despite having been on lots adventures in the car prior to that point. It was a firm “No!” on his part. And weighing in around 85 pounds, there is no picking him up. And he isn’t amenable to being boosted in either. So, home walks it was. We have a park and conservation land nearby, so staying in the neighborhood hasn’t been a hardship. Fortunately he wasn’t due for a vet visit or vaccines for a while either.

So, time to help Zebdedee learn that a car ride can be “okay”. We’ve been working on this for about for just over a year. He’ll now get in the car most of the time which is progress. It’s still not something he loves.

Every year Recallers has a Video Contest about how the program’s training has helped your dog. Here is my 2025 entry. You can also view it here on YouTube where the stop/stop button isn’t in the middle of the screen!

Zebedee will never be the eager beaver, just can’t wait to get in the car, kind of dog. But it is important for him to get places sometimes, and for him to come along willingly. This is still a work in progress, but I am hoping he’ll get to the point where we can head out to adventures in the car.

A Weekend at our Guild's Quilt Show

A week ago, my quilt guild, The Proper Bostonian Quilters Guild, had its first big show since 2019. There were almost 90 quilts in the show. We were each allowed to enter 2 quilts. Here are mine. I chose them because I thought they would show well. The bright one is “Dreamlines Project” and the larger quilt is the 2024 “Quilters Playcation Adventure Sew Along: Rainbow Edition.” Folks found both of them interesting which was great. Click the links to see info about these projects from the designers.

Click on these links to read more about my making these quilts.

Dreamlines. Quilters Playcation: Rainbow Edition.

"Dreamlines Project"

"Quilters Playcation 2024: Rainbow Edition"

Here are three I really liked that made me smile. I laughed when my phone read the design on the pinwheel flowers quilt as a QR code!

"Flowers for Jeanne"

"Molly's Dragon"

"Garbage Soup"

I took the photographs of all the quilts in the show for our guild’s website, ProperBostonianQuilters.org. Here’s a link so you can see all of our great quilts. Enjoy this virtual show! PBQ 2025 Quilt Show. (If the quilts pictures don’t load immediately, click the circular arrow in the toolbar to refresh the page and they should all drop in).

Bird's Nest Block Quilt Top

I’ve always really liked this Bird’s Nest block. A very long time ago, before rotary cutters, I cut templates to make a quilt using this block. I made exactly…one block, about 12 inches! I was short on construction skills and cutting with templates just isn’t fun (nor especially accurate in my case)! I turned my one block into a cover for a throw pillow I still have it some place but I’m not sure where I tucked it away after the last time I laundered it!

So, older and wiser, I’m tackling the Bird’s Nest Block again. I now have the tools and know-how to easily make a quilt using a stack of these blocks, but I’m sticking with tradition and making a one block baby quilt!

Here is my top. It’s 42 inches square at the moment. I have more running bunny fabric, so I might add a border on the top and bottom of the quilt to make it a rectangle. Or not!

Bird’s Next One Block Quilt Top, 42 inches square

Those yellow triangles are big! They are going to need some imaginative quilting. An adventure for another week!