Advent Calendar Fold-Up Fabric Panels

This has to be one of my favorite fabric panel projects of the year. These two advent calendars were both simple fabric panels. When the lower half is folded along the lines marked on the fabric, the folds create numbered pockets.

The panel above is “Christmas Wonders” by stofffabrics.com. It is a Danish design. I love how the number on the calendar are all jumbled, just like the numbers on the European paper advent calendars.

Here is the other panel I used. “Winterland” by Antoana Oreski for Northcott Fabrics. If you click the link you can see the panel before it was folded. (I was so excited, I forget to snap a photo before I got to work)!

Fabric Panel Advent Calendar 21 1/4 x 22 1/4 inches

This calendar has the number on the pockets all in order!

I machine quilted between the pockets and hand quilted the scenes at the top of each calendar.

I’ve been thinking about what could be put in the Advent calendar pockets. The pockets are a good size (2 1/2 x 3 inches on the upper one and 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches on the bottom one). My favorite idea is a mishmash of things. An occasional piece of candy, a card listing an item to give to a food pantry, instructions for a Christmas craft or a letter or a drawing to send to a family member who isn’t part of your household. I also think it would be fun to add some pre-Christmas “chores” such as decorating the tree, baking Christmas cookies, tidying up the toy shelf and deciding which toys have been outgrown or no longer played with that might be donated, even cleaning the child’s bedroom!

Both these fabric panels are from prior years, but you can probably find them by searching their titles. And there are other panels available which are current.

This is such a fun project and it will become a family heirloom with endless possibilities for what can be tucked in each pocket, counting down the days until Christmas!

Quilt-In-A-Box Blocks Made for My Box

In my last post I told you about our Quilt Guild’s year-long Quilt-in-a-Box project. We were able to met in a member’s driveway and do a socially distanced box swap…the final one. Yes, we have our own boxes back now. This is SO exciting. Some folks have already put their tops together!

A friend, who wasn’t in my box rotation (nor I in hers), decided to do a couple more swaps between us. I made her my propeller block and two others, and she made me her house block which she made for all the boxes, and the schooner block. I had made I block that I wasn’t happy with before settling on my propeller block, so we both ended up with a total of 12 blocks.

We spent an afternoon laying out blocks on her picnic table, thinking about how we are going to assemble our blocks. I have so many log cabin blocks, that I think I am going to try to put this quilt together is some sort of log cabin variation. At least, that sounds good on paper.

I have some holiday sewing to finish up before I tackle this quilt, so it will be a while before I have a pieced top. But I’ll post it as soon as I have it done!

Quilt-in-a-Box Blocks I Made for The Guild Member Boxes

Last fall, our quilt guild, Proper Bostonian Quilters, started a Quilt-in-a-Box project. Each member was given a pink plastic project box and asked to place enough fabric in the box to make 9 blocks. Everyone participating chose one block to make all year. Each month the box was passed to the next name on a box and you made your block with the fabrics in that box. Then you passed it to the person on the list at the next month’s meeting. The goal was to have 9 blocks done by April so that the folks could make a quilt top by the last meeting in June. But then COVID-19 arrived, one block before the box round was completed. So the boxes stopped their rotation.

Finally, at the very end of September, we did a final swap for the final block outside in a member’s driveway.

The block I put in my box of fabric is called “Propeller” and it is the block show at the top of this post. Here are some of the other “Propeller” blocks I made using the fabrics chosen by other members for their own boxes. There is quite a diversity of fabrics in each person’s box.

I’ll show you the completed blocks in my box when I get them back. I can’t wait to see what folks did with my set of fabrics!

This is a really fun guild project, it just takes a bit of organization on the front end and the commitment of members to bring the box and their completed block to each meeting.

"Dream Big" Panel Color Study

Back in 2014 I started writing some color study posts. (Look above at the top of the page for a gallery of some of studies). The first post color study featured complimentary colors in a quilt I called “Crosses and Losses”. Here is a picture of the finished “Crosses and Losses” quilt. Since they I’ve done a number of color study quilts.

This is my latest color study a quilt It’s also another of this year’s panel play quilts. This panel is a digital print by Hoffman called “Dream Big-Fire”

I like the way that complimentary colors (those directly opposite each other on the color wheel) can create a visual vibration. The “Crosses and Losses” quilt really vibrates! Almost too much. Yellow and blue are complimentary colors. The complimentary color for orange is teal. So blue isn’t the true compliment of the colors in this flower….it’s off by one position on the color wheel. But it does create a visual vibration.. So I’m happy with my choice.

Here is the original panel.

I cut the panel horizontally in 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and almost 9 inch strips. I sewed the medium blue strips cut at 1 1/2 inches between each of the panel strips.

A quilt with just the horizontal strips would be a great place to stop. I really like it with just these blue strips.

But I carried on. I cut the panel again in strips using the same widths as above, only cutting this time across the new piece vertically. I had enough Kona© Cotton blues to create a gradient of blue strips, starting with white. These strips are slightly narrower, cut at 1 1/4 inches.

Here’s the back. The orange and blue theme continues! This Connecting Threads orange leaf fabric has been in my stash for years. I glad it’s finally found a perfect home!

Orange and blue! Another really bright quilt for 2020! It’s perfect for October! Maybe I should call it “Pumpkin Spice’! (Or maybe not)!!

(Note the run of gradient blues I put in on the binding)!

Gnomekin KIt from Teach Wonderment and Paper Mushroom Template from Low Poly Crafts

With the holidays coming in the not-too-distant-future, I want to tell you about the “Gnomekin” kit by teachwonderment.com

This kit comes in a basic form and the one I purchased and linked above. The complete kit has much of what you need to make one gnomekin figure. However you will need some additional supplies including non-toxic paint, tiny buttons from their bags, and needles and thread.

I purchased my kit and 2 extra gnomekin pegs from A Child’s Dream. The gnomekin with the orange coat was made using the original supplies from the kit. He got both a shoulder bag and the gathered bag. His hands are bigger than the tiny round wooden beads I had in my stash. I do like the bigger hands better! If you need additional supplies, A Child’s Dream carries non-toxic watercolor paint and beeswax polish, as well as wool felt, wood beads, pipe cleaners and wool roving in a variety of colors if you wish to make multiple gnomekins.

I added the buttons to the gnomekins coats and the red hat and dug into my stash for wool felt for the two extra gnomes. I embroidered the hats of two gnomekins. I didn’t use the heart shaped piece of wood in the kit that was supposed to be his feet and would add stability. None of my peg dolls have feet, so I just skipped that final step but it is a cute detail.

The instruction booklet is great. I found the coat and hat patterns to be a bit too big. I cut 1/8 inch off both those patterns. However, if a child is going to sew the clothes, leave the pattern pieces as is, unless he/she is able to stitch the narrow 1/8 inch seam indicated on the pattern.

The pattern calls for use of a glue gun but I used craft glue and that worked out well too. It just requires a bit more patience since it is slower to set up. However, craft glue allows for some adjustments which the hot glue does not. For that reason and for safety. I always use craft glue for my peg dolls.

The paper mushroom is a free download from lowpolycrafts.com. I didn’t have any red card stock paper that was heavy enough, so I used white card stock and colored my mushroom with colored pencils. An older school child who likes origami or is good with their hands could easily construct this paper mushroom. All you need is card stock, craft glue, and a small pair of sharp scissors, and maybe a tool to score the fold lines.

So, two great kits you can make now to get ready the Winter Holidays!

Safety Note: No not give the gnomekins to a child under age three years. They have small pieces which are choking hazards.

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.

© Disney and Thomas Kinkade Studios Quilt Panel Throw (or Cat Mat!) Completed

So here’s my completed ©Disney and Thomas Kinkade Studio Mickey and Minnie Sweetheart Campfire Panel by David Textiles.

This is very simple treatment for a quilt panel. I just added two borders and put tiny quilt blocks in each corner of the outer border.

I really do expect this will end up being a cat mat I chose a thick polyester batting and Cuddle Fleece on the back. That made this a bit hard to quilt. I ended up following some of the design in the panel rather than trying to do an all-over quilt design. It’s really more tacked together than actually quilted. That’s not something I would normally do, but with the polyester batting and Cuddle Fleece back, I think that will be fine.

Here’s a close up of the “Kitty Cornered” block also known as a corner beam block. (I didn’t pick the block for it’s name, but it certainly is the perfect choice for a cat mat)!

“Kitty Cornered” Quilt Block, also called a corner beam block

I made this block using the Creative Grids® “Kitty Cornered” ruler. It makes two corners at one time. There is a great video showing how to use the tool at this link and the presenter shares a number of quilt patterns that utilize this block.

I think a couple of my friend’s cats will be very happy napping on the Cuddle Fleece side of this panel come winter. There’s plenty of room for both of them to stretch out together. Though I’m not sure these two do that!

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.

© Disney and Thomas Kinkade Studios Quilt Panel Collaboration

I’ve been on a bit of a detour detour on the blog, but this was definitely my summer of using quilt panels!

This digitally printed panel is the ©Disney. “Mickey and Minnie Sweetheart Campfire” painted by the Thomas Kinkade Studios for Four Seasons Division of David Textiles Inc.

I have a friend who is huge Thomas Kinkade fan and I just couldn’t resist making something for her with this amusing panel!

Its a big panel—35 x 43 inches. I think all it is going to need is a couple borders and a binding. I thinking lavender and a couple orange fabrics This little quilt or wall hanging (or cat mat!) should should absolutely be a bit silly!

Making the top should be straightforward. Right now, I’m still thinking about how I am going to quilt it. That’s going to be the challenge on this piece!

"Post-Cuts" Face Mask Scrap Quilt Completed

It’s all done! Here is the quilt I made with scraps from the face mask I made this past spring.

I mostly sew rectangular pleated masks so I was left with lots of scraps that were 6 inch wide and of various lengths. The scraps were too big to toss, but were destined to languish in a bin if I didn’t do something with them ASAP. Hence this quilt! You can read more about my process in this May 21, 2020 post and the post that follows.

This is a really big queen quilt. When I finished piecing this quilt, I was still knee deep in making face masks and honestly couldn’t see quilting something this large on a domestic machine. So I sent it off to the good folks at Bits ‘n Pieces Quilt Shop in Pelham, NH. I’ve rented their computerized long arm quilting machines in the past. They weren’t renting machines when the quilt was completed, but were able to start renting again a week or two later. But this time, I was happy to let them quilt this for me.

I asked them to use a kite quilting pattern. I wanted this quilt to be a happy quilt, and to rise up and spin and twirl above it’s humble, and if I’m honest, it’s sad origins.

My only specification was for the quilting design to have “more kites than clouds” but gave the staff permission to choose the design and the thread colors.

They told me that they looked around and found this awesome kite design. They used a light green thread on the top of the quilt and a beige on the back. The kites turn in all directions so there isn’t really and up and down with the design.

Bits ‘n Pieces did a great job with the quilting. The quilt came home to be trimmed and bound a few weeks ago…just before Fall arrived in New England. Perfect timing.

I’m so pleased with how this scrappy quilt turned out! It’s really a record of my pre-COVID 19 fabric stash and it makes me happy to see all the fabrics I’d collected over the years.

Jointed 9 inch Waldorf Doll

Having made the jointed Dragon Baby, I decided to try making a jointed Waldorf type doll. I used the pattern for “Minnie” in Karin Neuschütz’s great book, “Sewing Dolls.”

I used internal plastic safety joints for the Dragon baby. This pattern called for leather or fabric “buttons”. The “buttons” are used on the outside of the joint to help fix the heavy duty thread that joins the joints to the doll’s body. I had some very thick wool felt that was almost the same color as the doll’s skin so that what I used.

Here’s the wool felt “button” I used for the shoulder joints

The doll in the book looks like a toddler. My doll is much leaner, definitely a school age child.

And I tried another “first” with this doll. I “pinched” the her knees and elbows to give a more defined looking joint.

Yay!! Look at me! I can put my arms up!

i’m glad I tried out this pattern. It didn’t turn out to look like the doll in the book, but that’s just fine. I like this doll just as much.

"Kaleidoscope" Three Yard Pattern by Fabric Café®

Last week I shared a quilt I entered into Bits ‘n PIeces Quilt Shop’s Three Yard Customer Quilt Challenge. Here is my 2nd entry. (Head over to Bits ‘n PIeces Facebook page to see all the quilts in the competition, and vote on your favorite).

This bright cheerful fabric line called “Sunny Fields” was just released by Clothworks. It was designed by Sue Zipkin. It was one of those fabrics…when I saw all those sunflowers on one of Bits ‘n Pieces Facebook unboxing videos I went right to the computer and purchased it!

The pattern is a three yard pattern by Fabric Café® called. “Kaleidoscope”. This is really a classic quilt pattern.

But there was a challenge with this fabric. The butterflies flutter in many directions but the flowers all are directional, standing tall on the fabric. But this is diagonal pattern. What to do? Try to get the flowers upright or just let them be jumbled?

I thought about it while I was walking the dogs. It came to me that there was a way to get the flowers all going in the same direction.

One way that half square triangles are constructed is by placing two squares of fabric, right sides together. Then a line is drawn on the lighter fabric from one corner to the opposite corner, diagonally. A seam is stitched 1/4 inch on each side of the center line. Then the block is cut along the center line, yielding two half square triangle blocks.

Here’s what I did. With the flowers standing upright in each square, I drew the center diagonal line from the lower left corner to the upper right corner on 1/4 quarter of the square blocks, and then from lower right corner to upper left corner on another 1/4 of the squares.

THEN I flipped the remaining half of the blocks upside down so that the flower stems were at the top of each block. Then I drew my center lines the same way as above.

And it worked. All the flowers were facing upright. I sorted the blocks into the four groups and that made assembling the quilt easy. Each block was either dark upper quadrant left, dark upper quadrant right, dark lower quadrant left or dark lower quadrant right.

However, I did make an error sewing my strips together. Instead of sewing block to block across the strip, I sewed them in pairs. I accidentally flipped one of the pairs upside down in one row. The pattern was correct, but in those two blocks, the flowers are upside down. Oops!!

The quilt was fully assembled and I was sandwiching the layers of the quilt when I saw what had happened. I thought about taking it all apart, but then decided that since with this busy floral fabric, it just wasn’t that noticeable. And left as is, it’s a teachable moment. See if you can find the upside flowers! (I’m not telling)!!

If I were making this quilt again, I would probably tone it down! (It is busy, busy, busy!! But fun)! There is a lovely light green fabric with dark green dots in the “Sunny Fields” line. I would use that with one of the sunflower fabrics in the half square triangles and use the butterflies as the border.

But I do like this quilt as is. It’s the quilt you’ll want to grab if you need to stay AWAKE! Not the one you should choose for a nap!

Here’s the back.

Back of the quilt.

"Tula's True Colors" 3 yard Fabric Café® "Attraction" Quilt is Complete

The aqua fabric in “Tula’s True Colors” by Free Spirit has a design that looks like a mineral that has been in cross section. In fact this fabric design is called “Mineral”. So I took my quilt over the local conservation land to take a photo of it on some big rocks left behind at some point by a glacier.

This pattern is “Attraction”, one of Fabric Café’s® three yard patterns. All of the fabrics on the front of the quilt, except the binding, are from Tula Pink’s “Tula’s True Colors” printed by Free Spirit.

Here is the back. I found it in my stash after I decided that the fabric which I had ordered just wasn’t right for this quilt. Go figure! The backing fabric is called “Nature Walk”, designed by Tamara Kate for Michael Miller Fabrics. It has rabbits, squirrels, butterflies and mushrooms in a diamond grid. It makes a perfect back for this quilt. (This is an old fabric line, mostly out of stock, but you might find a bit our there if you search).

The quilting was all done on my domestic machine with a walking foot. It is such a linear quilt pattern that I just followed its lead and did straight line quilting, just beside the ditch.

I’ve entered this quilt in Bits ‘n Pieces Quilt Shop’s Customer 3 Yard Quilt Challenge. All the quilt will go up on their FaceBook page after September 12th. You’ll be able to see all the entries and vote on your favorites. Go check it out this weekend—it’ll be fun!

Peg Butterflies

I was wondering what to do with the little wood peg bunting baby or bee pegs which I purchased from A Child's Dream a while back. Bees were the obvious choice but because I planned to make a mobile, I wanted something else. Butterflies!! That’s the perfect solution.

First I painted by body of each butterfly with a different color. The heads are all painted grey. After the paint dried, the wooden peg is sealed with bees wax polish.

The butterfly wings are cut out of wool felt to match (or coordinate with) the body of each butterfly.

Here are the two pattern pieces to make the top and bottom butterfly wings. Print the pattern at 100% and check the box on your printed pattern to make sure the 1 inch box measures 1 inch.

This is what the pattern looks like. If you don’t have a printer, you can draw your own wings based on this picture.

To assemble the butterflies, cut a piece of perle cotton thread (or heavy thread) about 18 inches long. Tie a knot in the thread 3 inches from one end. You will need these 3 inches later to tie the thread around the neck of your butterfly.

Match up the two pattern pieces so that the bottom wings are UNDER the top wings, aligning the flat edge with the upper notch of the top butter fly wings.

Using your thread, sew the two sets of wings together, starting at the upper notch on the top set of butterfly wings. You can use a simple straight stitch or any embroidery stitch you want to use. I did both straight stitches and French knots.

When you have sewn the wings together, run your needle through the bottom layer to felt and bring the needle back up to the top layer, next to your first stitch.

Tie the thread, around the butterfly’s neck, using the loose 3 inches of thread. Make sure you have a tight knot. The take the long thread, still threaded on the needle, back under the butterfly wings and come up in the middle of the top set of wings. You will use this thread to hang up your butterfly. Tie a knot in the far end of the thread you will use to hang up your butterfly. That will keep it from unraveling.

Trim off the excess piece of thread under the butterfly’s neck.

Well done! Have fun with your new butterflies!

In the garden with the marigolds

SAFETY NOTE: No NOT give these peg doll butterflies to a child under age 3 years. They are a choking hazard.

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.

Using "Tula's True Colors" in Fabric Café's® Pattern "Attraction"

Last week I showed you a quilt using all the fabric’s in Tula Pink’s new line “Tula’s True Colors” by Free Spirit. For this quilt pattern, “Attraction” from Fabric Café, I chose 1 yard of 3 different fabrics in Tula’s line. (All of Fabric Cafe’s quilt patterns use just 3 one yard cuts).

I picked a blue, an aqua and a yellow green. These are analogous colors on the color wheel—they are positioned right next to each other. It’s a guarantee that the colors will all play well together!

This is a great pattern and it sews up super fast. I found I had a free hour one morning and that was all I needed to cut out the fabric. Then it just took an afternoon to put it together.

I like how the small squares seem to dance across the design.

i think it would look just as great using the hot colors in “Tula’s True Colors”. And I’d love to see this quilt with 2 analogous colors on the color wheel, and one complimentary color from the opposite side of the color wheel. I think that would make a spectacular quilt!

"Tula's True Colors" 5 Inch Charm Square Simple Quilt Top

Tula Pink’s new line by Free Spirit, “Tula’s True Colors” was recently released. When Bits ‘n Pieces, a favorite quilt shop in Pelham, NH, showed the fabrics at one in one of their regular unboxing videos, I ordered 2 packs of 5 inch charm squares. (Charm Packs: A stack of 5 inch, or sometimes 10 inch, squares of every color in a fabric line).

I was up for an simple experiment. I decided to see what happened if I put one stack of charm squares right side up and the other upside down and just sew them together as I picked the fabrics up from each stack. I did add a 5 inch square of a very pale Kona® cotton after 5 blocks of the charm pack. The diagonal lines look white, but they really are pink.

The stacks met in the greens! I did swap around a few blocks so that I didn’t get identical squares next to each other. I had fun sewing up this simple quilt, but when I got done and looked at it, my reaction was—-Hum.

Here’s the quilt right after the sewed all the squares together.

It just wasn’t cohesive. I was hoping the plain diagonals would give the random blocks some definition, but the light color didn’t do that. Considering how bright most of Tula’s fabrics are, i’m not sure what color would have worked better.

So I thought about it for a week. The “Fairy Dust” design in this line has tiny circles, concentric circles and stars. (If you look back at last week’s post, The Sleepy Dragon Baby© is lying on this fabric in the top photo). I decided to pick up one of those elements and using that to create some appliques. So I added 7 circles of varying sizes from fabric I had left over from another quilt I’d just made using “Tula’s True Colors.”

This project reminded why I usually don’t enjoy using every color in a fabric line. But the circles definitely make the quilt more interesting.

I think quilting this piece has to potential to add more interest to this quilt.

Next week I’ll show you a quilt I made from this fabric line where I made very deliberate decisions about my choice of fabrics.

Stuffed Dragon: Made Using NimblePhish Creations "Sleepy Dragon Baby©" Pattern

I follow a Facebook Group called Waldorf Adoption whose members sell previously owned Waldorf dolls and occasionally other handmade stuffies.

A couple weeks ago a NimblePhish Sleepy Dragon Baby© appeared. I’d never heard of NimblePhish Creations so I started searching. It didn’t take too long for the pattern to pop up. The Sleepy Baby Dragon© PDF pattern is for sale on Etsy in the NimbleFish shop. It was published October, 2012, so it’s been available for quite a while.

The pattern looked like fun. First of all, this is a really cute baby dragon. And I don’t believe I’ve ever made a jointed doll or stuffed animal. So here was an opportunity to learn a new skill! Into the cart went the dragon pattern!

The pattern suggested velour lined back with fusible fleece or just plain fleece. I had cotton velour in my stash so that’s what I used.

In hind sight, cotton velour probably wasn’t the best option for a stuffed animal with small limbs which needed to be turned inside out after sewing. The cotton velour really took a beating on the arms. If this had been another animal, I would have been upset, but the friction created a scale-like effect which is perfect for a dragon! So, no trauma, but any future dragon will be made of fleece or another polyester napped fabric.

Scale-like damage to the cotton velour from turning the dragon’s arm right side out.

Other than that, this project went swimmingly. The instructions and photos in the pattern were great. And it showed how to assemble the dragon using the plastic locking joints which turned out to be really easy. I did change a few things when I made this dragon.

• I enlarged his diaper a bit so that comes up higher on his tummy

• In keeping with Waldorf toys, he is stuffed with wool rather than polybeads and polyfill

• His torso weighted with about 1 cup of glass beads which are secured in a small sack I sewed

• This dragon is awake, and not a bit sleepy!

It is really fun to have a stuffed animal which can be posed in lots of different positions!

He is such a character! Here he is, holding his tail and sucking his thumb while his binky is in a safe place on his horn bud! Silly boy!

Dragon Contentment!

He may be my first, but I’m pretty sure he won’t be my last dragon! This pattern is definitely worth purchasing if you are interested in making your own Sleepy Dragon Baby©!

FYI: he is posing in the top pictures on the new Tula Pink’s TRUE COLORS© Fairy Dust-Whisper by Free Spirit. It's the perfect backdrop for a baby dragon!

In the last photo he is on a fabric I designed which is available in my Spoonflower shop. You may access that using the link, or at anytime from the Shop top at the top of the page.

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.

"Virtual Beach 2020" Quilt

Just what this summer with COVID-19 needs: a “Virtual Beach 2020” quilt! It’s almost as nice as the real thing. Though sadly, not clam shack or ice-cream shop in sight!

I love how this summer quilt came out. I cut out the motifs from the “Surf’s Up” panel, designed by Julie Dobson Miner for Northcott. I didn’t use all the blocks in the panel…just my favorite 12.

I framed four of the panel blocks with a hand-dyed red fabric from my stash and the other blocks with one of the Kona® Cotton reds. The tiny blue scallop print is from Clothworks line “By The Seashore”. The scallop shells are tiny, just 3/4 inches wide.

The fabric with the wheeling gulls a the summer sky on the back of the quilt is from the Northcott line “Swept Away”. It was designed by Deborah Edwards and Melanie Samra. It’s the perfect back for a beach quilt.

This little quilt is just the right size to throw over that back of a chair or use as a wall hanging.

In this summer of mostly-sheltering-in-place, it just makes me happy!

"Virtual Beach 2020"

I think it’s official. This is going to be my summer of the quilt panel! I usually don’t like panels, but this year I seem to have purchased quite a few of them.

This is the panel from “Surf’s Up” designed by Julie Dobson Miner for Northcott. I bought it as a package with 4 fat quarters from the same line.

I thought for a long time about how to make a quilt using the 4 fat quarters but I just couldn’t figure out how to use them. So one of the light fat quarters turned into a shirt for a young friend’s boy doll. It was really cute, with a sand castle on the front of the shirt. I wish I had a photo of it but the doll shirt has already gone off as a part of a birthday present.

The other fat quarters in the set will probably become face masks.

The plan is to cut up the panel. The little blocks will make a sweet little summer quilt.

"Radiance" Flowers in Glass Bottles--More Table Runners/Wall Hangings/Table Toppers

I’ve now cut up all the floral arrangements from the panel in the “Radiance” fabric line by Clothworks.

Last week I shared a table runner with an outer border of one inch “postage stamp” blocks. This week I’ve made a several more pieces with simpler borders. I think the simpler borders also do a great job of complimenting the flowers.

In the piece above, I used 1 1/2 inch wide purple strips for the inner border and 2 “ wide strips for the outer leafy border.
I like the back of the piece as much as the front! Dual duty!

Reverse side of the yellow floral arrangements

In the piece below, I cut two sets of pink and purple strips at 1 1/4 inches.

Two sets of narrow pink and purple strips make the border of this part of the panel. 14 1/2 x 16 inches

This is the table topper that’s on my dining room table now. It’s a simpler version of the table runner in last week’s post.

A single border of 1 inch postage stamp blocks. 16 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches

It was so much fun think about lots of difference ways I could finish the blocks I cut out a single “Radiance” panel!

"Radiance" Flowers in Glass Bottles Table Runner

The panel from the panel from the “Radiance” fabric line by Sue Zipkin, printed by Clothworks.com, can be cut up into multiple smaller sections. This table runner is the largest grouping of bottles from the bottom third of the panel.

Here’s a picture of the full panel, taken from the Clothwork’s link above.

I added a green strip inner border which I cut at 1 inch wide and the middle yellow border which I cut at 1 1/2 half inches wide.

The checkerboard border is composed of “postage stamp” blocks which finish at 1 inch square. This is a great way to use up a collection of tiny 1 1/2 inch square cut from scraps.

My border was mostly cut from scraps and a bit of yardage. Rather than cutting tiny patches, I cut three 1 1/2 inch wide strips which I sewed together. I then cut the strips into 1 1/2 inch wide blocks which I sewed end-to-end. It was a lot quicker than sewing tiny individual squares.

The beauty of those tiny 1 inch border blocks, is that it was very easy to fit the border to the panel. All I had to do was to cut the pieces so that when the the panel section and the two plain borders were sewn together, they finished at an even full inch. Then it was guaranteed to match up with my border of 1 inch squares.

Here are some strips prior to sewing them together.

The backing of the table runner has one of the large purple print from the “Radiance” line. (See my previous post).

I quilted the borders by machine with the walking foot then did big stitch quilting by and around each of the bottle flower arrangements. I used #8 perle cotton to do the big stitch quilting. It slightly raises each of the bottles above the flat surface of the table runner.

It’s possible to make up to 5 wall hangings or table runners from each “Radiance” panel. That’s pretty amazing!

Flowers in Glass Bottles: "Radiance" by Clothworks

It’s unusual for me to blog about a fabric line which is new. Typically my fabric cools in my stash for a long time before I get around to making anything. Or I’m buying last year’s fabric lines from a discount fabric store. But I was immediately taken when I saw this panel. It is part of the fabric line “Radiance” designed by Sue Zipkin and printed by Clothworks.com. I had a “How to Have Flowers on the Table” all year round moment!

There’s a back story here., which should illuminate my immediate affinity to this panel. Back in the day, B.D. (before dogs) , I had an exuberant little flower bed on the side of my house. There was a slate path that meandered though it. There were mostly perennials in that bed, but I also had annuals growing other places in my yard. Every week in the summer, I would pick a bouquet and put it in a recycled single serve apple juice bottle. I just loved the simplicity of the flowers in the simple clear bottle. Here’s a photo of one of my arrangements.

Flowers from my garden in a recycled glass apple juice bottle.

Now you know why I love this fabric!

The other slightly shocking bit is that this fabric line has a lot of purple in it. Purple is definitely not my thing! But it makes sense in this fabric line. Other than the panel, the other fabric in this line that I really love is the leaf design with a faintly blue background. Here are the four fabrics in the line which I purchased for my project(s). The large print floral fabrics will be backings.

4 fabrics from the “Radiance” line by Clothworks.com

I plan to cut up the 36 x 42 inch panel into smaller sections. I’m thinking about making a table runner with a scrappy border. My already scant purple fabric bin is really looking almost empty due to using what purple fabric I did have for face masks. (I may not be fond of purple but lots of other folks are)! But a generous quilting friend brought over her purple bin and shared some of her great fabric collection with me. Sweet!

We’ll see what happens! But one thing for sure, I’ll soon be able to enjoy July flowers in February!