"Summer Nights" Firefly Quilt Design

This is the quilt fabric I am so excited to show you. The two feature firefly fabrics are from the “Let Your Light Shine” line from Blank Quilting Corporation. Fireflies! They remind me so much of summer nights.

I wanted to make an easy quilt so I designed this Four Patch variation. There is a little light shining in The corner of one of the firefly-in-the-bushes blocks.

The 4 patch blocks are cut 5 1/2 inches square. The variation block has an inset cut at 1 1/2 inch square with a 4 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch strip. These two patches are sewn together and then f set into a block which is cut 4 1/2 inches x 5 1/2 inches. It’s that simple!

Here is the quilt design I created in Electric Quilt 8.

“Summer Nights” Firefly Quilt Design

In my next post I’ll show you the finished quilt.

"Regatta" Mystery Quilt Project by Merry Mayhem

Our quilt guild purchased a license for Mary Mayhem’s “Regatta” Mystery quilt. So while we aren’t having meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, members of our group are stitching up this mystery quilt at home. (You can also purchase a digital copy for your own personal use).

It calls for light blue and bright 5 inch squares of fabric. I sometimes cut 5 inch squares from scraps of fabric after a project and save them in a bin with with other pre-cuts. So some of my 5 inch squares are from this stash and others are commerical pre-cuts which I had in my stash. I had to purchase the light blues because my bin of stashed blue fabrics has been pretty much depleted.

“Shoreline Stories” by Hoffman

With a quilt named “Regatta”, I decided it was very likely that the finished quilt will look like a harbor on race day! So when I saw this digitally printed fabric, “Sea-Breeze”, Part of the Shoreline Stories fabric line by Hoffman I just went ahead and ordered the fabric. This print of a watercolor is much more stunning in real-life. I will need to piece the back, but I expect to have left over light blue fabric so that won’t be a problem. (Unlike many of the stashed fabrics I use, this line of fabric is new and is currently available in shops).

This is the first time I’ve ever made a mystery quilt which has been made before. It’s not a brand new pattern. Typically I’ve signed up to make mysteries which truly are a mystery. You can’t cheat and google anything, so you really don’t know what you are making until the final steps. It turns out one of my guild friends has made this quilt once before. Without asking her to give the completed quilt design away, she did confirm that the finished quilt has what do look like sailboats.

So far so good! This is going to be fun! I hope I like the riot of colors I’ve assembled!

Because this is a licensed mystery quilt, I’m not going to post the steps as I sew them. So the next time you’ll see it, it will be the completed quilt. Since the steps are being distributed once a month, that will probably be sometime late spring or early summer.

In the meantime, I have another quilt project that I can’t wait to show you!

"Breezy Day" Star & Half-Square Triangle Quilt

Here it is—my “Breezy Day” lap quilt. The name was inspired by the fabric in the quilt, rather than the quilt’s design. IF I’d gone with the quilt design, it might have been “Stars on the Stairs”. At least, that what it looks like to me!

There is straight line quilting along the long white diagonals—just under the “stairs” as it were! The quilting starts at 1/2 inch between the lines of stitching, decreases to 1/4 inch and then 1/8 inch “match stick” over 6 rows of stitching. It will create great texture to the quilt once it has been washed.

I had a hard time deciding what to do with the large half square triangle blocks. The diagonal stitches run through the light side of the half square triangle block, but there was still a large section of the block without any quilting. The floral fabric design is so organic, that I didn’t want all the quilting be be straight line.

If finally decided to go with a free-motion quilted large spiral in the dark green block and echo that with a 1 inch spiral in the light half of the block. I love it!

Spiral Free-motion quilting and match stick straight line quilting

I did a stitch-in-the-ditch with my walking foot around each of the stars. I started in one corner of the central square, stitched around the square and then around the star points. This made it possible to quilt the entire star without stopping until it was completed quilted. This works on a small quilt with my domestic sewing machine but would be a struggle with a large quilt. On a large quilt, it would be better done free-motion or on a long-arm machine.

The fabric on the back of the quilt is an irregular linear grid design which I think is a perfect complement to the organic floral design fabric on the front of the quilt.

So that’s it—a lap quilt from design to completion.

Bringing a New Quilt Design to Life

If I were a teacher, and if my post last week was multiple choice test, my students would on a rant today! That post is about a quilt pattern I was designing. I showed 4 variations, and thought the 4th design was the one I was I’d chosen to make. Turns out the final design was not a, b, c, or d, but e—”none of the above”. Uh-oh!! That wasn’t even listed as an option last week—but it has to always be a possibility in the creative process.

When I started sewing the star blocks, I realized that the flowers were facing north, south, east and west. I put my blocks up on my design wall and tried several variations, taking snap shots of each.

After looking at my snap shots, I decided have the flowers in the large half square triangle blocks, face north and south. So now the design doesn’t have a designated top and bottom—it looks the same from both ends of the quilt. This might not work with a fabric design that was bolder, but I think it’s just fine with the dainty little flowers.

I still have borders to add the to quilt top. I was racing to finish sewing the main blocks in the top so I could get a photograph for this post before a snow storm arrived. So you’re seeing what I’ve sewn so far. (And yes, the snow and dusk both arrived just an hour after I took the picture).

Coming Up With A Quilt Design using Electric Quilt 8

I thought I’d show you my work process in designing a quilt pattern in the program Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8).

I have a feature fabric in greens and teals with a fairly large design. Two of the three fabrics for this quilt are directional (blossom at the top, stems at the bottom). So both the size of the print and the direction of the design need to be considered in the quilt’s design.

Left and middle fabrics are directional, the right hand one is not.

I started out thinking I wanted to make a quilt with 9 patches. But hunting through the block library on EQ8 my eye was drawn to the eight pointed star above. It’s called EQ Default Variable Star. That large central square would really be able to feature the large teal, yellow-green, lavender and orange fabric. So I put that block on my design table.

I still wanted to have some a block that would travel linearly through the pattern. So I chose the simple large half square triangle as my second block.

Well, okay. That works. But I still wanted to see if I could design a quilt with a chaining block. So below is trial number number 2.

Quilt Design #2

I kept the 8 pointed star and added the LeMoyne Single Irish Chain. The chaining is interrupted by a larger central square which I thought be be great for my large feature fabric. I like the idea, and the way the chains bring the eye to the star block. But as I sat and looked at the design, I realized it has an irritating flaw. Can you see what it is?

The squares in the center of the star block and the center of the LeMoyne block are different sizes. It just looks wrong. I thought about redesigning one of the blocks, but wasn’t in the mood to fiddle around with it.

So on to design number 3.

Quilt Design #3

I switched out the LeMoyne Single Irish Chain block for a Double Four Patch Block. That creates a chain that flows in one direction across that quilt. This definitely works.

But I was out of time for the day, so I saved my designs in the program’s Project Sketchbook and called it a day.

My folks had a policy of always looking at a piece of artwork on two different days to be sure they really liked it before they bought it. Something that looks good on an initial impression may not be as great looking at it again. I have no idea how many times they walked away and left something on second look. It would have be fun to know.

I tell you this story because my decision about which design to choose was different when I came back to my work table on another day. Number 2 was still out of the running due to the different size squares in the design. When I finished up the first day, Number 3 was my favorite. It’s a good design and I’m keeping it for another time.

But I ended up choosing design Number 1. Of the 3 designs, it is really going to showcase my large feature fabric. However, I needed to change the layout of the half square triangle blocks in order to keep the flowers on the white fabric upright. I didn’t have enough fabric to have all the half square triangles in the same orientation. But one of the awesome things about EQ8 is that you can rotate the blocks anyway you want. So after a few trials, here’s what I think the quilt will look like.

I think it is going be fun to do some diagonal quilting across the entire quilt.

So there you have it! Quilt Design #1 Variation B is going to the cutting table!

Knitting a "Look Out! Winter Hat"

Every once in a while you have a moment of pure serendipity. A few weeks ago I decided I wanted a new winter hat. I dug around in my small yarn stash and found I had a full skein of worsted weight wool yarn. Then I went to see which size needles I had that matched in a circular 16 inch and straight needles. I found a set of US size 7. (Though later I found a set of US 6 needles too).

Then I went to Ravelry.com to see if I could find a pattern I liked using US size 7 needles and worsted weight yarn.

After a bit of perusing, I came upon this “Look Out! Winter Hat” designed by Roberta Rich, from just this past year 2020. I liked that it covers the ears—the ear sections actually curve around and hug your ears! And I loved her introduction that states this hat is great for “kids on the playground to adults who wear hardhats”! This hat is awesome!

The hat’s border is knit a flat piece first and then you pick up stitches to knit the crown. The crown can be worked in the round or flat and sewn together at the end. So it’s a really versatile pattern.

The hats pictured on the pattern were either striped or a solid color. I had some yarn odds and ends so just did an improvisation design on the crown, without making myself a stitch pattern.

The pattern itself is great. I was initially baffled by the wrong side row instructions which tell you to slip the last 3 stitches in the row. I did that and found I had a loose chain forming. I knew that couldn’t be right. So I tried again and discovered the it works perfectly if you slip two stitches as if to purl and actually purl the the last stitch. It’s those slipped stitches which create the beautiful edging on the hat.

I don’t like have the loops of my face masks around my ears, so have sewn big buttons on my hats and slip the mask loops around the buttons. It works very nicely.

I sewed the buttons on with a square of fleece on the back to keep the knitting from getting pulled out of shape. I need to move the buttons up and back a bit now—as I’ve worn the hat, it has settled down on my head more. But that’s an easy fix.

The pattern on Raverly for this hat is free, but Roberta suggests that you knit a few of these hats for a local elementary school. This is a great idea. And it’s perfect for me. I volunteer at Rose’s Bounty Food Pantry and we have a food program for children at a school in one of the other neighborhoods in Boston. We provide food once a week, but we also knit them hats and mittens and we’ve sponsored a new coat drive for the past two years for the children’s in our food pantry program. I only have worsted wool yarn in my stash and as a kid I wouldn’t have worn a wool hat. So I’ve some acrylic yarn which should be here soon.

Hat from the front

If you are looking for a hat pattern that will keep your ears warm, give this pattern a try! I think it is great!

Quilt-in-a-Box Completed Quilt Top

Back in November I told you about our guild’s 2019-2020 Quilt-in-a-Box project. Here, finally, is the quilt top with all the blocks that quilt members made with the fabrics in my box.

I pulled the yellow leaf print from my stash. It had been there for years—clearly just waiting for this project. The yellow really is cheerful and somehow ties it together perfectly.

I have some solid bright yellow fabric which I might use for the backing. But I’m still thinking about that.

I’m so pleased with how this quilt turned out!

Our guild still isn’t meeting due to the pandemic, but were are starting a mystery quilt. Stay tuned. I think there I might be seeing some sails on the horizon!

Gnome Improv Quilt

Last finish for 2020! This is my gnome improvisational quilt.

I was given one yard of the gnome fabric by a friend earlier this year. I purchased the white on white snowflake fabric, the hot pink star fabric,the binding and the backing, but I think everything else came out of my stash.

I fussy cut out as many gnomes as I could, and then started sewing on scraps and other pieces of fabric which I cut to fit. Sometimes I sew slabs—12 x 12 inch improv blocks to make a improv quilt. I started to do that with this one, bur realized it was going to be a full size quilt…and that wasn’t what I wanted. So instead I took the blocks I’d started and turned them into sections which I sewed into strips in a variety of widths. The quilt turned out to be exactly the size of a crib batting. I hadn’t planned it out, but that was just perfect!

The back of the quilt is a flannel plaid.

The Gnome Improv quilt is quilted with a mix of swirls on the white snowflake blocks and meandering or loops on of the rest of the quilt.

The gnome on the label is wearing a mask made from the selvedge of the gnome fabric! It is 2020 after all!

Happy New Year!!

Batik Christmas Ornament Quilt

Every other Thursday evening at 6:00PM EST, Bits ‘n Pieces Quilt Shop in Pelham, NH has a live on-line sale on Facebook. The blue and white ornament batik, the dark blue and the white on white snowflake fabrics were a set of fabrics I purchased up on one of these sales. (I added the green accent on the front and used the same green for the back).

I had so much fun with the “Four Patch for the Fourth” quilt pattern I designed, that used it again for this lap Christmas lap quilt. It works up really quickly and I like the design.

I had quite a bit of fabric leftover after I finished piecing this quilt, so I went back to my EQ8 quilt program and tweaked the design for the next time! That’s one of the great thing about designing quilts on a computer!

Instead of the diagonal quilting I did in the Fourth of July quilt, I echoed the squares in the design. I like it both ways!

Lilliebelle, a newborn size Waldorf type Doll I made earlier this year, is enjoying this quilt in the rocking chair.

If you celebrate, Merry Christmas! Hope you have a lovely time with friends and family this year!

"Waldorf Dangly Dell" Doll, from a Little Oke Dolls Pattern

A few months ago, I decided I wanted to make a Waldorf doll that was safe enough to give to an infant. That meant no soft stuffing in the body which might present a suffocation risk. I thought about designing a pattern but then decided to see if there were some good patterns out there. This “Waldorf Dangly Dell” pattern by Little Oke Dolls which I found on Etsy.com was my favorite!

The doll has the typical tightly rolled wool roving head, and just a bit of stuffing in the hands and feet. The arms, legs and torso of the doll are empty. That meet my safety criteria!

The doll is well named…it really is dangly!

Here’s the first Dangly Dell I made, earlier this year. Her feet are gathered, but they don’t have any stuffing in them, which is what the pattern specifies.

This Waldorf dolls make great baby presents and are quite easy to make. The pattern is excellent and fully illustrated. If you’ve never made a Waldorf doll, but have always wanted to, this is a great pattern to start with.

Forest Animals Winter/Holiday Quilt

The forest animals are getting ready for the Winter Solstice! You can see how low the sun is in the sky in this photo taken mid-morning!

This was a quilt kit I picked up on sale. It is a past season fabric designed by Cori Dantini call “Winter News” from Blend Fabrics. The pattern is their Menagerie Quilt Pattern which can be used with other Blend Fabric designs. The kit had all the fabric needed to make the quilt, including backing and binding. That’s fairly unusual. All I had to add was the batting. Except….I modified the pattern and substituted the solid light green for the grey branch and berry fabric seen in the center row sashing. It’s beautiful fabric but just a bit too grey for me at this time of year!

I also deleted the top and bottom border on the quilt, making my quilt linear, with a more modern feel.

The backing is a wood-grain fabric. There were 3 yards of fabric in the quilt, plenty to make the back. But the wood grain would have being horizontal and I wanted it to be vertical. So I added a strip of left over animal fabric to make the backing wide enough, and I have enough food grain fabric left to back another little quilt. That’s a win-win!

You can see the wood grain backing here in the lower left corner.

Here’s a close up the fabric. Look carefully in the light blue fabric to see some forest animals hiding in the underbrush! So much fun!

"Tula's True Colors" Completed Charm Squares with Circles Quilt

I posted this quilt top made with two 5 inch charm packs of “Tula’s True Colors” by Free Spirit Fabrics back on August 20th. Here, finally, is the finished quilt. It sat on the shelf for quite a while as I thought about how to do the quilting.

One option was to quilt concentric circles around each of the circles on the quilt. Eventually the circles would intersect, like ripples in a pond. (Click this lint to see this in the quilting on my “Portholes” quilt). This quilt is small enough that it would be doable, but my appliqued circles patches just aren’t picture perfect, so I couldn’t justify all the hours of quilting that would take.

I ended up quilting down the rows, just next to the seam in a row, and then sewing around the circle if there was in the row I was stitching. It was like driving in a road with a rotary….sew straight until you reach the circle, sew half way around that circle and then sew on out when you’ve reached the seam straight across from the seam you’d be sewing on.

It’s a bit hard to see, but there is one row of quilting around the left side of this circle and two rows around the right side.

Where the circles didn’t intersect a seam I simple sewed around the circle, about 1/8 inch from the appliqued circle edge.

This quilt is just so cheerful. And I love Tula Pink’s “Fairy Dust” design in the “Whisper” colorway from this line on the back of the quilt…you can see it peaking out in the photo above, with the sparrows flying among the tiny stars. It’s probably my favorite design in this line.

"Hello!" Strip Baby Quilt

I’ve been waiting for just the right baby for this Moda© fabric named “Corner of 5th and Fun” designed by Sandy Gervais. It’s not a current fabric, but there is still some of the fabric line available if you look. I had a border print and two coordinating fabrics in my stash, but only used two of the fabrics in this quilt.

I cut the border print into strips, taking out some of the sky between them. That gave me 3 inch wide strips of slightly cream background fabric I could use in the quilt.

That 3 inch strip of background determined the size of my pinwheel blocks. I used a variety of color- coordinating scraps in my stash to create the 14 little three inch finished pinwheels blocks.

This is a strip quilt, created with 7 sections—two borders, 3 panels pieces and two sets of pinwheels.

I mixed quilting techniques, using my walking foot on most of the sections and free motion quilting on the three panel sections. I liked the kites in the long-arm quilting design what was used on my “Post-Cuts” quilt, so decided to put kites in the free motion quilting in the sky of the village panels. I practiced the kites drawing them by hand first and then looked at the professional long-arm kites. My kites were stitched slightly differently and that’s what I stuck with. My theory is that is always best to stitch free motion designs you can draw rather than try to copy someone else’s! Everyone’s motor skills are different and you need to go with what you body can do.

Here is one of my kites.

My doodled free motion kite design

The backing can out of my stash of mushroom fabrics. It was printed 10 years ago. I think that makes it a modern vintage fabric! I love the stripes on the stems of these mushrooms, and that the back picks up the idea of mushrooms seen in the border print.

Vintage mushroom fabric backing

This new baby is part of an extended family which has still has baby quilts I made over 40 years ago! Hopefully the new generation will enjoy their quilts just as long!

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!