Disappearing Block Quilt Finish

Disappearing Block Quilt Finish

Long ago I looked at the disappearing block methods as hokey. Please don't judge me, but I was totally turned off because mine came out with so many inaccuracies. I figured if I was going to all that effort and the points disappeared, I did not like disappearing blocks no-thank-you-for-that! And as I've matured, I see the value in them along with the fun of the discovery of how we can manipulate them by flipping fabrics, cutting, and producing a complicated block with little actual effort. Yes, I'll even give it a little more and say there is magic in the method. (Or more correctly, its art and geometry.)

This quilt was another of my UFO's. Yes, you're shocked, I'm sure. It was a large block quilt made by cutting 3 wide strips, and pairing with another block oriented to a right angle and cut diagonally. Somewhere I have a block leftover, and I will post the sizes I used. I would make this quilt again because the pattern was so graphic and interesting. The surprise was a big factor in the enjoyment of making.

Christmas Door Hanging: Pineapple Log Cabin

Christmas Door Hanging: Pineapple Log Cabin

If you're local, this is a door hanger or even a wall hanger. I prefer 'hanging', but will list the search labels under both. I put it together to test out an Accuquilt die some time ago. Yes, another UFO here.

My mom has lived with some level of care for several years. It's just a cheery gesture to add some new things to her door as the seasons change. She enjoys it, and I think it livens the hall up for everyone. I've had the same Christmas hanging for her on repeat, and despite my best efforts this didn't get done in time for Christmas 2025. I have yet to add corners and a dowel rod, and it will be ready for 2026.

HST Baby Quilt from Scraps

HST Baby Quilt from Scraps

The saga continues as I open boxes in my studio, and deal with the contents. This was a little project that focused on a template I bought for cheap at a Quilter's Corner. Two fabrics were placed with right sides facing, and you used the template to mark it. It had openings you could draw diagonal lines on, and then you sewed all the triangles at once. Then you cut them out, pressed, and assembled into a block. 

Child's Quilt from Panel and Strings: Finish

Child's Quilt from Panel and Strings: Finish

This is one of my favorite quilts I've ever made. Yup, I'm saying that about a quilt made from scraps, and a cut up panel. I can't believe it, but it's true. It's just fun, and I got to add so many tidbits of old favorite fabrics in the string piecing too. It's for my granddaughter, but it's staying here. I don't often do that, but I'm a little attached to it. Maybe because it took a lot of creative and mental energy to piece, but this one is special.

Orphan Block Quilt for Cold Husband

Orphan Block Quilt for Cold Husband

Our evenings are pretty much replays. Dinner, showers, and a few minutes to catch up on whatever show is on our radar. Quilts come out to keep us warm, but even so we tend to wilt fast. It's a time to relax and unwind, but here's the problem. My husband uses a lot of heavy hand creams and ointments especially in the winter to keep his hands from cracking, and it's hard on my quilts. Instead of me walking into the room panicking that he'll leave big greasy splotches on a good one--might have happened before and was not relaxing for me, I decided to make him his very own. And because it was so unique, he couldn't mistake it.

Simply Sparkly Quilt Finish

Simply Sparkly Quilt Finish

There is joy in finishing a project started long ago. One perhaps you didn't know the intended recipient, and felt no great pressure to complete. This artsy, ombre quilt came together in March of 2023, and then it languished. It needed a special someone, and I kept thinking a teenage girl or perhaps a bit younger would love it. I knew none, and so it settled into the unfinished pile.

Sampler Blocks to Quilt Top: 150 Canadian Women

This is a process post so photo intensive. It does us little good to look at a finished quilt top, and try to figure out how the quilter did it. Mine happened organically, and may not be the right way or your way, but it evolved into a quilt I both like and will use. Let me explain.

Vintage Orphan Blocks to Wall Hanging & Blocking

Vintage Orphan Blocks to Wall Hanging

A recent finish in the past weeks has made me really happy. I had these four orphan blocks for several years, and months ago put them together to form a larger piece. The original piecing was by hand and machine both, and a bit wonky. Remember everything in this era was cut with a pair of shears or scissors. The tiny squares came from a stack of precut solids, and I feel gave it a bit of a Mennonite feel. (Why Mennonite? Amish quilters didn't use prints.)

Kaffe Fasset Nine Patches and How to Quilt for Friends

Kaffe Fasset Nine Patches

&

The Continuation of Swedish Death Cleaning My Sewing Rooms

The second shoe box was about half full of 2.5" squares I'd cut to make these nine patches sometime in the past 10 years. There were about 9 done, and I think I made about 57 using all the squares up. My plan now is to add brightly colored solid setting triangles between the rows to resemble zigzags. 

I remember shopping with a friend many years ago, and she loved the Kaffe fabrics. She would enjoy these wild fabrics a lot. I'll make it my way, and hope she likes it.

Years ago I would try very hard to make quilts for people that they might specifically like, and they may even have contributed ideas. Maybe it was a specific color or theme but so often it was something just out of my wheelhouse. Not all, but many of those times I wound up not enjoying the project. I've learned to make what I like. It makes the whole thing fun if love the fabric, the style, and even the vibe. There's almost nothing worse than investing your time and effort--and money, into a project you don't love. Life is short. Quilting should be fun.

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew.

Feathered Star from Who Knows When

Feathered Star from Who Knows When

During December while bloggers were showing their Best of the Year posts, and New Year's Goals posts, and huge stacks of UFO, WIP, and all the other names for personal quilting baggage, I put my head down, and I worked like a mad quilter. The pictures I've accrued--the stuff I've uncovered and gotten done is honestly a little amazing even to me. I am Quilter on Fire! Yeah, maybe not quite that, but you folks should know I've taken myself to task. It's been harsh.

The End of Summer Log Cabin Quilt Top

End of Summer Log Cabin Quilt Top

Last summer while I walked, I took careful notice of the colors around me. In Mideast Ohio, fall depends much on what has happened rain-wise over that summer. The summer of 2025 did not have a long, dry spell like many before. I remember several recent summers I quit mowing after the Fourth of July, and didn't resume until early September. But this one was green, and the foliage delayed turning until far into October. The leaves stayed on the trees until well after Halloween, and then fell slowly. Honestly, it was a lovely fall before we slipped into winter.

The Strawberry Queen Quilt Finish

The Strawberry Queen Quilt Finish

Shortly before Christmas I finished the binding to this sweet quilt. As a matter of fact, I finished the last stitches as family arrived, and then the quilt was gifted. Nothing like last minute gifts. It has become a beloved quilt, drug from room to room, and slept with nightly. If it was a Velveteen rabbit, it would have fulfilled it's life's purpose. 

Quilting the Strawberry Queen's Quilt

Quilting the Strawberry Queen's Quilt: Christmas Present

Thanksgiving dinner was still in planning stages when I popped the Strawberry Queen's quilt on the longarm, and went to work. 

Whimsical Quilt Top Using a Panel and Scraps

Whimsical Child's Quilt Top from a Panel and Scraps

It's December with Christmas right around the corner, and the world seems to be spinning very fast. Yet we all find time to escape by sitting at our sewing machines letting our brains unwind the stress of the season. That's an ideal world, and might not be the whole truth, but I'm shooting for it.

I am working through my lists with the intent every day to find a little time to stitch something. It may not be a grand project--most are not. It's more along the line of finishing up every last thing I can see in my way. All that stuff stopping me from moving on with new things. WIP, UFO, yada yada, but it's easier to move through things than put it away never to be seen again. I have time invested, and I value my time as should we all. I'm getting things done in those few minutes of downtime when I can catch it.

Queen of the Strawberry Patch Quilt

Queen of the Strawberry Patch Quilt

I am lucky to be able to care for my granddaughter several days a week. She's (mostly) a joy! But many things in my life have shifted to accommodate my new schedule.

My garden has been somewhat neglected this year, but I kept reminding myself about priorities. We are still eating canned tomatoes from the past year when I put up 100+ quarts, and 80 quarts of beans. Because my shelves were still full, I allowed some beds to rest, some occasional weeds, and gave it minimal life support for months. But every day we would walk the gardens, check the greenhouse, water plants, touch, smell, and be barefoot in the grass. Even if it rained, we were out there. One day we just let ourselves be rained on until thoroughly wet. We watch birds, worms, the bugs and bees, and dogs running through the orchard. Today we were out quite early talking about the moonlight. I'm smiling as I remember and write this. 

Wool Birthday Crown Finish

Wool Birthday Crown Finish

How in the world did October get away, and we're a week out from Thanksgiving? Even so, I need to make this brief. The birthday crown was finished on time, and the girl wore it! Mission accomplished. It was on and off as I assumed it would be, but has turned into a wonderful dress-up accessory. She has some experience with touching wool, seeing the flowers and embroidery up close, and just maybe remembering a bit of that sweet day she turned 1.

The backing is a simple Tilda print I had in my stash, and the band is actually a piece of foldable elastic like one uses to create hair ties. The elastic allows the crown to self-adjust, and no messy, loose ribbons to tie.

One thing I did not plan for was a removable number to replace each year. Next year's crown will have the ability to grow with her. Very fun project!

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew.

Wool Birthday Crown WIP

I thought when my own kids were babies I had made them everything possible. Gosh, one time I obsessively built them a canvas playhouse on a frame of pvc pipe that had an operational door, painted English garden on the outside, and would fit adults standing up. It was brilliant that I could put it up and take it down for storage when needed. The pipe got pilfered over the years, and I think the only thing remaining on the toy shelf is the door. Oh, life before an iPhone lives only in our minds. 

Orphan Quilt Block to Pillow: Spindrift

Orphan Quilt Block to Nursery Pillow

Some days, try as we might, technology fights us. So the pictures are what they are today with my apologies. Oh, well it's a Wednesday as I write this. Maybe that's it. This is a leftover block unused in a wonderful quilt Spindrift by Michelle McKillop published under Jen Kingwell. Take a closer look at the quilts progress from 2020 when Covid was just beginning.

Spindrift: It Begins

Spindrift: 2

Spindrift: 3

Spindrift: 4

Spindrift: 5

Spindrift: 6

Spindrift:7

Spindrift:8

Spindrift: 9

Spindrift: 10 The Quilting Begins

Spindrift: 11 Custom Quilting

Spindrift: 12 One More Day

Spindrift: 13 From Quilts to Socks

One Long Comeback shows the binding at last

Here is another version of Spindrift I made called It Floats.

This was a darling block, but didn't have the same vibe as the other Dresdens in either quilt. It became an orphan block until I heard I was having a grandchild. A bit of hand quilting after adding Grunge borders, and it turned into a colorful floor pillow for the nursery. For a while it was a back cushion to prop her up in her laundry basket--how DID our generation miss the usefulness of laundry baskets to child rearing? Then it morph into the mountain to climb and have some tummy time on top of. It's been a very useful piece of baby equipment happily.

The backing a stripey remnant I pieced, and off she went. Another project in the books.

Have you found any creative projects for using your own orphan blocks? Share them in the comments please. I'm not the only one looking for fresh ideas. Thanks!

Come on, Doxie girls.

Let's go sew.

Another Trip Around the World

Another Trip Around the World

Here is a pattern that is fun and rewarding every time I make it. I love it so! This quilt kit was offered years ago by Craftsy, and the fabrics were coordinated by Myra Barnes at Busy Hands Quilts. The kit went on deep sale, and I snapped it up! It took me several years to pull out to piece, but it was an easy make because it was a one patch. More on one patch quilts HERE. Also, I have said it before, but my Accuquilt cutter made it a dream to go from fabric to pieces cut in a few hours with minimal waste.

Easy Modern Batik Quilt

Easy Modern Batik Quilt

This is one way to break up your stash. My batiks were overflowing with fat quarters, and I personally wanted a pink quilt. I started it a year ago (or more), and finished it last month in mid-August. No real pattern involved, just modeled after similar quilts I'd seen, and drawn up myself.

What I love most about it besides being pink? I think it's beautiful the way the batiks appear wavy with their color variations. Also, the batting is Mountain Mist Cream Rose, and very thin. It's a perfect weight summer quilt for my side of the bed.