I have had the fleece for a Pet Bed sitting around for a long time. I finally sewed it together last week in order to bring it to Sew Day.
One of the things that spurred me on was the bits of batting I had laying around from the various quilts that I have mostly finished recently. The guild is not using schnibbles for pet beds any more as they don’t make for soft and comfy beds. Also, they are hard to wash. This is sad as I still have a lot of schnibbles. We are working out a plan for their use in another way.
This wasn’t my fabric so I don’t get any credit on my Fabric Used spreadsheet.
Lil Sissy was in town last week for 12 hours on her way to a sun, sand and scuba diving adventure. She called me a few days before and I cut her in on my day’s plans: museum, GF Chinese food lunch. Then we did some things she wanted, namely getting supplies for some jackets she plans to embellish.
Once we were back and my house she saw my BAM BOM blocks and I let her play with them. We used the ‘design floor’ (LOL) since the design wall was full to bursting.
BAM BOM Flying Geese -Lil Sissy arrangement
It is always interesting to have an artist who uses a different medium play around with quilt blocks. I laid them out in a more or less conventional way. She immediately saw diagonals in places I hadn’t noticed.
She wanted me to make a bunch more Flying Geese so I can really lean into the diagonals. I’ll think about that.
BAM BOM HSTs -Lil Sissy arrangement
She also played with the Half Square Triangles (triangle squares) a bit. Again, she leaned into the diagonals. This arrangement has good possibilities even if I do have to make more HSTs. I think it would look cool to weave the diagonals behind the other blocks.
BAM BOM Friendship Star Wreath
Finally, we talked about my big Friendship Star Wreath and whether I should re-make it with a dark background. She said no, but I might still do it. That white shrieks at me.
I wanted to make a second donation top for the year and going through a stack of fabric helped. I found the neutral background and that cemented my resolve.
I used the edges that Colleen cut off of Gelato #2 to start this donation quilt. That back was quite large, so I had long pieces from which to choose.
I shoot for about 40×40 for these quilts so a yard of fabric total works. The neutral I found was a half yard.
Ends n.23 back
Except for the back, I didn’t need to dig into my bins of fabric. I chose some light oranges for the back, then dutifully measured and put together some batting scraps for the batting.
This block (for Month 3) took me a long time and I had some detours along the way. Finally, I finished it.
I am not 100% happy with it. I would have liked to use the grey Pearl Bracelets, but I didn’t have enough.
Using the white Pearl Bracelets as the background introduces another color of background into the piece and I had hoped to avoid using white for the blocks. Since I have not used white in any of the other blocks I have to figure out how to make it work.
First step: go see if I can find more grey Pearl Bracelets. Doubtful, but you never know.
I have decided to combine donation blocks and quilts into one monthly post. We’ll see how that works this year.
I didn’t make any donation blocks or quilts in January, so here we are in February.
Blocks
Red and stripe donation block
Red donation block
Red with batik donation block
Black dot donation block
Red, white and black donation block
Small diamond donation block
Large diamond+ donation block
Large diamond+ #2 donation block
Sidewalk green solid donation block
Sidewalk green solid #2 donation block
I am collecting black and red donation blocks to make another Quarter Square donation top for the guild donation project similar to QST 16 Patch #4 Blue. I have more green squares after a couple of sessions of scrap processing. I want to make another Sidewalk quilt, but I don’t have enough of the half blocks to make a green one yet. The blocks above are being added to the pile.
Quilts
Blue Improv #2 bound
White Strips #3 with red
I might have posted the *bound* Blue Improv before, but I don’t see it. It was getting folded up to be donated at Sew Day and I took a quick snap of the finished piece. More scraps off to do some good.
I also finished White Strips #3 (with red) and handed it in at the meeting last weekend. It looks different than the other white strips quilts, but I like it.
I started a project at the guild called Creative Play. This was loosely based on a concept I had during COVID that kind of petered out. It was also inspired by a quote I read in Libs Elliott’s newsletter. The quote is “I have made a promise to myself that I will make time for creative play in 2026. Because, when work gets overwhelming, I find joy in taking even just a bit of time for myself to experiment and try something different without an end goal in mind.”
I am determined to have it take off this time and so far, so good.
I started out by handing out the rectangles in the center. Cyndi took it and added the orange border. That is an amazing choice. I don’t think I would have thought of it, but I love it. The orange has an interesting texture as well.
I handed the piece to Sue next and she added the half square triangles. I am really pleased with the work so far.
The next block in the series, which was announced yesterday is the Sawtooth Star. It is one of my favorite blocks, because it is incredibly versatile.
I am kind of just going with the flow when I make these blocks. I am using fabrics as the mood strikes. I’d love to use that grey Pearl Bracelets as my background, but I don’t have enough of it. I’ll have to do something about that as that is an old fabric and there is little chance I will find more. I’ll look in my fabric closet and see if I can find some. The yardage I have with my project materials came from Rhonda’s stash.
Without putting the blocks on the wall, I added sashing to my white strips blocks. I don’t have any design wall space and just had to go for it. I have a few donation quilts I need to make and this one will help me free up some design wall space.
As you can see, not having the design hampers my process. Somehow I missed adding top sashing to 6 blocks.
Yes, I used red. Dangerous, I know, but all my fabric is washed.
I made my Flying Geese the other day. I am not ahead of the crowd this time, but in time for the meeting next week.
I made 4 using the blue and yellow fabrics. I wanted the blue to be on the outside, so decided I needed to make a few more. Once I made the second set with my wonderful flowered fabric I realized I could make chevrons! Voila!
We had an amazing Sew Day over the weekend. At the peak, we had more than 30 people sewing and socializing. We get that many at our holiday party, but I am not sure we have ever had that many at a regular Sew Day. I knew we might have some new people, so we set up some extra tables in advance. We still didn’t have enough seats. I guess the message is that people need to show up on time if they want a seat. 😉
We had the 8YO son of our Founder join us. He is working with his mom to make a quilt for his bed. This means we are encouraging the younger generation to get into sewing. He was very focused!
We had another parent/’child’ team as well. Roberta is a new member who brought her daughter Michelle. They intend to work on projects together, which is a great way to get together.
Pandora Charisma – front, finished
I brought the Pandora Charisma, which needed a few more steps, some of which were riveting. Mary helped me use her rivet press to add a few more rivets to various places on the bag. I am super happy with the riveting.
News Flash: the Pandora Charisma is finished. People were really impressed. I just felt tired after struggling with it for so many weeks (which feels like years!).
SueS is having a problem with her hand, so I offered to cut some pieces out for her. She was very well organized, so the task was easy. She also stood with me and kept me on track, which was great. I brought a ruler that was the exact size of the pieces she needed, which made the task easier. All-in-all a good effort.
The UFO Challenge Team had a mini-show and tell where finished and in-progress #12 items were shown. Not everything got finished, but everyone was inspired to work on a project that had been sitting around for a long time.
They also drew the next number, #9 was selected. For me, that is an extra large project bag. I have the fabric quilted, but need to cut out the other pieces and put the whole thing together.
Tim’s Jittery Wings quilt
Later in the day, I also started cutting out the Tadpole pouches. Now that I am done with the Pandora Charisma, I am going to work on some easier projects. While I was doing that Tim was working on one of his Jittery Wings quilts.
The picture shows the start of it and it just got better the more he put up on the wall.
New guild design wall
Mary decided a few weeks ago to create a design wall that we could put up and take down. She came with a big piece of Velcro and installed it. The next step is making a piece of felt big enough to cover the space. We only had a small piece of felt, but Tim agreed to make a larger one. It will be great and the location is awesome: right next to some large windows.
I raced around so didn’t get time to catch up with many people, but I chatted to some and that was great.
I finally dug out the white strips blocks I made last year and put them on the design wall. With the Patchwork Palooza no longer taking up valuable design wall real estate, I am able to work on this project.
I haven’t started on sashing yet, but did decide to just make my normal strip quilt rather than another Sidewalk quilt. However, since I haven’t started the sashing yet, that could change.
I am thinking about red sashing as I have at least two bins of red fabric. I could use more by making a Sidewalk version. We’ll see. I know I don’t want to make another white on white strips quilt.
I haven’t really decided to make 12 quilts for the guild this year. I am giving enough time to the guild. That doesn’t mean I won’t make donation quilts. It just means I don’t (yet?) have a goal.
As I said, I am trying to stay ahead of the crowd, so after the BAM Holiday Party, I quickly made a Friendship Star.
In general, I have a tough time with this block. I think it looks much better small. The 12 inch size just looks like it has too much fabric, though a 12 inch block with the star made from a blowsy, large flower fabric might work better.
I do think that using the Friendship Stars as cornerstones, like a donation quilt I made, works well.
The best use of Friendship Stars I have found is making a wreath out of them. I got inspired by Camille Roskelly and then made Flying Around using the Friendship Star wreaths. I’d like to make one for this project. We’ll see if I get to it.
Because of the holidays people have two months to make the next two blocks. Month 2 and 3 blocks are due at the January Meeting. I made a set of Checkerboards very quickly right after the meeting. Since I am one of the leaders, I really want to keep ahead of the others as much as possible.
Once things had settled down a little for me, I made another checkerboard block from the book Cyndi lent to me, Use Scraps, Sew Blocks, Make 100 Quilts** by Stuart Hilliard.
BAM BOM Checkerboard, month 2
I don’t have the wide variety of fabrics that would make this block look like the one in the book, but I am pleased with the way it came out.
I cut up the Philip Jacobs print to make the middle then used the others (added some additions since the start) around the outside. I want to work with this block again at some point. Still, I like the way it came out. I keep looking at it.
BAM BOM December 2025
Although blocks were not due at this meeting, people brought some, so we put them up to illustrate when we introduced the new block.
It is so fun to see the different designs that appeal to the participants.
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I spent the last few months planning and creating the officer gifts for the guild. I couldn’t have done it on my own. Many guild members contributed to the fund, Carrie wrapped everything and MaryC helped me sew the Multi-Pocket Organizers.
SueS’s Multi-Pocket Organizer
I am pleased with how they all came out. I think the fabrics I chose worked well together and coordinate or match with last year’s gifts.
I really like the binding and lining of SueS’ Multi-Pocket Organizer.
Melinda’s Multi-Pocket Organizer
Lee Ann’s Multi-Pocket Organizer
For Lee Ann’s I chose a similar fabric to the fabric I used last year. This one has a little more color in it – some purples, especially, which look really nice.
Melinda’s uses a couple of coordinating, but older fabrics from my fabric closet. I am told she likes purple, so this on the purple side. It’s maybe more of a red-violet, but something she will like.
