Finished: Patchwork Palooza

Finished: Patchwork Palooza
Finished: Patchwork Palooza

I finished the Patchwork Palooza top in January and now the whole quilt is complete: top, back, quilting, binding, sleeve. Done.

I am pleased with how I finished the edges. I think completing the diagonals looks nice.

There are blocks that I wish I had moved, but that will probably always be the case. 

DH actually commented that he really liked this quilt. Maybe it will be a gift for him?

I will be entering this quilt into the Fair.

It must be some kind of record! I started this quilt on about September 6, 2025. Here it is, 6 months later finished. I am really happy and kind of stunned as well. 

Finished: Patchwork Palooza-back
Finished: Patchwork Palooza-back

BAM BOM QSTs

BAM BOM March QSTs
BAM BOM March QSTs

I found a tutorial for a 3 color quarter square triangle block while reading the Love of Quilting magazine. I decided to try it for my Bay Area Modern Block of the Month for March blocks.

The tutorial includes a 1.5 minute video with jaunty music. 

I made two first just to see what I thought of the technique. I thought it was fine and something different, so I cut some squares and went to work. I went a little crazy and made quite a few QSTs!

BAM BOM March QSTs
BAM BOM March QSTs

As I was laying them out I realized that I could make pinwheels since I used the lime green in all of the blocks. I don’t know that I’ll do that in the final layout of the quilt, but it was kind of fun to see what such a layout would look like.

I just got a Technique Sheet from Studio 180 Designs for the Split Recs Ruler**. I love that ruler and may make some Elongated Hourglass units. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Obviously, you should shop at local quilt shops and small businesses. However, if you are too busy or can’t find what you need there, I use Amazon affiliate links and may be paid for your purchase of an item when you click on an item’s link in my post. There is no additional cost to you for clicking or purchasing items I recommend. I appreciate your clicks and purchases as it helps support this website.

 

Lupine Top and Back Finished

Lupine top finished
Lupine top finished

Lupine is ready to go to Colleen for quilting. Not a great photo, but the quilt is large and doesn’t fit well on my design wall.

I am really pleased with how it came out. It is a but pink and purple, but doesn’t scream ‘little girl’ to me. I think the black really helps give it a good over all feel. 

In addition, black can be depressing. It did make my workroom a little dark, but overall the pink, purple and Carousel blue keep the black from creating a look that is too depressing.

Lupine back finished
Lupine back finished

I also finished the back. Mom said it looked a little brown, but I definitely used colored dots on black for the most part. One of the prints, a large-ish piece, middle bottom, does have dots that have more brown in them than I would normally use. 

This project used up most of my dots on black fabrics.

I am waiting for a black solid in order to make the binding. I was going to use a pink that matched the border (AGF Cherry Lipgloss), but Lil Sissy pointed out that a black (AGF Caviar) would contain the piece. I think she is right.

Playing with the BAM BOM

BAM BOM blocks - Feb. 2026
BAM BOM blocks – Feb. 2026

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
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
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
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.

BAM BOM Friendship Star Wreath

BAM BOM Friendship Star Wreath
BAM BOM Friendship Star Wreath

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.

Lupine Border Decisions

I chunked the Lupine quilt top, then sewed the spacer border on. The next step was the Flying Geese border.

Option 1:

Recommended Lupine border
Recommended Lupine border

The directions were to assemble two Flying Geese so it looks like the above. The look was ok, but didn’t grab my attention.

Option 2:

Zigzag Lupine border
Zigzag Lupine border

I saw a zigzag border that someone made and tried that with my fabrics. This option looked more cohesive to me. 

Option 3:

Alternating chevrons Lupine border
Alternating chevrons Lupine border

Just to see if another configuration would be better, I tried alternating chevrons. This wasn’t terrible and created a lot of movement, but I thought it was a little confusing for the viewer.

I went for option 2 and started sewing long rows of Flying Geese together.

BAM Creative Play

January 2026 Creative Play
January 2026 Creative Play

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.

Chunking Lupine

Lupine center complete
Lupine center complete

I had to stop chunking when I realized I had to fix a couple of block mistakes in Lupine. I fixed those quickly and got back to chunking, which is easier than putting a quilt together in rows, but still tedious. It seemed to take me forever. Finally, I got all of the blocks together! Yay!

I was worried about the density of the dots in some of the black background, but looking at the quilt in the photo, I think it looks ok. I can see a couple of places where the dots are really dense, but the background pieces don’t make the blocks look wrong. 

Lupine with spacer border
Lupine with spacer border

After the blocks were together I put the spacer border on. Also, tedious, but necessary. 

I really like that Melody Miller Carousel blue. I am glad I bought more of it so I have enough for the borders.

Now I am on to the Flying Geese border. 

I noticed that Bonnie has taken down the directions on her blog for this quilt. I almost had a heart attack when I clicked on the link to look at the border directions and it was broken. Fortunately, I had saved the PDFs.

Fixed the Lupine Blocks

It’s a dreary day here as I write this. We are waiting for rain which seems poised to pour down any minute, but hasn’t gotten around to it yet. This means that my workroom is a little dark and grey. It makes me really happy that the life-sucking beige is gone.

Fixed Lupine block
Fixed Lupine block

I ripped them out while I watched TV one night and then re-sewed at them at a Sew Day I had with SueS, Lee Ann and SueG. I spent a bit of time over a couple of days doing random quilt tasks and this was one of them. 

Now I am ready to continue chunking the center of the quilt.

Lupine Oops!

I slowly worked on chunking the Lupine top together. I had to do it before putting on the border, because Bonnie has us put on spacer border, which prevents me from chunking the border. C’est la vie.

Lupine Alternate: wrong!
Lupine Alternate: wrong!

As I was working away I saw one block where I put the corners on wrong. The purple needs to be on the outside. 

🙁

I looked at the blocks on the design wall for awhile to decide if I could stand the mistake and decided it had to come out. I ripped out the corners, flipped them and re-sewed them.

Yay! No problem. Stuff happens. I was done and could move on.

Lupine blocks: wrong!
Lupine blocks: wrong!

Then I noticed another one. And another. 🙁 I have indicated the wrong blocks with arrows, but you’ll have to make the image (right) larger to see the arrows.

Now I have all the blocks that are wrong unsewn from the chunks. Next step: rip out the corners and re-sew them. 

Lupine block fixed
Lupine block fixed

I fixed one block and it looks fine.

It’s a process, right?

 

More White Strips #3

White Strips #3 in progress
White Strips #3 in progress

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. 

This is a good quilt for Valentine’s ‘month’.

Lupine Blocks Done

Lupine blocks done
Lupine blocks done

Finishing the Pandora Charisma was great! It freed me up to work on other projects. I made my BAM BOM units, worked on the last Four Patch Fun blocks, made a donation block, got back to my normal leaders and enders system and FINISHED the last of Lupine blocks. YAY!

The quilt isn’t done by any stretch, but this is a huge achievement IMO. I am really pleased about it. Now I get to sew all of these blocks together and then start work on the border.

Happy Valentine’s Day, BTW!

Lupine Gets Larger

Lupine, early Feb. 2026
Lupine, early Feb. 2026

Slowly, but surely Lupine is growing.

In between trying to finish the Pandora Charisma and working on other bits and bobs, I am sewing blocks together as well.  I have about 5 more of each of the blocks to make before I can start on the border. 

This is a really dramatic color scheme and I LOVE it.

And Even More Lupine

Lupine blocks, late January 2026
Lupine blocks, late January 2026

I spent most of the day on Sunday making blocks for the Lupine quilt instead of working on the Pandora Charisma. The white strips blocks have been on my mind and I wanted to sew some sashing on to them, so I worked on the Lupine blocks and made the white strip blocks my leaders and enders.

I am quite ready to sew this quilt together. Though I am nearing the end of block making I still have some to sew.

More Lupine

I used piecing the Lupine blocks veg a bit. Now that I know what the two blocks look like I am able to piece them pretty quickly. I mindlessly pieced about nine of them one day when I needed a rest, but also needed to sew.

Lupine blocks- end of Jan 2026
Lupine blocks- end of Jan 2026

I know I keep bouncing between the Pandora Charisma project and this project. These are the two that are front and center at the moment.