Monday, August 25, 2025

A Fun Finish -- 10-10 on the Side

 When I feel the need to clean my sewing room, I usually can get past it by finding an interesting scrap block and making a whole quilt from it.  My sewing room then has one less block, but it has scraps from one huge quilt for a net GAIN.

That happened recently with 10-10 on the Side*.  I collect 1 1/2" scrap squares and sew them together whenever I get bored.  I found two 10" checkerboard blocks in my orphan block basket, dragged out my 1 1/2" square scrap box, made more blocks, and put this quilt together.

The quilt is 70" x 70" and used (900) 1 1/2" squares.  My 1 1/2" scrap box laughed at me when I checked to see if looked any emptier.  Nope.  Can't tell at all.

ANYWAY... A new for me goal is to finish the quilts I've already started.  (Don't you dare laugh.)  Before starting yet another quilt, I basted and quilted this quilt.

I chose to quilt this with swirls from my ABC Geometric Circles stencil.  It's my current crush.


You can see why!!!!


There is no pattern for this quilt.  There is no video for this quilt.  I just made it because I wanted to.  If you want a video showing how to use my ABC stencils with switchback quilting between them, watch this video.

This quilt gives me the "oft-washed quilt from a farmhouse" vibe and I love it so much!!!\

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* My love of Smokey and the Bandit showed through when I named this quilt.  From Wikipedia's CB Slang page :

CB user will cease broadcasting but will continue to listen.

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

New Subscriber-Only Video -- Orange Checkerboard Asterisks

In an effort to empty my box(es) of orange 2.5" scrap squares, I stitched this scrappy quilt planning on giving it to a charity of some sort.

I used 1,080 squares from my scrap boxes and I wish I could say the boxes were getting emptier.  They aren't  HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?

I chose a no-mark top-to-bottom free-motion quilting design: ***Asterisks***


This was a soothing quilt to quilt.  I filmed a quick video of the technique.  It is the latest video in As the Bobbin Turns, my collection of subscriber-only videos.  You can subscribe monthly or save money by subscribing annually for a peek over my shoulder as I quilt all of my non-work quilts.

Which charity did I give this quilt to?  My sister.  She claimed it so it's hers. 

Family, am I right?

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Fenced In Cutie Quilt -- Machine Quilting Tutorial

Whenever I'm home and and quilting for Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, or Veterans' Day, I like to pull out some red-white-and-blues to make a quilt for veterans. This year I pulled out a fat quarter pack from Pat Sloan -- Paradise Park. It was GORGEOUS!




Cutie Patterns require 16 fat eighths and Fenced In also require yardage for borders. I didn't have yardage... but I had the other half of each fat quarter! I pieced the border using those leftovers.

I decided to machine quilt this using the walking foot on my home sewing machine. That's such a fun and soothing way to spend an afternoon!

I filmed a quilting tutorial for this quilt so you can watch how simple it is to create this curvy cross-hatch texture at home!

If the video doesn't play, use this direct YouTube link.

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Fenced In Cutie Pattern

White Konfetti 50-weight cotton thread

White DecoBob 80-weight polyester thread

Batt Scooters

Thursday, August 07, 2025

FREE August Color Blocks Quilt Pattern -- Shining Brightly

I've been away from home for the last 26 days.  I spent a week in Wisconsin at the Primitive Gatherings Naughty or Nice Retreat and the rest of the time I've been in Pittsburgh, keeping my mom company while my sister travels.  

Preparing for this, I made a black and gold (Pittsburgh sports teams colors) Color Block quilt for August -- Shining Brightly.


Being born and raised in Pittsburgh, I have a lot of family here and their babies need Pittsburgh-themed baby quilts!  You can choose to make this in any color you like, however.


Pink/Purple/Mint would be pretty.  Blue/Green/Yellow would be great.  Red/White/Blue would make a great lap quilt for a veteran.  Dig into your scraps and see what colors work for you!

Join my FREE 2025 Color Block Class, download the pattern, and get stitching!

I should be home in another 2-3 days and can't wait to start machine quilting this!


Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Blue Squared Away Cutie Quilt with Pumpkin Seeds -- Tutorial in As the Bobbin Turns

I think I've warned you of my current obsession with pumpkin seed quilting.  I've used recently it on a few quilt borders (here and here) and wanted to see if I could easily stitch it all over a quilt.


I'm also currently crushing on my Squared Away Cutie Quilt pattern so I quickly stitched one up in various blue fabrics similar to these, basted up my quilt, and sat down to machine quilt.

When I needed to mark, I used a 1 1/2" grid stencil and pounce powder and happily quilted this up!


Doesn't the texture look great on here?


Imperfectly done, but still perfect, right?

This quilt now belons to my new grandson's one-year-old cousin.

Watch the full video tutorial in As the Bobbin Turns, my collection of exclusive subscriber videos.

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

July Color Blocks Quilt -- "Either / Or" Machine Quilting Tutorial

I've been hiding in my air-conditioned sewing room this summer with plenty of time to machine quilt. I haven't asked myself, "How can I finish this quilt quickly?" lately since I have nothing but time to quilt.  This month's Color Block quilt, Either / Or, is custom quilted and used a lot of thread.  I enjoy the process and love the finished quilt!


I used white thread for all of the quilting and it looks great on both the orange and the blue blocks.

I quilted the four-patch blocks with ribbon candy, continuous curve, and swirls.


I quilted the Color Blocks quilts with continuous points (?) and ribbon candy.


I love the little stars in each block!

Join my FREE Color Blocks 2025 class to download the pattern and watch the machine quilting tutorial.

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Materials:



Tuesday, July 08, 2025

Bowl of Cherries Cutie Quilt -- Custom Quilting Video

 I pulled more fabrics from my Garden Gatherings Fat Quarter Tower to piece this Bowl of Cherries Cutie Quilt.

This quilt turned out to be everything I wanted it to be and so much more!!!

Any quilting edge-to-edge quilting design would be sufficient to hold the layers of this quilt together, but I was in the mood for custom quilting.  

I started off by quilting curves using a machine quilting ruler.  I filmed a class for Annie's Attic that will teach you everything you need to know to start quilting with rulers on your home sewing machine.


I quilted ribbon candy between the curves and then stitched some feathers to fill each block.  I teach these feathers step-by-step in my Machine Quilted Feathers online class

I quilted the borders with more ribbon candy and more feathers!  


I show all of this quilting plus a trick for spacing feathers in a border in my latest YouTube video.  



These are the first two Cutie Quilts I've made from the Garden Gatherings Fat Quarter Tower.

 

I still have more fabric left and will make more Cutie Quilts soon!