-I MistressJennie, submit this as my current January BOM entry
(Sorry, I was working on a post in the HP Craftalong, and realized that I had posted this in last year’s Craftalong, before the new 2025 thread was up. Figured I’d better add it in here too.)
Just to purtty for words
It’s a holiday here in the US today (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), which means a special Bingo call!
Today’s Quiltalong Bingo call is:
Complete a quarterly challenge
This quarter’s challenge is Quilt something functional.
You could just make a quilt for your bed, after all such a quilt would be quite functional. Or, you make a quilted plastic bag holder like this one @jellybean made for her sister. So long as it serves a functional purpose (beyond being gazed upon and admired), you can submit it for this challenge!
Remember your challenge entry can be a small, medium, or large.
I was lucky enough to win the last prize of last year’s quilt along, so I ordered a layer cake, because of the 10" bingo call, and the fact that I didn’t have any 10" squares (sshhh I know I could have cut them from any of the million fabrics I have, but we are ignoring that fact right now)
It arrived today, nice florals, it’s going to be a quilt for a friend. I just need to find a quick layer cake pattern-no headspace at the moment for anything too complex
Thank you so much @AudiobookLover
Gorgeous fabrics!
Beautiful prints!
I’ve been eyeing this layer cake quilt pattern for a while… It seems really easy. Not too much thinking, but an easy way to show off your prints, with only a little of a background/star point fabric needed. I would guess you could even figure out the pattern on your own. It looks like 2.5" strips, cut to 8.5" long. Then maybe 4.5" squares for the star points, sewed in the Snowball method. If you did a second row of stitching, you could rescue the offcuts as scrappy HSTs. Here’s a gallery of versions of the same quilt:
https://www.quiltylove.com/category/completed-quilts/happy-stripes-quilt/
I think my next batch of 10" squares is going to become a resized https://modafabrics.com/webfiles/ModaCharmPackChallenge_ModaLoveCharmQuiltPattern.pdf. it’s a 32" block as-is. But doubling it is easy (as I already did one a couple years ago and had to fix my math). 5" sq doubled becomes 10". 4.5" square doubled becomes 9.5".
I’ve been wanting to make this pattern as a wall hanging (sized a bit smaller than 32" x 32"). I’m hoping this will be the year!
I have this one done in my WIP pile…I totally forgot it…yes, it was simple but it is small. I use that pattern for mostly baby quilts. It is lovely!
Goodness, now I am wanting to look at quilt patterns again! Ugh. So many things that I want to make. I have my never-ending Halloween quilt cut, just trying to find the time to start sewing but life (and other crafts) are getting in the way.
For anyone who still has piles of hexie flowers laying around, I just came across this idea:
It’s that time again - time for another Bingo call!
Today’s Quiltalong Bingo call is:
Nominate a BOM
I know some of you have already completed this one, but there’s still plenty of time for everyone else! If you aren’t sure whether you’ve nominated a block this quarter or not, you can check here. And if you’d like some sites with a variety of blocks to choose from, you can click here.
My favorite quilty media:
I absolutely love the Cobbled Court book series by Marie Bostwick. It’s a series of seven books that center around the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop. Each book focuses on the life of a different character (I was confused when I saw that each book had different narrators, because typically an audio series will have the same narrator throughout, but when I listened to them and understood how the focus of each book shifted to a different character, it made so much sense and I really appreciated the new voice to go with the individual characters). I’ve listened to these books a few times and am planning on starting the series again. For me, each time I read these books, it’s like sitting down to coffee with old friends.
Another type of quilty media that I love are quilt magazines. My favorite of which is definitely American Patchwork and Quilting.
I also love magazines, I often buy a craft magazine as a reward for myself for going to hospital appointments. Dutch quilting magazines are generally terrible - they’re all about hand-stitching and cutting fabric using scissors and a template. That’s not presented as just one option but as “the only right way” which annoys me. I mean, I’m not against hand stitching, I’ve hand stitched and hand quilted a king-sized hexie quilt, but don’t act like that’s the only “right” way.
I really like Love Patchwork and Quilting from the UK. Their designs are very modern and cheerful and really give me fresh ideas. Other magazines I can find here are Today’s Quilting and McCall’s. I’ve bought them occasionally, but Love Patchwork and Quilting is my favourite.
-I MistressJennie, offer scrappy coasters for my small challenge entry.
I read an interview with Stephen King once, where he said that after he finishes a big novel, he always has a little juice left in him, to write a bit more. Generally novellas; shorter pieces that flow quickly, then burn out. Inspired by this habit, and in an effort to prevent little nests of scraps from building up over the year, I’m attempting (upon completion of a quilt) to immediately process my regular scraps into precut sizes, then either toss, or use up my crumbs, in small projects right away. (I usually toss crumbs, anything under 2.5" squares because I don’t actually like working with them.) I loved these fabrics so much, that I made scrappy little blocks from them. They came to 5", so I turned them into a set of 5 coasters. I think I’m going to use them in my studio.
I also made 2 wonky log cabins with the string scraps. They came to 14.5". Instead of making a tote bag, I’m going to frame them to hang on the walls of my studio. We don’t have the time/money to invest in this space yet, and the previous owners painted it a terrible grey & taupe, that I find uninspiring. So that would help cheer the space till we can do more with it.
They certainly would brighten your space! Plus, they are a bit wonky like you! (said fondly and as a compliment…)
I really like your “use up the scraps” plan…I used to do that and just got out of the habit…my dear brother was the recipient of many coasters. His friends would come over and he often gave them a set “from my big sister”…yours are so lovely and will see a lot of use!
