SUNDAY SEW AND SEWS 2024

Since 2017 a small group of quilting friends has met at my house for fun, learning, and companionship. We began working on Block of the Month quilts from The Quilt Show, starting with Halo Star Medallion, designed by the late Sue Garman. We meet for about 2 hours on a Sunday. This past year most of us worked on Feathered Star blocks. 

Over the years much more than quilting has come from this group. It is truly an important part of our lives, as dear friends. Each year it changes a little, some come, some go. And sadly, two have passed away. 

Each December we do a "potluck" holiday meal where we share food and laughter. This year a few were sick or had other obligations, so the annual photo only shows 5 of us--I took the photo so we were a party of 6 instead of 13!

Show and Tell is always the highlight of the day. Here are some photos from our last gathering:

Pam R's Feathered Star quilt with Fussy Cut centers

Victoria's baby quilt before it was gifted to the new one

Susan with a couple more borders to go

Show and Tell at our December party featured these gems:

Cheryl finished one of Janet's projects she left behind when she passed

Cheryl made this comfy throw for a little boy--it has a soft fleece-like back that is so cuddly!

Cheryl got her Patchwork Barn done in time to gift it for Christmas--this proves that an edge-to-edge quilting pattern can work for a lot of quilts--that was all this one needed to be functional and wonderful

Holly finished her Feathered Star quilt and quilted it on her longarm. She said she learned a lot about making perfect points

Susan finished her Washington Medallion top. It is perfect in Black/White and Red. Sue Garman would have approved!

My 3 recent finishes were on the design wall. Charming Kaffe, top left, is a new sample for my Charming Sampler Class. Oh My Small Star! is a sample to teach the basics of this pattern with an adaptation that removes the Y-seam construction. The quilt on the bottom is Scrappy Star Sew Along,  made from instructions on Instagram from "reproquiltlover"--the idea was to replicate an antique quilt she owns, using my fabrics to match the antique as closely as possible. It was FUN!

Another quilt I made and finished this year is Papaw's Choice, pattern by Ricky Tims. I took his online class to learn this and highly recommend his classes. Find them on Let's Quilt Together, his quilt teaching website:

80" square, using mostly hand-dyed fabrics

I really enjoyed coming up with the quilting designs

Having a group of friends you meet with regularly is a joy and will enrich your life. I encourage you to start one if you want to be part of such a group. All I did is ask "Would anyone be interested in..." When we got to 15 people quickly I knew we were on to something.

In 2025 some of us will work on the 2025 Block of the Month quilt from The Quilt Show, LAUREL RIDGE. Some may be "inspired by" the original, yet not make an exact copy. Here are two plans friends of mine have been playing with. See how much fun it can be to play with COLOR and VALUE:

Cyndi

Sally

I have written about this group numerous times, use the SEARCH box above to find them or this link should work: SUNDAY SEW AND SEWS

Let's quilt.

Barbara

PICK A PETAL -- MONTH 4

 PICK A PETAL is the 2024 Block of the Month quilt designed by Jen Kingwell exclusively for The Quilt Show. It is FREE to Star Members, join today to take advantage of this great bonus. WATCH Jen's Show to see how she makes this quilt--it is FREE for EVERYONE all of 2024: Jen Kingwell Show 3401

This month we make the Log Cabin blocks from light neutrals/low volume prints. They will form a border that gets lots of applique and embroidery embellishment. 

Jen's blocks from her quilt:

The idea is to use very low contrast fabrics for the log cabins so the embellishments can really show. For those using the Kit, there is a large supply of very lights for this purpose. I used 28 of them. A few others I used on some of the Month 2 and 3 blocks so I didn't use them here.

The center square is cut 2.5". There are 20 blocks so we need 20 2.5" squares. I started with 7 fabrics and cut a 2.5" x 9" strip from each, lengthwise grain, parallel to the selvedge. This gives 3 squares from each strip so you will have one extra square: 

Using the fabric that remained, I cut 7 strips 1.5" x 9" for some of the Logs from EACH OF THOSE 7 FABRICS.  Since they were already on the table for cutting the squares, I cut them now. This gives 49 strips, that's a small start. 

Next I used 21 more Neutral/Low Volume fabrics to cut lots more strips, 1.5" x 9". Again, lengthwise grain. How MANY STRIPS? 7 strips from EACH of the 21 fabrics--I cut 4 layers at a time. This gives 147 strips--now you have about as many strips as you will need for all 20 Log Cabin blocks:

The pattern instructions give the specific size of each log needed for a block. That is how I chose to do it, cutting two blocks at a time, not repeating a fabric within the block. 

NOTE: I DID NOT  cut all the strips up into all the sizes needed AHEAD OF TIME. I cut for TWO BLOCKS at a time, using any "leftover" pieces as I could. For example, cutting a 5.5" log from a 9" strip leaves a 3.5" x 1.5" log leftover--perfect! You can use that in another block.

The two at the top are ready to sew, the two at the bottom are complete:

A few of the fabrics are directional, like the one with words. Try to keep them all the same or just "wing it"--whatever makes you happy. I am a "symmetrical" kind of girl, so I kept them all "readable" in the quilt. You do you.

Yes, I know there are other ways to make Log Cabin blocks, like chain piecing all the squares to a long strip of fabric 1. Do whichever method you like that gives you the result you want--accurately sewn blocks. 

By cutting accurately  using the instructions, you will quickly see if your seam allowance is off. Remember the 3 things we can do wrong in piecing a block: the CUTTING, the SEWING, and/or the PRESSING. Each of these steps is very important in making these blocks.

Occasionally, I was off a little bit. I see it while pressing the newly added log. Upper right corner is not quite there, off by less than 1/8":

When I added the next strip I was careful to keep the block straight--the missing part is in the seam allowance and only I know it's there. The problem would come if I insisted on keeping the block raw edges aligned with the newly added strip--this would cause the block to be more "out of whack" with each new round: 

I measured each block as I added EACH round--with 1" finished logs it's easy to know what size the blocks should be as each log is added. For example, when the first log is added to the center square, it should measure 2.5" x 3.5" including seam allowance. When the second log is added, the unit is now 3.5" square. And so on... Yes, I checked every seam, every time. 

When the block is done, it is 8.5" square, including seam allowance. Make 20. No rush, you now have several months to make them as we start embellishing the first FOUR log cabins next month: 

IMPORTANT TIP: even if you make ALL 20 BLOCKS RIGHT NOW, do not sew them into borders and add them to the center as soon as you have the center all done. The embellishing with applique and embroidery is done while the Log Cabin borders are NOT YET sewn to the quilt.

Here is how far I have gotten. The borders are complete, (except the final small fan borders) but are not sewn to the center yet. Each border is labeled Top, Bottom, Left or Right:

On the FORUM I posted a photo of how much Kit fabric I now have left for the appliques--find that TOPIC HERE

I will do the Facebook LIVE broadcast Wednesday April 3, 2024, noon Central Time. It will also be on YouTube on The Quilt Show channel. And as always will be recorded to watch whenever convenient, find the links to all the LIVE broadcasts HERE.

This can be a fun "leader/ender" project if you have to be working on another quilt at the same time. I was doing Ricky Tims' virtual class, Papaw's Choice, while making these. It was nice to switch between the neutral blocks and the deep/dark blocks. Here is my Papaw's Choice, 82" square:

I hope this helps as you make the Log Cabin Border blocks.

Next month we start embellishing them, FOUR of them!

Let's quilt.

Barbara