Scrappy Americana Flag Sew Along, Month 1

 The first month and it's the Four Patch Stripe blocks, super easy.

This fabric is so beautiful!

I'm going to love every minute of this sew along. Making the blocks just once a month is very relaxing. No weekly scrambling to get them done. 

Here are my blocks, 6 red four patch blocks and 6 low volume blocks.

I'll see you next week, and thanks for checking out my blog ❤️

The Scrappy Americana Flag Sew Along

This sew along is with The Fat Quarter Shop on their blog, 

the Jolly Jabber.

Lori Holt, the quilt designer, will also be doing the sew along on her blog, Bee in my Bonnet. Lori always gives the best details.

This is the most beautiful fabric, it looks way better in person. The colors are very vibrant.

This is the fabric after I've opened it and cut all the pieces.  I think there's enough left to make two more quilts!

I'm so happy that all my pieces are cut out! I'm doing foundation paper piecing with a few of the blocks, and the rest will be pieced.

The sew along begins on May 9 and continues through February.  With such a long time span, it will be doable to get the quilt finished on schedule.

Thanks for following along.  Come back on May 9 to see my first blocks, the four patches.

Regent Street quilt

I have always loved the Union Jack flag. It belongs to England, but also belonged to Canada until 1967, when Canada designed its own flag when they were 100 years old. I had to draw this flag in my young Elementary school years, and always had a difficult time. There are two or three different sizes in the stripes. I remember trying to get it even with a ruler, but it was just really hard!

I went to London from Paris, for one day, two years ago.  The first place we went, was Liberty of London. It's an incredible 3 story shop with the most beautiful things! One of their floors is devoted to Liberty of London fabric.  Some of it is tana lawn, a very fine, silky cotton.

I've been in love with Liberty of London fabric since I was 19 years old, in fashion design at Ryerson in Toronto. It has always reminded me of Laura Ashley.

When I was at Liberty of London, I bought some small fat quarter packs of their fabric, excited to make a quilt out of it. Over a year ago, I cut the fabric for the Regent Street quilt by Amy Smart from Diary of a Quilter. I'm going to a quilt retreat in another week and decided to make this quilt with my beautiful fabric!  This is how the first block turned out. After cutting the pieces for this quilt, I had enough fabric left to make the Snail quilt by Pen and Paper Designs. You can see it here.

I'm so excited to show you the finished quilt top in a few weeks!

Thanks for following along :)

The Americana Flag Quilt

 

I received the Americana Flag Quilt Kit in the mail from Fat Quarter Shop! It's a pretty big box full of fabric and the pattern.

Here is the fabric, two full bundles!  There are one yard pieces and some half yard pieces.  The pattern tells you which fabric to us with a little photo and the SKU number.  You can piece the blocks or use foundation paper.  I have foundation paper for one of the sizes so I'll use it and will piece the rest of the blocks. The quilt along beings in May.

On the stripes of the American flag, every rotating block is pieced.

This will be a fun quilt along!  Thanks for following me :)

Callie & Co Mystery Block of the Month 2025

 Corey Yoder from Coriander quilts is doing the cutest mystery block of the month. These are Blocks 1, 2 and 3, not necessarily in order.

I think that each block is so cute and scrappy, each piece being a different color and print. I know I can catch up! I'm going to make mine out of a "Miss Kate" fat eighth bundle by Bonnie and Camille, 2017. I always try my best to use what I have even though it's so tempting to buy more cute current fabric!

I'll let you know about my progress :)

Quiltcon 2025

 

Quiltcon is a national quilt show for modern quilts, held once a year. This year it was in Phoenix, just an hour from my home. A group of my friends got together and drove to the Phoenix Convention Center and we had a wonderful day! 

Our first order of business was to wait in line for the Ruby Star Society booth. We waited in line for an hour and a half! It was worth every minute. During that time, we got to meet the lovely and oh so talented Miss Melody Miller. She came up to me and asked if she could see my quilted jacket. Do you see her examining it?  I felt so special ❤️ She saw all the Ruby Star fabric and her name on one of the selvages on my collar. 

Here I am in the Ruby Star booth 💗💗💗 Thanks Nedra for capturing the moment ❤️

I also got to meet Elizabeth Hartman, eeeeeeeeek!!!!!! I've made and loved and admired so many of her quilts.  My grandchildren thank her!

Awesome Ocean, Fancy Forest, Penguin Party, Llamas, and more.

Our quilting friend group ❤️

Nedra made the quilt that is displayed behind us. Such an honor for it to be displayed for everyone to see and enjoy!

Here are some photos I took at vendor's booths.

I love looking at traditional quilts, but modern quilts inspire me even more.  I mean the ones that were displayed and some that won awards. I noticed a lot of straight line quilting.  I know I can do that on my sewing machine. There are lots of techniques I can take from those creative quilts and use it in my own quilting.  

I only went for one day, and walked my feet off!  It's the slow walking that makes me tired 😂 Maybe next time I'll go for two ❤️

Thanks for following me :)

English Smocked dress

 Izzy really wanted me to make her a dress, an English smocked dress. I meant to have it ready for Christmas 2023, but ran into a lot of problems. I had such a difficult time seeing my guide threads.

She loves her dress!

I think the color looks really good on her too.

I piped around the Peter Pan collar, making the piping myself. 

I used vintage buttons too.

I piped the yoke, the sleeve band, and the back drop yoke.  I thought of adding a sash, but they're really difficult to tie with this cotton fabric.

You can see the smocking design better below, a heart design.

The construction of the dress was very easy for me, I have made countless little girl dresses in the past. All of the seams are French seams, encasing the raw edges. I'm so happy that Izzy loves her dress! The pattern is Basic Square Yoke dress by Children's Corner.

Quilt Retreat

 

I went to a fun quilt retreat with 7 other women last week. There was lots of delicious food, tons of laughter, a Cheetos ball fight and a toilet paper war. I think one of the tricks to a quilt top finish, is to go with a few blocks premade. I finished my "top knot" quilt top, designed by Lindsey at Pen and Paper Designs.

I started my Strawberry baby quilt too.  

I wasn't able to get as much finished as I had planned, but I did pretty well. Thanks for following, I'll see you next week :)

My Quilted Jacket is finished!

 I did it! I finished my jacket! It was fun using blocks I already had and outlining them with 1 1//2" and 2 1/2" squares. I used selvages, made some economy blocks and my jacket was born. The most difficult part was finishing the inside of the arm sleeve.  You go as far as you can from the bottom, then back tack. Then you go inside of the sleeve to the spot where you stopped. It was a little like wrestling a bear.

The jacket is one size fits all, but not quite...I'm tall and have long arms.  I would have made the sleeves at least 6" longer. I used a cute Ruby Star fabric with its selvage on the end of the arm so that when the cuff is turned up, you can see it.  If I turned up the cuff, I would have a 3/4 length sleeve.

This coat is pretty colorful! I used mostly orphan blocks and leftover half square triangles from a few quilts that I made.

Each one of the blocks that I used in the economy blocks, have a sentimental meaning to me.

This embroidery is one that my youngest son Sean stitched when he was 8 years old.  I drew it and he stitched it. I held onto it for 23 long years,  hoping to use it in something....

I love the Union Jack, it was also Canada's flag until they turned 100 years old in 1967. Then they created the maple leaf flag, from sea to shining sea.

I only used my favorite Ruby Star selvages on the collar.

There were a few areas on the quilt that I had to use some filler.

I love Hello Kitty 💗

All 3 of our sons are in law enforcement. Cops are brave!

Thanks for following, see you next week!