Mini Pumpkins Done

 

The Mini Pumpkins quilt was put together and all ready and layered for quilting.

And so I quilted it, nothing too fancy, but done.

I decided to use on of the background fabrics for the binding.

I got it sewn on quickly.

And that's all done now.

Okay, done, just in time to show it at Sew Day for the #5 UFO Challenge. Now on to doing #3, which is my Bohemian Wife quilt...a real challenge.

Semiquincentennial Time

Happy 4th of July1

We're currently out at our town Volunteer Fire Department Pancake Breakfast and then the town parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country's founding. So here's a picture from last year.

I really loved this reading of the grievances to King George that are in the Declaration of Independence. Robert Reich was formerly a professor at my alma mater, University of California at Berkeley. Note that it does include some footage and sound from our current ruler who truly believes himself to be a sort of a king. Which of course entirely misses the main point of what we're celebrating today. Freedom from tyranny.

Tyranny Shall Not Prevail! Above sticker available here.

This one from the US Constitution Center has no current presidential administration content and has a lot more background information included on the grievances.

As my ancestor Tom Paine said, "we have within our power to begin the world over again." A good thing to keep in mind these days. This video is part of a series of video shorts called 250 to 250 which are great little snippets of US history.

Community Giving Binding and Tutorial

 

This is a combination of a post about getting the quilt binding done for the BAMQ Community Giving quilt AND a tutorial on how to join the ends of the binding using the The Binding Tool by TQM. This is mostly for me, so that I don't have to go watch the instruction video each time. I'm pretty sure I picked this tool up on the Free Table at a BAMQ Sew Day.

You sew on a 2.5" wide quilt binding leaving a 12" gap between your starting and ending points. And I mean as close to exactly 12" as possible. (this is one point I wasn't always the best at). If you don't measure this, it's hit or miss on whether the binding will end up being the right length.

The printing on the tool is ALWAYS face-up. The square end of the tool butts up against the spot where the stitching ends on the left, and you mark the binding with the "MARK HERE" line on the tool.

Unfold and open up the binding flat, right-side up, place the tool on the binding and align the "MARK HERE" line with the line you've marked. The binding fabric they use in the tutorial is a solid, so it's a little hard to tell which side is up so I wanted to note that mainly for myself.

Trim the binding using the angled side of the ruler. Okay, that's the left-hand side of the binding cut and ready to sew together, now moving on to the right-hand side.

Turn the ruler around, but don't turn it over, **Remember it stays Printed Side up**. Butt up the square end of the ruler to the stitching ending point. Mark the binding using the "Mark Here" line.

Spread open the binding, right side up. This is the point I've messed up so pay attention: Align the small angled edge of the ruler with the line you've marked.

Trim off using the angle of the ruler. 

It's pretty standard from here out, pin the two ends together, aligning the snub nosed ends.

Sew with a 1/4" seam. Press open.

Sew down the binding over the 12" gap you had left. You're done/

And then, when you flip over the binding, if you've got a label, don't forget to add it in. For a quilt that's going to be used and washed a lot, I don't hand-sew the binding.

There it is, all done! No gaps, no lumps, no tears or un-sewing.

I made the binding out of some of the quilt's own excess backing fabric (the green one) and a piece of fabric left from the backing of one of my quilts (the yellow one).

I hope that tutorial helps me in the future, and maybe you too if you happen to have this tool in your ruler stash.

July To-Do

Here's how the design wall is looking on the first day of July. As usual it's pretty full with a whole lot going on.There are several projects in stasis, sort of hibernating right out in plain sight on the left (Patchwork Palooza and Kawandii0,. In the middle what I'm working on, the Mosaic table runner and the QCR Mini Pumpklins. On the right side there is Ocean Effect, waiting for me to cut a piece of wood to size and wire it up to hang.

 Note: the use of 🥏👽  by a project name indicates that it's on the 2026 UFO Finishes challenge list of six projects that I committed to finishing at the beginning of the year (more on that list later). Note, this is not the same list as the UFO Challenge for BAMQ, that UFO will have this next to it on the list:🌀🌐  

QUILTS

Design & Begin

Pantone Project - work on an overall design, either in EQ8 or up on the design wall.

Lupine & Laughter Mystery Quilt - keep making units following the clue instructions

BAMQ BOM - make monthly blocks of varying sizes through the year.

Continue Assembly

Patchwork Palooza - Decide on borders, make backing & binding

Keep working on Sour Grass Grace from Jane Sassaman class.

Old Town Mystery Quilt - make a backing & binding, decide on whether to have it quilted

AG Stamp Quilt - continue to make more blocks using the final group of fussy-cut stamp block centers from Tula Pink fabrics.

Continue the piecing of Selvedge Candy (maybe the name) quilt originally designed for the 2025 MQG challenge.

🥏👽 Sew the last 6 columns and sashing together of the 2023  Temperature Quilt together to make the quilt top.

🌀🌐  Mini QCR Pumpkins table runner- finish assembling blocks, quilt, bind.

🌀🌐 David Owen Hastings class piece, make more blocks, assemble into quilt top, quilt, finish🥏👽 

                                      

Quilting

🥏👽 Bohemian Wife -  Sandwich this and start quilting it🌀🌐 

Final Steps 

🥏👽 Bending the Calendar - Cut up? Re-arrange? Embellish?🌀🌐 

HANDWORK/BAG/CLOTHING PROJECTS 

Make a Cotton Candy pouch for myself.

Make a Charlie's Aunt wool purse for myself, first felt the wool from Pendleton Mill.

Toned-Down Circle Sampler - now that I have the appropriately sized grey background felt, arrange and appliqué the circles, start embroidering.

Y.E.S. Coat - continue making pieces/blocks. assemble on foundation, cut out lining pieces from the fabric that I dyed

Snake In The Garden - Finish hand stitching -  🌀🌐

Body Pillow-knit cotton pillowcase - 🌀🌐 

Quilted Dog Jacket for Meg - 🌀🌐  

Hey! This Is All Finished!

🌀🌐 Six by Six quilt (formerly known as Five by Five)

Well...how about that? That's three months in a row with some actual finishing happened. Hope I can continue to keep up the forward progress in July.

Jocose July

Welcome Jocose July! Joscose means: humorous or liking to play. Sounds like a very good plan for July. Keeping a sense of humor as it heats up in my work room is very necessary.

I chose to start with this picture of some of the HSTs I made for the Lupin Mystery quilt.

I ran in through the app Percolator.

And then combined that with the super dramatic and showy Passionflower in the app, SnapSeed.
 

Here is my 1sE video for the month, one second of every day of the month of June..

 Monthly I-Did List for June

1. I started working on the Lupine Mystery quilt again with various sizes of HSTs in different color combinations and sizes. It was A Lot of HSTs all at once~300!
2. I started working on the HRTs for the Lupine Mystery quilt and used a new ruler.
3. I made five Community Giving blocks.
4. I worked on binding a Community Giving quilt.
5. I made my BAMQ BOM blocks just in time, Drunkard's Path and X+.
6. I started on my yearly participation in ICAD.
7. I set up and started using my new Oliso iron.
8. I participated in three exhibits at once in June, BAMQ AT SMCF, BAMQ at the SM Library and SLV Quilters at the BC Library.
9. I got out and started working on my Mini QCR Pumpkins project to finish for the BAMQ UFO Challenge.
10. I finished quilting and then did the binding on my Six by Six quilt for the BAMQ UFO Challenge.

I found that I got plenty done this month, including going to both the Sew Day and meeting for BAMQ,  had a couple great visits with family, kept going to the gym (yay me!), did a whole lot of gardening (see the June  Flower Friday post), kept going on two weekly PT appointments for my right wrist as it is working and helping how I can keep using my right hand like I need to. The plan is to continue keeping up the forward momentum throughout July. 

 

June Cornucopia

 

Personal Size Watermelons - a sign that made me lol (and take this picture) in the grocery store.

Hopefully June was filled with as many "personal size" watermelons (or the equivalent) as you could handle. This is a cornucopia post, filled with watermelons, and links to the things I've enjoyed, read, consumed or spent time with online this past month.

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I think this free EQ8 quilt design is a rather brilliant use of HSTs, Gem Galaxy. 

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This fabulous exhibit of embroidered dresses is detailed in a new book: The Alphabet of Expectations: An ABC Primer for Today's Girl

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This discussion of why we don't finish the projects that we start was very useful to me, some different ways to think about the reasons and the changes we can make.

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This is a great short video from PBS Canvas series highlighting two recent San Jose exhibits that dealt with women and technology, very interesting stuff. Really nice to see local museums shine in a national piece.

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United We Stitch sounds like a pretty cool project to work on, and an exciting display to see in person.

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I found this EQ8 blog post on designing a 250th quilt that will utilize charm packs pretty interesting and useful, as well as this follow up post. I've had some trouble with using the cutting charts that EQ8 calculates, so this should be helpful.

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Almost Mini Pumpkins Top

 

I buckled down and got all of the mini pumpkin blocks stitched together.

It took a while but they turned out well, except for one trimming mistake that I made.

All the blocks completed and up on the design wall together. Yes, it's going to end up being a rather large table runner. It may instead end up being a sort of banner/wall quilt. Depends on how I feel in the fall I suppose.

I've gotten the blocks sewn into rows and now just need to sew them together.