Grey Birds

 Time for me to make another block for the BAMQ BOM, so it's back to the Box o' Greys.

This month it's Birds In The Air, and I'm going to use an EQ8 version.

I made two of these blocks, and I really like how they turned out. I almost want to make two reverse blocks to make a big four patch out of them.

Many Hands

 Another thing I worked on at Super Sew Day was putting together the quilt we're making for one of our relatives. This is a non-official Quilt of Valor for a veteran. As you can see, our design wall was the floor. I took a picture of the row I was sewing together with the sashing in between so that I'd get the blocks in the correct order and orientation.

The work went by so quickly with four of us working on it at once. The sashing had been pre-cut which was very helpful. And the majority of the blocks were actually 12.5" which always makes these group quilts go together more easily.

I think these blocks all turned out beautifully, and I love the range of prints and solids that we all chose.

There was some rearranging happening when we did the horizontal white sashing + red solid cornerstones. Unfortunately I neglected to get a final form picture of the finished quilt top. The binding and backing got made as well, so that one of our members can do the long-arming this week. It will be a very quick turnaround which is great news.

More Kitty Ears

 

On the second day of Sew Day, I made more "kitty ears". (sung to the tune of "On The First Day of Christmas") for the Lupine Mystery Quilt. I'm of course, ending up with a whole lot of teeny tiny hsts™

Are my blues arctic blues as they're meant to be? I'd say that some of them get fairly close, but many are way off. I hope it ends up working out. I'm completely using up some of these blues, so this will be the last time they appear in one of my quilts.  

It wasn't all strip cutting, there was some fussy fiddly cutting happening. But at the end, I ended up with nine sets of four (out of the required 24 sets) done. I also cut out the rest of the blue squares that will be needed. Pshew, that was a lot. What a super fun, Super Sew Day(s) it was!

Time for Kitty Ears

Time for a Super Sew Day, so I brought along my stacks of "ice blue" and "white/cream" fabrics and cut out a bunch of the next clue I'm working on for the Lupine Mystery quilt. This block unit is called "Kitty Ears."

Well, at least two sets got done!

Fairly Recent New Inputs

 

We had an excellent BAMQ meeting on Saturday, and as per usual I snagged something off of the free table. Is this not the cutest fabric ever? I have had several cats over the years who definitely believed they were part deer, because of their outdoor interactions with the local deer gang. I totally missed this Violet Craft fabric line from 2016, so it's fun to get a "vintage" fabric that's new to these eyes at least. I love how the free table changes over the year depending on who is doing a stash cleanout, etc.

And then there was a nice surprise, I won the drawing for the BAM BOM prize this month. And it's all yellows and oranges. These are great, I never have enough yellow choices.

Then I realized I hadn't posted my recent purchase from the great quilt shop, Sewlarium in Portland. The owner has been making very entertaining reels on Instagram recently, one that spurred me to shop online at his shop. Another one of the William Morris/Kaffe Fasset fabrics, an interesting check, too cute to pass up vintage looking owls and a speckled orange.

And how nice, he threw in one of their shop stickers which is so hilarious, I love it so much.And then way back in June, I went shopping for the fabric to make the pillowcases for friend Amy, which I found at Hart's Fabric in Santa Cruz. 

That's three of the fabrics there, the other one that Really Doesn't Fit In,  is for the medallion quilt I've been collecting fabrics for.

Also in June, I went to Santa Cruz Vac n' Sew, because I needed some more lime green for the 6x6 quilt, that's what those two greens are, then there's the yard of toweling that I got for more napkins,  and some upholstery thread and sewing machine needles. The Marcia Derse fabric is from The Granary.

Really catching up here, again in June, I went to a doctor appointment that is dangerously close to Golden State Quilting, and apparently I was in a shopping mood. I got two more new Marcia Derse prints, a couple of FQ's in acid green and yellow, a new Quilter's Select ruler, a mini braid template, 

and finally a FQ pack of the newest Anna Maria Horner fabrics. Aren't they just so fun and exuberant? Seen here with the two FQ's I got down at the bottom.

Well that turns out to have been a whole lot of fabric acquisition since the last time I updated the fabric tracker.  I swear, July was such a weird mind-bender that I was wondering where all this new fabric came from, so I'm glad I went through this exercise for this post and to:

Updating the 2026 fabric tracker: 

26.25 fabric in

- 26.85 fabric out =

-.6 NET Fabric Usage

To Make A Pillowcase

We're having a fun swap in BAMQ, a Pillow Fight! People were paired up and they got to decide on which type of pillow or pillow case to make for each other and to talk about which sort of colors they wanted too. It is really nice to have more information like this so that it's more likely your recipient will be more likely to actually like and use the thing you end up making for them. Hopefully my swap partner will 

enjoy these fabric selections.

I used these directions to make a double banded pillowcase with French Seams so that there's no raw edges to worry about when you're done. Unfortunately the ads on that website are super intrusive, so be warned.

You cut WOF pieces, 27" for the body, 10" for the cuff, 2.5" for the band. Press the 2.5" band piece in half lengthwise, wrong sides together. 

Stack the fabrics in this order, all right-side up, aligning the raw edges. First the Cuff fabric, then the Body Fabric, and then the folded Band piece.  You roll up the Body fabric towards the raw edge. as seen here. I temporarily pinned this here before the next step.

This is probably the weirdest part to wrap your mind around, after you've rolled up the body fabric you fold up the other edge of the Cuff fabric (right sides together) and align that raw edge with all the others. 

Note: Only one of the raw edges of the Body will be in this first seam that you sew, the other is in the rolled-up part. (that was the part that boggled me for a bit).

I moved all the pins I'd previously used to pin this final sandwich roll together. Pin together all those aligned raw edges and then sew a 1/4" seam along this long WOF raw edge.

It's a whole lot of layers, just make sure you're not catching the rolled-up Body fabric that's in the middle of the sandwich roll as you sew.

It's looks like a little taco/burrito kind of thing, all sewed up along one edge.

Then you get to turn it all right side out and see if you got the fabric stack ordered correctly.

All Very Wrinkly of course, but the whole thing needs pressing now anyways. Make sure you press the Band seam first before doing the top folded over edge of the Cuff. With wrong sides together, align the raw edge and along the bottom, press the whole thing in half.

That looks much better after a little pressing. The raw edges need some trimming before proceeding.

That's better.

With right-sides together, sew a 1/4" seam starting at the top of the Cuff, and turning the corner to sew along the bottom edge.

Trim those two corners before turning the whole thing wrong side out and then pushing the corners out so they're nice and flat.

Big Reminder Here: Switch over to a 1/2" seam allowance for this last step. Be sure to check your seam width on some scraps before you start sewing & change your foot if you were using a 1/4" one before.Sew down the side and bottom with, a very nice 1/2" which contains the raw edges (aka French Seam). Turn the pillow case right side out and do a final press.And there's one of my pillowcases, all done, now to go get the second one done.And here's the two gorgeous pillowcases I got from the swap from friend Amy.

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.

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.