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.

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.

One New Mini Pumpkin

 

I had enough time today to sew together exactly one mini pumpkin block. 

The block went together very easily.

Sewing slowly its the main thing.

That and remembering how to use the Quick Curve Mini Ruler to trim the block down.

And the power went back on just in time to be able to give this a quick ironing

Ghost & Regular Mini Pumpkins

 

I had to switch over to cutting out the background pieces for the new mini pumpkin blocks from a new fabric as I ran out of the topo map one (there in the upper right hand corner. I think they'll work well together in the whole quilt and not be too jarring next to each other.

Lots of slicing.

There's how the orange pumpkins look with the backgrounds included. Amazing how big they are before all the seams get sewn.

And then I cut out the pieces that are required for more ghost pumpkins, which is closer to the look of the original pattern. Ooh no, that dark grey I used is not going to work. I'll dive into my BAM BOM bag to find a good medium grey to substitute instead.

Now to make these into pumpkin blocks instead of pumpkin pieces.

Mini Pumpkins

 Oh yes, that's right, I'm supposed to be working on finishing up my #5 on my BAMQ UFO list. It's the Quick Curve Ruler Mini Pumpkins project that I started back in 2019. These four blocks were the only parts that I had finished.

I also had put aside the right size squares of orange fabrics that I was meaning to use. So I dug out my Quick Curve Mini Ruler and tried out my smaller rotary cutter. Unfortunately the blade isn't quite wide enough to reach the cutting mat through the ruler thickness and fabric. So I just used my regular rotary cutter.

The cutting of all the curved orange pumpkin sections went pretty quickly. I found that I had four top "stem" units made. Now I need to cut the block backgrounds and make two more top of the block "stem" pieces. I will either make another grey pumpkin block or cut new outer edge pumpkin pieces for that bottom one. It just looks too strange of a shape because the outer curve is too match-y with the background fabric.

Metro Twist Finish

 

Finishing up the binding on Metro Twist. Sewing it down from the front.

It's working out pretty well.

And there it is, all done -- Metro Twist.

I like how the binding looks.

I'm really glad I made this quilt, and I'm grateful to Amy for the lessons on how to use the Quick Curve Ruler.

This is another one to check off of my 2025 UFO Challenges list.

Stamp Quilt Start

 

This week I received the newly released Alison Glass Stamp Quilt border fabric just in time to start the sew-a-long she's holding. I also got the official ruler which seemed like it would be very helpful. This picture is before I took the sticky white backing off of the ruler, that's why the words are backwards. I also bought two of her embroidered patches. Aren't they fun? I feel like I need a jean jacket to sew them onto. I'm always too hot for a jean jacket these days. Maybe I'll put them on my recycled/reused jeans tote bag instead.

Here's the ruler with the white sticker off, the white is now the actual scalloped stripe that is printed on the fabric.

This is what the stamp quilt blocks look like. I am planning to cut various sizes of motifs from Tula Pink fabrics to use as the stamp art.

Metro Twist Top

 I turned my attention to the finishing off the assembly of the Metro Twist top.

There was one column left to put together the pieces into blocks.

I put on a good BBC story podcast and got down to it. Here's all four columns completed.

And then tah-dah...the Metro Twist top is complete. Well, except for the consideration of additional borders of course.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out, the curves are gentle yes, but they're still curves. And using the Quick Curve Ruler is a very accurate method to get them done well.

So, yay another quilt top, that needs a back, quilting and binding. Adding it to the list.

Twist Blocks

That was enough free motion quilting for me for now, so I switched over my machine to regular sewing mode. Time for some more work on the piece taking up most of the design wall: Metro Twist. That's the name of the pattern, so not my own title, that hasn't come to me quite yet.

I put that 1/4" foot back on and got down to business sewing together the Metro Twist blocks. First I had to make one BD unit (the curve is the left hand side of a half circle) that I was short. I'd made one extra AC unit as seen in the first picture. It was easy to do one block, as I've now had all this experience using the ruler and following this pattern.

There's one block done! Only fifteen more to go... 

Because this pattern is still messing with my brain as far as orientation, I'm taking it slow and piecing together one block at a time instead of chain piecing rows. This involves putting the units of one block on my pressing board, taking a picture like the one above and then piecing and pressing.

I think it's working out well so far, most of the piecing is going together very easily.

Two done so far, leaving fourteen to go. I should probably sew this together in a column as I go just to make it even more foolproof for myself.