Charming: Independence Trail

I spent the week quilting this charming quilt by doing a couple passes a day. I love how that texture shows up with afternoon light. 

The quilting is subtle as I used a matching cream colored thread. 

Quilted and trimmed. Now for some binding. 

Here is a link to Bonnie's free pattern for Four Patch Fun so you can make your own blocks. 

My favorite tools and supplies (affiliate links):

Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle Fiskars Rotary Cutter

Creative Grids 4.5" x 12.5" Rectangle Quilting Ruler

Fiskars Rotary Cutter replacement blades
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Classic Steam Iron
Fiskars 8-inch scissors

Juki TL-2010Q

Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion

Dritz Craft Pins, 1-3/4-Inch (250-Count)

Electric Quilt

Project box: IRIS 12" x 12" Portable Plastic Storage Cases with Built-in Handle, Clear (storage)

Letter Openers

Fiskars Rotating Cutting Mat 14 inch x 14 inch

Creative Grids Stripology XL Ruler

Charity Quilting

Pretty pink, pieced by me.

Rosy, pieced by Kathryn. Both trimmed and ready for the next Annapolis Quilts for Kids.

If you want to contribute but don't have the time or skills, you can support the national Quilts for Kids by going directly to their website and clicking DONATE. I don't earn anything from this link. 

If you want to support me indirectly, I do include Amazon affiliate links to products I use on my other blog posts. If you purchase the items I recommend, or anything else, after using my links to reach Amazon I receive a small payment from Amazon. I added my yearly income from these affiliate links to the sidebar if you want to see how that commission adds up. 

My personal goal is to quilt at least one quilt per week throughout the year. To that end, check out the Epoch Converter for 2025 to see how I'm stacking up.

2025 Charity Quilt Count: 93

Charity Quilting

This great scrappy quilt was pieced by another member of Annapolis Quilts for Kids. 

Delightful puppies, pieced by another member of Annapolis Quilts for Kids. Both trimmed and ready for the next Annapolis Quilts for Kids.

If you want to contribute but don't have the time or skills, you can support the national Quilts for Kids by going directly to their website and clicking DONATE. I don't earn anything from this link. 

If you want to support me indirectly, I do include Amazon affiliate links to products I use on my other blog posts. If you purchase the items I recommend, or anything else, after using my links to reach Amazon I receive a small payment from Amazon. I added my yearly income from these affiliate links to the sidebar if you want to see how that commission adds up. 

My personal goal is to quilt at least one quilt per week throughout the year. To that end, check out the Epoch Converter for 2025 to see how I'm stacking up.

2025 Charity Quilt Count: 91

Charity Quilting

I pieced this fun scrappy quilt using various different 6.5" squares, 2.5" by 4.5" bricks, and 4.5" by 4.5" four-patches. 

Kathryn pieced this bright and fun quilt. Both trimmed and ready for the next Annapolis Quilts for Kids.

If you want to contribute but don't have the time or skills, you can support the national Quilts for Kids by going directly to their website and clicking DONATE. I don't earn anything from this link. 

If you want to support me indirectly, I do include Amazon affiliate links to products I use on my other blog posts. If you purchase the items I recommend, or anything else, after using my links to reach Amazon I receive a small payment from Amazon. I added my yearly income from these affiliate links to the sidebar if you want to see how that commission adds up. 

My personal goal is to quilt at least one quilt per week throughout the year. To that end, check out the Epoch Converter for 2025 to see how I'm stacking up.

2025 Charity Quilt Count: 89

Bricks and Stepping-Stones

I don't know if anyone remembers that I joined the Sew My Stash 2015 movement (if it can be called a movement) with a promise to not buy a bunch of fabric and to use more what I have. This quilt came entirely from my stash. The blocks, the backing and even the binding came from inside my sewing space. I should set more substantial goals to work through my stash, but this one resulted in a great finish. The pattern, Bricks and Stepping-Stones, is free from Bonnie Hunter's website. She has loads of free patterns that are great for quilters of all levels and you should totally check it out.

While cutting up some of my fabrics, I cut some strips. Here are my selections for the quilt. It turned out I didn't have enough, but this is what I started with. (This is not a tutorial. If you want to make a quilt like this go to Bonnie's site and get the full story there.)

I pressed and trimmed and stitched.

I pressed some more. Where Bonnie chose blacks and neutrals for her stepping stones, I pulled reds and some neutral/light fabrics. My stash is woefully lacking in neutrals and blacks.

I counted, and recounted. I realized I was short a few. I cut more strips and made more. Then I had about 20 extra.

I grabbed my stack of bricks.

I made some blocks. I made a bunch of blocks. 80 or 90 of them.

I pieced the backing with some leftovers from other quilts. Here, I've folded the backing and top into quarters so I can make sure I have enough room to load it onto the quilting frame. Backing is one of those things that does not hang out in my stash.

Again I used this fun flower motif. I matched the thread to the backing and quilted with Superior Thread's So Fine in red.

Quilted and off the frame you can see the full scrappy effect. I see at least one more of these in my future. I do still have bricks cut to the right size.

I grabbed my bin of leftover binding and stitched up some scrappy binding. The binding bin is another great reason to make scrappy quilts. The bin of leftover binding never seems to run low.

I machine-finished the binding on this utilitarian. I came to terms with machine-finished binding and the fact that I would never finish all the quilts I want to make if I hand-finished the binding. Check out my binding tutorials page if you want to see how I attach my binding. I still occasionally hand-finish binding, but the machine-finish is so much faster (about 30 minutes from start to finish once you're practiced) that I use it more and more.

Do you have more fabric than you will ever use? Remember, no one remembers the quilter for the fabric he/she hoarded. They remember him/her for the quilts they made and gifted with love.

Go! Make quilts!

Grand Illusion Mystery Big Finish!

This is the last post about my adventure in mystery quilting.  Go to Bonnie's blog to learn more about this fun mystery quilt.  It's time for the final update to show you the finish and to link up with the rest of the quilters participating this year.  You can go back and check out my work on Clue #1, Clue #2, Clue #3, Clue #4, Clue #5 and Clue #6 from the last few weeks.

I'll fill this post will loads of photos of the quilting.  It took me a couple days to get this one quilted.  Quilting is not my full-time job so I have limited time to work on the long arm.  

I did all the quilting on this with my Pfaff 18.8 Grand Quilter on a Grace Imperial frame.  

When I started I didn't want to do custom quilting because the piecing is so crazy I knew the majority of the quilting would be lost.  Then I put needle to quilt to baste and ended up doing a semi-custom job.  The outer border has a long drawn-out meander that reminds me of gentle waves.  With this quilting I defined a top and a bottom of the quilt.  The label helps with this, too.

The inner border has these little S-curves that travel all the way around the border.  

Each of the corner squares for the internal sashing has this kind of wavy line that goes in different directions with each one.  I think it matches the four-patch center blocks and how they seem to oscillate.  

The rest of the field is filled with this meander in orange thread.  The scale for the quilting is between 1/4" and 1/2".  All quilting is hand-guided without stitch regulator.

I finished the binding by machine for this quilt.  After weeks of working on it I didn't want to spend another week finishing the binding.  

You can find the tutorial for my method (I didn't come up with it, it's just the one that works for me) in the sidebar or at this link.

The quilt is slightly smaller than what I prefer on my queen-size bed.  It's just a little too short to get a tuck at the foot of the bed.  I did sleep under it to make sure it worked properly.

The texture that was created after the quilting was done and the quilt was washed is just amazing.  I love the wrinkled look of a freshly washed quilt. 

Here is the label that I embroidered directly onto the backing fabric before quilting.  The embroidery machine tested my patience but it does give all the particulars.  You can see the different quilting motifs from the back really clearly.  

When I put the last of stitches in for the gray (outer border) (I quilted with three different colors of thread for each area of the quilt) I pulled the bobbin case to find that I had less than 1 yard of thread remaining.  This almost never, ever, ever happens.  It was a great feeling.

I received one comment and wanted to share the response.  I respond to each comment or question privately in email (that's how I handle all comments, so if you are a no-reply-blogger you will never get an answer to your question or a response).  I was asked about my colors.  I did a straight substitution for Bonnie's colors.  Here is the breakdown.

My color = Bonnie's color

• black = black (I picked blacks that read towards a brown/gray)
• white = white (my whites read more silver gray than blue or brown)
• red = blue  (the blue and green had pretty much the same value so I made sure my substitutions did, too)
• orange = green (my red and orange replaced Bonnie's blue and green)
• green = pink (I'm just not a pink person)
• brown = yellow (with all the other changes I pulled a really neutral brown for my constant)

If you want to know more about my color choices you should go back to my first post about the mystery quilt where I talk about how I came to choose the specific colors.  

I'll be linking up with the Grand Illusion Mystery Link-Up.  Be sure to pop over and look at all the amazing quilts people have made.  I love seeing all the different colors and fabrics that were chosen.  Each one has a heart of its own and I love that.

Mystery Quilting - Clue #6 - the Reveal!

This is the sixth post about my adventure in mystery quilting.  Go to Bonnie's blog to learn more about this fun mystery quilt.  It's time for another update to show you where I'm at and to link up with the rest of the quilters participating this year.  You can go back and check out my work on Clue #1, Clue #2, Clue #3, Clue #4 and Clue #5 from the last few weeks.

On New Year's Day I woke to find that Bonnie had released the last clue, the grand finale!  I pulled out my bin with all the clues and started working.  This is a plastic bin designed to hold 12" scrap booking paper.  I think it is great for quilting projects because it will easily hold 12.5" by 12.5" quilt blocks until you get to put them together.

The first step was to lay out a single block so I could piece the 25 blocks.  I did do some repressing before piecing just to make the seams nest better.  This is a hazard that can't be predicted with a mystery quilt.  Not because the designer didn't tell you how to press, just that everyone has a different workflow and may not press the same.

I used one of my design boards to hold a block until I could get one pieced.  Then I put the pieced square on the board until I had pieced all 25 of them.  

I admit that I sewed one block together incorrectly.  Considering how much care I took with keeping everything organized I was surprised it happened.  While piecing the blocks I used the sashing as enders.

I did a bunch of trimming of the blocks when I was done.  I should have checked and double checked my seam allowance but I just wanted to get moving.  This means I sacrificed a couple points.  I don't mind, though.  I don't want perfect.  I just want a quilt.  

Once all the blocks were trimmed it was a matter of crawling around on my design floor and sewing the rows together.  The sashing for these blocks was very different in that you only had one seam to line up.  I really like the sashing and I think the results are great.  When I got to sewing the rows together I pulled out the outer border and used those as my enders.  It was great to use the next step as the enders and keep moving.  It also kept me engaged so it didn't seem too monotonous.  

The movement that results from the smaller checkerboard sashing is just great.  I'm going to need a bigger design floor.

I did consider using a different color for the cornerstones but I decided to stick with the red because, well, I like red.  This quilt is huge.  Yes, I can read and I know Bonnie said 88" by 88" but until I'm working with a quilt that big I forget how really big that is.

I rarely do pieced borders so this was a little different for me.  I pinned and pinned to make sure these lined up nicely.  I'm sure there is a little fullness that I will have to deal with when I get it on the long arm frame.

I changed the layout of the border squares to make them look more like stars along the edge of the quilt.  I really like how the outer border cornerstones worked out with my change to the border.  I think my brown (my substitute for Bonnie's yellow) is really close to my neutrals.  I don't think it is a problem and tones the quilt down a little.  It was a risk picking that color.  Photos don't do it much justice.  Those neutrals really are more towards gray than they look in this photo.

All that remains is to pick the backing, the quilting thread, load up the long arm frame with all the parts, quilt all 7744 square inches of it, make and attach binding and a label.  Just a quick little project.  This is probably one of the most time-intensive quilts I have ever made.  

I am so thrilled that I did this quilt in different colors.  (Go back to my first post to see how I chose these colors.)  I know that so many quilters think they are poor at color selection.  I think they are much better at it than they give themselves credit for.  I think the world would be a very boring place if everyone made every quilt exactly like the designer made it.  Just like if we all wore the exact same clothes every day.  Sure, it might be outside your comfort zone, the world isn't about being comfortable.  Sometimes you have to take a chance.  It's only fabric!

Did you join in the fun?  Did you change up colors?  Did you learn something new?  

Linking up with Quiltville's Link-up Party! 

Mystery Quilting - Clue #5

This is the fifth post about my adventure in mystery quilting.  Go to Bonnie's blog to learn more about this fun mystery quilt.  It's time for another update to show you where I'm at and to link up with the rest of the quilters participating this year.  You can go back and check out my work on Clue #1, Clue #2, Clue #3 and Clue #4 from the last few weeks.

This clue was a quick one.  I think Bonnie was trying to give us all a little bit of time to decompress after the holiday and for some to play catch-up.   

Here are all of my other mystery quilt units stuffed into one project box.  I don't think I'll be able to squeeze clue #5 in there!

There is quite a bit of speculation going on about how many more square inches of quilt are left to piece and if the next clue will be the big reveal.  Still plenty of sewing left to do after the next clue!

Linking up with Quiltville's Link-up Party!