Dawn Star

I was walking through QuiltCon a few years ago when I wandered into the booth of Jennifer Sampou. She had Dawn Star displayed in her booth, and I fell in love with that quilt. I bought the pattern and fabric right then and there.

But it took me a few years to actually make the quilt because I was scared. Despite it being a "kit", because of the ombre nature of the fabric, there's a level of improvisation in the piecing, something that has always scared me.

But what doesn't scare me is the quilting process, as I had the idea of how I was going to quilt it before I even finished piecing it. Dawn Star had some fully complete double stars but also quite a few "incomplete" blocks, which is what makes it fun and surprising. I quilted it as if every star is complete, creating the ghost block outlines where necessary.

The quilting is mostly straight lines, geometric designs that emphasize the stars, with just a few patches of spaces where I couldn't resist but add a few swirls.

By a stroke of good luck, I figured out an efficient quilt path early on, making this a quick and fun quilting experience. The piecing was very stressful because of my tendency to cast doubts on my fabric choices at every turn, but the quilting was so enjoyable and relaxing!

Lotus

I did a lot of longarm quilting last year but I was not in the mood for piecing for much of the year. Finally toward the end of the year I decided to piece Lotus, because I just loved the fabric too much and it demanded to be played with. Both the pattern (Lotus) and the fabric line (Bluish) is by Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic, who is my all-time favorite fabric designer.

When I started designing the quilting for Lotus, all I could think of were feathers. I love the beautiful elegance of feathers but they don't work for every quilt, but I just knew it'd look great here.

But I wanted to quilt a few blocks differently, so I quilted swirls in a block here and there.

I kept to very simple straight lines in the darker colored fabrics. Bluish is so stunning that I really didn't want the quilting to overwhelm it.

I was so excited to get to quilt all these feathers, and so happy with the final finish. Next to straight lines, feathers are one of the my favorite designs to run my hands over.

Compared to how heavily I usually quilt my quilts, Lotus is pretty lightly quilted, which means it actually feels kind of squishy in my hands. I'm really in love with it!

Trellis

Continuing my trend last year of quilting the "pedestal" quilt tops, the ones I really love and want to finish, I decided to start the year with Trellis. Trellis was one of two quilt tops that came out of my #100Days100Blocks2018 challenge ... and wow, I just realized that means it's more than 6 years old. Sometimes I can't really feel time passing, until I suddenly realize children I haven't seen for awhile are all grown up, or a quilt top I felt like I only worked on not that long ago is actually 6 years old.

But never mind the nostalgia train. I was very happy when I pulled out Trellis out of the pile and realized it looked as beautiful as I remembered. (Sometimes a quilt top is a lot less pretty than I remembered!) The pattern is by Tula Pink, and the fabric by Elizabeth Hartman. Since it is a sampler block quilt, the only parts tying it together is the frames, so I quilted those all the same: with simple lines.

The background calls for some dense swirls so that they recede into the space. The focal point of this quilt is after all the lovely and different quilt blocks.

The fun part of this quilt is really figuring out what to quilt for each block. I didn't do much advanced planning, and just quilted it with whatever I felt like at the time. I picked a few basic staples that always look good on busier fabric, and they are geometric designs, straight lines, feathers, continuous curves, and a few linear designs that look good on longer strips.

I usually plan every detail of the quilting out before I start, so doing this sort of spontaneously is a nice change. Even though each block is different, using just a few consistent designs and using the same design on the frames ties things together nicely.

I'm so glad I started the year off with such a rainbow beauty! I have a lot of plans for 2025 (not quilting related) so I don't think I can finish as many this year, but we'll see how many I manage.

2024: A Year of Sewing

It's the end of the year, and can I say, I'm really proud of all the projects I've completed this year. In fact, this is definitely the most productive year (sewing-wise) I've had in a long, long time. I aimed to finish one quilt each month, and I did exactly that, but I also completed a ton of bag projects, which I did not expect to do at all!

I cannot resist a little collage, so here are all the quilts I finished this year:

I can't fit all my bag projects into one collage, so here are some of my favorites:

I've already got a ton of projects lined up for next year, including finishing some more of my all-time favorite quilts. I also hope to finally get back to piecing, too!

And last but not least, Happy New Year! I wish all my readers a wonderful and productive 2025.

Moon Lanterns

I rate all my finished quilt tops from one to five, and Moon Lanterns is an absolute five-star. In fact, it's one of the very few fully-solid quilts to land a five, because I typically prefer prints and near-solids to full-solids. But from the moment I saw this pattern, it carved a special place in my heart.

Moon Lanterns is made entirely of two blocks. I got the pattern from Amy Gibson's The Quilt Block Cookbook. Amy Gibson is literally my first quilting teacher, as I learned how to piece from her via her classes on Craftsy. Unfortunately she doesn't seem to be active in the quilting community right now, but she had written some great books, and this is one of them.

Most of the foreground fabrics consist of some straight line designs. I really love designing these dot-to-dot patterns, as I just start drawing, start connecting dots, and then see where it goes. The destination is sometimes unpredictable, but I've always loved the end result.

I used only 2 fillers in this quilt: pebbles and swirls. I use swirls all the time, but I actually rarely use pebbles by itself, but it felt right for this quilt! To me, there's an Asian / Japanese feel to this quilt.

I probably should have used a printed backing since the front is all solids, but I also really like how much the quilting shows on a solid-backing like this.

***

I've finished 12 quilts this year, possibly the most I've done in a year in a long time. I really hope to continue the momentum next year. I've already got a lot of favorites lined up. No longer am I putting some quilts on a pedestal, if I love it and have an idea of what to do with it, I'm quilting it!

A Pair of Flap Bags

For a while now, I've been looking for a pattern to make a bag that serves as my everyday bag. While I've made several tote bags this year that are great for travel, my everyday bag is actually a messenger bag, that I've been carrying for the past 7 years. But I think I finally found something that can function as my everyday bag. Or two. Both patterns are from Sew Sweetness.

The first bag I made is the Appaloosa Bag, which I made with this gorgeous black / gold fabric I found in my stash. The Appaloosa is a bit smaller than the Satellite Bag, and to be honest, is probably more suited for everyday use as well. I also like that it has a flat bottom and purse feet, so I can place it down on a surface, whereas the Satellite Bag has a curved bottom.

The main feature of the Appaloosa Bag is the accordion divider pocket in the front. I had to put a lot of interfacing into this bag, so it inherently feels more sturdy and structured than the Satellite Bag.

The second one I made is the Satellite Bag, which has been on my todo list for a very, very long time. Intiailly I intended to make it with light fabrics, but I feared with everyday use the fabric would start to look dirty. So I switched to black fabrics so that I won't be afraid to use it.

The inside of the bag is fairly simple, though the interesting feature is that the flap itself has a zipper on it, which opens to a little compartment. Now, I'm not sure how practical it actually is, but it's still a neat feature. Besides that, the bag has an open front pocket, and an inside zipper pocket, all enclosed with a flap that fastens with a magnetic snap. This bag is also very big and can hold a lot.

Now, it's time to field test these bags, because I never actually know whether I like or enjoy using something until I've used it in the wild. Sometimes the results are surprising!

Nova

When I was planning my quilting lineup this year, I know I wanted to include at least one ultra-special quilt in this lineup. By ultra-special, I mean quilts that have been elevated to pedestal status in my queue, to the point that I'm afraid to finish it. Usually it means quilts that have special fabrics, or took forever to make, or had a great deal of handwork.

Nova, designed by Tula Pink, is all of the above. It is an English paper-piecing pattern using Alison Glass fabrics that I fussy cut, and it took me about forever to make. I actually wrote 2 posts about the making-of, here and here.

How in the world do I go about quilting a quilt like this? Well, as it turns out, this quilt is already so beautiful on its own due to the fabrics and the pattern that there's not much I have to do. I just have to enhance it a little bit, and that I can do.

I quilted the background with some big swirls, leaves, and pebbles.

I kept the quilting in the star pretty simple, with just some geometric dot-to-dot designs to enhance the piecing. The hardest part about this quilt is actually keeping all the quilting facing the correct direction, so that whether they're pointing inward or outward, they're all pointing in the exact right direction. I kept a design diagram with me at all times to refer to, as otherwise I'd get easily confused when my face is a few inches from the quilting.

Nova is so special so it also deserves a special backing, so I used some of my out of print Tula Pink Freefall backing. It hurt a little to use it, but I'm also glad it has found a worthy quilt top to pair itself with.

I'm so glad I finally finished Nova! It is such a gorgeous quilt and I know I'll keep it forever.