Soap Opera

It began so innocently. We were visiting Lizard's parents in 2022, when it was safe to be in the limited company of trusted others again, when I received an email from a favorite quilt shop advertising the cutest table topper kit. Lizard's mom's favorite color is teal, and her entire house has a western theme. I showed her the ad, and she fell in love with the table topper. I ordered the kit. It arrived at our house the day after we returned home. I couldn't wait to get started!

I was so excited to make something Lizard's mom might actually like. She loved the advertisement photos of the project, and she commented how perfect the table topper would be for her dining room. Unfortunatley, I was so excited, I didn't thoroughly read the instructions. I ran out of fabric and had to order more because I cut 2.5-inch strips instead of 1.5-inch strips. In my defense, I think the larger strips show off the fabric far better.

I made a HUGE table topper! I presented it to my mother-in-law on Mother's Day. Thankfully, her table wasn't too small for the giant. (I'd made one of like size from stash leftovers for my mom in her favorite color, blue, and she loves it, even though it is as big as her little table for two.) Lizard's mom asked if I could make a smaller one, too. I bought more fabric to comply.

I presented the smaller table topper to her later that year for her birthday. She loved it. She still uses both but favors the smaller one. I had enough leftovers to make a third table topper in the smaller size for my Etsy shop. (I loved the pattern so much, I made a dozen more table toppers from various stash for my Etsy shop. Only five remain!)

My mother-in-law loved the fabric of the table toppers so much, I decided I would try to teach her to quilt. I bought a yard each of two of the teals in the Home on the Range fabric line and a charm pack. I thought one teal might make a great backing, making the quilt reversible. I cut the background teal into charms, and we returned at Christmas to help Lizard's mom make a cute quilt with fabric she liked. Even Lizard was going to help, if he could. I'd been trying (unsuccessfully so far) to get him back into quilting as part of his art therapy.

The Christmas visit didn't go as planned. We encountered some resistance every time we tried to sit down to the sewing machine. Finally, Lizard's mom confessed she did not want to learn to quilt. She said she's an old dog and doesn't want to learn a new trick. I was pretty discouraged because I'd done all this prep work for her. I decided I'd make the quilt for her. Maybe I could teach Lizard to longarm again so he could quilt it for her... I hoped she'd still like it, even if it wasn't her own creation. I even found a fat quarter bundle of coordinating solids, and I bought it, thinking I could make the quilt larger than lap-size.

Along came a variety of health challenges for Lizard, his mom and his stepdad, plus, Lizard unexpectedly lost his stepsister just a few months later, and then I unexpectedly lost my dad six months after that. All the stress accelerated Lizard's Parkinson's. I don't think I touched my longarm or my sewing machine for two whole years, except for emergency clothing repairs on the fly. Life seemed so non-stop out-of-control. I began feeling guilty for not finishing that quilt while Lizard's mom could still enjoy it. I think it became my most dreaded project. I got depressed every time I walked by the quilt-in-waiting.

A few months ago, I learned my neighbors were expecting their first child, and they were decorating his nursery with a western theme. I thought (hoped) I'd have enough Home on the Range leftovers to make a baby quilt. That meant I'd have to finish at least the flimsies for my mother-in-law first so I'd know how much fabric I'd have leftover and if it would be enough. I found charm squares AND one layer cake of the Home on the Range line, even though it's going on four years old now. I was SO tempted to order another charm pack and a yard of background fabric so I could make a matching quilt for the baby.

Especially after I finally finished piecing my mother-in-law's quilt top! Man, did it ever come out cute! Much cuter than expected, too. I still got depressed every time I looked at the stack of fabric, but, man, did the finished quilt top improve my quilting attitude! I was able to get a little more size out of the charm squares by incorporating all the teal squares in the charm pack (and cutting a few more), which I had not planned to do in the original MIL quilting lessons design. (I originally had wanted to keep it simple so she wouldn't get frustrated and not want to finish.)

Next came the backing for the first quilt. I didn't have enough of any single fabric for an entire backing, and I've always been a fan of pieced backings anyway. I decided to try to use up as much of the teal as possible because it's Lizard's mom's favorite color and to get rid of the fabric I couldn't stand to look at for so long. I am so pleased with how the backing turned out! (And I used up almost all of the teal!!! There's just enough left for the binding.)

I was beyond tempted once again to buy another charm pack and another yard of background fabric (which was still available online in two different shops) so I could make another top similar to the first one, just in a different color scheme. (The dark brown and cinnamon burlap weave prints are still available in yardage.) I didn't do anything for two days because I was fighting the almost overwhelming urge to buy more fabric. Finally, I decided to cut up my leftovers into six-inch squares and use the coordinating solids to make my own non-standard charm squares. And to use up as many of the leftovers as I could.

I'm not sure now which top I like better because they both came out SO stinking cute. (Plus, I twice resisted the fierce impulse to buy more fabric!!! YAY!!!!!) I had one full yard left of one boot fabric, so I cut it up and pieced in stitched leftovers from the table toppers to create another GREAT backing. Now I just have to quilt. Home stretch!!! I can finish up at least the baby quilt in a couple of days. I can take my time with the MIL quilt because I will give it either as a birthday present or a Christmas present. The pressure is gone. I'm hoping if I give it enough time, I won't hate the fabrics anymore, and the rest of the chore will be fun. How can I not love quilting such adorable quilts?!?

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

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Twin Two Through

I made quick work of my Snowville charm pack, a yard of fabric for the backing, and a bunch of snowflake scraps from my stash. I used my longarm to draw snowmen all over the sandwiched layers to match last week's first twin quilt. This baby was finished in three days, and both quilts are now in the mail to my mother-in-law for her neighbor's preemie twins.

I initially had thought I could do disappearing four-patch or nine-patch cuts on this quilt, but on the diagonal, so it would sort of be in harmony with the first twin quilt. But this fabric line isn't as charm-friendly, in my opinion. Many of the prints are better suited to a layer cake; some of the charms don't have much of a design on them because the polar bears and penguins are too far apart. So I decided to use the charms intact to preserve theme elements that did exist.

If I'd had both the Snow What Fun and Snowville charm packs on hand when I began the first twin quilt, I would have purposely switched a couple of charms so both quilts would have one block from the other twin's quilt. After I finished piecing this latest creation, I realized I could have cut another couple of frosty mug charms from my stash to match what I did to fill in a couple of holes on the first quilt (and to replace the two charms that don't have polar bears or penguins). I was kicking myself in the behind for not thinking of that before I finished piecing.

But then I realized both quilts have blocks made from snowflake fabrics from my stash, and both quilts are bound with the snowflake binding leftovers from previous snowflake-themed quilts I've finished in the past. A couple of the snowflake fabrics in each quilt even match. So, mission accomplished!

This twin quilt journey began while we were visting my mother-in-law in September. She took us to a quilting shop in her town, and I purchased the Snow What Fun charm pack to show her how fun disappearing four- and nine-patch designs can be. She's still somewhat intimidated by the entire quilting process beyond rag quilts. Her birthday is in a couple of weeks, so I'm including a present for her in the twin quilt package because I'm still hoping to get her addicted to quilting.

Sometimes it takes just the right fabrics to make you anxious to begin a new project. I found this charm pack and bought two yards of the coordinating fabric, then cut 42 charm squares from the solid. Lizard says his mom's favorite color is teal. Hopefully, this is just what my cowboy-lovin' mom-in-law needs to brave drowning in the love of quilting!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Frosty Finish

Twin I Quilt really doesn't have a name, but I guess it could be Snow What Fun, which is the name of the fabric line.

Whatever it ends up being called, it's done!

This quilt started as beginning patchwork lessons for my mother-in-law. I've now found the most perfect charm pack for her that hopefully will inspire her to start her own first real quilt. I also found a perfect charm pack for Twin II. Neither charm pack is here yet, so I can't show them. But in addition to finishing the first twin quilt, I also got all my selvedges stitched together into a couple of crochet-able (or knit-able) balls. Second time this year I've prevented the mountainous pile of selvedges that tends to linger and volcanicly grow in my collection for years.

When I was showing my mother-in-law all the fun things we could do with disappearing four patches and disappearing nine patches, she asked how I would do the quilting. I told her little snowmen might be kind of fun. She liked the idea, so I played with a line drawing in my head for a couple of weeks while I was too busy to quilt, then practiced the snowman drawing on the actual quilt. Not all my snowmen are perfect, but you can tell they are snowmen, and I think more projects like this will help me continue to develop my longarm skill and confidence.

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Charming Painterly Petals

March is just around the corner, quite literally, so it was time to get serious about finishing another quilt if I want to achieve my goal of one WIP finish each month this year.

Because the two Painterly Petals charm packs and the Royal Blue Cotton Supreme yardage that went into the front of the quilt were not my favorite fabrics, I decided one of the Moda Gradients II I'd bought in a five-yard bundle because I loved the other four would be the perfect "time out" panel backing for this quilt. When I pulled out Parfait to look at it, it actually looked, to me, as if it was made to go on the back of this quilt.

The yard of Parfait flowers wasn't quite big enough to fill the entire backing, so I sliced some five-inch strips from the Painterly Petals yardage I'd bought specifically for the backing and the Cotton Supreme Royal Blue remnants, then sewed the strips together on both sides to then slice into exactly enough HSTs to go all the way around the panel, with two leftover blocks, which I might try later to incorporate into a pillow to go with the quilt.

I did not measure the panel before I began making the HSTs. I thought if the panel was an inch or two too big in either direction, I could simply slice off enough to make the HSTs fit. I didn't have to slice. They fit so perfectly, I was stunned! That NEVER happens to me!!!

The back still wasn't big enough, so this time I measured, then cut six 2.5-inch strips from the remaining Cotton Supreme Royal Blue... because that's all I could get out of it! All that remained when I got done was one mostly 2-inch strip. I thought I could piece it into more 2.5-inch strips if I ran out. Fortunately, I did not.

After adding the 2.5-inch borders, I had roughly 35 inches of a 2.5-inch strip of the Royal Blue left. I thought I could craft that and the mostly 2-inch strip into two more blocks to later add to the future leftovers pillow.

I didn't have much steadiness of hand with the longarm for the first half of the quilt, but in my opinion, I got better as I went. I freehanded curves into the Royal Blue triangles with blue thread on top and white on the backing. I free-motion quilted the outer round of HSTs and the borders with my little domestic machine with blue thread on both the top and the bottom. All quilting was finished in one weekend day.

Before I even though about what I would use for the backing, I had thought I would use rainbow leftovers from my Hoffman Spectrum wall quilt binding. After I finished the back, I decided the rainbow of batik leftovers wouldn't look as good with the back of the quilt as they would with the front of the quilt. I had exactly enough of the Painterly Petals yardage left to cut six strips for binding. Once again, I didn't measure, but I didn't think it would be long enough. I pieced the binding, then made random cuts and spliced in some Royal Blue diamonds, then went to work on binding the quilt.

Upon completion, I had one Royal Blue diamond and one Royal Blue remnant left. The amount of extra binding I had to cut off was exactly the same size diamond!!! This quilt literally was a mathematical miracle for me because I'm not that good at math at all, and everything worked so smoothly! Plus, almost all the (mostly) ugly fabric is gone!!!

We snapped a few photos of the quilt in front of some gorgeous red rock we had not been able to visit since... so long ago I can't even remember. Suffice it to say, Lizard had not communed with sandstone in at least 15 months, and probably longer than that. So he was in heaven. Snowflakes began dotting us as we returned to the car, and we're supposed to have around eight inches of heavy, wet snow by this morning! That put me in absolute heaven. We SO need the moisture.

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Snowflake Monday

Where did this month, summer and year go? Can you believe it's almost September?!?

I sure can't. It seems like just yesterday I was trying to figure out what I could do with my Snowflake Mondays while my crochet hand takes a healing break. And here we are, at the end of my first quiltalong. But, hey, it's a finish, so it's awesome, right?!?

The most difficult part of the quilting process for me has always been the trimming and squaring up after quilting to prepare for binding. Years ago, when I entered my very first quilt competitions (and shockingly got juried in, even though I had no clue, really, what I was doing), my entry was severely graded down because my edges were not completely, perfectly square. (Also received the memorable lone comment from one judge, "I like mitered corners" because I had not mitered my corners.) (Almost all my corners are mitered now, but still, back then, all I could think was, "What if I like the way I bound my quilt?" and "I'm only allowed to do it your way???")

My overall competition experience was positive because I tried to learn from each comment and set personal goals not to annoy the next quilt judges with the same errors or omissions. My quilting has come far, in my opinion, because of the snarkiness and/or pettiness of a few of the judges. I'm grateful I entered, I'm grateful I received comments that sometimes stung, and I'm sad the Denver National Quilt Festival has died and gone to wherever dead quilt shows go because it was a great learning experience each year, and it provided SO much inspiration and motivation. I wish I lived close enough to go to one of the other major quilt festivals each year because I miss the whole package, from meeting deadlines to standing in line for admission tickets and even shopping the exhibit's vendors.

Nevertheless, it remains difficult for me to this day to cut into a quilt because I'm terrified I might not get the lines completely straight or parallel or perpendicular. I guess it kind of feels like cutting off pieces of fingers or pieces of toes... It hurts!!!


Charmed By Snowflakes was no different. I spent a couple of days just admiring the unbound quilt instead of finishing it up right away because I fell to the temptation of procrastination. Because I didn't want to make any crooked cuts I'd layer regret!!!


About a year ago, I invested in a much bigger cutting board. It's too big to put on my dining room table. I have to use it on the floor. It's still not quite big enough to cut an entire quilt side in one easy slice... I still have to move the quilts two or three times each side. Yet it's better than the 23-inch square cutting board I'd been using for so long, I can actually see through some of the most popular cutting lines now. Ha ha!

I also hated having to cut off inches of quilted fabric and batting that might be suitable for nothing more than waste, although I do try to use as much of it as I can to stuff my amigurumi (which production slowed to a standstill when I developed mouse elbow last winter/spring). Sandy said she uses three inches of overlap so she can use it as binding after trimming her quilted masterpieces. Brilliant! I'm going to try that method with the next quilt I finish, if I have enough fabric to go that big. Simply brilliant!


I've read somewhere in the last couple of years that one of the professional quilters I admire most (but can't remember now which one) cut her binding at 2 inches because she likes a narrow border. I'd always done 2.5 to 3 inches because I like a thick border, and I have to confess I do like 3-inch bindings the best.

I also used to sew all my bindings onto the front of the quilt by machine, and then hand sew the binding to the back. When I'm trying to finish so many quilts per year, I don't have time for the hand-sewing at all, so I have been using the machine to attach both edges of the binding. I've used internet tutorials from Crazy Mom Quilts (my favorite), Cluck Cluck Sew and Missouri Star Quilt Company.


I did not use a bias binding for this quilt. I don't use bias bindings most of the time. It depends upon how much binding fabric I have and how much time I have to create the binding. Most everything I do these days is on a deadline, and I've never had trouble attaching a straight-cut binding. I do, however, join my binding strips together on the bias.

I do, however, save my triangles!!! One day, I'm going to have a magnificent scrappy triangle quilt!


I also save the leftover binding. I figure one day I can do a scrappy binding on a really scrappy quilt with all my binding leftovers.


I measured around the quilt to determine how much binding I need (circumference around the quilt plus about 10 to 15 inches for good measure) and did not write it down so don't have a hard number to record here.

I selected one of my dark snowflake fabric remnants that had enough yardage to bind the entire quilt, did the math on a calculator and cut 6 3-inch strips, then sewed the strips together to make one long binding. I then pressed the seams flat, then pressed the entire binding in half.


I do not have a walking foot, so I use my regular presser foot. I attach the binding to the back of the quilt, starting in about the middle of any side, leaving about a 9-inch tail. Using the corner method Jenny shares on the above tutorial, I work all the way around, then mark the two binding tails with a chalk marker, cut, join and press the 10 or so inches of unattached binding. I sew on the rest of the binding, then turn the quilt over and machine sew the front side down.

Voila! A finished Charmed by Snowflakes quilt!




Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts.

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