Fractured Logs and NTT

Hey there, y'all!  Welcome to Needle and Thread Thursday.  Today, I have a brand new quilt finish to share, and it's so fun and happy!

If you missed my last post, these log cabin blocks were made entirely from scraps of varying width.  I just kept adding strings until they were 13" square, and then pressed them, quartered them, and shuffled them.  The result is wonderfully busy and loud, and lots of fun.

With all of the busy pattern in the piecing, I wanted to add allover texture with the quilting that wouldn't add to the mayhem.  A nice, easy stipple fit the bill nicely.  

I mentioned in my last post that I was running out of the longest strings to make more 13" blocks, so I wasn't really sure what I was going to do on the back.  It occurred to me that rather than sew a full 13" log cabin block and quarter it, I could just make 6.5" log cabin block quarters with the shorter strings I had left.  The block centers are a little chunkier this way, but I still like the look.

For the main backing fabric, I chose a medium gray polka dot fabric.  I just love the way that black and gray look with scrappy quilts, and the small polka dots keep the quilt fun, without looking overly busy.

Every time I bind a quilt, I end up with extra binding pieces.  Sometimes they're short, and sometimes I end up with a piece that is almost a full strip.  As it turns out, I had plenty of leftover binding pieces to completely bind this quilt, and it perfectly disappears into all that scrappiness.

I'm calling this one Fractured Logs, which is perhaps not my most creative name, but it's definitely descriptive of the pattern.  The finished quilt measures 60" x 72".

Okay then, friends!  Let's take a look at a few of the amazing projects linked up at last week's party!  Sew Preeti Quilts shared this pretty finish-

These sweet little quilts are from Nancy at Grace and Peace Quilting-

And finally, this ombre' finish by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl is just so soothing to look at-

Alrighty, y'all, let's get this party started!

1. You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link within your 

    post.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)

Scrappy Strings Galore and NTT

Hey friends!  Welcome to another Needle and Thread Thursday.  This week, I broke one of the very few rules I have for scrap sewing, and have deeply regretted it.  

When I teach scrappy improv classes, I always ask students to bring one full gallon-sized bag of scraps, and NO MORE.  I know, I know.  It's so tempting to lay them all out at once.  And more choices means easier sewing, right?.  Wrong!  In this case, more is not more.  More scraps on the table just means more digging for the next piece to sew.  It also means that all of that digging gets the scraps completely mixed up into one jumbled pile where you can't find anything, and lots get buried on the bottom.  Even though this isn't really scrappy improv, all of this holds true even for the most experienced scrap sewist.  

Alas, this week has been one of digging, and digging...and more digging.  That being said, though I feel like I had to arm-wrestle these scraps into something I like, I do actually think the finished quilt top is pretty fun.  

To make these blocks, I sewed log cabin blocks with various width strings, as well as varying center pieces (most centers actually rectangles and not squares).  I trimmed them to 13" square, cut them into quarters, and then shuffled them.  The result is wonderfully loud and scrappy with just enough order.  The finished top measures 60" x 72".

After all that sewing, you'd think I put a massive dent in my scraps, and that would also be wrong.  Sure, there are noticeably fewer scraps than when I started, but here's how it looks now (after I spent awhile resorting)-

I'm just about out of the longest strings needed to make more of these scrappy log cabins, or I would have made this quilt larger.  I'm planning to sew up some of these to add to the back, and then I'll figure out the rest.  One thing's for certain- these aren't going back into my scrap jars!  They're getting used up somehow- but in smaller, more manageable chunks.

Okay, y'all.  Before we party, let's check out some of last week's highlights.  This beauty is from Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl-

Quilting Gail shared this cute little mini.  Look at all of those different quilting motifs in each triangle!

And finally, I'm loving all of the scrappy goodness in this quilt from Gretchen's Little Corner-

Okay, it's time to get our party on!

1. You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link within your 

    post.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)

NTT- Back in the Groove

Hey there, friends!  I'm sure you all remember that last fall before the holidays, I sewed through my entire stash.  It's a good thing I love scraps, because even though I always use up as much as I can on the back of each quilt, sewing through so much stash creates a LOT of scraps.  For the past week, I've been pressing and sorting them, and I'm all ready to turn these scraps into something fun!

This may not look like a lot of scraps, but what you can't tell from the photo is that this stack of bits and strings is probably 3-4 inches deep.  After finishing TWO Twelve Days of Christmas quilts, my brain needs a mindless sewing activity while I continue to work on that pattern, and something easy and scrappy is just the thing.

If you've been around here awhile, you know I like to completely empty my scrap jars every so often.  The last time I cleaned them out was in September 2022 with my Rainbow Galaxy quilt.  It surely doesn't seem like 2.5 years ago!  The plan for this quilt is totally different, and I can't wait to see it come together.

Without further ado, let's kick of the first Needle and Thread Thursday of 2025 by checking out a few highlights from the last party in 2024-

Jan at The Colorful Fabriholic linked up this gorgeous finish-

Look at these two lovelies from Nancy at Grace and Peace Quilting-

Maggie at Making a Lather linked up this sweet quilt-

And finally, I love this one from Melva Loves Scraps-

Alright, y'all!  Let's start off 2025 with lots of amazing, inspirational eye-candy.  I know we haven't partied in awhile, so remember, you can link up as many projects as you want.  Just be sure to link each individual post so we can see ALL of it!

1. You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link within your 

    post.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

*If you're new to the party, here's a helpful tip for linking up- select "Auto Crop"  when selecting your thumbnail photo.  For some reason, trying to crop your own image results in the dreaded "white question mark box," and we definitely want to see your awesome work!  :)

The Last and First Finishes

Hey there, friends!  Welcome to 2025! I hope your holiday season was fantastic.  Today, I'm really excited to share my last finish of 2024 as well as my first finish of 2025, and my goodness! It has surely consumed me for the last couple of months.  I've been eating, breathing, and dreaming about the Twelve Days of Christmas since early November!

I hinted at this project before Christmas as a possible fourth book, but after some discussion with my editor at Landauer, we have decided that since this quilt is so detailed, it works better as a stand-alone, Block of the Month-style pattern, rather than included in a book with other projects.

I just love the Twelve Days of Christmas.  The song itself can be repetitive, but I've always loved Christmas things with this theme.  The different figures are so cute, and there are lots of different representations, from boho-crafty, to cartoonish, to fancy and filled with old-world charm.  

My mom has always loved Twelve Days themed things as much as I do (maybe why I have such a fondness for it myself?), and I finished this quilt in time to take it to her when we visited for Christmas as my last finish of 2024.  But, this post is titled the last AND first finishes, so yes!  That means I actually made TWO of these quilts, and finished the second one just last week as my first finish of 2025.  This one's all for me!  Seriously, between sketching/designing, digital illustrations, and actually sewing two full quilts, I've been positively consumed with the Twelve Days of Christmas lately!

Right now, the weather here is so cold and dreary that I haven't gotten outdoor photos of the second quilt yet, but here are some close-ups of the blocks. 

The one noticeable difference between the two quilts is the hen's beak.  For my mom's quilt, I used the Tri-Recs ruler to make a triangular beak, but on the second, I made the beak from a half-square triangle.  I loved the look of the first beak, but when pattern writing, it just isn't practical to ask a quilter to purchase a whole ruler set for one small piece in a quilt.  So, I modified the beak on the second quilt.  Also, this is definitive proof that these really are TWO separate quilts.  Ha!

These indoor photos actually show off the quilting really well.  And I want you to see that for sure, because each block and shape is custom quilted with thread that matches the piecing.  I wanted to add as much realistic texture to the figures as possible.

I love the creamy backdrop in this quilt.  It needed a neutral that would allow the bits of white to stand out, but not so creamy that the faces of blocks 8-12 would get lost.  Kona Eggshell was the perfect choice.  The warm color almost has the look of parchment, which is just right for a Twelve Days of Christmas quilt.  After quilting each block, I added dense stippling to the background for lots of crinkly goodness.

On the back, I wanted to find a Twelve Days of Christmas print, and when I saw this print by Riley Blake's A Pear-fect Christmas, I just knew I had to have it.  Isn't it adorable?

I chose the print in the red color way, which makes the back very Christmas-forward with all of the red and green.  I widened it out with the same light green print used in the drummer block on the front.  Knowing that I was making a second quilt with an identical back, I didn't get a photo of the full backing on the first (when the weather was nice and sunny).  So, no pic of the full backing yet.  It will have to wait for better weather.

The binding is Kona Basil and the rich, Christmas green frames everything nicely.  Incidentally, I wanted the numbers to stand out as unique from the block figures, so Kona Basil is used on those as well, but nowhere else in the quilt.  The other green fabrics in the blocks are actually small prints or tonal fabrics.  Kona Basil is the only solid green so it works really well for the numbers and binding, tying everything together.

This quilt measures 70" square, and it's destined for a large wall in my house.  I can't wait to hang it up next Christmas.  But I do have a little more to share about this one-

I'll be hosting a Block of the Month Quilt Along, with more information coming in late summer 2025!

I'm busy working on the pattern for this quilt and you'll get all of the pertinent details later, but go ahead and make plans to sew-along with me!  It's going to be so much fun!

Whew!  Maybe it's because this has been such a big project for me, but I feel like this post has been absolutely jam-packed.  So, instead of cramming one more thing into this week, save all of your finishes and we'll kick off NTT 2025 next week on 1/15.

Happiest 2025 to all of you!