Cotton Cuts Mystery -- part six

I'm tickled to be part of Cotton Cuts Mystery Quilt Blog Hop!  I received clue six in the mail.

The fabric selection for #TeamNicole is printed on fabric.  It was super easy to identify which pieces were which by reading the instructions and matching the pieces with the fabric letters.

I followed along, step by step, and pieced Clue 6A. 

The directions told me which way to press the seams, so piecing this together was a snap!

The directions include the little labels to put on each piece so that the clues are easy to find when it is time to assembly the mystery quilt!

I pieced this during the Christmas season at a time when my energy was at an all-time low.  I can't tell you how satisfying it was to piece this quilt together without having to cut it out first.  I simply sat, fed the already-cut pieces through my sewing machine, and listened to a good audio book.  What a delightful afternoon!

Another rave about Cotton Cuts:  they support employment for the intellectually challenged and for those with other disabilities.  Read more about their mission HERE.

To further support this mission, Cotton Cuts will raffle off the finished quilt made piece by piece by designers like myself.  If you'd like a chance to win this quilt, enter the raffle HERE.

Thanks for following along on my adventure today.  For more quilty goodness, subscribe to my newsletter.

Gifties -- Christmas Serviettes

Now that Christmas has passed, I can show you the gift I made for my daughter-in-love:

Because every family needs a dozen bright green Nightmare Before Christmas serviettes.

I used fabric left from their Bullseye Cutie Quilt and my Serviette pattern.  She was thrilled and will be wiping her dainty fingertips in style for the forseeable future.

Yay for another finish!  But there are leftover bits calling to me to use them in another project:

Will these triangles become another Pterodactyl Quilt?

Spoiler Alert:  yes.

Straight pins, Safety pins, or Wonder Clips?

Which do you use?

I recently filmed a class about this question for Annie's Creative Studio:

Here's a preview of the class:

Pin it. Clip it. Stitch it! It's always fun to learn about new tools and also to see which ones your fellow quilters prefer to use.

In this Quilt & Sew Tips episode brought to you by Annie's Creative Studio, quilting expert Debby Brown reveals the benefits and drawbacks of using straight pins, safety pins and Wonder clips to secure fabrics while piecing.

In this episode, you'll learn how to:

• Consider which options work best for you for holding fabric together.
• Review a variety of specialty straight pins.
• Use fabric clips in a new way.

Annie's Creative Studio is a subscription-based platform where you can learn from experts (like me!) how to quilt,

knit, crochet, and more!  If you aren't a member yet, sign up for a free trial to watch the entire episode.

Evolution of a Scrap Quilt -- Pterodactyl One

When it comes to snow days, I'm still a child.  This week's predicted snowstorm turned into an ice storm, which was still a good excuse to stay in my PJs and play in the sewing room.  This was the result:

I started with the leftovers from a recent (super-secret) project:

and I asked myself, borrowing from the movie Airplane "What do I make of this?"

Since the movie quote is "I can make a hat, a brooch... a pterodactyl" and since I am not making a hat or a brooch, I make must be a Pterodactyl.

I pulled out some white fabric and prepped to do some applique:

My husband and I are looking forward to the release of the final Star Wars movie and watching all of the previous movies.  I finished this applique block during our movie binge, so it was time to make some decisions.

What will this 12" block turn into?

I bordered it with leftover yellow and added the leftover Drunkard's Path blocks:

I still had a few blocks left and some scraps of fabric, so I pieced together another border:

And the final quilt is 41" square (and photographed on the ice on the remains of my deck):

This quilt is going to be so fun to quilt!  The name of this quilt is Pterodactyl One.  I have bags and Bags and BAGS of quilt leftovers.  They will become Pterodactyls, too.

'Tis the Season for a Festive Quilt Class

Simple quilts rock my world!  I recently filmed a class on how to make the Treetop quilt for Annie's Creative Studio:

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I love that the pattern for the quilt is included with the class

Class Description:

Display a Christmas themed starfield when you quilt the lively Treetop Quilt!

In this Learn, Make, Create! episode brought to you by Annie's Creative Studio, expert quilter Debby Brown demonstrates how to cut, piece and assemble the Christmas stars in this youth-sized quilt pattern design.

In this episode, you'll learn how to:

• Prepare and piece accurate half-square triangles.
• Press strategically to reduce bulk.
• Quilt the stunning Treetop quilt.

Annie's Creative Studio is a subscription-based platform where you can learn from experts (like me!) how to quilt,
knit, crochet, and more!  If you aren't a member yet, sign up for a free trial to watch the entire episode.

Treasures from Scraps

I've been giving myself permission to play with my quilting, and this week I played with a Tiny Dresden Template from Suzn Quilts:

While sorting through little bags of leftover scraps from finished quilts, I found a little pile of leftover bits of Dreamscape fabric and wanted to see what I could make from it.

I pulled out this fun Tiny Dresden Template from Suzn Quilts and my it's winter and my arthritic hands are aching hand-friendly Quilters Select rotary cutter:

I patiently stitched them together by machine and turned them right side out using my Purple Thang:

I put the colors together randomly since I only had little bits of a few colors each:

I only had enough fabric to make four little Dresden Plates.

But I'm sure I'll find something lovely to do with them.  First, I'll hand applique the center circles, then stitch to background fabric.  I'm thinking black?  Any other suggestions?

I have a few ideas for making a quilt with only four 4 1/2" blocks, but I haven't settled on one yet.  I'll be sure to share with you when I make up my mind!

'Tis the Season

While I love holidays and people, I'm not big on decorating or having holiday-specific things in my house.  I dipped my toe into the decorating water when I joined Hugs 'N Kisses Advent Mystery Stitchalong.

Tracing the pattern was a breeze using my Daylight Wafer light box:

The circle around the design is a cutting line, but I liked it as part of the design and decided to stitch it as part of my design on Northcott Dublin Antique Lace:

I next paired it with some wonderful Christmas fabric from Riley Blake and made a cloth napkin using my Serviette pattern:

I doubt I'll have time to make one each day, but I should finish enough of them to enjoy festive meals and maybe gift some as hostess gifts.

Are you crafting for the holidays?  Are you stitching along with Hugs 'N Kisses?