Double Nines - A Finished Quilt of Valor

It’s time for the monthly Connecting Threads / Quilts of Valor collab! This one is a Basics kit, the Double Nines by Needle in a Hayes Stack, and I picked it solely because I just finished re-watching Brooklyn 99. So Double Nines was on my mind!

THE PATTERN

Okay, I admit, this is not the most exciting of patterns. It’s pretty much nine patches, sewn into nine patches, sewn to nine patches. But - the cutting is super easy - I did almost all of it while at my parents’ house. And then sewing was just strip piecing the little nine patches and using the big nine patches as leader/enders for a while.

I totally screwed up the layout - first by accidentally piecing one less of the light blue nine patches and adding in another in the second-darkest blue in its place. Then I pieced a row together incorrectly, so I gave up and let my husband lay out the remaining blue nine patches. He complained greatly about how “dark” the quilt was, so lesson learned - the light blue is necessary!

THE FABRIC

The fabric is Connecting Threads Basics, and a new red for me (Light Barn Red in Chambray). I always like adding new shades of RWB into the scrap bin!

The background fabric is also new, Light Ivory in Chambray. It’s just a tiny bit off from the white of the previous kits, but enough that I think my scrappy little hourglasses will enjoy a new hue.

(Oh, did I mention that I’m making tiny hourglasses from the CT/QOVF scraps? There will be an epic end-of-the-year quilt.)

The backing is more of the flag print that I used on the last several QOVFs. It’s an endless bolt, I’m pretty sure. (I’m also saving all of those long and skinny backing scraps for another scrappy quilt. It’s like QOVF Inception.) The flag print came from a local quilt shop and has no selvage info.

THE QUILTING

The quilting is Star Spangled Block by Wildflower Quilting. It adds a good bit of swish to a fairly blocky quilt. And bonus, quilts out an entire row in less than five minutes, so it’s a fast one when you’re running out of days to finish before Friday…

67x81”

Check out my Quilts of Valor page if you want to see more of the Connecting Threads / Quilts of Valor collaborations. And use code “ACTKATIEMAE” to get 15% off at Connecting Threads! (A portion of the proceeds from the QOVF kits is donated to QOVF.)

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BOMs Away - Eternal Bloom Border Blossoms

We are still slowly inching forward on the Eternal Bloom Block of the Month quilt. Slowly. But surely! (Eternal Bloom is so aptly named.)

This finishes off the G-blocks for the borders, and now that I’m pretty confident in the assembly, next month I should be able to easily do the mirror image H-blocks. I’d love to get the whole thing up on the design wall before that - I think H will be the last pop of color, but I’m not positive any more. So I’d like to get a good look at the remaining pieces to make sure the color is balanced.

The deets

Pattern: Pam Bono’s Out of the Darkness / Eternal Bloom / A New Beginning - out of print and extremely hard to find (believe me, I tried)

Fabric: Block of the Month kits from a quilt shop that closed in 2015

BOMS AWAY FOR EVERYONE

BOMs Away Monday is currently being hosted on Facebook - please join and post your block of the months in the group!

Roll Tide Roll - A Finished T-Shirt Quilt

This was a quick and easy t-shirt quilt, for the niece of someone I’ve done some longarm work for, quilting some vintage tops made by her grandmother. Since my client and her mother have those quilts, making this t-shirt quilt added a fourth generation of one family!

THE PATTERN

It’s a grid style t-shirt quilt, and it was a super simple one. She had eight shirts, and wanted four pockets as the ninth square. The colorings of the shirts even worked out to four crimson, two grays, and two lights, so the layout was easy peasy. (I suppose I could have also gone the other way, with the crimson in the corners and the colors in the inner spots…but I like the initial layout best!)

The only thing that ever so slightly annoys me is that the pocket centerpiece matches three of the four corners, but the crimson comes from a side piece instead of the corner. Oh well, not every layout can be perfect!

THE FABRIC

The fabric is an older light gray that I had in my stash, for the sashing and binding. We debated matching the binding to the cornerstones, but ultimately decided that it needed a slightly calmer edge around the quilt.

The cornerstones and backing are…not subtle. Hey - Roll Tide Roll! (It’s licensed pop art style.) She was quite pleased that I was able to find it - I have a small bit leftover from my own Roll Tide quilt, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to find it again. Sometimes licensed fabric goes in and out of print very quickly!

THE QUILTING

The quilting continued the non-subtle theme, using Animal Crackers from Urban Elementz. I offset the even rows, and I think it works much better that way!

And apparently that’s all the pictures I took, so…

53” square

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BOMs Away - Quilts of Valor

It’s a good thing that I like working with red, white, and blue…although this weekend was mostly just white and blue. Reds to come!

(Apologies in advance for the photos - I’m visiting my parents and I struggled to find the best lighting around their house. Yes, I take my sewing machine and projects on family visits. Doesn’t everyone?)

CONNECTING THREADS QOVF

This month, I’m doing the Double Nines QOVF kit from Connecting Threads. Mostly because I just finished rewatching Brooklyn 99 and I thought it was timely and appropriate. It’s not the most exciting of kits - what with being two sets of nine patches - but it certainly didn’t take all that long to cut out the larger blue nine patches. I’ve sewn together two of the four blue colors so far - the darkest and the lightest.

(In case you didn’t know, Connecting Threads donates 10% of their QOVF kits sales to Quilts of Valor, and you can get another 15% off with the code ACTKATIEMAE.)

MARBLE MYSTERY

And then I spent some time cutting and sewing the Marble Mystery units from Meadow Mist Designs. I made the flying geese that were assigned with the nine patch units (that I made last month.) And then since the mystery is well over by now, I went ahead and cut my nine patch units into quarters. It’s a lot easier to store those blocks!

BOMS AWAY FOR EVERYONE

BOMs Away Monday is currently being hosted on Facebook - please join and post your block of the months in the group!