Already enjoying the Autumn Jubilee Quilt Along

Friday last week the #AutumnJubilee2022 quilt along started. The quilt along is run on Carole Carter’s blog From My Carolina Home. If you would like to participate in this quilt along, the “first step” is to hop over to her blog, and check out the instructions – https://frommycarolinahome.com/2022/10/07/autumn-jubilee-quilt-along-begins/ . It’s helpful to subscribe and follow Carole’s blog if you don’t want to miss anything. I don’t post sizes or amounts of what I am cutting, as the pattern belongs to Carole. Go check it out after you see what I am up to.

The first thing I did on Friday is pull my bin of Autumn Jubilee fabrics.

It must be time to update the label

I’ve obviously been following along with Carole & Autumn Jubilee for a few years! Time to update the label. I keep all the fun fall fabrics I acquire in this bin, adding to it when I find a fat quarter that meets the criteria. I used to take the bin to all of my quilt bees and work on projects like table runners and placemats all year long. I have made at least 3 table runners and 18 placemats, and a fall quilt out of that container.

Here is what was hiding inside to work with for this year’s quilt along.

Contents of the Autumn Jubilee container

Inside the container, are also some small baskets, with squares already cut in useful sizes, left from previous years, or put there as I was trimming down scraps and found them to be appropriate colors for fall.

There is even leftover binding ready to use on a placemat and bits and pieces for leaves and stems if the pattern called for it. Often times I will cut up scraps in fall colors to these very useful sizes.

I even keep a basket of autumn colored scraps in the tote with the squares and folded fabric. This gives me the opportunity to have a real mix, lots of choices and some continuity year to year, when a fabric will “reappear” in something new.

I printed out the pattern PDF file that Carole thoughtfully included on her post, and got busy, pulling, cutting, stitching and making ready the first of the units for the quilt along.

My favorite quilt unit

I love making half square triangle (HST) units. Years ago, I purchased the June Tailor Perfect Half Square / Quarter Square ruler. This helps me to mark and trim and always have the “perfect” unit.

the block on the left needs trimmed, the one on the right is finished.

The ruler has great markings and uses slots for your pencil and your rotary cutter. If your curious about HOW to use this tool, check this video – https://youtu.be/gexINKyOzl4 on You Tube.

If you are in the market to buy one, shop around, as the prices vary considerably, running around $22 on Amazon and as high as $30+ at some national quilting retailers. Hopefully your local quilt shop has it in stock. A quick google search will give you an idea where the best prices are. I’ve gotten at least 10 years worth of use out of this particular ruler. And, I have made several thousand HST’s in that time frame.

I recently treated this ruler and several of my other rulers with a shot of ODIF GRIPPY non-slip coating spray on the back. You can buy it at local quilt & sewing stores and online. Previously I had used those little sand dots and followed Bonnie Hunter’s suggestion for NEXCARE Medical tape. When I sprayed my ruler, I left the tape on where it was between a couple of slots. After the spray dried, in less than a minute, I peeled the tape off the ruler. The result of the spray is your ruler has a slightly frosted look, but it is still very transparent. One of my friends introduced me to this spray at a quilt bee, and a little goes a very long way. I have sprayed nearly every ruler I own and it’s like magic. I tripped over a you tube video where another quilter shows demo of how “grippy” her ruler is – https://youtu.be/tWnFtD2H9lk .

Well, my units are all trimmed, and I have a little more cutting to do before next week. Hopefully you are following along with #AutumnJubilee2022 and enjoying the variety of projects Carole is sharing. I loved the book list last week and the recipe she shared today, and can’t wait to see what is coming next.

I love sharing my methods and tools and tips that others have shared with me. Do you have a favorite unit or tool for making a particular unit? I’d love to hear about it and why it goes to the top of the list. (We quilters love a gadget, don’t we?)

Linking up this week to OH SCRAP – Quilting is more fun that housework.

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1st project for #AutumnJubilee2022

My friend, Carole Carter, runs Autumn Jubilee on her blog From My Carolina Home. I may have mentioned once or a hundred times. 🙂 HEY, it’s fun and I don’t want you to miss out! Anyway, the first project was posted on Monday and it was for a Wool Stitch Along. Kudo’s to Carole for rounding up sponsors for the posts. If you like wool…her sponsor,  One Of The Flock, has some beautiful things in their shop online.

I contemplated going out and making a purchase to participate in this first project, but as the day went along, I just could not justify in my mind making the trip and the buying wool for hand applique. I am just not loving hand work (note two hand surgeries in last 5 years and cortisone shot just a month ago); so I decided I would give the project a whirl with cotton, doing fusible applique (thank you Heat n’Bond light) and doing some machine stitching instead of hand stitching.

I got busy, printed out the pattern pieces and set to work with my reliable felt pen, tracing the pattern bits onto the Heat n’ Bond.

Tracing on the Heat n’ Bond

Next up, I dug into my scrap drawers for fabrics that might make a good Cornucopia and for the various vegetables and leaves. I found some excellent pieces to use for the leaves, and I added probably more than the pattern called for, but I just “wanted to”. Initially, I used the leaf pattern but then I picked out some leaves on a scrap I had and fussy cut them out.

#AutumnJubilee2022

My background fabric is 18″ wide. I made it fairly large so I can decide as this month progresses what I might want to do with the project. Pillow? Table Topper? Wall hanging? Too soon to tell. I did reserve the other half of the yard for a backing of some sort.

I figure some stitching will be in order in the next couple of days. I have another wall hanging, hanging around, that needs the stitching finished on it, and both projects call out for my “cashmere” thread from Superior Threads. (Fantastico #5035 Cashmere Cone). May be time to get another spool on order. Looking at Superior Threads website, I began to drool over all the new colors that might work. Oh…I need to get to a big quilt show and shop in person!!!! Maybe the Hampton Roads show in February. I keep a spreadsheet with all my Superior threads, by type, color and number. There are a couple that are on my list for replacement soon, but others that I picked up “just because” and they languish on the shelf. I wonder if anyone else does that?

I’ll update the progress when I make some! What are you working on this week? Are you “stitching along” with the #AutumnJubilee2022 this month? Lots of other fun things to do as well, so do check it out.