Autumn Jubilee 2022 Quilt Along FINISH

If you have been following along, you know I left on a trip halfway thru October, and left my Autumn Jubilee 2022 quilt project partially made. Pattern details came out on Fridays on the blog From My Carolina Home so I couldn’t finish before I left.

Coming home from travels in early November, I was inspired by the fall colors along the way. Time to get my Autumn Jubilee projects finished.

The quilt along is the largest project, and I wanted to finish it first. When I stopped in October I had 8 blocks made and up on the design wall.

8 blocks on the design wall with one of the layout options

My method when I put the blocks together is to layout the pieces I want to use on my design board . I made my own design board by cutting a piece of foam core board, used some spray adhesive and covered in batting, and pretty tape around the edges. The blue tape was from another project, but it helped guide me for this size block. I keep the pattern info close so I don’t goof up the placement of the 16 pieces going in the block. I had baskets of pieces cut and ready to sew.

Arranging the placement on the design board

Trying to stay organized with all the pieces

At first, I thought I would make the blocks into a table runner, but then, I set them 3 by 5 and it was just too wide for a table. It was plenty long, but I didn’t want to “unstitch” a whole row. I decided to “make 4 more blocks”, and ended up with this.

Blocks set 4 across and 5 down

Then on to borders.

The first border went on to frame the blocks.

I deviated from the pattern at this point, because I didn’t want to cut up more yardage for the pieced border. Instead, I got out my “shoeboxes” of strings, and started making a string border or a “piano key” border. My method mimics Bonnie Hunter’s String Piecing on phone book paper. I decided how wide I wanted the border, and ripped out some phone book pages and trimmed them to that width with my paper cutter. I did a little math (gasp), measuring the diameter of the quilt and divided the length of the pages into it. That way, I knew I cut enough pages. My little local book phone book pages were about 9″ long. (Yes, we still get phone books here in Delaware, and I save them all on top of my sewing room cabinet).

When I make these blocks I do a lot of chain piecing, so when I go to the iron, I might have 6 or 8 blocks to press at once. Yes, the fabric hangs off the edge a bit, and I trim once all the blocks are made. Once trimmed, I take the paper off the back using my “purple thang” and a pair of tweezers. The paper comes off easily because you shorten the stitch length.

String Borders

I sort them out into a pleasing arrangement, joining the ends and before you know it….I have enough to go completely around the quilt. I cut them to length, and attach to the quilt.

String borders added bringing the project to 44 1/4 x 52 3/4

Because of the size, I either have to trim off a couple of inches or piece a backing. Giving it a little thought, I decided to dig in my bins and see what I could come up with. I came across some border print fabric that had been cut into 36″ widths. I did a little piecing and came up with a backing fabric that would turn this Autumn Jubilee quilt into a 2 season quilt.

I spent a couple of afternoons working on the quilting, using my walking foot. I used Superior Bottom line #653, tan, on top and a Superior bottom line # 622, silver on the back. The quilting shows better on the back of the quilt. It is simple but effective.

Simple walking foot quilting

I selected fabric for the binding and made the 2 piece “binding with a flange” also known as Susie’s Magic Binding. It goes on by machine on the back, gets rolled to the front and “stitched in the ditch” of the flange by machine. I like the effect it gives the finished quilt.

Gold binding with a green flange

The binding just shows the gold fabric on the back

Finished Autumn Jubilee Quilt

Last job is to make a label for the quilt. I am happy with the colors and the fun of making this two season quilt. The thing I love most about this quilt is the Autumn colors and the scrappy feel of it. If you know me, you know that I never met a scrap I didn’t love, and I love being able to put them into a quilt that feels cohesive. Sewing is for my own joy with colors and patterns I love. If a loved one looks at the project and express an interest, I am happy to give it away. I did that a couple of years ago with a bag I made during Autumn Jubilee. A dear friend was enamored over the bag, so I gifted it to her. We can’t keep everything, but I do want to make certain that the gift is always welcomed. We all have such different tastes, don’t we?

Time to go on to finishing another project. What is happening in your sewing space?

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Autumn Jubilee update

Last week, I shared with you my 1st project for #AutumnJubilee2022 . This week, the next step in the Autumn Jubilee Wool Stitch Along, was to “embellish your wool Cornucopia”. Go take a look at Carole’s post when you finish here, and see how fantastic her project is coming along. As you may remember, I deviated from the Wool & all that hand stitching. When I read today’s post, I got inspired to get busy, and do the machine applique stitching on my fusible applique pieces.

Before I could start the machine applique stitching, I needed to do a couple of things. I layered up my project with a piece of Warm and Natural Quilt batting and a piece of Pellon 806, stitch and tear stabilizer, behind my background fabric and batting. I will confess to using some 505 spray to keep everything in position until I could get a few safety pins in place. You may ask why do all that before applique stitching, and the answer is, I like the stitches to have something to “bite into”. I could use just batting, but putting the stabilizer behind the batting keeps me from getting all that batting fluff in my machine. Of course, some will get in there with each puncture of the needle, but my feed dogs will be clean.

I pulled out threads that I thought might work well, and started with an Aurifil tan, a 50 wt cotton for around the cornucopia and other light colored items.

Aurifil 5011, 50 weight cotton.

I also used some Coats & Clark variegated thread, which is also a 50 weight quilting cotton. This was used around many of the leaves and pumpkin.

Coats and Clark quilting thread

As I stitched, I decided that I needed a dark red and a green, and pulled those from my wall of embroidery threads. Using a blanket stitch, (#42 on my Janome 8900) I was soon finished. (I did take a short break this afternoon for an eye appointment, and was SO happy that they didn’t dilate my eyes, and I could get back to stitching!)

Machine applique complete

After reading Carole’s post today about embellishing her Cornucopia, and her suggestion to maybe do a little embroidery, I decided that I would do just that.

Early this month, I downloaded a cute embroidery design from Sew Sweetly, and thought it would work nicely on this project. If you are looking for cute Fall designs, the ones sold by Sew Sweetly stitch out very well. You might remember I used some of Sew Sweetly designs in a 2020 project during Autumn Jubilee 2020.

I decided to add the embroidery design on an angle on the left corner of the project, using the same thread colors that I had previously stitched with in the machine applique. The exception is the gold for the leaf. I couldn’t use the Coats & Clark in my embroidery machine, so I pulled a deep gold for one part of the embroidery. Note, I started with a 5×7 design, and resized it by reducing it to 80 % and rotating it in the machine. In the photo below, you can see the basting stitch that my machine does (black thread); which really helps me with the placement.

I think the final stitching looks pretty darn good. Note – the machine embroidery was done on my Janome 11000. This time I used the 6×8 magnetic hoop, and just hooped a piece of tear away stabilizer. I did a basting stitch in my hoop to hold the project in place, showing me the “field” that it would stitch in. Once the stitching was finished that stabilizer that was hooped easily tore away. There is still a piece on the entire back of the project that will be carefully removed once the project is closer to finished.

So here is how it looks at the end of Monday – and oh, dinner was late because I was just having such fun!

I’ve pretty well decided it will be a wall hanging. I think I might want to do a bit of embellishing stitching on the leaves, acorns, and pumpkin so that Pellon will stay on the back until I know I am ready to quilt. I’m kind of waiting for the “next” from Carole at From My Carolina Home, just in case she has another brilliant idea. When I cut the background piece, I cut it at 18×21, so I do have some room to play a little bit more. It’s a nice size for a small wall hanging.

Are you stitching along with #AutumnJubilee2022? ? ? Go take a look at Carole’s blog and keep your eye on her wide variety of projects! She will be covering everything from quilting, cooking, sewing, stamping gardening along with the wool applique, and there are lots of giveaways. When you follow, tell her I sent you!

Happy Stitching!

Meeting a fellow blogger

This week I had the pleasure to meet in person a fellow blogger – Carole Carter, who writes the blog called From My Carolina Home. If you have followed me for long you know that I love her projects and often share links to what is happening on Carole’s blog.

Carole agreed to be a speaker at Ocean Waves Quilt Guild in Lewes Delaware and to teach a class. Normally she doesn’t travel this far, but she was able to tie it in with some other activities, so she made the exception.

Her presentation at the guild was delightful, inspiring and interesting. She made lots of sense in her methods for storing scraps, or what she calls “Scrap Dancing”. She really is a dynamic speaker and if your guild is looking for speakers, I would highly recommend Carole. Her personality bubbles, and her projects are so much fun. To help cut down on how much she had to pack, several of us brought projects that we had made using Carole’s patterns. It was fun to see them on the stage along with her projects.

During the guild meeting

We had the joy of going out to dinner with Carole and her husband on Monday night, and were joined by fellow blogger Pat and her husband. Pat’s blog is called Sunlight Through My Windows . I hope we didn’t bore the men while we talked blogging and quilting and other hobbies. It was fun getting to know the husbands. Pat & I are moderators for Carole on her facebook group, so we had lots to talk about.

On Tuesday, Carole taught a class for the guild, which I signed up for. It was a joy to be back “in a quilting class” after so long. Carole provided her pattern called “TO THE NINES” to the students, along with a special tool from Studio 180 for marking 1/4″ lines. We used it when we were making those flying geese. We also received several brands of batting samples in very nice booklets that we can refer back to the next time we are shopping or ordering.

We learned lots of techniques in the class, a speedy way to make flying geese, some fast methods for piecing 9 patches called webbing. Of course, only those speedy sewers and those that don’t talk in class get everything done, so I did come home with some unfinished sewing. Truth is, my 1/4 inch seam allowance got fat, and rather than ‘rip’ out seams, I decided to just make a bunch more at home so I could assemble my project. I was using my featherweight and my magnetic seam guide and I were not getting along. I finished up my sewing today. My first block looked pretty darn good!

These blocks went together pretty quickly using Carole’s methods for chain piecing and webbing. The top at this point is 36×36. A small inner border and a bit wider boarder will finish it off nicely. All the fabrics except the background came out of my scrap storage system. I have the sizes this pattern uses already cut and on hand, so once I decided on a focus fabric, I pulled things that I thought would blend prettily. My focus fabric had purple, lavender, and multiple shades of blue and greens.

This was pretty fun to do, and I needed a day where my brain could just focus on sewing and nothing else for a few hours.

Have you had a chance to take a class from a quilter you follow on line? What do you suppose I will do with those “9 patches” that came up just a little “short” ?? I think they are perfect size for pot holders!!!

Autumn Jubilee 2021 has begun

My all time favorite blogger, Carole Carter, has done Autumn Jubilee for at least six years. I told her recently that when she announces Autumn Jubilee, I feel like It’s the most WONDERFUL time of the year! Her blog, From My Carolina Home is so much fun to read. Beyond quilting, she is an avid gardener and cook, and enjoys several other types of crafts. And of course, she is a wonderful writer, and an avid reader, with book reviews monthly. She writes for a national blog, and she has had patterns published on some of my favorite shop websites. There is so much more to tell you, but I think you might have more fun exploring her blog on your own.

I want to encourage you to participate in Autumn Jubilee 2021. She has a wide range of projects planned and I am certain you will find something you enjoy. There is a button on the side of my blog near the bottom to link back to her blog as well.

Even more exciting for me, Carole is coming next Monday to Ocean Waves Quilt Guild in Lewes, Delaware to do a program and teach a class! It will be so nice to finally meet her in person after so many years of following her blog, and working on her mystery quilts and Autumn Jubilee projects. Since she is driving up from North Carolina, and has limited space to bring things, several of us are sharing “our versions” of her projects during the guild meeting. It was fun pulling them out, and making sure we had a good variety to bring for next Monday. (Now, many of you know that my Scrap Dance series are “just tops” and still need quilted…)

If you read today’s post on Carole’s page, you will see she gave cutting instructions for her Autumn Jubilee 2021 quilt along, which is table topper size. Time for me to go get into my Autumn Jubilee bin of fabrics that I save for these projects every year!

Here are a couple of projects I have done over the years with Carole’s Autumn Jubilee patterns –

Edit – I forgot to ask – What is your favorite time of the year?

#AutumnJubilee2021

Scrap Dance Pachanga Revealed

Scrap Dance Pachanga 2021 is a mystery quilt designed by Carole Carter. She hosts the mystery on her blog, From My Carolina Home. This past Friday Carole revealed the B block and the layout for the mystery.

I’ve been sharing my progress all along here on my blog, but thought you might like a recap.

I started with the fabric pulled to use for the project. Most came from my scrap storage, with only a couple of fat quarters getting thrown in for variety. I did cut yardage for the white background of my units.

Twice a month since January directions were given for various block elements. We have made 2 patches

and then 4 patches

And then there were the flying geese and half square triangles big and small.

Last month we assembled the “A” block using some of the elements.

A Blocks

And with the release of the B block on Friday I got busy laying out the block, ready to sew.

Having all the elements already made is terrific when it comes time to assemble the blocks. I do have to admit that I wasn’t happy with my fabric for the center of the B blocks. Below are the original blocks I made for the small half square triangles that make up the center 4 patch –

I decided I needed “more variety” when it came time to assemble the block, so stopped and made MORE of the half square triangles from a variety of bright fabric I had held aside. I am quite pleased with the outcome.

B Block Scrap Dance Pachanga

Once I made those extra half square triangles, it was fairly easy to assemble the B Block, and I had most of them on the design wall by Saturday morning. I hope you can see that adding more variety to the fabric for the centers of the B block make the quilt more interesting. It is always fun to start seeing the pattern come to life as you place the blocks on the design wall. The first thing I saw was the secondary pattern that the B block introduced.

A & B layout

I did a little shopping on Saturday afternoon and happened to find a fabric at Hobby Lobby, that I think will make a nice border and maybe the backing. It is brighter than the photo, but does read PINK to me. It has the greens, blues and yellows in it as well and I think it will be a nice finishing touch to the quilt. I prewashed it, and now I have 4 yards to iron!

border fabric

Now all I have left to do is put on a narrow white border, and get that border fabric ironed and cut and put on. I think I will go for a 2 or 2.5″ white border and then a 6″ multi color border.

Here is what the top looks like before the borders are attached. It’s a nice throw size now at 48×60.

Scrap Dance Pachanga 2021

I love the way the B Block makes a run of “arrows” across the quilt. The A Block almost looks like it is floating on the white background. I find it very visually appealing, and it may be my “favorite” Scrap Dance project so far!

If you like this pattern, it is not too late to download the elements at Carole’s blog, but hurry. It is a free mystery quilt for her readers, for now. After a short period of time, the free pattern usually comes down and becomes a pattern for sale later on.

Did you “dance along” with Scrap Dance Pachanga this year? If so, what did you use for background fabrics? Do you like mystery quilts?

Edit – forgot to mention I am linking up today to OH SCRAP – If you have never visited, go check out the “linky party” and see what other scrap lovers are doing .

Playing with Scraps

This has been a lovely relaxing sewing week, playing with two scrap projects.

I worked on Step 7 of the Scrap Dance Pachanga Mystery quilt from Carole’s blog, From My Carolina Home. Steps come out on the 2nd and 4th Friday of the month, so I was a few days late getting mine done. This was an easy step for me as I love making half-square triangles. Some people don’t but I do. I like that they are sized enough to “trim” easily. I use the June Tailor Perfect Quarter Square/Half Square triangle ruler when I make mine.

We now have quite a collection of elements for this mystery quilt, but still have many pieces left for future “steps”.

I am resisting the urge to play with the elements. Banished to the basket to await the next step coming at the end of this week!

I continued to play with the scrap basket that I took on vacation. I have made quite a few more “Traffic Jam” blocks. This time I picked the 2.5″ squares out of my never ending basket and put together lots of combinations. I’m up to 24 blocks made. I had to “trim” these blocks to 12″ as some of the ones done on vacation were a tad “wonky”. I think some of that had to do with 2.5″ squares that didn’t quite measure up, or fat seam allowances.

Traffic Jam blocks

The pattern is available on Pat Sloan’s website for free. I love doing scrappy quilts. I also like to see what others have done with the sashing and borders on Pat’s website. If you take a look you will see all different ways this block is finished off into a quilt. I haven’t quite decided how I am going to sash it, but I am gathering ideas.

I am using a bit of the Bonnie Hunter scrap saver system for my bits and pieces. I seem to have a lot of scraps that need to be “cut up” into that system, but I am lazy about doing it. My sewing space has gotten cluttered and it is time for a bit of “clean up”. Do you save scraps for projects? How do you collect and store them?

Edit — forgot to add this — Linking up to OH SCRAP! If you like to work with scraps, check out all the fun things others are sharing there!

Autumn Jubilee 2020 Quilt Along update

Last time I posted about the Autumn Jubilee Quilt Along was when I was working on the pumpkin row (https://stitchinggrandma.wordpress.com/2020/10/24/pumpkins-and-fall-fun/ ) . About a week later, Carole published the assembly information on her blog From My Carolina Home, and I got busy assembling my rows in the specified order, with sashing in between the rows and a surrounding border.

First round of borders on

At this point with the project, the only “yardage” cut was the fabric I used for the TREE row, and for the sashing/borders. The sashing has a wonderful little golden dot, which went nicely with the fall colors. I do get inspired by nature when picking fabrics for projects.

November 10, 2020

Nature was slow to show me the colors this year on my favorite tree. We had some lovely warm days (and lots of bike riding) so it was hard to focus on the “next step” on the Autumn Jubilee quilt. I decided that I wanted to do something a bit different than what the pattern called for so I measured the quilt, and contacted my sister in law, Carolyn. She makes the BEST borders!! So, I sent along details and this is what she suggested –

Square in a Square block, using the JODI BARROWS tool.

I did a “test block” and then got busy sewing. The fabric for the 4 patches came right out of my scrap saver baskets, already cut to size. The outer fabric, is the same as the border and sashing fabric. I knew I did not have enough to do all the blocks I would need for the border, so I went with scrappy neutrals, cutting strips from my bin of neutral fabrics.

I spent an afternoon making a stack of 4 patches first, then working in small batches to turn them into Square in a Square blocks.

We had several days of rain where I did not even go to the sewing room, but when I finally got back out there, I trimmed my blocks and made 4 strips for borders.

Making sense of trying to fit my blocks to an existing project, I followed the steps Carolyn outlined in her blog – https://oneblockwonderwoman.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/camping-quilt.jpg

Carolyn was kind to work with me on the “quilt math” on Saturday, and we came up with similar numbers for the border that goes on between the dot border and the square in a square blocks. At one point I confused myself, and resorted to drawing out the picture of what was going where, and that helped my little brain. Turns out, I do this all the time, as I flipped back through the little 5×7 notebook I keep in the sewing room. I am a visual person and the numbers have to make sense.

She reminded me to “dry fit” everything before stitching. That was great advice.

I settled in to work on these borders yesterday afternoon and was quite pleased with the results.

So far, everything was fitting well. By the end of the afternoon I had the pieced border on and everything fit as Carolyn had predicted.

At this point, the quilt is 67 x 74. Oversized throw I think. And, for the moment, I am “DONE”. I have to think about it for a bit and decide if it gets another border or not. (It is a bit “odd sized” at this point….and I never answered the question Carolyn asked about “how big” was I planning to make this or what what I planning to do with it?)

I really enjoyed this project working on a weekly basis making a row quilt.

What’s happening in your sewing room? Are you inspired by nature in your color selections? How big is “big enough” for a throw size quilt? Would you scale this up for a queen size quilt? Inquiring minds want to know.

Pumpkins and fall fun

Friday was the final row for the #AutumnJubilee2020 quilt along. The block was a pumpkin block. Pattern can be found at https://frommycarolinahome.com/2020/10/23/autumn-jubilee-quilt-along-week-4-updated/

If you read the pattern, then look at my pumpkins, you will see I went my own way with the block. I had LOTS of great oranges and golds in my scraps in varying widths, so I just went for an alternate look. These were pretty fast to assemble. Hubby and I went out to the sewing/train room after supper, and these were done in a couple of hours.

Pumpkin row – click the photo for a close up view of the fabrics

While I was sewing, I had an audio book running on my phone, plugged into my computer speakers. Hubby, sitting ’round the corner’ at his model train work bench was listening to the book and I had to stop to give him the highlights of the previous 50 chapters…..Apparently he likes the writing style of David Baldacci. The book was called “Simple Truth” and was downloaded from our local library using the LIBBY app to my phone. Hubby enjoyed the last 12 chapters while he worked on his two passenger trains that needed lots of “interior” detail. He raided my scraps and found bits of fabric that he could use for wall paper and carpet inside this passenger train. This is an HO scale train.

click on the photo for a close up

It was a fun way to round out a nice fall day. We had an outing in the afternoon to a state park about 12 miles away. It is our “go to” place to bike ride since there is “sigh” no where closer we can safely ride. (That’s a long story and I spent my morning advocating for permission for bikes to be allowed at a new sports complex in town – a battle that meets with as much community support as with busy know it all’s telling me off.) I needed a break from the computer and FRESH AIR to clear my head. Hubby is a good sport, and agreed to go along.

He loaded up the bikes on the SUV and we drove the 12 miles on country farm roads to the state park and had a beautiful outing.

Relaxing at the end of the ride

The trails we ride are mostly in the woods with a few peeks at the water, but we like to stop and enjoy the view periodically during the ride. It’s not a race, every pedal turn is towards better health and fun!

Leaves are starting to turn in Sussex Co Delaware

There is a wonderful spot almost at the end of the ride to stop and just take in the view of the water. There is a spillway close by so you get some wonderful sound effects.

Trap Pond State Park Delaware

I use an app to track my mileage when riding, and apparently I have ridden here enough in the last 90 days to be the “local legend” for a segment of the trail! ‘that’s so funny….this ol’ fat grandma, a legend!!!” I laugh every time I look at that. My ride times in the last 90 days are widely variable, depending if I am riding with my daughter, or with the grandkids, or with grandpa, as I did today. My daughter is a regular rider and she has no problem taking the trails at speeds up to 10 mph pulling her toddler in a pull behind trailer. When I take grandkids, the younger one has a hard time keeping up with the bigger kids on their bigger bikes. (They have much bigger wheels and she has to pedal twice as much!) Hubby is patient about going with me and I like to stop for his benefit periodically. We need to get his handlebars adjusted slightly, but seem to forget by the time we get home.

Seriously though, the “local legend” is something new in the app and it is a rolling 90 day “count” for the number of times you have ridden the same route. I like to keep track of the distance for the ride, but the rest doesn’t really matter. I was there, I know I enjoyed the fresh air, and the bugs didn’t bother us in the woods if we kept moving. Good fun for both of us. We won’t earn any medals for speed or time, but we do enjoy just being out on the bikes.

So, between the beautiful trails, the changing leaves and the pumpkin quilt blocks, I would call it a wonderful Autumn day.

What’s on your sewing table or work bench this weekend?

Another Row for Autumn Jubilee 2020

It is fun to get up on Friday morning and find a new “row” for the Autumn Jubilee 2020 quilt along happening at the blog – From My Carolina Home – https://frommycarolinahome.com/2020/10/16/autumn-jubilee-quilt-along-week-3/

I had fun after dinner on Friday night pulling the fabrics for each of the 5 blocks. It really doesn’t take very much and I was able to get what I needed out of some small pieces, partially used fat quarters and a few strips left in my containers. I even used up some of those background blocks left over from my “indecision” last week with the trees.

My first block finished is my “feature fabric” from the row of trees that were row # 2.

Small print leaf fabric

I mixed up the background fabrics in this group of blocks since I was using the “same” fabrics for the actual leaf. (Gotta get my scrappy look!)

The second block was a much larger print fabric.

Sewing progressed pretty well. I chose an orange that is a bit of a tone on tone, and in hind sight, wish I had chosen a print. It just doesn’t pop like the other fabrics. Could just be the crummy lighting .

Up close it does look a bit better, as does the red with the gold print.

Overall, it didn’t take long to get the pieces cut and stitched and into a nice looking row.

Row three is complete for the Autumn Jubilee Quilt Along.

Ready for the next project. I was just thinking that I have 4 rows made (2 stars, 1 tree, 1 leaves) for the quilt along. I also have the embroidery blocks made for the Autumn Jubilee wall hanging, and the strip unit made for the bag. It will soon be time to start finishing some of these up. It’s not to late to start if you want to pop over to Carole’s blog and choose a project.

Are you quilting along with #AutumnJubilee2020? Or maybe you are stitching one of the wool projects or making pillow cases? Be sure to share on the Friends of From My Carolina Home facebook page.

Star Row Quilt-along Autumn Jubilee

Are you following along with #AutumnJubilee2020 on the blog – https://frommycarolinahome.com// ?? Each Friday in October there will be a “new” row to make for the Autumn Jubilee quilt-along.

Warning; lots of photo’s and a video ahead.

Many times in the years since I started following Carole at From My Carolina home, I have indicated that I keep a container of “Autumn Jubilee” fabrics/parts/pieces to take along to my quilt bees. It was quite easy to get started on Friday when the details were posted. My bin contains lots of big scraps, all the way up to fat quarters, plus some baskets of squares in Autumn colors and neutrals in various sizes used in previous years.

This week the STARS rows were quite easy to begin as my bin had a basket full of squares, already cut to size.

Ready to go! 2 1/2″ squares and some 2 1/2″ HST

Sorting colors for 4 patches

Do you have some favorite tools when working on small blocks? I do!

I like the wool pressing mat. This one is great for small units, 8″ square.

Sets ready to be made into 4 patches.

The Gizmo and the wool mat are great when working with chain piecing and chain pressing. The Gizmo has a razor blade for separating your blocks. It is free standing and quick to use when you have a big chain. I received the GIZMO as a gift. I don’t know that I would have gone out to buy the GIZMO, but I think it is a pretty clever thing, and handy when you have a lot to cut apart. Faster that finding the snips.

Having the squares already cut and ready to stitch made making the centers of the blocks quite easy, and in no time I had the number I need ready.

The pattern gives you specifics on the number of 4 patches and half square triangles(HST) you will need. I had about 1/3 of the HST already in the basket that were needed. In the same bin, I had another basket with the size I needed to make the remaining HST.

My favorite method is using the June Tailor Perfect Half Square/Quarter Square triangle ruler. Rather than try to explain the use, check out this great video on You Tube –

June Tailor Perfect Half-Square and Quarter Square Triangle Ruler

Using this ruler, I never hesitate when the pattern calls for lots of HST. I’ve used this ruler for about 10 years and it is one of my FAVORITE tools in my quilt room.

These two slots are for marking your stitching lines

The tape on the underside of the ruler is “medical tape” from the drugstore. It has little ridges on it and that really keeps my ruler from slipping around on the fabric.

Another tool I use is my rotating Fiskars cutting mat

My 2nd favorite tool in my sewing room is the 12″ rotating Fiskars Mat. I have worn out the middle and it may be time to replace it soon. The slot with the dash lines is used to line up your stitches and cut the block in half.

Fast straight cuts using the cutting guide

The slots in the center help you line up your HST for trimming and making them “PERFECT”. This is where I “wear out” my ruler, because I always seem to work in the same spot.

It doesn’t take long to make a big stack of HST.

Ready to sew

I stack up the pieces on my little rotating mat, making certain the points are all heading in the proper directing. This keeps me from having a wonky pointed star! As I shuffled the HST around, I kept reminding myself, “pointy part to the outside corner”. It does help to have the blog post up on the computer screen with a bigger view of the star too.

It didn’t take long on Saturday afternoon to make the stars into blocks.

This afternoon I will add the sashing to the blocks and make the two rows.

Are you following along with #AutumnJubilee2020 ??

What are your favorite tools in your sewing room?