Monday, September 1, 2025

Contessa pattern: a quilt for Mom

Good day, and welcome to my blog. 

I have been busy in my sewing room!  I am making a quilt (now a top) for my mom, and have been consulting with her every step of the way.

She likes bright colors: yellow, orange, red, even to magenta.  I found a set of 2.5 inch strips in these colors, and bought other fabrics to match, as my initial pick of a pattern required extra fabric for background and borders.


The package of strips is from CinBarDesigns on Etsy, and the other matching fabric, including the eggplant batik, came from Creekside Quilts.  CinBar Designs doesn't have this fabric set any more, but she has lots of other pretty batiks.  And Creekside Quilts has a great selection of batiks, and great customer service!

The pattern I chose, with Mom's input, is the Contessa pattern, available for free from Moda.  


I used the eggplant-colored batik, not white, for the background.


The pattern as written makes a top finishing at 60 inches by 70 inches, but I added borders.  A thin eggplant-colored border, then a warm yellow, then a wider eggplant border.  Here is what the top looks like now.


And a close-up of a corner:


I also consulted with Mom as to backing fabric.  The back of this quilt will be as bright as the front.  Our pick, from Backside Fabrics:


This will be arriving this week or next, and then it's off to the Long arm quilter I use.  I have plenty of time to get this project done for Christmas.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

Monday, August 25, 2025

Voyager: I received my fabric and I have a top

 Good day and welcome to my blog.

In my last blog entry I was waiting on some fabric from the Sun Valley fabric line to get going on my Villa Rosa Voyager blocks.  I did receive my fabric and I have been sewing away.  Here is one block:


I was waiting on the center yellow-orange fabric.  Here is the quilt top laid out on the floor, with some keystoning in the pic:


The top is about 58 inches, by 70 inches in size.  And a close-up of one corner:


I am calling this the Autumn Gold quilt.  Autumn colors, yes, but also a lot of gold highlights on the fabric used.  Binding is made and stored, and this top is waiting its turn to go to the long arm quilter that I use.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Villa Rosa Voyager: A start but waiting on fabric

 Good day and welcome to my blog.

A jelly roll/rollup of fabric (Sun Valley) surfaced in my sewing room.  I think I purchased it 2 years ago.



Beautiful shades of brown and gold, with gold highlights, perhaps more highlights than I normally like.  The fabric strips definitely look better released from the packaging, rather then rolled up.  And I have a pattern from Villa Rosa called Voyager, that would use the 40 strips in a full roll:


But a center fabric is needed for each block.  I ordered a yellow-gold fabric from this fabric line, and I am waiting for it to arrive.  However, I have started sewing strips of fabric together.  I sorted the strips into dark-dark, dark-medium, medium-light, and light-light groupings.  There needs to be some contrast between the two strips, but not much.  I paired the dark-dark strips with the light-medium strips, and the medium-dark strips with the light-light strips.


And cut them to the length specified.


And now I wait.  If the fabric doesn't come today, I will set this aside and start on another project, so that I have something to blog about next week.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

Monday, August 11, 2025

Pinwheel #8 project advances

 Good day, and welcome to my blog.  Today I am reporting some progress on my current project, a pinwheel pattern.

Beginning of this project, and link to the pattern source on Quilter's Cache, is HERE.

Careful pressing is needed for these blocks, with the last seam pressed open:


My blocks came out a little larger than 10.5 inches unfinished.  Better than too small, I suppose.  I trimmed blocks but this led to some chopped off points, as in the brown triangle at the bottom:


Well, probably no one will notice in the final quilt.  I set the blocks with white sashing and blue repro fabric cornerstones, and sewed the blocks into pairs.  Here is where we are today:


Laid out on my floor, in a 6 by 5 setting.  I still need to sew these together.  Then, think about borders.  I have leftover fabric from other quilt projects that I can use for this project.  The pieces are 2+ yards long, of varying widths.


The true green fabric in the middle is the narrowest of the 4 fabrics.  I'll have to unfold and measure these remnants carefully.  Maybe an inner narrow border, and a wider outer border?  We shall see.

Linking up with Monday Musings, Sew and Tell at Melva Loves Scraps, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle and Thread Thursday, Put your Foot Down at the Quiltery, Nina-Marie, Finished or Not at Alycia Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Oh Scrap at Quilting is more Fun than Housework.

I have a page on Facebook: keep up with my infrequent quilt and stamp posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Viridian

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