End of September (late report)

For six days starting Friday, September 25, I was on a quilting retreat.

Five of us stayed in a three-bedroom/three-bath resort condo near Orlando's theme parks where we sewed and sewed and sewed and spent copious amounts of time talking about quilts and other important things in our lives.

That's my excuse for not writing my usual end of September blog post at the end of September!

Happily though, I accomplished quite a bit of fabric sewing that boosted my monthly fabric-used total to an acceptable number: 11½ yards.

My total amount of fabric used-up thus far in 2026 - 47 yards - is running much lower than 2025's total due to my continued interest in knitting and crocheting. I'm not buying fabric though, so I'm still making slow headway at using-up stash. 

What I made with stashed fabric and scraps includes piecing this 57" X 61" Modern Maze quilt top that will be donated to a local charity. Next I'll do a lot of scrounging to come up with fabrics for a pieced backing.

This backpack is made using a World Cup panel and yardage for lining.  

My happiest moment came when I completed the last of 90 - 8" (unfinished) square foundation paper pieced blocks for Sunny a quilt pattern by Tara Faughnan that I began September 17, 2024. I can't wait to arrange them on my design wall and start webbing!

Book Recommendations

I listened to nine audiobooks in September. To be honest, I started several others too, but for various reasons couldn't continue. Those were: The Picture of Dorian Gray; A Good Keen Man; and Stitched.

In score order, from the highest 5.0 to lowest, books I listened to are:

• 4.4 - Olivetti, Allie Millington
• 4.3 - The Tenant, Frieda McFadden
• 4.3 - Anne of Green Gables, L.R. Montgomery (1908)
• 4.3 - A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L'Engle (1962)
• 4.2 - A Weekend on Allyson Island, Susannah B. Lewis
• 4.1 - In Your Dreams, Sarah Adams
• 4.0 - The Club, Ellery Lloyd
• 3.9 - The Wild Beneath, Kelly Andersen
• 3.8 - 100 Rules for Living to 100, Dick Van Dyke

Each month I try to read one "classic," and this month I'm calling two titles classics: Anne of Green Gables, and A Wrinkle in Time.

I gave Olivetti my top score this month because it's simply a charming story. What if a typewriter had a personality, and could talk? That's who Olivetti is.

He's bought by Beatrice Brindle and becomes a part of their family - a husband, and later, two children. He watches them grow as Beatrice types about her life. Then, unexpectedly, Beatrice disappears. Twelve year-old Ernest is stricken, and determines to find out where his mother went. Olivetti knows he's been taken to a pawn shop so Beatrice has money for a bus. The family she leaves behind has to find her and figure out why she left. Linda's score: 4.4/5.0

Frieda McFadden is again at her terrifying best, writing about the young woman, Whitney, who's renting a room on the top floor of Blake and Krista's brownstone. The couple plans to marry. When Blake loses his high-paying job (for no apparent reason), and Blake can't find lucrative work, they're forced to consider options for making mortgage payments. Odd things begin happening in the brownstone - like rotting fruit crawling with maggots. The timing makes one think it's Whitney who's brought trouble, but... The twisted ending will "get" you as it did me! Linda's score: 4.3/5.0

What can I say about the classic Anne of Green Gables but that it's a delightful, wholesome story about a young orphan girl who's mistakenly (meant to be an orphan boy) brought to brother and sister Matthew and Marilla's family farm on Prince Edward Island. Anne is enchanted with the scenery and locale, and Matthew and Marilee are charmed by Anne whose chatter is insightful and entertaining.

A few years ago I watched the Netflix series Anne With an E, and thought it was wonderful. I was glad to listen to the book and relive the TV series in my imagination. Linda's score: 4.3/5.0

A Wrinkle in Time was recommended by South Florida MQG quilters in our twice-a-month virtual Sip 'n Sew. When I mentioned my desire to listen to a classic each month, this title was suggested. I'd heard of it, but never read it. I'm glad I did! 

This is a story for children that adults will like - a science fiction tale with an underlying Christian theme. It begins "It was a dark and stormy night..." Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe, a popular boy in school, meet mysterious strangers who inhabit an abandoned house in the woods. They set off to search for Meg and Charles Wallace's dad who has been missing since engaging in secret government work - learning about tesseracts: "wrinkles in time." Linda's score: 4.3/5.0

Moira is turning 50, and wants to celebrate by inviting her girlfriends for A Weekend on Allyson Island, her waterfront home in Savannah, Georgia.

Moira is still missing her deceased husband, and tries to bury her sadness with alcohol. Erin is Moira's housekeeper and companion. Nell is Moira's Baptist friend who doesn't drink. Gemma is a high school friend who's dealing with overeating. Celia is a doting mother who helicopter parents her children. They all have personal challenges to overcome, and this is the weekend that affects changes. Linda's score: 4.2/5.0

In Your Dreams is a sweet love story, as you can probably tell by the book cover. Madison returns to her home town to accept a position as head chef at a new farm-to-table restaurant. What she didn't expect is that her brother's best friend would help launch the new restaurant and rekindle old feelings. Linda's score: 4.1/5.0

The Home Group is The Club for celebrities and the extremely wealthy. Exclusivity makes is a desirable place to escape the routines of life for everyone from movie stars to musicians to high profile businessmen. On the grand opening weekend of Island Home, growing problems between The Home Group CEO and staff, along with his brother's inadequacies, reach a pinnacle. The worst happens; someone dies. Then another goes missing. All the "beautiful people" have secrets they don't want revealed, but this is the weekend they could come to light. Linda's score: 4.1/5.0

About the last two books on my list... 

I thought The Wild Beneath was a too esoteric for my taste. It a bit of a reverie about a tsunami, the ocean, and how a whale becomes human - lovely but hard to believe.

And Dick Van Dyke's book about turning 100 years old (he'll be 101 in December!) is a nice autobiography when he shares about his years on the Dick Van Dyke show, working with Mary Tyler Moore under the direction of Carl Reiner; and the popular movies in which he appeared: Mary Poppins, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I enjoyed hearing about his experiences, including being married to Arlene who's 46 years his junior. But his suggestions for longevity - his 100 rules - seem mostly to be in direct proportion to one's income. Like, put in a swimming pool and big slide so your grandchildren come to visit.

Both are nice enough books, if you're interested in those things.

So... happy belated end-of-September! I hope you've found a couple titles that inspire reading. Linda

Playing Well With Others

It's been a busy week.

Last Saturday, not only did Central Florida MQG hold its monthly Sew-In, but members of the local 4-H Club joined us. 

During our lunch break "Sew and Learn," CFMQG members discussed various types of appliqué found in modern quilts. 

One of our members taught the kids how to use iron-on fusible to make fabric collages. You might see some unique-looking pumpkins among their projects.

Another member taught the kids to make ice cream sundae-looking pin cushions. They're made with felt gathered around a dryer ball, with a layer of chenille - like an old bedspread - gathered over that. 

The covered ball was hot-glued (handled only by an adult) to a small glass canning jar and topped with "sprinkles" (beaded straight pins) and a cherry (artificial). Everyone liked clinking glasses and saying, "Cheers!"

Over and over... "Cheers!"

On Wednesday I led a "Member-2-Member" domestic machine quilting workshop for my local guild, Quilting Guild of The Villages. These quilters, from several different chapters, brought their best sewing machines (many of them are heavy!) and a positive attitude to learn walking foot and free motion quilting. Of 17 students, would you believe 11 of them were quilting on Berninas!?

I assured them I'd "make them famous" on my blog if they posed for a picture. Thanks quilters! It was delightful spending the day with you!

And just to show that I haven't been too lazy, I'm knitting dishcloths in between quilting the quilt made with my Dad's plaid sport shirts. 

I have one more picture I simply have to share.

While power walking on Monday, I had to stop to believe what I was seeing. In front of a home were two life-sized sandhill crane statues, sculptures? And two REAL sandhill cranes had stopped to check out their stationary friends! Can you tell them apart?!

L-R Sandhill cranes: real, sculpture, real, sculpture

Don't you wonder what the real ones were thinking? Linda

Using Yarn, and Quiltmaking

Since writing my last post - a tutorial for making scrappy dishes - I've turned to yarn-y things. First of all.... tah-dah! My first knitted garment!

My Summer Soul Top, a beginner knitting pattern by Julia Piro, took me much too long to knit. I'm not a slow knitter, but rather so much frogging happened that I probably could have knitted three tops in the same amount of time... if I knew what I was doing!

It's a simple knit, knit, knit design (that's called a garter stitch) with 1 x 1 ribbing added to the sleeves and neckline. 

I couldn't be prouder.

I began knitting the top in late June, so wearing it in September isn't too bad. I wore it Saturday when I gave a program about using bias tape in modern quilts, and then presented a bias tape workshop to my friends in Central Florida MQG.

The top, made with Hobbi "Friends" cotton/silk blend is just the right weight for me who runs hot all the time. 

I also crocheted a Savy Shrug (I believe Jessica Cooper, the designer, didn't know how to spell savvy. 😏) I crocheted this in seven days using Hobby Lobby I Love This Cotton.  I'm learning that crocheting is faster than knitting, though perhaps it's because I understand crochet terms better than knit terms. 

Now I've begun knitting Easy Shawl (What's up with a no-name design?) by Martine Behm. I'm knitting this one with Schoppel-Wolle Zauerballe. For portability, it fits perfectly in the rice bag I made a couple years ago. 

Wanting to start another crocheted garment, I landed on this Refined Lattice & Shell Yoke Top found on Etsy. It was offered for sale by InfinitePixelsPoetry for only $2.99.

However, after downloading and printing the pattern, I found several errors, including the fact that even by the fifth round, the top (crocheted from the top down) was not looking at all like the pattern! Shells, yes, but upside-down to the finished design. And where are the double sets of five vertical bars? Someone more knowledgeable about crocheting would have to explain this to me. 

Since Etsy had sent a follow-up email about my purchase, I gave the pattern a low rating mentioning specific problems within the instructions, including that what was coming from my crochet hook did not look like the pattern! I suggested that maybe the design was AI-generated.

The "designer" Ghulam, responded with a message that included a series of 😭😭😭 faces. Am I supposed to feel sorry for her? Etsy asked if I wanted a credit. I accepted. Perhaps my lesson-learned is that if I can't find the designer on Ravelry (I could not), I shouldn't buy the pattern.

My quiltmaking update is about the quilt I'm making with Dad's sport shirts, for our CFMQG "2nd Chance Fabric Challenge." I finished piecing the backing last week, got it pin-basted....

... and when the quilting is done...

...facing fabric is ready to be sewn to it. 

Now to find my lost quilting mojo. The guilt - "You should be quilting, Linda!" - weighs heavily.

Tutorial: Dishy Scraps

Or is it "Scrappy Dishes?" 

I've recently discovered another way to use scraps - scarps, as my friend Char (Cloth Stitched) once called them. 😀

Let's make fabric dishes!

I learned this technique from Tash Wallace @sistacraftsidn during a recent free online craft summit, and haven't found a guide or tutorial for them on the Internet. 

Supplies

• print or solid fabric scraps
• white fabric scraps
• Modge Podge - I used "Gloss"
• brush
• small dish - I determined that a dish 3" to 4" wide is as big as I want
• plastic wrap, like Saran Wrap
• waxed paper - I used it beneath a dish as I worked, and allowed it to dry there too

Use fabric scraps! Shown below are off-cuts from making a Posh Penelope quilt. Or select a single print, or a combo of prints to cut up. Anything goes!

offcuts from "Posh Penelope" blocks

I found it most efficient and fun to make two bowls at a time. I could let one step begin to dry while I worked on the other bowl. 

Prep the Dish

From the bottom of the dish, cover it with plastic wrap. 

Smooth the plastic wrap over the ridges and curves of the dish bottom. 

bottom of dish

Wrap the plastic wrap around the dish edges, and crumple it in the bowl of the dish.

inside of dish

Keep scissors handy to trim away too-sharp points, or loose threads. I found that triangle shapes worked well to follow the dish's contours, but I used all shapes.

NOTE: To build the dish, the following three layer sequence is much like making a quilt sandwich. 

1. The first layer is placed face down, like a quilt back; 
2. the second layer is solid white fabric "batting;" and
3. the third layer is placed face up, like a quilt top. 

FIRST LAYER

Place the dish bowl face down (bottom of dish face up).

The first layer of scraps will become the INSIDE of the bowl.  So...

PLACE EACH PRINT FACE DOWN. (If you're using solids, this doesn't apply.)

Brush the bottom center of the bowl (covered with plastic wrap) with Modge Podge. Position any scrap on the bottom. IF YOU WISH, you may intentionally choose to fussy cut a design that will be seen in the bottom center of the dish. (See finished dish pictures at the end of this post.)

Brush Modge Podge onto the scrap fabric and adjacent plastic wrap, overlapping fabric scraps. Continue piece by piece, adding scraps around the dish to cover the entire surface. The more overlap, the stronger your finished bowl will be. Be sure to cover the dish to the edges that are laying on the waxed paper. Letting fabric lay beyond the edges is fine, because these edges will be scissor-trimmed at the end. 

First layer complete

This is the second dish I worked on simultaneously. 

SECOND LAYER

When your dish has been covered with the first layer of scraps, add a second layer of fabric. While the first layer is still wet, cover it with white fabric scraps. Any white or neutral-colored solid will work. Note how fabrics overlap. I used mostly square-ish scraps.

As before, start at the bottom center and work outward, overlapping fabric pieces. 

THIRD LAYER

Modge Podge another layer of print (or solid) scraps, right side up to cover the entire surface again.

These are the bottom of the dish, so you'll place these prints RIGHT SIDE UP.

At this point, your dish will look very milky - the effects of Modge Podge - but as the piece dries, prints will become clear. 

bottom of bowl

    

ALLOW TO DRY

If you've used waxed paper under your project, let it dry there. But if you've Modge Podged on paper, move it to a waxed surface like waxed paper or the waxy side of freezer paper. (How do I know not to let a dish dry on paper? Hmm... I wonder. 🤔)

Allow to dry overnight.

Use a flat tool like a knife, to gently separate the fabric dish from the plastic-wrapped bowl. The dish and fabric can be clingy. If your dish comes out slightly misshapen, don't worry; it can be pushed back into shape. If it seems damp on the inside, let the fabric dish continue to dry.

TRIM

After removing plastic wrap from the dish, put it back into the fabric dish. Use scissors to trim along the edges.

I love my collectible "Petal" glassware, but cutting around those shapes was a little tricky... something to keep in mind when you're selecting dishes to use as templates. (I've always loved this dessert dishware collection because each petal has, what seems to me, a Christian cross at the tip.)

The upside of using Petal is that each tip gave me a place to glue some leftover diamond art gems! Yep, these dishes can be embellished. How about acrylic gems, beads, or buttons?

HOW TO USE YOUR DISHES

These dishes can never wash be washed - don't eat out of them - and they aren't rigid. But they're useful for keeping items together like: 

• jewelry
• wrapped candies
• key fobs
• thread and/or yarn snippets
• pins

Best of all, you've used some of your smallest scarps scraps! 

I was so happy with my first two dishes, I made three more! I borrowed these dishes from my friend Donna. The dish the left has a short ½" vertical lip; the right dish has a unique shape.

Each of these fabric dishes finished with a fabric design intentionally positioned in the bowl center. The fussy-cut piece was the first scrap I applied, FACE DOWN. 

from the top

You can even add a fussy-cut shape to the third layer (dish bottom), if you wish - like the one on the far right. 

from the bottom

Here's a look at all the dishes I used, and the fabric dishes I ended up with. 

Does it look like fun to you? I sure enjoyed myself. Now I'm eyeing other dishes (also in thrift stores) as potential fabric dishes... What other shapes might I make?

And what do you think? Linda