While in Kansas City

I just spent a full week in Kansas City, visiting family. I stayed with our daughter, hubs, and two teenage grandsons, while also getting to visit with our son and two 11 year-old and teen grandsons, my Dad, sister/BIL, and two great-nieces - pretty much a sweep of family! I had a great time with everyone, enjoying every moment of being with them. We don't do this often. 

Also while in KC, I wanted to be sure to visit KC Maker Studio and Fabrics, a shop I follow on Instagram and from where I get Painter's Palette solids. I met KC Maker Studio owner Pat at QuiltCon in Atlanta, and have jumped on her unexpected one-day sales of PP solids (watch for them on IG). I spoke with Pat at the shop and learned she has signed a contract to be a vendor at the next three QuiltCons, in Raleigh (2026), Atlanta (2027), and who-know-where in 2028. Even she doesn't know where that show will be. 

Let me just say that KC Maker Studio is pretty much the largest quilt shop I've ever been in. And though I've been to Hancock's of Paducah, by comparison KC Maker Studio has the most extensive variety of fabrics (not just quilting cottons), and notions I've ever seen in one place.

This was my first impression walking in the store. I had to stop for five minutes to take it in. 

I tried to capture it all in a panorama photo, but even that doesn't do the shop justice. It's simply BIG! 

I was blown away by the fabric collections, beginning with Kaffe Fasset at the front. 

Both sides of the tall aisles were full of Kaffe. Though I'm not a Kaffe lover myself, I could sure appreciate the beautiful view!

So much Kaffe color!

Then there were the Tula Pinks. Again, I'm not a fan, but was impressed by color.

Here are Anna Maria Parry fabrics.

Marcia Derse fabrics.

Alison Glass fabrics.

And then I looked up. Fabric as far as I could see to the back wall! To give you an even better understand of the store size... the women's bathroom has three stalls! 😀

The opposite (left) side of the store repeats the size and structure of this right side (!) with the left side stocking wide backs, canvas, knits, and garment patterns. Seeing it all was overwhelming. 

Being a linen-loved, I was delighted to see how much Fableism she stocks. If I'd known what I wanted to make with it, I would have bought some.

In the end, though I meant to visit the shop only to browse (Who was I kidding?) these are my purchases: 

1. 8 ½" X 11 Ultimate Appliqué Freezer Paper - for foundation freezer paper piecing
2. brown .005 micron pigma pen - for marking seam lines when using my Inner City template
3. 4 spools of thread - 1 Aurifil and 3 Scanfil (Scanfil is my new favorite thread)
4. a skein of #2 cotton yarn - for making a crocheted amigurumi teddy bear
5. and, fabric:

• 2 yards of a wideback for the Posh Penelope quilt I'm working on
• blue lollypop print - Ruby Star, Eye Candy, to make a Cielo Top
• ½ yard pink - Benartex Sunny Day by Christa Watson 
• ½ yard pink/aqua stripe - Michael Miller Fly By Butterfly

The pink and striped pieces are mean to go with the Pick-a-Decade Challenge Quilt I've just started.

I recently finished this atomic-looking 20" block. I had thought to surround the teal and pink circles with bias tape, but that was a big fail. I ended up making circles, pillowcase-style, so all the circles have a turned under edge. No raw edge appliqué.

I made the pink circles first, with white fusible on the back (sew right sides together; clip raw edges of the circle; slit the interfacing; turn right side out) press to fuse onto black fabric; machine appliqué, then make a pillowcase circle with black fusible on the back. Fuse and machine appliqué the double-circle to a background of Oyster Painter's Palette. Whew. It worked. I achieved the 1950s vibe I was going for.

Anyway, the pink print and stripe will work into this project nicely. I don't know where at this point, but having these prints gives me options, even if it's to use the stripe as binding. 

About the threads I bought... At QuiltCon, I bought a three-pack of Scanfil thread - 50-weight/2-ply - that's made in the Netherlands. I love it! It's fine, practically lintless, and machine pieced beautifully in my recently finished Diagonal Scrap Quilts. It's also organic, if you're into that sort of thing. The spool itself is wood. So, seeing all the colors on a store shelf made me happy. 

Thread Trivia

KC Maker Studio charges $9.29 for a spool of Scanfil; and $15.95 for a spool of Aurifil. I thought to do a price per yard comparison. 

• Scanfil - 500 yards is .0186 per yard
• Aurifl - 1422 yards is .0012 per yard

• Scanfil is .0074 per yard more expensive than Aurifil.
• Scanfil is 66% more expensive than Aurifil. 
• If Aurifil was priced the same as Scanfil, you'd pay $26.45 for a spool of Aurifl. 

I will continue to use Scanfil - it's that nice - and I'll keep using Aurifil too.

After an hour or so at KC Maker Studio - I could have spent much longer! - I met up with my friend, Carla. She and I met 16 years ago through our blogs, and in September 2010 (when I lived in Iowa) we met for the first time in person in KC! I blogged about her HERE. She blogged about me HERE. Maybe you remember Carla when she blogged at  Lollyquiltz.blogspot.com? 

I treasure our special friendship. Even though we haven't seen one another for about six years, when we're together we pick up right where we left off and could talk for hours and hours. 

As wonderful as it is to get away, it's also good to return home. I feel reenergized and invigorated about getting to work on projects, though which project is the biggest dilemma. I want to keep going on the Pick-a-Decade Challenge; and make eight Posh Penelope blocks to meet my July self-imposed quota; and make that Cielo Top; and begin crocheting an amigurumi "Cuddle Me Bear;" and do some diamond painting.

There's also Saturday morning's Central Florida MQG meeting to attend, and Maria Shell's Improv For Everyone: Scrapbuster's Edition virtual workshop Saturday afternoon. 

There's nothing like jumping in with both feet, right? I can do it all! Linda

Diagonal Scrap Quilt Finishes

Did you notice the blog title? I used the plural of "finish"? FinishES. Yep, I got double-the-fun, and used-up double-the-scraps making two Diagonal Scrap Quilts over the past couple months. By my calculations, between the two pieced tops, two pieced backs, and pieced binding, I used 20.36 yards of fabric!

The first quilt I made was the black and white version. It's 72" X 79". 

From the front, my quilting isn't very visible.

Even on the back, it was difficult to photograph quilting because of all the prints. But I found a spot where you can see the allover "Whisps" design I used. My go-to place for domestic machine quilting designs is Esther Frenzel's blog (I subscribe) I Patch and Quilt, and she's also on Instagram @ipatchandquilt. Esther is a lovely person. She and I met-up briefly at QuiltCon Phoenix in February, but we could easily have visited for hours over a cuppa.

Before starting, I wouldn't have guessed I had enough black and white prints to make both the front and back of this quilt. 

The second version of the same Diagonal Scrap Quilt pattern is super-scrappy. My favorite! It measures 66" X 75".

For this one, I selected an all-over design called "Swirl Hook." It was made popular by Angela Walters (it's in one of her books), and Esther shared it on her blog with credit to Angela. I've used this design before and like it a lot.

Battings in both quilts is Quilter's Dream 100% cotton, Request (lowest loft). 

Something I did differently with the scrappy version of this quilt, is binding. Though I still used my favorite method of attaching binding, and machine-sewn binding corners - "No Tails Binding: Mitered Corners by Machine" - I didn't hand sew down the binding as I typically do.

In a timely email, Bernina had just sent a link to a We All Sew machine binding method, so I thought I'd give it a try. 

Here are notes for my Bernina 770QE:

1. Sew binding to the quilt back.
2. Use the Bernina #10D foot (the one with a guide).
3. Choose #9 blind stitch.
4. Select mirror image.
5. Move needle to the right, to #3 position.

settings for Bernina 770QE

1. Turn binding to the quilt front. Clip.
2. Position the 10D foot guide on the seam. 
3. Sew.

If you click the photo and zoom-in, you can see the small zag stitch bite into the binding. 

For a knock-around quilt, a machine-sewn binding seemed appropriate. I'm glad I tried it. 

If you like this Diagonal Scrap Quilt pattern, buy it on Etsy from Maryline Collioud Roberts, MaryandPatch. It's available in English and French. I found this pattern because I follow Maryline on Instagram @mary_and_patch. She has other great designs too!

So, two quilts on the "finished" pile, and more used-up fabric prints. Just the way I like to roll. Linda

End of June: Yardage Tracking, and Books Read

It's always interesting, at least to me, to tally-up a month of fabric purchases and usage. No fabric came in during June, and almost four yards was used. 

The quantity used is low because I spent much of June domestic machine quilting to finish two quilts. Fabric used was only for binding those two quilts; making a zipper pouch; hand-piecing only two Inner City blocks...

...and piecing nine Posh Penelope blocks. I made my first PP block in April 2023. Now I've set myself a goal of making eight blocks a month. At this time, I have ten blocks made and need 42 for this quilt. The block at top left is one I'm questioning for use in the quilt front. It's too mushy, so it might end up in the pieced back. 

Fabric use is low and slow. 

Two other crafts distracted me from sewing. First was round loom knitting, and needle-knitting. For donations, I made three round loom knitted caps, a newborn cocoon, and used knitting needles to knit three face cloths.

Second has been (finally) starting a large diamond painting canvas. I ordered it from Diamond Painting Pro, thinking I was getting a product shipped in the US. Turns out not all of the company's kits come from the US. The "Ocean" kit I ordered took 22 days to get to me from China, arriving the same morning Diamond Painting Club meets in the afternoon. 

I quickly opened plastic bags of 40 different colors of square drills (four are AB drills - Aurora Borealis, meaning they're iridescent), labeled and filled screw-top plastic bottles, and packed-up everything for several hours of diamond painting with new friends I'm making in Diamond Painting Club.

This is the 20" X 20" canvas I'm creating.

"Ocean" diamond painting canvas

Gosh! Another craft to be hooked on!

Very much like counted cross-stitch drill color placement is identified by symbols. I started positioning drills at the top left, and as recommended, I'm working in a grid pattern. 

The left side is done; the right is "unpainted."

Two more kits, ordered from a US Etsy shop are due to arrive this week.  Oh boy!

Book Recommendations

In June I listened to 11 audiobooks (listening and diamond painting go well together), and gave all of them a score of 4.0 or higher (out of 5.0). It's unusual for me to listen to a streak of so many good books!

These are the titles, authors, and scores, as sorted in my Numbers document.

My thoughts about some of these titles... 

I absolutely admire any book written by Charles Martin, so I was delighted to see/read his relatively new release, number four in the Murphy Shepherd series - The Keeper. If you haven't read this series, begin with The Water Keeper. Perhaps I appreciate these books a little more because they first take place in Florida. But no matter where Mr. Martin takes his readers, he writes with a beautiful underlying theme. He's a top-notch author who happens to live in Jacksonville, Florida. I'm a fan.

The Housemaid, by Frieda McFadden, is #1 in The Housemaid series. I enjoyed this one enough that I'll be looking for the second book called The Housemaid's Secret. 

The English Masterpiece was a good foray into the art world. The protagonist works at The Tate in London, England. I found myself pausing the book to look up the art pieces talked about in the story. It was a good read with a twist I didn't see coming.

Lisa Wingate's Drenched in Light was a good story about a young woman who thought she'd be a professional ballerina, and instead is the new guidance counselor at a private high school in Kansas City, that she herself attended. I appreciated the deeper message addressing an underlying problem among middle- and high-school kids.

The German Daughter... excellent! This is a post WWII story about two children born into the WWII program, Lebensborn - the Nazi plan to increase the birth rate of Aryan children. As adults, they're wondering who their parents are. This story is about an eye-opening piece of history.

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawson is getting lots of attention as one of the top ten books to read this year. It's historical fiction, but based on the real life of Martha Ballard, a Maine midwife in 1789. Much of the story is about the prevailing practice of women who have become pregnant of out wedlock being required to publicly name the father of their child.

The Woman in the Cabin started idyllically, in picturesque rural Scotland near a loch. Then the too-perfect story turned emotional - fear, pain, anger and resignation. It is an intense story that had me listening non-stop, as I kept reassuring myself that this could never happen in real life!

The Names is quilter Florence Knapp's @florenceknapp_ first work of fiction. She's a well-known UK EPPer- Flossie Teacakes Guide to English Paper Piecing - and quilt maker. The Names is an intriguing story. What happens when a baby boy is given a particular name? Bear, Julian, or Gordon? One child; three different sets of family dynamics; three lives lived.

Take a screen shot, if you wish! 

I hope you find this list and brief review helpful. I'd love to know which titles you choose to read, and what you think of them! Linda

Messy Making, and Confetti Pouches

Since finishing two Diagonal Scrap Quilts (pictures coming soon), I've dug into a new, must-do quilt project.

In January, Central Florida MQG announced the Pick-a-Decade Challenge, due in November. We're to choose a decade - any from 1900 to 2000 - to make a quilt inspired by that decade's color palette and design aesthetic. I've procrastinated about getting started.

The decade I selected is the 1950s because: 1) it's the decade I was born; and, 2) I like the designs popular during that era - starbursts, boomerangs, and atomic-looking shapes.

So off I go, trying to use a few of these colors and the above designs to make a big quilt.

 

Attempting to create the upper right design - a large circle surrounded by spokes with 12 smaller circles. I started by making ¼"-wide bias tape to appliqué around a small circle. What a fail! After consulting with a Central Florida MQG friend about alternate methods for achieving the look I want, I got down to work. What a mess.

The method I'm going with uses white interfacing to back, sew, and "pillowcase" a pink circle (turn it right side out), then fade and machine appliqué the pink circle to a black background. The process is repeated using black interfacing to back, sew, and pillowcase a second circle (turn it right side out) that's then machine appliquéd to the oyster-colored (Painter's Palette) background. It worked!

However, when it was time to appliqué the black circle, I was frustrated to discover I was out of black thread! I appliquéd with charcoal-colored thread instead, and itt doesn't look good.

Today I picked up two spools of black cotton thread from two different local shops. One is Wonderfil Konfetti (50-weight), and the other is Wonderfil Efina 60-weight. Good grief thread is expensive! I paid a little more than $21 for these two spools!

Anyway, I'm ready to make progress on this I-don't-know-where-it's-going, Pick a Decade Challenge.

At Big Cypress Quilters this week, those who participated two weeks ago in making confetti fabric, and turning their 11" X 14" piece into a zipper pouch, were asked to bring their finished pieces for a group photo.

It's great to see what everyone sewed using different pouch patterns.

Cindy couldn't join us, so sent a picture. I know for a fact that Cindy did a little "dumpster diving" at retreat to come up with the black and white piano keyboard print snippets.

Betty covered her confetti with tulle, rather than mesh. It look good too!

If you'd like to make confetti fabric, go here to my blog post to learn how to create it. Then follow one of these three patterns to turn it into a zipper pouch:

1) Simple, envelope-style Zipper Pouch tutorial by MellySews

2) Open Wide Zipper Pouch tutorial by Noodlehead

3) Zipper Pouch with Flat Bottom tutorial by Polkadotchair

On my June 13 blog post, Kara Kwilts suggested using BLACK mesh rather than white mesh on top of fabric snippets, I tried it. And I like it!

Did you note that I used twined fabric to make the zipper pull?

Everyone who saw the black mesh version of the pouch liked it. We all agreed that the mesh color choice may also depend on colors of your fabric snippets. Red mesh on Christmas scraps would be great! In any case, thanks Kara for your suggestion. We like black mesh too!

I finished the black mesh confetti fabric into a Wide Open Zipper Pouch by Noodlehead. 

Oh, and this week I made another round loom knitted cap. I can't help myself! 

This one was knitted on a 41-peg loom, following the Seersucker pattern, here on YouTube.

I hope you've had a productive week! Linda