'Tis the Season for Stashing / Beauties Pageant 269

My recent book-writing experience effectively curbed my desire to buy fabric. Back in the fall of 2023, I selected all the fabric for that collection of patterns, and Moda sent me two huge boxes of jelly rolls and yardage for tops, backs, and bindings. Opening and unpacking those boxes was the most fun I had had since being a kid on Christmas morning!

For many months that followed, I couldn’t justify buying new fabric. I simply didn’t need it, and I was busy sewing my book samples. Now that the book is done (to be released in April 2025), some too-good-to-pass-up sales and an upcoming pattern release have had me online and adding selection after selection to my cart. 

First up: the Moda prints at the top of the post. Last weekend, Lamb and Loom Fabrics offered a mystery backing for $10. I love a good mystery purchase, and 4 yards for $10 was an unbelievable price. I bought half-yard cuts of various prints from Fancy That Design House and Ruby Star Society and, when I received the package, was super pleased to find a design from Aneela Hoey as my mystery backing. After admiring these new fabrics, I stashed them for a time when inspiration strikes in the future.

Then I placed an order for Rifle Paper designs at Hawthorne Supply. Rifle Paper has produced three different holiday collections over the years. I bought my favorites and will pair them with four different solids—I’m thinking dark green, light green, red, and pink—for a pattern slated to release next month. To be honest, I already had a layer cake on hand to make this particular pattern, but it’s going to be such a quick sew that I think I can bang out two of them for pattern promoting and holiday giving.

What’s the stashing scene in your sewing room? Are you chipping away at the fabric you already own or have your sights on some new additions?

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Cluck Cluck Sew's Kitty Cats / Beauties Pageant 268

Nothing brings me more satisfaction than getting a low-priority project off the WIP pile and over the finish line, and this week’s post does not disappoint. There’s no gift-giving opportunity on the horizon. I don’t have a recipient in mind. But when I find myself in need of a cat-adorned quilt, I now have this beauty at the ready ...

The design is Kitty Cats from Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew, and it was a delight to piece! I had purchased several half-yards of different Riley Blake prints a year or two ago. Kitty Cats, which calls for fat quarters, put those selections to good use, leaving me with extra fabric to put toward my Pineberry quilt (yet another WIP).

I used more stashed fabric on the back because that’s how I roll ...

My only regret (Future Michelle, please take note!) is that I didn’t have more variety in color and design in my fabrics. The repeated prints and colorways made it difficult to spread the colors evenly throughout the quilt top.

Allison Harris is one of my favorite pattern designers. Her patterns are simple without being simplistic, and they’re a joy to follow. If you’re a Cluck Cluck Sew fan as I am, I’d love to hear which patterns you’ve sewn and to see your finishes (even if they’re old ones!) in the linky below!

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Camille Roskelley's Patchwork Sky Pattern / Beauties Pageant 267

Years ago, my mom got me a fat quarter bundle of Nova, by Basic Grey, for my birthday. I bought some yardage to go along with it and slowly started chipping away at the mountain of prints in teal, rose, and navy. The first project I completed with Nova was Irish Twist, my own take on a traditional Irish chain quilt ...

Then I cut two additional throw-size quilts: Basic Grey’s Stolen Kisses and Camille Roskelley’s Patchwork Sky. The first one is not pieced at all (like, not even a little bit). The second quilt, however, is this week’s finish ...

Patchwork Sky checks so many boxes for me. I love the big, bold stars that seem to fall off the edges of the quilt and the swaths of 2-inch (finished) squares. The pattern instructions call for a jelly roll and a strip-piecing technique to assemble the 16 patches that fall between the stars. Because I had fat quarters, yardage, and scraps, I cut my own 2.5-inch strips and squares. I am a sucker for quilty math, so I was happy to play with my calculator if it meant busting through all that fabric. 

My first Nova project went directly to the longarmer for a swirly pantograph treatment. I thought Patchwork Sky, on the other hand, would benefit from the straight-line quilting I could accomplish on my own. Those straight lines, I think, make the quilt that much more modern.

You know I love a good jelly roll pattern, and Patchwork Sky is one I may revisit in the future. : )

 

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Pageant Highlight Reel / Beauties Pageant 266

I decided this week it was time to tally the WIPs, and friends, the numbers were sobering. I have 10 projects in process and another 4 cut and ready to sew. A total of 14 might not seem like a big number to you, but many more would overwhelm me. Until I can chisel away at them, any new projects need to be ones I’d sew start to finish right now, like a QuiltCon 2025 submission or a new pattern.

But that doesn’t stop me from daydreaming about what might come next, and recent Beauties Pageants have provided more than enough inspiration ...

Orinoco Flow

Sandra’s Orinoco Flow is a throw-size version of a baby quilt pattern of hers that was published in Love Patchwork and Quilting last year. I have a soft spot in my heart for whole-composition designs, and Orinoco Flow does not disappoint ... It looks exactly like the original baby size; Sandra achieves the throw size by enlarging the components, not by adding more blocks. And by the looks of it, Orinoco Flow will come together quickly!

Blue Pineapple Blocks

Gretchen’s collection of blue pineapple blocks is a showstopper, and think of all the scraps she busted through to make 64 blocks! I have never sewn a pineapple block quilt (the time commitment is daunting), but these blocks think I may need to tackle one.

Garden Party

Although neither my blog nor Instagram feed show any evidence of this, I have been playing with applique recently. It’s been fun to consider the possibilities of what I can accomplish outside of my usual piecing techniques. Gail’s Garden Party project uses a pattern by Laura Heine and an applique approach called “edge painting.” Once you open yourself up to applique, the possibilities of what you can create are limitless ...

I know many of you are like me and enjoy having multiple projects going at once. How may projects are too many for you? Which of these designs are tempting you, too?!

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National Sew a Jelly Roll Day 2024 / Beauties Pageant 265

Attention fans of precuts! Tomorrow is the third Saturday of September, and you know what that means: It’s National Sew a Jelly Roll Day. (For real. Check out Moda’s post about the yearly event, including free patterns, here!)

I consider myself a jelly roll ninja. As a stash curator, jelly rolls are my sweet spot, giving me a cross-section of a fabric collection at a great price point. As a pattern designer, jelly rolls can do things that layer cakes and fat quarter bundles can’t. I love the challenge of working with those 2.5-inch strips to come up with new and innovative quilt designs. In fact, I enjoy working with jelly rolls so much that I designed 14 patterns to include in my first book—Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts—which will be published by C&T next year.

But my Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt pattern is one that you can get your hands on today for satisfying jelly roll sewing tomorrow. Plus, it’s one of my Almost Free for Charity patterns, which means I will donate part of the proceeds from each $3 pattern to an organization that supports the Down syndrome community. (I talk about my own kiddo with DS in this post.)

So, are you game to bust open a lovely roll of strips and get going? Here are a few things to know about the Still Pretty Simple Jelly Roll Quilt:

* This pattern requires just 32 jelly roll strips and 1.75 yards of background fabric to make a 56.5" x 64.5" throw-size project.

* The 16 elongated log cabin blocks you’ll make can be configured in a bunch of different ways. As you can see from the accompanying pictures, I’ve arranged mine to be large arrows, a huge X, and a big star. (Other suggestions are illustrated here.)

* I can’t say this about all jelly roll patterns, but you can use strips cut from fat quarters to sew this design. Two 2.5" x 20" strips cut from a fat quarter equal one jelly roll strip. You’ll need 32 pairs of strips—that is, 64 in total—to sew this pattern.

Need your own copy of the pattern? Pick it up for $3 in my Etsy shop!

I am always (always!) on the lookout for clever and creative jelly roll patterns. Even if you’re not celebrating National Sew a Jelly Roll Day with a project this year, I would love to hear your suggestions. : )

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Have You Seen My Sewjo? / Beauties Pageant 264

Thank you for your kind words about my upcoming book release! As I wrote in the acknowledgments to that collection of patterns, I owe so much to this blogging community. I wouldn’t be the quilter I am today without the encouragement and mad quilting skills I’ve encountered here. So again, thank you!

Designing the projects and writing the book required a ton of time and effort. Then there was the not-so-small matter of making all 14 projects, which range in size from wall hangings to bed-size quilts, over the course of nine months. At this point, the big milestones—the text, illustrations, and photographs—are finished, but there’s still work to do.

The result of this process? I am one tired quilter, and it has affected my nonbook projects. I’ve been thinking a lot about quilting, doodling ideas and considering whether I should attempt a QuiltCon submission, but the mere thought of those projects I began and then set aside to work on the book makes me want to cower under my sewing table. Where do I start?

Without the urgency to get any project in particular done, I came up with a plan. I’m tackling the lowest-hanging fruit. First, I bound the Kitty Cat quilt I got back from my longarmer a few weeks ago (here’s a shot of the flimsy before quilting) ...

Then I quilted a throw that has been basted for over a year (it’s Camille Roskelley’s Patchwork Sky pattern and is great for jelly rolls) ...

After binding that—perhaps this weekend?—I’ll move on to whatever WIP is furthest along in the quilt-making process (Rosemary quilt, I am looking at you!) ...

It’s worth noting that I am buying zero fabric because new fabric is just future WIPs, and my brain does not have the capacity to consider additional projects!

A few questions for you in conclusion ... How do you revive your sewjo? And when faced with a mountain of WIPs, where do you start? I know Leanne at Devoted Quilter will be launching her annual WIPS-B-GONE challenge soon. I’m super bad at following sewalongs and such unless I organize them myself, but that event may be the kick in the pants I need to forge ahead!

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I Wrote a Book! / Beauties Pageant 263

Cover by C&T Publishing, Inc.

 

I can sum up the past year of my life in four words: I wrote a book! It’s been a long journey—my design process started even earlier, back in 2022—but the end is on the horizon. Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts: 14 Cute & Creative Projects will release next April!

I have so many things to say about the 14 patterns I designed and sewed for this book, but all the quilty details will need to wait until next year. Right now, Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts is available for preorder on sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. (The Amazon listing contains some of the project pictures in addition to the cover art—woo hoo!)

For those of you who’ve asked, I will be putting together and selling my own special book release bundle with autographed copies. More details on that next year, too ...

So, apparently, this whole post has been one big tease. The gist is, I wrote a beautiful book! We’ll all have to wait until next year to get our hands on it! 

: )

Cover photograph by Melanie Zacek.

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Zip It Good Pattern Release / Beauties Pageant 262

A few years ago I had this idea to create a line of patterns that would make everyone happy ...

People who love a free PDF pattern could sign up for my newsletter to get their copy without charge. Sewists who appreciate a deal could pay just a few dollars to receive their copy. And makers who want their purchases to make a difference would be happy to hear that I would send a portion of the profits to a worthwhile organization.

Up until now, I have released two Almost Free for Charity patterns. Today I am unveiling my latest: Zip It Good!

Do you have larger cuts aging in your stash? Let those prints shine in Zip It Good! Strip sets and nesting seams will make quick work of your yardage, creating an awe-worthy quilt in one of four different sizes:

Small Throw: 53" x 55 1/2"
Medium Throw: 53" x 65 1/2"
Large Throw: 67" x 75 1/2"
Twin: 67" x 90 1/2"

Newsletter subscribers already received their link to download the pattern (a reminder will go out in the September 6 issue). For everyone else, the pattern is available here in my Etsy shop.

I thought that would be a fun way to wrap up the summer. : )

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Some Kitty Cats / Beauties Pageant 261

** I’m sick on the couch this week. Catch me next Friday, August 30, with the release of my latest Almost Free for Charity quilt pattern, Zip It Good! ** 

The summers here at From Bolt to Beauty world headquarters follow the same trajectory each year: Things start off slowly as we struggle to establish some semblance of a routine. Then things get cooking. We go from a minor simmer to full-on boil overnight, and then it’s go, go, go until school opens again. It’s fun but also a little exhausting.

Meanwhile, I’m plotting how to squeeze in some quilting time and developing unrealistic expectations for what I will be able to accomplish come fall because it’s virtually impossible to check something off my to-do list during the summer.

And yet, I just may finish something after all. Pictured here are is my Kitty Cats quilt (pattern by Cluck Cluck Sew), which I dropped off at the longarmer this week. This beauty will get the edge-to-edge panto treatment with chunky swirls that are reminiscent of cat tails.

I’ve also made great progress on my EPP project (read last week’s post here). The dozen blocks I wanted to make for my Rosemary Quilt are complete, I’ve decided on the final layout, and I started to machine-applique the EPP blocks to the background fabric.

I’ve had so much fun with these blocks—and summer commitments will create more opportunities for hand sewing this next week—that I’ve decided to make another. Rosemary #2 will feature Eden, a collection by Gabrielle Neil for Riley Black, which I used for Snapdragon Cove. There’s something nice about having an entire fabric line at the ready for those situations when you don’t have the bandwidth to curate a fabric pull yourself. This was one of those times.

Have you found time to be productive at your machine this summer? I know it’s a balancing act, especially if you’re like me, with kids out of school and at home. I’d love to see what you’re working on (a finished block is a finish in my book!). Upload your beauties to the linky below ...

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