Attack of the WIPs! / Beauties Pageant 318

It sounds like the horror movie playing at the local cineplex: Attack of the WIPs! And to be honest, there are moments it feels like a horror movie, too.

Don’t get me wrong: I am a finisher. To keep things interesting, I like to have many projects going at once—a dozen works for me—but I almost always get around to finishing them. Some projects are put down because the two of us have hit an impasse. Others take a backseat to higher-priority projects. 

Because we’re in the early weeks of 2026 and the new year is a traditional time to take stock, I pulled a few WIPs out of my closet ...

Now Showing in Theater 1: I Heart Rainbows

Back in November, my guild held its fall retreat, and I took a bunch of WIPs. On one hand, this seemed like punishment. After all, I was in the middle of the New Hampshire woods for two solid days with projects that had plagued me for months (or years!). It was a good decision, though. Although I wasn’t working with exciting, new-to-me fabrics and patterns, I enjoyed dopamine hit after dopamine hit as I moved multiple projects toward the finish line. 

I Heart Rainbows is one of those projects. Here it is—all I need to do is add the top and bottom borders, and I’ll have a complete flimsy!

I Heart Rainbows is a generously sized throw from my book, Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts. In this instance, I sewed 16 blocks (the original pattern calls for 15) to make two quilts: the smaller throw pictured here as well as a baby quilt. 

The fabric is Lucky Bugs, and Benartex sent it to me after I met the collection’s designer, Irene of Sugaridoo, at H+H Americas. I love how the sweet prints read as solids, playing to my more modern aesthetic. I will post more pics when this project is quilted and bound!

Now Showing in Theater 2: Little Man 

Longtime readers may recognize Little Man. It’s a pattern from Camille Roskelley’s book Simplify, and I’ve made it many, many times. (See all the versions here!) The fabric requirements are easily met by my stash, and the pattern creates an interesting, not-too-small baby quilt. It’s a good go-to quilt when I need one to gift ASAP.

Longtime readers may also not be surprised that I cut this quilt as I was working on its twin, which I gifted a year ago. That is how my brain insists on working: If I am going to cut and sew one smallish project, I might as well cut a second while I’m at it. The problem is, Michelle’s brain, that you then have to find the time to sew and quilt and bind that second project!

Now Showing in Theater 3: Cozy Cottages

There’s a trend among these quilts: It’s the Michelle-likes-quilting-books trend. I do love a good quilting book. In a world where standalone patterns cost $13 or more, a book is worth the $25 or $30 price tag if it contains at least three patterns I’d consider making.

Cheryl Brickey’s Just One Charm Pack Quilts falls into that category. Both it and its sucessor, Just Two Charm Pack Quilts, have a bunch of smaller child- and throw-size projects that I will make over the years. 

Here is Cozy Cottages, from Just One Charm Pack Quilts. It’s another WIP that needs a top and bottom border to make it a complete flimsy. I’m going to get to it soon—promise! And it’s another project that has a near-identical twin, because I again fell victim to the if-I’m-going-to-cut-one-project-I-might-as-well-cut-two trap.

I plan on quilting all three of these projects myself. Maybe I’ll get them between my Disney trip at the end of January and QuiltCon in February? Alas, that's probably wishful thinking. I suspect March 2026 will be my month of quilting on my domestic!

How are things on the WIP front in your sewing room? Are you screening a romance, a comedy, or a horror film?! 

 

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My Newfound Fondness for Halloween / Beauties Pageant 306

Let’s get something straight: I am not a Halloween kind of girl. In fact, the last time I donned a costume was 27 years ago, in 1998.* 

Sure, I’ve handed out candy to neighborhood kids. I’ve oohed and aahed over little ones dressed as Tigger and Thomas the Tank Engine and Spider Man. Now that I have two teenagers, though, I would like to spend every October 31 at home and under a quilt—no jacket, flashlight, or treat bag required.

Slowly over the past few years, however, cute Halloween has taken hold of my heart, and I find myself—gasp!—excited for the holiday. 

I’m sure a lot of that has to do with Five Little Ghosts, one of the patterns from Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts and the focus of my first quilt-along from the book. This project is quick and easy, and I’d bet you have what you need to sew it without buying a thing.

What’s better than a project featuring 5 silly ghosts, though? A throw quilt that features 20 of them! So when the QAL launches next week, I will include a free download that I’m calling Five Little Ghosts and Friends ...

Whereas the original runner-size project was written for jelly roll strips, this expansion pack was written for jelly roll strips and fat quarters. 

I am working ahead of schedule on my QAL project and sewing my little ghosts with selections from Hey Boo, a 2024 collection from Lella Boutique. (If you’re looking for the same collection, I had good luck at Handmade is Heartmade.)

If you have a copy of Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts, I hope you’ll consider joining me in sewing some ghosts! I have YouTube videos planned and am lining up a selection of quilty prizes (to enter, you will only need to finish a single ghost block). More details are in the image below and on the QAL landing page.

* I dressed as the Prudential building in Boston for a 1998 Halloween party. It was not a fun costume. Pro tip: When dressing up for Halloween, steer clear of architecture!

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Because People Keep Having Babies / Beauties Pageant 278

Just when I think all the babies in my life have a Michelle-made quilt, another one comes into the world!

The quilt you see here was made for the 4-month-old of a very special teacher. This project is the sixth time I’ve sewn this particular pattern. It’s Little Man, an oldie but a goodie by Camille Roskelley from her book Simplify (Stash Books, 2010). 

What makes a baby quilt pattern worthy of sewing a half-dozen times? Well, Little Man is super cute, and its fabric requirements are easily fulfilled by my stash. Although I opened a layer cake for Little Man #6, I usually cut into the suggested four fat quarters. That’s an easy bill to fill for a gal who doesn’t invest in many baby-friendly prints. 

Little Man is also a fast sew and measures in at about 40" x 50", so the recipient can use it well into his toddler years and beyond (and I can squeak by without piecing a back!). Gah—it’s the best baby quilt pattern!

My only regret with this quilt is that I didn’t get pictures of the quilted-and-bound finish. With my usual machine in the shop, my backup machine and I struggled to finish much of anything before Christmas. This beauty was completed the night before it was delivered, and it went straight from being bound by my humble backup machine to being wrapped up for gifting. To see my past versions of this pattern, including more than one I’ve dubbed a “Little Lady,” click here.

For those of you who fall in love with this project’s turtles and crabs and whales, they’re from Ahoy! by Gingiber. Could that have been Stacie Bloomfield’s first collection for Moda way back when? One way or another, the collection is long out of print. I can cut another (my seventh!) Little Man out of what remains from my layer cake, and then that will be the end of my fun with Ahoy!

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• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Quilty Christmas Postcard / Beauties Pageant 197

Have you ever made a quilted fabric postcard? My guild—the New Hampshire Modern Quilt Guild—recently participated in a postcard swap with the Capital District MQG. Having never quilted a postcard before, I decided to take part, and the beauty you see pictured here is what I sent to my partner in New York.

I referred to Sara Ruiz’s Quilted Fabric Postcard tutorial to determine my game plan. She suggested using postcards to explore new techniques, so I took that as a sign to give tiny paper piecing a try and purchased Berene Campbell’s HSL Tinies Christmas Pack.

For materials, I used what I had on hand and fell within the recommendations from Sara’s tutorial and Berene’s pattern: Art Gallery Pure Solids, Michael Miller Cotton Couture, 80 weight thread, and Peltex 71F.

The tiny paper piecing was super fun and satisfying. The pattern came with some helpful hints on how to get great results, which I really appreciated. The fireplace and wreath weren’t substantial enough to fill up the whole postcard, so I included a little lavender border and decorated with simple embroidery stitches. The edge stitching didn’t come out as nicely as I would have liked, but I’m sure to improve my technique with future postcards.

Swap participants were encouraged to send their creations as true postcards—that is, without envelopes. My partner sent the card she made for me as is, and it arrived in perfect shape. I chose to play it safe,  however, and sent mine in an envelope. 

If you’re considering trying your hand at a quilted fabric postcard, I recommend Sara’s tutorial. (She did a 100-day project making these mini masterpieces!) Some other suggested resources, from the swap organizers, include these:

Fabric Postcards: Easy Sewing Tutorials with Rob Appell of Man Sewing

Fabric Postcard Tutorial by Quilted Cat

I also recommend the HSL Tinies Christmas Pack. This wasn’t the first time I followed a Happy Sew Lucky pattern. You might remember my version of Berene’s Hello, Friend pillow which I translated into doggo lingo, pictured here:

Pattern Giveaway

As I mentioned last week, I’m providing content to Melanie Meyer’s Advent calendar. My first door, on day 7, includes a coupon code and chance to win a digital copy of Irish Twist. Click here to visit the Advent calendar, and comment on this post to add your name to the pattern giveaway. : )

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A Huge, Scrappy Finish / Beauties Pageant 89

Buy the pattern here! 

 

I haven’t made many bed-size quilts. Medium-ish throws—say, 55 inches by 65 inches—are my happy place. But when I designed my Warm and Cool Coin Quilt pattern, I knew I needed to tackle a twin-size version of it, just to see that bold diagonal line traverse a big quilt.

My go-to complementary colors are orange and blue—I just like the way orange brightens up blue!—so that’s where I headed in my scrap bin for this project. In all, piecing the top ate up over 3 yards of orange and blue scraps.

As you can see in the picture below, I used fabric from Cotton and Steel, Carolyn Friedlander, Anna Maria Horner, Denyse Schmidt, V and Co., and more. The soft gray background is Kona Shadow, and the darker gray binding is Kona Graphite.

The owner of my local quilt shop quilted this for me with a diagonal plaid pantograph. I love how the quilting design is linear but still softens the sharp vertical and horizontal lines of the coin stacks.

If you want to make your own scrappy coin quilt, my Warm and Cool Coin Quilt pattern is available in my Etsy shop.

And if you need more proof that I’m a serial orange-and-blue-quilt maker, check out these quilts from the FBTB archives ...

• Little Man in Blue and Orange
• Birds in Blue
• Little Lady #1

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• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Seeing Double / Beauties Pageant 67

The Show Me Something Purple Linkup, hosted by Sarah Goer, was the kick in the pants I needed to finish my fifth and final version of Camille Roskelley’s Little Man Quilt, from her Simplify book.

Why five versions of the same baby quilt pattern? Because it’s an easy pattern whose yardage requirements are easily met by the fabric I have on hand. The first three versions I sewed were all for little boys (see them here, here, and here). My fourth and fifth quilts are going to sisters: This purple finish is for my 4-year-old niece, and its peach and blue counterpart (see picture below) is going to her little sister, who is scheduled to arrive by this time next week.

What I like so much about this pair is that they’re completely different quilts made from the same line of fabric, Rae Ritchie’s Seaside Carnival. The only print they have in common is the strip of ocean waves, a fabric by Janet Clare. You can see it at the top of this picture ...

My favorite print from the entire Rae Ritchie collection—beating out even the soft pretzels, featured in my fourth version—has proved to be the mermaids. Dear Stella has released that design in a different colorway, and I’m trying to come up with an excuse to buy some!

You would think that a fifth go-round with the same pattern would make me an expert, but I made more mistakes with this dang purple quilt than the others combined ... First, when I was quilting it, I realized that there is a discrepancy in dye lots: Two blocks are ever-so-slightly different from the other ones. The disparity is most noticeable in artificial light, and I fear it will become more prominent with each washing. I also had a weird experience squaring up the project after quilting. Until I remedied the situation, the quilt was more parallelogram than rectangle. Sigh. It’s a sign. After five finishes with the same pattern, it’s time to find another go-to baby quilt pattern!

DonnaleeQ was recently expressing a similar gripe to me via email. She said after 30 years of quilting, she still makes the occasional silly mistake. Whereas my pitfalls were dye lots and squaring up, she managed to cut a stack of squares the wrong size. (Been there, done that!) How about you? What amateur mistakes do you find yourself making, even after having sewn dozens if not hundreds of quilts?! Commiserate with the rest of us in the comments below. : )

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And Then There Were 19 / Beauties Pageant 60

I am slowly whittling down my WIP list. What was 21 items long a few weeks ago, is down to a whopping 19. Yikes! The way I see it, slow but steady will win this quilty race, and I celebrate each finish, no matter how big or how small.

Here is my latest finish, what I am calling my Little Lady Quilt. It’s a feminine take on Camille Roskelley’s Little Man Quilt, from her Simplify book. The novelty fabrics are from Rae Ritchie's Seaside Carnival. The remaining bits are Kona Cottons in a variety of colors, a random Art Gallery print, and strippy scraps of an ocean-themed Janet Clare fabric. The real takeaway, however, is that everything came from my stash. (Insert fist bump here.)

Even the backing fabric, a purple-y Anna Maria Horner print that plays off the tiniest bit of orchid from the quilt top, was already owned by me.

This is my fourth (but not final) version of this pattern. You can see my others in these posts:

• Little Man in Orange and Blue
• Little Man in Blue and Brown
• Little Farmer

I know some of you have finishes to celebrate, too. Please link up in the Beauties Pageant below!

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Little Farmer Quilt / Beauties Pageant 44

My philosophy these days is I can sew anything I want as long as I already own the fabric to make it. I do make an occasional exception—like, if I need background fabric or if a few print additions would flesh out a fabric pull—but for the most part, this strategy is helping me prune my stash, fat quarter by fat quarter.

Most baby quilt patterns work within these parameters, and as a friend’s due date approached earlier this summer, I started cutting for another Little Man Quilt. This pattern, from Camille Roskelley’s Simplify, is one I’ve made before (here and here). I knew that with some scraps of Stacy Iest Hsu’s Farm Fun in hand, I could transform this pattern into a quilt for a little farmer.

First, I added the Kona Parchment solid and the sweet green sprouts to the fabric pull. Then I wasn’t sure where to take the palette. Because of my stash-busting philosophy, my supply of prints that read as one color is dwindling, and I had limited options for supporting prints. The yellows and blues I had on hand didn’t work, so I decided to incorporate red and green, resorting to using some 10-inch squares I had set aside for my in-process Bonnie and Camille Gypsy Wife Quilt. (Let’s hope stealing from Peter to sew for Paul doesn’t get me in trouble later on!)

Honestly, I was somewhat nervous with my selections as I pieced the blocks—after all, there are many more pretty strawberries and wildflowers on this quilt top than there are manly tractors!—but I’m hoping my friend and her baby will like it. And I’m proud that there are only splashes of white in the finished piece. My inclination with quilt tops in general is to go with tons of white, and that’s just not practical for a baby.

My Little Farmer Quilts is the first one I’m checking off my Q3 Finish-A-Long list!

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• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Throwback Thursday (on Friday) / Beauties Pageant 42

It’s been just me and my little guy here at home this week, and the relative quiet has afforded me time at my sewing machine. The goal with every project I’ve picked up, however, has been to clean up the joint.... I pieced piles of fabric into backs so I could get them on hangers. I made franken batting so I could put my smaller Janome, which has a zigzag stitch, back in the closet. I basted quilts so I could fold them up and get them out of the way.

It’s been productive in a I’m-less-likely-to-trip-over-something kind of way and not in a this-would-make-a-great-picture kind of way, so I found myself looking over projects from the past five summers to remind myself that tackling these little tasks will eventually result in a finish (or 14).

For example, in July 2014, I was making these sweet pouches. See that dark blue fabric on the middle pouch? I am still trying to use up that yardage, five years later, in this quilt and this quilt.

In July 2015, I finished a Social Tote, by Carolyn Friedlander. I remember that making experience very differently than the post indicates. It is a brilliant pattern but a pain to sew. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve given away the pattern since coming to my senses.

Three years ago, in July 2016, I finished piecing the top for my Park Bench Quilt. Man, I love that quilt. (I’m not sure how easy it is to find the Park Bench pattern book. I know my local quilt shop has a few copies if you need one.)

Two Julys ago I was working on my Ode to Art Gallery Quilt. The corresponding post is worth a read. It talks about why I think that quilt, in all its scrappiness, works and explores Tara Faughan’s idea of bridge colors.

And just last July I made my first hexagon pillow, which prompted me to make another pillow and then another and then a Market Tote, all adorned with hexies.

What have you been doing at your sewing machine this week? The rest of us would love to hear! If you have a finish from your blog or Instagram feed to share—a completed block or flimsy counts in my book—please add it to this week’s linky. : )

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter