Grow Your Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes so your hand pieced pumpkins can too!    I'm making pumpkins in all different sizes and will (eventually) add sashing to the top so that they will all finish at the same height.

Referring back to the basic tutorial for hand piecing pumpkins, here is all you need to create some basic pumpkins in different sizes!











Except for the first pumpkin in the table, my pumpkins will finish at a constant width of 4''.   But, it's easy to create your own depending on the size of your scraps.

Once you've created your pumpkin patch pile of pumpkins, decide on whether you want to set them with sashing between them or just one next to the other.  So many possibilities!

Please share your pumpkins on Instagram. Let's use the #pumpkinqal

Have a wonderful day! Patty

One Monthly Goal - September Finish Link-up

Ready to link up your September finishes?

Don't panic - this link-up is open until September 30 at 11:55 pm ET.

My goal for September was to work on my QuiltCon challenge quilt.  I'm pleased to say the quilting is all done but I'm only offering a partial sneak peak right now.   Not yet ready to reveal the whole quilt (sorry!) but you can see I did some tiny piecing and quilting.

Now its your turn to link-up.

There will be three winners this month - Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate, Paper Pieces is offering a package of 1" hexagons, and Camille Rosekey from Thimble Blossums is offering a $40 gift certificate to her shop.


Congratulations to our lucky winners - Karen, Chris and Karrin!  (updated 10/2//2019)

Visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags. 

And remember, to be eligible for the prize(s) by random drawing you must linkup at both the goal setting and the accomplishment linkup in a given month. (September Goal Setting Link-up.)

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can follow where you are linking.   Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post:  

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - September Finish Link-up

Sign up to receive email notifications when the One Monthly Goal linkup is open.  Think of it as a helpful reminder!  Joining the link-up from Instagram -see the tutorial.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Let's Hand Piece some Pumpkins (tutorial)

Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin bread, pumpkin flavored everything so why not hand-piece some fabric pumpkins?

I've got plenty of pumpkin 'flavored' scraps to work with.

Aren't my fabric pumpkins so cute?

Let's review basic pumpkin construction!  (Scroll for tutorials on hand-piecing.)

Make your pumpkins in whatever size matches your fancy (or your scraps).  Each pumpkin requires pumpkin fabric (a), stem fabric (b), 2 pieces background fabric (c), and 4 pieces background fabric (d).

Draw a diagonal line on each of the d background pieces.   Draw your stitching lines on the c background pieces.

Place each d unit on the corner of the a pumpkin unit and stitch.  (Remember all the hand piecing best practices including stopping and starting 1/4 '' from each corner.)

Trim away excess and finger press the pumpkin unit.

Sew c background units to each side of the stem.  Finger press.  Draw your stitching line and sew the stem unit to the pumpkin unit making sure you sew through and not over your seams.  (tutorial)

I'm going to make pumpkins in all different shapes and sizes.  Want to sew along with me?  You can make a runner, a wall hanging or just a mug rug.

My first set of pumpkins will finish in my quilt at 4'' x 6''.  To make your own pumpkin that size you'll need:

• pumpkin fabric (a) - (1) rectangle, 4 ½'' x 5''
• stem fabric (b) - (1) rectangle, 1½'' x 2''
• background (c) - (2) rectangles, 2'' x 2''
• background corners (d) - 4 squares, 1½'' x 1½''

I will be back later in the week with some more pumpkin measurements so you can make your very own patch.

Please share your pumpkins on Instagram. Let's use the #pumpkinqal

Some helpful tips:

• See my favorite tools for hand-piecing
• Marking stitching lines tutorial
• Running stitch tutorial
• Sewing through seam allowance tutorial

Have a wonderful day! Patty

And yet another Pillow

Back in January, I had the chance to take a class with Nicole Neblett at Mama Love Quilts called Big & Bold Freezer Paper Piecing.  Nicole is a member of our guild and gave us a sneak preview before she taught the same class at QuiltCon.  (You can read more about the process here.)

In my quest to work down my WIP pile, I've turned my work of art (smile) into a new pillow for my sewing space!*

The horizontal line going corner to corner really makes those pillow points stand out, doesn't it?

I did some very dense straight line quilting.  About halfway through the quilting process, I regretted that the piece was only backed with fusible web so I couldn't turn it into a wall hanging.   But I do love my new pillow!

*Not pictured is the pile of stuff I took off the window seat and piled on the floor in order to take my photo!!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Still making Small

Or perhaps a better blog post title would be now what?

Ever since I took a workshop with Chawne Kimber (see that post) and made the blocks above, I keep sewing small.

My 1/8'' piecing is getting more accurate and consistent. 

When I find myself with a few minutes to sit and sew, I add a few strips.  I've now got about 8 of these units which are 2 1/2'' wide.

I want to do something with them.  Maybe use them in a quilt for the QuiltCon 2020 strips challenge?

I can't figure out what to do with them... but they are fun to sew so I think I'll make a few more!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Hand Quilting Progress

My 100 day project was to make 100 curved blocks.  After much thought, I assembled them into this braid-like layout.

Since July, I've been slowly big-stitch hand quilting using 12 wt thread from Sulky.  I outlined each of the color braids with a similar thread color in the white area.  The rest of the stitching blends in.

This is only my second quilt where I've chosen to hand quilt.  The first (Perfectly Imperfect) resulted in a quilt with amazing texture with my very dense quilting.

I was like a woman possessed - I couldn't stop myself from adding more and more stitches.

With my curves quilt, I'm going more 'casual' with my stitches - lines are now a reasonable 1" - 1.5" apart instead of 1/4''!  I'm not yet sure I'm happy with where this is going and feel like I need to add more quilting. 

Thoughts and opinions appreciated!


Have a wonderful day! Patty

Make Modern Issue 30 is now available

Make Modern issue 30 is available today!  Isn't this cover quilt just gorgeous!

Make Modern is published by a small team of Australian quilters and every issue is jam packed with patterns, quilting tips and articles.  The beautiful cover quilt is Rainbow Colour Wheel by Sue Bone.

Issue 30 is also Make Modern 5th birthday and they are having a celebration all month long.  Make something from any issue, share on Instagram using the #highfivemakemodern tag for a chance to win prizes.

You can buy Make Modern by the issue, by 6 month or a 12 month subscription, or with their All Access Subscription and get instant access to every single issue ever published!  Any All Access Subscription purchased during the September celebration will get a free enamel pin.

Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links.

I've been wanting to make a quilt with circles and a version of the color wheel quilt may just be just what I've been looking for!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Bags - just because

Sara from Sew Sweetness has a great free tutorial on her dumpling bag (tutorial link) so I made two!

The small size (left) was a bit trickier than the medium size.  Somehow I did manage to put the wrong zipper on each one ..... not sure how that happened.  I reversed the colors I intended to use.

I also made a basic zipper pouch (tutorial link) using little scraps of Carolyn Friendlander fabric.  I added some handquiltng to this one and really like how it turned out.

Making these bags reminds me how much I enjoy the process - even though the seam ripper did come out to play.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

August Temperatures

And now it is September.  The days get shorter and the nights get cooler.  Before summer ends, here is my temperature quilt through August - lots of red (90s) except when things cooled down at the end of the month!

Looks like a similar mix of orange (80s) and red (90s) as compared to 2018 but we did have those 3 days in the 70s this year!

Here is a mapping of the colors.

There are so many temperature quilts popping up and I love them.  I wrote up a tutorial on a temperature quilt if you are interested.  In addition, Anina is running a 2019 QAL!


Have a wonderful day! Patty

Happy 5th Birthday to Make Modern Magazine

One of my goals over the last few years was to publish a quilt pattern in a quilting magazine.  And my favorite quilting magazine is Make Modern so it was very exciting to have Sequence and Briar Rose show up in two of the issues.  And, I've got another quilt that will appear in the November issue.  (No spoiler pictures though!)

Sequence in Make Modern issue 23 

Make Modern is turning 5 this month and they are celebrating with a massive giveaway and competition.   To enter, follow Make Modern on Instagram, make any project from any Make Modern issue and then share on Instagram with the #highfivemakemodern tag.

There are over 300 patterns to choose from - find one you like and put your own spin on it.  You can get a sneak peak at all of the patterns in the pattern gallery.

If you don't already own the issue with the pattern you want to make, you can purchase that issue, download it instantly or consider their All Access Subscription and get instant access to every single issue ever published!  Any All Access Subscription purchased during the September celebration will get a free enamel pin.

Briar Rose in Make Modern issue 27

You can also consider a 6 month or a 12 month subscription.

Read more about the Make Modern Magazine birthday celebration!

For my project, I chose to make a cute teapot from the 6 Coffees and a Tea pattern in Make Modern issue 18!  With some pebbling of the background and some hand quilting on the teapot, I've got a new little mini for my wall!

Teapot pattern from Make Modern issue 18

Happy birthday Make Modern!

Note this post contains affiliate links.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Kinship Blocks 57, 64, and 65

You've likely see blocks flowing through your Instagram feed as part of the #100Days100Blocks2019 QAL hosted by Angie at GnomeAngel?   I'm making a subset of the blocks - those with Flying Geese!  Loving my colorful palette  paired with some low volume fabric.

Here are my latest blocks - #57, 64, and 65.

This year's event is based on a pattern called Kinship 100 Block Fusion Sampler written by GnomeAngel and Skyberries.  (There are some absolutely amazing prizes available from this QAL so check it out on the overall QAL page.)  (affiliate link)

My quilt with 13 blocks will measure 24" x 24".  These new blocks join blocks  4, 12, 25 and 27...

and blocks 41, 44, and 46.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

One Monthly Goal September Link-up

Welcome to September!  We had 75 goals linked up for August - lets see what this month brings!  

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project, some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post, an Instagram post (tutorial) or a post on Flickr and add that photo to the link-up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  You can read about the event and the rules on the main event page.

We have wonderful sponsors this month - three (3) winners will be randomly chosen from those that link up in both the goal and the finish event.  

Fat Quarter Shop offers a tremendous selection of fabric, notions, books and just about anything you will need for your project. Consider their Sew Sampler box to receive a monthly surprise delivery of fabric and fun.  Fat Quarter Shop is offering a $25 gift certificate to one lucky participant.

I'm excited to introduce our newest One Monthly Goal sponsor - Paper Pieces For over 20 years, Paper Pieces has provided pre-cut paper shapes for English Paper Piecing using quality card stock and exact point-to-point measurements. They strive to provide excellent customer service and sewing to support to our customers and community.  Paper Pieces will provide a bulk package of 1" hexagon papers to one lucky participant.


I am very excited to introduce Camille Rosekey, our designer for September.

Camille is a talented fabric and quilt pattern designer.  With her mom, Bonnie Olaveson of Cotton Way, Camille has designed over twenty fabric lines for Moda since 2008.  Their latest line, Early Bird (pictured below) will be available in October.  Bonnie and Camille fabric lines are just beautiful and all coordinate well together.

Camille has published countless patterns including the extremely popular Swoon.  Camille has also authored two books ( Simplify and Simply Retro) and taught classes on Craftsy.

Camille shares her love of quilting, her progress in house remodeling and decorating, and a bit about her 3 boys on her blog.

(Photo & quilt credit: Camille Rosekey.  Left: Early Bird, Summerville quilt, B&C Wovens

Camille is offering a $40 gift certificate to her on-line pattern shop to one lucky participant.  You can visit Camille at Thimble Blossums, on Instagram, on Facebook, and visit her on-line store

My goal for September is to get started on my quilt top for the QuiltCon 2020 challenge using these fabrics.  I've got a plan and am excited to get started.

Now it is your turn to link up - what is your goal for this month?  (A goal could be to finish a quilt but it could also be to attach a binding.  Whatever it takes to help you move forward and make progress on your projects!  And as long as the project involves making something with a needle and/or fabric, you can link up!)

Make sure you visit the One Monthly Goal event page for the specific requirements for links and social tags.  Your blog post (or Flickr post) must contain a photo of your project, a clearly stated goal and a link back to Elm Street Quilts.  Your Instagram post must include a photo of your project, a clearly stated goal and the tag #onemonthlygoal.  (Entries which don't contain the required information may be disqualified.)

And remember, to be eligible for the prize(s) by random drawing you must linkup at both the goal setting and the accomplishment linkup in a given month.   (The One Monthly Goal accomplishment linkup will be available on September 24.)

Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link-up from your blog.  Let's make that easy -  just paste this into your post:  

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal September Link-up.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks for linking up!

Have a wonderful day! Patty