The Ottoman Quilt - Finished

And it is finished!  

The Ottoman Quilt will go home with Little Man's family on Sunday after dinner.

I absolutely love this quilt . . . 

Little Man chose the binding after he laid out the back and selected a box of "scraps" for the top.  

He was adamant that the serape stripe would be "perfect" - I had my doubts but time has proved him one hundred percent correct.

It was breezy when I took these photos so the quilt did a little dancing.

I can't wait to see what he (and his parents) think of "his" quilt now that it is finished.

I used Glide thread in Nickel and my liberated all-over spiral fans for the free motion quilting.

The texture shows up much better on the back than on the front - but I suspect the back will facing up much of the time on top of their 32" x 50" living room ottoman.

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To see previous process posts for this quilt, just click on the Ottoman Quilt label below the quotation.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Imagination is more important than knowledge.  For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world and all there will ever be to know and understand."

Albert Einstein

One Year Ends and A New One Begins

This year was different than previous years in that I branched out from quilt making only into the making of scrappy, eclectic, and sometimes themed journals.  

On the quilt making front, with Little Man’s help, I also made four new stuffie quilts for Pikachu, Meri, Tygee, and Penguin while two previously finished table topper size quilts became stuffie quilts for BearBear and Foxy.

I completed a total of twelve quilt tops (several started in previous years), not counting the stuffie quilts (Smaragdine, Gnomeville, Brumous, Coddiwomple, Awesome Colors, the Ottoman quilt, Razzle Dazzle, Spoondrift, Caim, B.O.B., Macnas, and Pretty in Pink).

I quilted and finished thirteen quilts, again not counting the stuffie quilts (Gone Dotty, Awesome Colors, the Ottoman quilt, Bon Mot, a wall quilt for May/June, Rident, Ohana, Spots and Dots, Pretty in Pink, Concatenation, and three Happy Birthday wall quilts).  

There are two work-in-progress quilt tops right now – Dumpster Diving 12-Confetti, and my Bramble Blooms QAL project.

There are also fifteen project boxes in the closet with a mix of partially cut or fully cut quilt top fabrics and fabric pulls with plans for future cutting.  Time will tell how many of these make it to the finish line (I make no promises on any of them).

On the journal making front, I finished a surprising eighteen projects.

There are four work-in-progress projects right now and two journals that need binding (one involves a Coptic binding and I’m procrastinating since that is a new-to-me more complicated technique).

There are also three pending project boxes for a textile/sewing/quilting journal, a tea-themed journal, and a series of eclectic ROYGBIV glue books.  No rush on any of them since the box contents will sit and wait until I’m ready to tackle them. 

All in all, it has been a creatively satisfying year.

* * *

Looking ahead to 2024, I’ll let the following poem speak:

"Why do we start a new year, with promises to improve?

Who began this tradition of never-ending pressure?

I say, the end of a year, should be filled with congratulation, for all we survived. 

And I say a new year should start with promises to be kinder to ourselves, to understand better just how much we bear, as humans on this exhausting treadmill of life.

And if we are to promise more, let’s pledge to rest, before our bodies force us. 

Let’s pledge to stop, and drink in life as it happens.

Let’s pledge to strip away a layer of perfection to reveal the flawed and wondrous humanity we truly are inside.

Why start another year, gifted to us on this earth, with demands on our already over-strained humanity. 

When we could be learning to accept, that we were always supposed to be imperfect.

And actually, that is where the beauty lives.

And if we can only find that beauty, we would also find peace.

Everything else is all just a part of it.

Let it be so."

Donna Ashworth

Quiltdivajulie

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p.s.  you can read more about any of the listed quilt tops or finishes by clicking on the two "finish" labels at the end of this post and scrolling through the tagged posts.

Progress in Fits and Jerks

The rows are sewn in one direction for the Ottoman quilt.  Hopefully I'll get the second set of seams sewn in the next couple of days.

Tygee's little quilt is finished, too.  I quilted it with rows of Baptist fans using the Glide thread already in my machine (Aquamarine) which worked out well.

Here is the reverse side.  

In real life the little quilt is square - I'm not sure why it looks skewed in the photo other than I was holding my phone at the wrong angle.

Rident, the big brother quilt for the baby due next month, is pin basted and ready to FMQ.  

I trimmed the excess backing into fifty 5" squares (upper 5 stacks) and the rest into five inch by ?? pieces that will be sewn into a long column and then sub-cut into more squares.

I don't know if I'll need to add those all around the Ottoman backing above or not - but I'll have them ready if they're needed when the top is sewn together during Little Man's stay next summer.

And because someone always asks about the silicone pieces I use when pin basting, here is a photo of my Pinmoors.  The various colors are so I have choices for easier visibility depending on the color(s) in the quilt tops.

I also pulled out the top for Ohana, which will be the baby's 48" x 60" floor quilt.  It has been pressed and rolled onto a pool noodle.  

The backing is ready for a final press before it is rolled onto a second noodle.

The batting is already cut and rolled onto the third noodle.

More pin basting ahead . . . 

Quiltdivajulie

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Re-set.  Re-adjust.  Re-start.  Re-Focus.  As many times as you need to . . . 

(unknown)

Ottoman Quilt - Ready to Pin Baste

Those last few long seams for the Ottoman Quilt have been sewn and the top has been pressed.

A box of small pieces curated by Little Man PLUS Mee Mah sewing things together definitely equals scrappy joy.

I love the challenge of making this kind of quilt top.  

The process nourishes me in a way that no designer pattern can.

And it reminds me why I fell in love with making quilts in the first place (color).

And because the backing squares that Little Man laid out covered only the minimum size of the finished quilt, I have added more squares to turn it into a proper backing.  

The extra squares have been webbed in one direction in this photo, but since then the back has been finished, pressed, and rolled onto a pool noodle.  

What a fun project. 

Quiltdivajulie

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From an email exchange with The Joyful Quilter

My reply to one of her questions:  "Maybe we should be more like kids and abandon ship more often instead of slogging away at something that no longer excites us?!"

Joy's response:  "Life lessons from children. What a concept, Julie. Steal like an artist, craft like a kid!!" 

Ottoman Quilt Moves Forward

Somehow I chanced upon this gloriously scrappy quilt online - part of THIS POST on Barbara Brackman's blog - and the fuzzy dots in my head connected it with the box of scraps that Little Man had gathered/curated for his placemats project Ottoman quilt.  

I decided to sort through his box, just to see if the idea was worth pursuing before I showed him the photo.

Sorting like sizes with like sizes led to . . . 

. . . a grand way to use up miscellaneous leftover die cut 3" triangle halves . . . 

. . . and leftover binding bits, HSTs, etc. in the 2" finished range.

The longer strips and chunks were sorted as well.

In Little Man's absence, studio squirrels Mischief and Chase held an impromptu discussion on how to proceed.

The decision was to forge ahead and create the top - knowing that there were plenty more scraps to play with should Little Man want to when he stays with us in July. 

Here are the long strips pinned to the design wall in no particular order.

(the serape stripe on the right is what Little Man had asked me to use for the binding)

At this point there are five groups of strips sewn together and pressed.  

I need to do some measuring before I attach these groups just in case another bit of width is necessary.

Target size is 48" x 66" but I'm making this slightly larger to allow for shrinkage due to quilting and because this quilt will be laundered frequently.  

. . . which also means the back must be larger than the array of squares Little Man laid out, so I need to talk with him to see what he thinks about the options I've pulled from the stash.  

To be continued later this week.

Quiltdivajulie

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"Finding your unique style . . . it's following the breadcrumbs of the things you like."

Grace Chon

Pikachu and the Ottoman Quilt

A while back Little Man asked if I could make a quilt for his beloved Pikachu squishmallow.

I didn't make any promises, but shortly after he went home I remembered the pile of 5" squares I cut from the excess backing of a big brother quilt named Rident.

A quick search through the stash yielded the remaining cheddar print  from the back of another big brother quilt named Dot to Dot.

I pulled the binding shown in the photo but later changed my mind and used another stripe from the leftover binding drawer.

I only have this one photo because as soon as the 36" x 36" quilt was finished it was swept off to its new home!  (Pika likes the cheddar side the best I'm told)

I'll ask him to bring Pikachu and the quilt when they come for the next family dinner so I can take a few finished photos for a proper reveal post.

Once Pika's quilt was completed, I pin basted the Ottoman Quilt.

You can see all of the previous posts for this project by using the label at the end of this post or by clicking HERE.

I've started the free motion quilting . . . stay tuned!

Quiltdivajulie

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"Little by little one travels far."

J.R.R. Tolkien

February Recap

Trouvaille was my first finished quilt for 2026.  It's informal reveal post is HERE.

Camp Sefton was in action for 10 days while Mommy and Daddy were out of town.  

Biscuit's and Nutsie's new stuffie quilts were designed and made during Young Man's stay (link here).

He also worked on the layout for their new autumn ottoman quilt named Ruska (click here to see him in action).

(Ruska - the time of fall foliage, the process of tree leaves turning various shades of red, yellow, purple, and brown in the autumn)

The quilt top was finished after dinner on the last day of February  - it's roughly 52" x 70" at this point.

The filmstrip backing is perfect since this will be used in the room where they watch their television.  The long-stashed KF diagonal stripe will make wonderful binding. 

They don't need the finished quilt until fall so Ruska can now wait until the three gift quilts are finished.

Fandango, no. 7 of 12 in my Macnas series, was also quilted and finished.  That post with outdoor photos is HERE.

In between, I finalized two small journals that were started last year.

This one contains a lot of magazine photos containing typewriters and a few with old cameras, ink bottles and fountain pens mixed in.

I keep thinking I'd like a typewriter again but then I remember how much space they take up and how little I would actually use it and I step back; remembering I can use a typewriter font on the computer for the bits to go in my journals.

But these photos still remind me of the hours on end that I've spent at a typewriter and/or keyboard . . . none of which were as cheerful and colorful as this photo.

This is the final page in that journal.

The other finished journal - titled Just Words - is my second creative commonplace book.

This was the approach I took throughout the eclectic mix of pages, which ironically hold just over 100 quotes or saved passages.  

No need to worry about an official 100 Day Project when I have just finished an unofficial equivalent without any of the fuss or pressure to document the process day by day.

And this is the piece I plan to write on the final page of Just Words.

This is the March first backyard photo.  Still very much khaki season here, but if you look closely to the right of the tree and just under the azalea, there's a clump of blooming daffodils. And, when the light is just right, we are starting to see the first subtle hints of hazy green softening the bare branches.  Not yet, but soon.

Next up - quilting and finishing Incandescent.

Quiltdivajulie

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"The best part about making a mistake is deciding if it will be an anchor or a sail."

J. K. Kennedy

Coddiwomple - Cut Out and Ready to Pair

I posted about Coddiwomple a few days ago (click HERE).

Since then I spent some time cutting rectangles to die cut the 3" finished HSTs.

These are the WOF strips and the alternate fabric rectangles.

And these are the fat quarter strips.

This photo shows half of the rectangles sorted into groups of six, ready to crank through the die cutter.

And here they are after die cutting -- the second batch of rectangles have also been cut and die cut since I took this photo.

Next up will be pinning/pairing so they are ready to use as leader-enders when I start stitching the blocks for Razzle-Dazzle.

Little Man will be with us this weekend - his Ottoman quilt top and backing are rolled onto pool noodles along with the batting so if he wants to hang out in the studio, we'll work on pin basting.  

Quiltdivajulie

Catching Up and Making Progress

I pin basted Fandango on the very last day of January.  Next step is time with Max and a lot of free motion quilting.

This is the very last of the amaryllis blooms - it's been a marvelous run of reds, pinks, and whites over the past two months.

The driveway continues to reappear a bit at a time.  The bottom third is still solidly frozen to the concrete but that will change in the coming days.

Temps are expected to rise into the 40s Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday with overnight lows staying above freezing.  Neighborhood streets are still very icy and I won't miss that going away.  I will miss the serenity of the snow itself and the way it quiets so much exterior noise. 

Last week's Full Deck Challenge 4 shipping tag is now done.

These are the prompts I used from ShanoukiArt's longer list.  You can find her on You Tube.

My weekly paper nine patch for last week is done.  I've figured out that I like spacing the squares apart instead of keeping them tight together.

And the weekly collage using circles for last week is also done.  

Looking ahead - this is the fabric pull for Ruska, a Camp Sefton quilt project destined to become a seasonal ottoman quilt at Young Man's house.  

The fabric in the center is a wilder option for binding (I'm going to let him choose when he's here), backing fabrics on the right, and top fabrics on the left.

This is the other more subdued binding option.  

Design wise, I'm going with the same approach I used for The Yellow Quilt (2016) but this time without borders.  

(The Yellow Quilt was inspired by the Rouge design in Kaffe Fassett's Quilts in Morocco book)

I'm planning to cut 5" squares for the top and let YM lay them out on the design wall so I can then sew them all together.

I'll do the same kind of thing but with larger squares/sections and let him design the pieced back as well.

And, unsurprisingly, another squirrel named NUTSIE has taken up residence in the sewing room . . . his arrival brings the headcount in my scurry of studio squirrels to nine (gasp).   

But honestly, the way things are going, it feels like we all need a little more whimsy (fanciful or playful humor) in our lives.

And last but not least, here is my February 1 monthly photo of the backyard.

Quiltdivajulie

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"We don't create fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay."

Lynda Barry