Sunbonnet Sue - Oh Susanna

 I have been working on my Sunbonnet Sue quilt this past month and decided to call it "Oh Susanna!".  My grand daughter asked me who I was making this quilt for, and I told her the first grandchild that gives he a great-grand-daughter named Susanna gets this quilt.

I now have 17 blocks made - and 7 to go.  I am having so much fun "dressing" all my little Susannas and have decided on the layout shown below using a Sweet Daisy english paper pieced block.

I am including some more pictures a little closer up - 4 blocks at a time.  The sashing is actually a blue/green patchwork with little postage stamps used in the corner stones.  Right now I am thinking of adding three rows of the blue/green patches (without cornerstones) around all four sides to make a border which I might cut into scallops.  Still thinking about that.

I do not have all the embellishments (like buttons, cording, lace, etc) yet as I want to get it basted by a long-armer for hand quilting.  I am keeping little jewelry size zip bags with the embellishments for each block to add after the quilting is finished.

Gather Round Seasons - June

Completed my June block this morning and got it in the frame.....maybe a little bit cockeyed, but it will stay that way until it starts driving me crazy.

 

Insanity Quilt Progress

 Last night I completed the left flower border on the insanity quilt.  This actually did not take as long as I thought it would - started on May 3 and worked on several other projects in the mean time.  I usually work a little in the early morning before hubs gets up and then at night while we watch tv.

I am considering adding the right and bottom borders the same and then re-design the top border to include some applique birds based on a paper garland my daughter Jennie made for me to hang on my mantel.  I decorate my mantel for the spring and summer with bird houses and birds, and this little garland is the perfect touch.

She used scrapbook paper for the bird, but I am hoping she has the pattern and I can make them with fabric to applique across the top of my insanity quilt.  I sit and look at these birds across the room from where I quilt, and I guess that is my inspiration.

My insanity quilt center measures 43" x 50 1/2" and the flower border is 8 1/2" wide.  So once the borders are added to all sides the quilt will measure 60" x 67 1/2" which I think is big enough,  Rhonda Pearce's design for the Insanity quilt has one more border but I am thinking of leaving that border off. This is a picture I pulled off the internet.  If I leave that border off, I can hang the quilt up in my living room in the Spring with my other bird decor, lol.  Not to mention, this will save me from having to add another 3,815 hexies to compete that outer border.  I do love her design, but I love even more the idea of adding some applique birds and using it as a wall hanging.

Gather Round Seasons

I have started a BOM by Kathy Schmidt - embroidering on a preprinted pattern.  I completed my first block for May:

The frame recommended by the designer is shown below.  Using a square frame appealed to me more that the round one, seemed to have a more traditional look.  The round frame is cute though,

 

Starry Sampler - all handquilted

 I have mentioned before that my Guild is making the Starry Sampler for our 2026 Block of the Month.  There are 16 beautiful EPP blocks in this pattern, but we are only doing the first 9.  I am hand quilting mine as I finish them, and today I finished quilting #9.  Whew, now to get them attached into a quilt with a Quilt-As-You-Go technique.   Here's the first 9 blocks:

I have also made progress on the Sunbonnet Sue - Completing Block 2 (Falling Leaves) and 3 (Ice skating)

I will add buttons to the dress after it is quilted.

This dress gets buttons, too.  The Gingerbread man is a button as well. I will attach it to the quilt with a thread that allows it to be removed from the pocket but not removed from the quilt.  I also have some snowflake buttons that I plan to add in the background.  All buttons will be added after the quilt is quilted.

And not to be neglected - I covered 320 white hexies and 140 green hexies and selected 17 flower hexies for the left flower border of the Insanity quilt.  Now that I have the 9 EPP blocks quilted, I can start working on the flower borders :)

SunBonnet Sue - Block 1

 I finished the first block and really had fun doing this.  So here she is.......

The Ultimate Sunbonnet Sue Collection

Never let it said that I let a stack of UFO's stop me from starting another.  I have always wanted to make a Sunbonnet Sue quilt, but had looked for patterns that had various Sue's doing different things.  Never found one that struck my fancy, until I found this book at a second hand store that sold quilting supplies and fabrics.  The quilter had made a couple blocks, but the fabric she used was bright bold colors, and not to my liking.   So I set it aside until I found fabric that I thought would look nice.  Since I finished the center of the Insanity Quilt (previous post) and need to cover several hundred hexies for the flower border, I decided to start another project!  haha, that makes insane sense.

The book is called "The Ultimate Sunbonnet Sue Collection" published by Leisure Arts.  I could not find an author's name.  It has 24 of the cutest Sunbonnet Sues and I just could not resist.  Publshed in 2000 and I don't think it is still being published.  Several in my quilt club love it too, so through Thriftbooks, Amazon, Etsy and Ebay they found old copies at great prices.  

 

The fabric line I chose is Cottage Charm by Moda.  I bought a pack of 1/8" inch strips that had all 34 pieces in the fabric line.  I have had to add a couple other fabrics so far - one a brown for the shoes and other various items the pattern used black  but I think the black is too "strong" for the other fabrics.  Also bought some "flesh" tone fabric for arms.

There is also one print in three colors that I am going to use for corner stones - at least that is the plan now.  I am considering embroidering a little flower in each cornerstone.  I am going to use 1 1/2" sashing strips which is just the right size for the fabric block below.  I chose a butter cream kona solid or the background and a light blue for the sashing.

This morning I got the pieces prepped for the first block - a Sunbonnet Sue  with Butterfly Net.  I am keeping a list of the embroidery and embellishments to be added to each block and therefore have to number the blocks and identify them with a name.  Some embellishments, like buttons, will have to be added after the quilt is quilted.

I am doing prepared edge applique technique that I learned from Katrina Hadjimichael, but some small appliques with lots of  points are with needle turn.  That is why the bow is set off to the side.  I drew the embroidery on with a brown ink pigment pen and will do the butterflies and net  by embroidery.

Well that is my kickoff for this project.  Hopefully this week I will have a finished block to share.

 

 

Insanity Quilt - Center completed

 Today I completed the center top of the Insanity Quilt.  There are 3,480 hexies in the center and I am approx 33% done on the quilt.  My next step will be the flower border and I can hardly wait to get started.  Before I can start that border, I need to cover a several hundred white hexies and the green border hexies.

Jasmine Bag - Finished!

 Today I completed the Jasmine Bag by Katrina Hadjimichael.  Its a nice big bag for toting a quilt or other project to guild or a friends house.

Jasmine Bag - Katrina Hadjimichael pattern

 Last night I completed the applique panels on my Jasmine Bag by Katrina Hadjimichael.  On to the quilting step next.  This was a project I took to my Stitchin Friends quilt retreat and so excited to be working on it again after over a year, I think,

Backyard Birds

 My quilt has a UFO Challenge going on for 2026 - but it is a manageable one.  You just list 9 projects that you will work on during the year, setting a specific goal for each project. Each month the project manager (Martee) selects a number and you work on that project during the month.  If you meet the goal you set, you get 2 tickets in the prize bowl, if you worked on it but did not complete it, you get one ticket.  At the end of the year there will be a ticket drawn and that person gets a special prize :)

 For February, the number chosen was #3, and my #3 goal was to complete the quilt top for the Backyard Birds quilt.  I already had all the bird block completed, just needed to do the quilt layout, which involved making 10 checkerboard blocks.  So this morning I met my goal :)

I have decided to make another set of birds but a little fancy ones - using floral and other types of prints.

So far, I have completed two of these birds:

These are really fun to make - Foundation Paper Pieced.   The background is actually a pretty green but just does not show up well in the picturess

Insanity, Backyard Birds and Starry Sampler

 Good gracious, my time is just flying by.  My last post was in November and here it is Feb 3, 2026!  I have been stitching and making progress, just not posting to this blog.   I usually print my blog each year, but the site I have been using is no longer in existence.  I am inquiring with PixxiBooks and hope they will work for me.   

Here is what I have been working on:

Insanity Quilt - I have 11 rows of the center completed which is 61.11% of the quilt center,k but only 22.01% for the total quilt.  I still enjoy working on this quilt and will slowly get it done. Of the 10, 561 half inch hexies in the quilt, I have sewn on the top 2,325 leaving 8,236 to go :)

Backyard Birds - this is one of the 2026 Block of the Month I am chairing for my guild.  I had to get all the birds done in advance in order to prepare fabric cutting charts for each bird.  So far, I have done one workshop of Foundation Paper Piecing and have a make-up session schedule for this Saturday for 5 ladies new to FPP.   I have started putting my rows together and doing something a little differently from the pattern.  The pattern has leaf, twig and worms on alternating blocks between the birds.  I decided to go with a checkerboard block.  I am FPP with freezer paper the vertical columns of these blocks and then sewing the strips being so careful to get a true 1/4" seam:

I also made one Tufted Titmouse block using some floral fabrics primarily to show the BOM participants that they can have a little fun with making fancy birds.  I plan to make one like this each month for the Bird of the Month

We are also doing the Starry Sampler quilt as a 2026 BOM - this is English Paper Pieced.  The are 16 beautiful blocks in the pattern, and we are doing the first 9 blocks.  I have made 8 of the nine blocks and have 5 of them hand quilted.  Plan on putting the quilt together as a quilt as you go.  

Block 6 is in my quilt hoop to be quilted soon, I hope!

I held one workshop of EPP Block 1 of the quilt.  I made a fussy cut block to use to demo how to do the fussy cutting,

Back Yard Birds and Starry Sampler

I have been working feverishly to get my blocks made for the 2026 BOM I am in charge of at my Guild.  The Backyard Birds is a Foundation Paper Piecing project while the Starry Sampler is an English Paper Piecing pattern.  We will begin in January and I am just trying to get ahead of the game  to detect any potential areas of concern. I started sign-up at our November meeting and received more sign-ups than I anticipated, so its going to be a fun year in 2026 trying to stay on top of both BOM's. Some guild members signed up for both BOM's, so they are going to be right busy as well :)

 Below is a picture of the blocks I have completed to date.  I have 4 more birds to make and 5 more EPP blocks.

I have decided to hand quilt each of the Starry Sampler blocks as I make them, and so far have only gotten one quilted.  I am using #8 perle cotton thread and big stitch quilting.  I chose a plain unbleached muslin backing so that the black stitching could easily be seen on the back.

I continue to make progress on the Insanity quilt, but it has truly slowed down as most of my effort has gone to the BOM blocks.  I keep my workstation ready to go whenever I sit and watch TV in the evenings.  Must admit though, I neglect it some as I also use that time to respond to Facebook posts and clear out my messages on the phone, as well as my email.    But with that said, I do try to work a little on this every week.

Bloom and Sew - Gail Pan 2025 BOM

 Finished this project on Wednesday. (APIP#2)

Progress as of today

 Well it has been a little over a month since my last update, and it just amazes me how fast these days go by.  I have bought a few Christmas presents now, but just can't seem to get my mind wrapped around the holiday quickly approaching.

APIP#2 - Bloom and Sew; this one is in the final stages.  I am about half way through the hand quilting  and already made the label and have it attached,  My goal is to have ti done by the end of the month, mainly as I have another one ready to start hand quilting.

APIP #17 - Insanity Quilt - Making good progress on this quilt.  I am almost at 50% for the center section.  

APIP #18 - Wrapped in Ribbon table runners.  Two of the three are completed and I am hemming the third one tonight.  I plan to give the two Christmas runners to my daughters at Thanksgiving Dinner and am so glad I was able to get them done in time.  My good friend, Martee, quilted the two for the girls on her long arm machine.  I will show pictures when I give them to the girls.

APIP #20 - Jasine Bag - no progress this past month

APIP #22 - Backyard Birds  - This is a new project I have just started and will be using it as  2026 Block of the Month for my guild (York County Quilters Guild).  I will be in charge of the BOM for next year and am actually planning to have two different BOM's running consecutively.  I have made three of the bird blocks so far and they are made with Foundation Paper Piecing (machine work)  The designer has given me a good price for the guild and will allow me to make 20 copies of the pattern for the guild members who sign up.  Shown below is the pattern picture and the first two blocks I have completed.   I have also finished a cardinal block but for some reason my computer is refusing to let me open my email so that I can get the picture. 

APIP#23 - Starry Sampler - This one is English Paper Pieced and will be the second 2026 BOM that I will be running next year.  It is all hand work and has 16 EPP blocks that are beautiful.  We will only be doing the first 9 in 2026.  Each member participating must go to the webpage for the TJ Designs and down load the pattern in .pdf format.The designer is giving us a guild discount for all participants.  I have made a couple of these blocks trying to stay at least 4 months ahead of group.  Below are pictures of the two blocks I have completed so far and a picture of the pattern.

My computer is simple being aggravating today and I had planned to go into a little more detail on each project, but guess that will have to await a better day.