Thursday, March 19, 2026

SAHRR , FMQ, and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 There are so many acronyms in this blog title - I feel like I could be back at work! So my Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) is almost a flimsy (quilt top) and this week I found calm by doing some free motion quilting (FMQ) on my orange scrappy baby quilt. It was a busy and productive week, and I'm glad that you're visiting!

Almost a SAHRR flimsy

Here is the top border added to the SAHRR piece. It went relatively well until I added the last piece. I was shocked when I discovered that it was about 2½" short since I was so sure that it would fit. At least it was easy to add extra fabric. You can see in the photo below that I gave it an extra inch or so for good measures. Everything will get trimmed before adding the final side borders.

SAHRR quilt with pieced side and top borders

I now have 3 blocks to add to the bottom and will do roughly what I did for the top border.

I had originally made this small block by sewing the smaller hour-glass blocks together. Unfortunately it didn't really look like hour-glass blocks.

Original small hour-glass blocks
sewn together

So I researched hour-glass quilts and found that they are usually made with a couple of colours and are set in different directions. Then I pulled apart my little block and made four more small hour-glass blocks with a purple background. I placed it within a block - so now I have the two larger blocks to set and then add the bottom border.

Three last blocks for the bottom

Next steps: The parade starts next week, so I'll have the flimsy done by then.

Sew the last three blocks into a bottom border and

Add the 4" final border.

Add the outer side borders. I don't trust my estimated measurements, so I'll see if it's the size I want once the side outer borders are on. 😕

FMQ a Scrappy Baby Quilt

I really needed a break from the SAHRR, so I got back to the scrappy baby quilt. I finished stitching it in-the-ditch, and then started FMQ. I remembered that I wanted a dot-to-dot quilting (à la Angela Walters) but somehow forgot about the dot-to-dot part and just started with Angela's Shape by Shape designs.

FMQ the scrappy quilt

The FMQ is really difficult to see because I used 100 wt. white Bottom Line thread. It worked well and I could see most of the quilting as I was doing it.

FMQ using mostly straight lines which I drew before quilting

FMQ details

Backing where you can see the stitch-in-the-ditch and some FMQ

When I realised that I wasn't actually doing dot-to-dot quilting, I took out my FMQ journal - I have attached all of Angela Walter's diagrams in it. I really want the FMQ to be light. This will be perfect.

What I learned

I was tired of working on putting the SAHRR quilt together. It felt like work, not fun, so I knew that I had to do something else.
I'm confident that I'll be able to finish the flimsy by the parade (which I'm sure will run for longer than a day!)
It was calming to do some FMQ on the baby quilt. I'm trying to keep the FMQ light. I'm also doing a lot of marking of straight lines - it's worth the effort if it means keeping my line straight!

I Quilted This!

Here are the posts from last week that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and feel free to grab the button.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts is also an Angela Walter's fan. She FMQ her large open spaces panel with all kinds of wonderful FMQ designs. You'll want to head over there and look at all of her detailed photos by clicking on them to enlarge them. Wow!

Kat's FMQ Open Spaces Challenge quilt

Details of Open Spaces FMQ by Kat

Sally of Crafts, Caves and Cooking made this insulated pizza box for last week's Project Quilting Challenge - My Compliments. Those colours really are complementary and what a practical project!

Sally's very practical pizza box

Gail from Quilting Gail made a lovely red and white baby quilt to donate for March's Red Rainbow Scraps Challenge. It's so cute! It was quilted using straight lines.

Gail's red and white baby quilt

Straight line quilting by Gail

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts made a lovely baby quilt for a co-worker. The fabrics in the quilt are so cute!

Preeti's lovely baby quilt

Cute fabric in Preeti's baby quilt

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps made a great t-shirt quilt for a client who's son is turning 21.

21st birthday t-shirt quilt made by Melva

T-shirt quilt quilted by Melva with diagonal lines

It's now your turn 😍

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Growing SAHRR 2026 Quilt and I Quilted This!

Bonjour and welcome 😊 It looks like Spring is finally here. Last night I heard the Canada Geese coming back. That's such a good sign since they usually know what's going on. I'll have a huge job cleaning up my backyard since the wild rabbits have been coming by every day for apples and seeds! I'll have to wait until things dry up to tackle that 😁

Making extra blocks

Last week's SAHRR plan got rearranged a bit. The centre blocks have smaller 5" blocks on both sides. Well, that's actually not accurate. On one side are the new Chicago Geese blocks that I made to fit. I did a great job on the first block but then managed to make a few errors that I quickly changed into design options. So I have one 5" Chicago Geese block, and three variation on the Goose blocks (one is 6" while the other two are 5"). These blocks started off as an error but when I embraced the error, it got very fun! 😎 I'm really happy with my variations.

First 5" Chicago Geese block

Original 9" Chicago Geese block

Individual Variation on a Goose
block (top)

2 Variation on a Goose block

Individual Variation on a Goose
block (bottom)

6" Variation on a Goose block

While I was working on my project, I cleaned my studio since I couldn't find three of my hour-glass blocks.

MISSING 3
hour-glass blocks!

Replacement hour-
glass blocks

I ended up making four more hour-glass blocks and used the original one in the centre.

I had mentioned that I wanted to place my Anvil blocks on point. It took a bit of work but I managed to make this lovely block with 2 anvil blocks. I realised that my blocks had very little contrast, so I used a contrasting background fabric. It does seem to help a bit.

Two anvil blocks on point

Anvil block with borders and the quilt's upper border

Finally, after playing around with the layout, I realised that I needed at least one more larger block. In a book, new to me, I found an easy pineapple block. I've always wanted to make one, so I did!

My first pineapple block

So, here is how my quilt has evolved.

One set of side blocks attached

Centre blocks with both side blocks attached

Next steps:

Choose fabric for the 2" borders around the centre blocks. ✔ I've got these extending over the two vertical rows of blocks.
Make 4 5" x 5" blocks for the second vertical row - more hour-glass; ✔

or something different.

Make 2 5" x 5" Chicago geese blocks for the top row and choose background fabric; or ✔

Piece a few background fabrics for the top row as negative space.

Make 2 more anvil blocks on the diagonal for the bottom row; or

Piece background fabric as negative space

Choose fabric for the outer border. If it's 4" wide, the quilt would be roughly 41" x 45". If that's not big enough, I may either make it wider or add more borders....?

What I learned

This was a lot of work - and I'm far from finished!
It's a good thing that I've enjoyed the process 😀
Making the smaller Chicago Geese block went well, until it didn't! In the first block, I used a larger half-square triangle block and then managed to add too many sides. I decided to see what it would look like - and I love it. Do you think that this is how new quilt blocks get invented? Who knows, it might have already been invented, but I'm calling it Variations on a Goose.
How does someone loose 3 blocks? I guess if I knew, I would have found them! 😂I suppose I was meant to have a variety of hour-glass blocks in my quilt.
I really like how my anvil blocks looks on-point. They are so different. When I made them, the pattern showed a doll quilt on-point. They looked so cool. Thanks goodness I found a good tutorial - if I had winged it, it would have been a mess. I've made on-point quilts a few times, but not enough to remember the process of putting them together. The tutorial is in Related links below.
I have no idea if the pineapple block I made is different (since it was considered easy). It was easy but I doubt that I will ever want to make enough for a whole quilt.
The layout is interesting. I'm playing with a few ideas about how to make the top row. I'll be doing something similar for the bottom row. Then I'll probably be adding small side borders. I really am looking forward to cuddling up under this quilt - so it needs to be big enough! Thanks goodness I still have lots of Kona Cotton in matching colours.

I Quilted This!

Welcome to the I Quilted This! linking party that celebrates quilting on a domestic machine or custom quilting on a long-arm. Feel free to link up and share any recent project, even if you're not quilting it! Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and feel free to grab the button.

Deb, A Scrappy Quilter, finished up a whole bunch of baby quilts. Here are a few. You'll want to check out her post to see the others!

A lovely baby quilt with light green backing by Deb

A purple and green baby quilt by Deb

The back of the purple and green baby quilt by Deb

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps finished 4 quilts in February. Here are two of them. One is a cute scrappy green baby quilt while the other is her vintage linens quilt. The vintage linens are hankies and samplers made by her grandmother! You'll want to read about the making and check it out here!

Melva's scrappy green baby quilt

Melva's vintage linens quilt

Details of Melva's vintage linens quilt

Raewyn, the Stitching Farm Girl, made this gorgeous animal quilt with quilts. There's a great story behind it and I'm encouraging you to hop over to read about this quilt's Show & Tell! She quilted some of the quilts using ruler work, cross hatching and meandering.

Animal and quilts made by Raewyn

Ruler work detail by Raewyn

Brenda from Songbird Designs has made block 12 of this amazing quilt! The pieces are appliquéd and then she quilted the block. It's stunning and you'll want to read the story behind it and check out her other blocks here.

Brenda's block 12 - quilted in the hoop

It's now your turn!😍

Thursday, March 05, 2026

Planning my SAHRR Quilt and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😁 I was out of town for my semi-annual visit to Toronto. I'm very happy to say that all is well with my eye. The vision isn't better but that's not what it's about. I'm very thankful that I have my eyes and that they are well. Since I've figured out how to thread a needle using a clip-on magnifier, I can just keep on going. Thanks for joining me today...better late than never.

Planning my SAHRR 2026

I didn't make my Round 6 block because I had no idea what I was doing and what I needed for my quilt. I'd rather take my time and think it through, than make blocks that I won't use. You've seen some of my other SAHRR finishes (or not quite finishes) and I tend to just put the blocks around the centre. Because my blocks this year are very different in sizes, I know that I need another strategy.

SAHRR 2026 - a flexible plan

When I saw Kathleen's layout after Round 6, it finally dawned on my that I didn't have to make rows of blocks and that I could add negative space into my design. So that's what I'm sort of planning. Below is the very flexible plan.

The top row will include my two larger blocks. In the space between them, I'll make one or two smaller versions of the Chicago geese block, depending on how much negative space I need. I'll use a solid Kona background that matches the centre blocks. I'm also thinking that I could use a few colours of the Kona background for that area. I'll try these options on my bed (my design wall is too small) and see what ~~looks~~ I like best.

will make four more 5" x 5" blocks for the other side of the centre block. They may be hour-glass blocks that I can alternate with those already made, or they may be other blocks (i.e. Round 6).

Under the centre blocks, I've decided to put my two purple blocks (called anvil blocks - thanks Daryl!) on the diagonal. This is a mockup, just to make sure that it would look OK. I'll be putting these two blocks together. I love how they look....another cool option would be to make more of these as a row. It's just too bad that there is so little contract in the blocks.

Anvil blocks (from Round 5) on the diagonal

Here is the last photo of all of my blocks so far.

Centre blocks and Round 1 to 5 blocks

Next steps:

Choose fabric for the 2" borders around the centre blocks. I've got these extending over the two vertical rows of blocks.
Make 4 5" x 5" blocks for the second vertical row - more hour-glass;

or something different.

Make 2 5" x 5" Chicago geese blocks for the top row and choose background fabric; or

Piece a few background fabrics for the top row as negative space.

Make 2 more anvil blocks on the diagonal for the bottom row; or

Piece background fabric as negative space

Choose fabric for the outer border. If it's 4" wide, the quilt would be roughly 41" x 45". If that's not big enough, I may either make it wider or add more borders....???

March One Monthly Goal (OMG)

This project is my March OMG. I really want to finish it on time for the parage on March 25th. At the very least I will have a flimsy done, but ideally the whole thing! It'll just depend on what else is happening in my life.😊

A finished flimsy for my March OMG

What I learned

I knew when Round 6 was Quilter's Choice that I had design decisions to make.
It takes me a lot of effort to find a block and then make it and I really didn't want to waste that time.
One of the first decisions to make is how big and what do I do with this quilt? I often don't really consider this but the project will be too large for a wall hanging and I'm not sure that the colours are great for a kid's quilt. That means that I'll have another lap quilt - Yay! but I do want it to be useful. I'll be deciding on the finished size once I've put most of this plan together.
I would have liked to put the blocks on the design block as I've sketched them but the design wall is way too small.
I'm sorry that my post is late but I'm really glad that I got to think this through. Now I have a plan, a list of things to do....so let's get it done!

Related links

Kathleen McMusing - 2026 SAHRR - Round 6 Quilter's Choice
SAHRR so far
- Project Quilting 17.4 and SAHRR, Round 5, February 22, 2026
- SAHRR Round 4 and I Quilted This! February 11, 2026
- Project Quilting & SAHRR Round 3, February 07, 2026
- A Quilter's Cove QAL Link-up and SAHRR, January 31, 2026
- SAHRR Round 1 - hour-glass block, January 26, 2026
- Starting Things and I Quilted This!, January 15, 2026

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including March's OMG. You may want to check some out! Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday,

I Quilted This!

Welcome to the I Quilted This! linking party that celebrates quilting on a domestic machine or custom quilting on a long-arm. Feel free to link up and share any recent project, even if you're not quilting it! Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and feel free to grab the button.

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts created this lovely quilt, Forget Me Not. It was published in Quilters World Spring 2026 Issue which focuses on "Modern Quilts with Classic Roots". The colours are so adorable! You'll want to read her article to find out more.

Forget Me Not quilt by Preeti

Preeti's Forget Me Not quilt in Quilters World Spring 2026 Issue

Frédérique at Quilting Patchwork Appliqué posted pictures of 7 lovely BB quilts made by Muriel. These were donated to the neonatal unit at their hospital. You'll want to check them all out!