Arabian Nights

I first put this collection of fabrics (minus the tan and gold leaf fabric) together probably a year or two ago when I was either combining fabrics for a totebag for someone or my Etsy shop, or combining fabrics for a a Project Quilting prompt. I am glad to have found a design that lets them shine.

This is a third option in my latest pattern release, Lyra. 

Lyra Quilt Along - Sashing Units and Quilt Assembly

Aaand… just like that - we are done until the final parade opens on June 15! A few of you have gone ahead and got your quilt top together, so I do hope you'll have a completely finished quilt by then. Know that both tops and finished quilts can go into the parade, though I truly do hope that you finish your quilt. I'd hate to be the reason more WIPs show up in your quilt rooms!

The sashing pieces will go together in a jiffy. Then it's basically a 9-patch layout with borders. But I'm a bit ahead of myself.

Lyra Quilt Along - Make the Blocks

Well, we’ve got all the units made, so let’s put them together and make some blocks.

There are four blocks to make this week. Next week we’ll make the sashing units and assemble the quilt top!

Another Lyra Quilt Top

I worked hard to include this third version of Lyra in my newest pattern, and then I had a DrEAMi—Drop Everything And Make It—moment and pulled fabrics and looked at the logo colours and adjusted and cut and sewed…

The result!

It’s one of those “eee!” feelings to see it come to life.

Lyra Pattern Release!

And it’s on sale, 25% off!

I’ll admit I was a little disappointed that I did not get the pattern totally together for yesterday’s post in my annual QAL. However, in retrospect, I think this is better, so that it gets its own post, and it includes a third quilt!

My original thought for the cover shot was to get this quilt under a magnolia tree, which are at their peak right now. However, when we were tootling around the little town of Essex this past week, which is just 15 km from my little town of Kingsville, we spied the old train station. It is a beautiful old building and made for a great backdrop, we thought.

Lyra

This quilt is made with a few chunks of Hazel by Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew that I picked up over a sale or maybe two several years ago. It has been patiently waiting for the right quilt, which is this year's Quilt Along quilt. All but two of the seven pieces went into this quilt.

There certainly is lots of movement in this design, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out. It's a block I sketched when I was in the 30 Quilt Designs in 30 Days Challenge in 2017. I drew up four designs using it.

Lyra Quilt Along Kickoff

Welcome to the tenth annual Quilt Along here at mmmquilts! Once again, this free Quilt Along kicks off today, on my birthday, and ends on June 15, what was the birthday of one 'famous Canadian', my dad. I am so glad you are here, reading this post, and I hope that you will join in. This year's quilt along features a smaller quilt, and, as usual, the pace is nice and slow, so it's easily worked in with your regular quilting projects. 

If you are new to my blog, welcome! I hope you'll peruse the tabs up top, maybe check out some of the activities and makes of mine. Be sure to follow me (see the buttons 'Get new posts by email’, Pinterest and Instagram on my sidebar) to be notified of new posts over the next 2.5 months of the quilt along. Feel free to grab the graphic for the QAL and post it on your social media with a link back here so others can find it.

Project Quilting 17.5 Circadian Rhythm

This week's PQ challenge was 'My Complements' where we were asked to make a project using two complementary colours. Here is my quilt, which I named Circadian Rhythm.

I just love it! Read on for the story of how it came to be.

My Second Scrappy Strippy Stars

I am pleased to squeak in one more finish for September, a few hours before midnight lol. It’s one of my two Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects. This is my design, Scrappy Stars, which is a tutorial here. 

My original quilt was done on cream backgrounds with beige for patches. I decided to go dark with this one.

Spring Sparkle - My Luminous Layers Quilt and Winners

Today I am so pleased to show you the finished quilt which I made with everyone for this year’s quilt along. I made the large throw, which is 72" square. We took it for a glamour video shoot to the marina in Leamington after supper last night (think setting sun ahhh). It's a favourite spot of ours, just ten minutes from home.

I’ve named the quilt Spring Sparkles because when I chose these rich fabrics, it was early spring and I was thinking of the magnolia pinks and crabapple deep maroons along with all the greens that were imminent. I couldn’t wait! Isn’t this line, Stonehenge Gradations, so rich with such depth?

Luminous Layers Quilt Along Final Parade!

It never ceases to amaze me when we hit June 15: in some ways it has arrived in a blink, and in others it seems forever since it was my birthday, April 3, when the QAL started. But here we are, and the quilt parade also never ceases to amaze me. 

Not to mention excites me with anticipation and thrills me with the beauties that have been made!

Let's review the fabulous prizes from my lovely sponsors first.

Luminous Layers Quilt Along. - Assemble the Top

In some ways it feels like this year's QAL has been going on for a while, yet in other ways, I am surprised that here we are at the flimsy stage. Again, I apologize for the delay in getting this post to you, but real life butted in once again. Both good and not so good. More on that in a minute.

I promised you a slick method for assembling quilt tops. I learned it many years ago when I took Judy Villett's 'Shady Corner' watercolour class at Earthly Goods in Edmonton. We needed a foolproof way to keep all those 2" unfinished squares in the order they'd been placed on our design walls. I used it for pretty much all my quilts and have shown many others the method. Many lightbulbs have lit up in quilters' brains!

Dancing Stars

This project was one of three I worked on throughout 2023 for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge that Angela of soscrappy hosts each year. It is one of two RSC projects I did last year from the August/September 2022 issue of Quick & Easy Quilts. The designer did black stars on a grey background whereas I chose to do mine in rainbow colours on grey.

Like the original, I did colourful background squares. I’m pleased with how it turned out. It did, however, have its growing pains. 

Luminous Layers Quilt Along - Make the Medium Stars

I find it very rewarding and heartwarming that several of you just couldn't stop at the small stars from last week and made the medium stars, and now you have your 36 blocks all sitting on the design wall! And I am thrilled that Diann had the idea to chain sew as leader/enders the bigger simpler blocks that have been sitting on the design wall for a few weeks as she pieced the small stars... As a result, I have a little more than half of my quilt top sewn up and it felt like someone else did it (well, almost).

So all that is left now are four blocks. The good news is that you have 5/16 of these last four blocks already done. So let's get cracking at making the four medium 8" (12") star blocks!

Luminous Layers Quilt Along Make the Small Stars

We've had two weeks of making star points; this week we will make entire stars. There are five small stars. Four sit in the centre of the medium stars, and one is in the very centre of the quilt. These babies are 4" (6") finished so the HSTs for them will seem really tiny after making the giant and large ones.

I posted my large star points on Instagram @mmmquilts but for those who don't have it, know that first of all, you can easily go on it and look at any public account. Mine is public. For those who don't have Instagram and don't care to even go there (I hear you - that's me for the most part wrt FaceBook) I've added that photo to the previous post where we made the large star points.

Luminous Layers QAL Large Violet Star Points

Hope everyone had a very relaxing sewing start to this year's quilt along. Make eight giant HSTs, put them together with eight background squares and four gold squares and poof! more than half of the quilt is done. 

Sweet!

Four people linked up their progress, and I am happy to report that Brady chose #2 in the linkup, and that means Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts wins her choice of one of my patterns. 🥳🎉  I do know there are more than double that out there sewing, or even finished sewing their tops, so can't wait to see them all popping up. Remember you can email me a photo for any of the linkups and I will happily link you up for prizes. No blog or Instagram or social media of any kind is necessary.

Luminous Layers QAL Giant Star Points

This week we are making the giant (gold in the cover quilt) star points. I built this quilt from the outside in when I first designed it, so that is how we will build our quilt along quilts.

This week's step is a snap after last week's rather involved cutting directions. I think what made it 'involved' for me was keeping the colours straight. As mentioned, I labelled my stacks Fabric A dark green, etc. to keep them straight in my mind.

Luminous Layers Quilt Along Schedule and Sponsors

Welcome to the eighth annual quilt along here at mmmquilts! I am so glad you are here, and I do hope you will join in with us for yet another year of fun sewing and prizes galore! If you are new to the blog, welcome! I hope you'll peruse the tabs up top, check out some of the activities and makes of mine. Be sure to follow me (see the 'Get new posts by email' buttons for the blog and Instagram on my sidebar) to be notified of new posts over the next few months of the quilt along.

Once again, the free Quilt Along kicks off on my birthday, April 3, and ends on what was the birthday of one 'famous Canadian', (explanation further along) my dad, June 15. The pace is nice and relaxed, so I hope you can squeeze in a little star- (a few little stars!) creating with your other quilt commitments.

Here is the graphic for the QAL. I hope you'll pop it on the sidebar of your blog and/or post it in your feed and stories on Instagram.

This is a quilt I designed for Island Batik in 2019 when I was an ambassador for them. It was a most rewarding three years sewing with their beautiful fabrics. At the time several people asked if I'd write up the pattern and I had planned to, but those were busy years sewing for Island Batik, and it did not happen ... until this year!

Eighth Annual Quilt Along Heads Up!

Happy first full day of Spring to those readers in the Northern Hemisphere where the Vernal Equinox occurred last night at 11:06 EST. Happy first well due to getting this out later than planned, make that the second full day of autumn to my Southern Hemisphere readers, where the Autumnal Equinox occurs at 2:07 AEDT. In both hemispheres the amount of daylight and nighttime is almost exactly equal. The world is totally in sync!

If you are looking for my Villa Rose Designs post, click here.

So today is an auspicious day to announce that exactly two weeks from today marks the kickoff of my eighth annual quilt along, and I am excited to give you a little teaser of what we are doing this year. First of all, here is the graphic:

Feel free to grab it for your sidebar or for other social media. At the end of the post is another graphic to post on your Instagram stories or wherever else you post if you are participating. I appreciate the help in getting the word out about my free, yes completely free, QAL!

Rosebud Garland in Make Modern #55

I am thrilled to finally be able to share a design that was accepted in January of this year for Make Modern issue 55!

Our own Sweet Autumn Clematis was stunning again this year, and when one of my sweet neighbours, Mary Beth, exclaimed about it, she said hers was wonderful this year too, climbing all the way over a wooden trellis. When I was thinking of good places for a photo shoot for my project, I thought her trellis might frame the runner perfectly. And wow, did it ever!