Mill Goods

Mill Goods, Useful Remnants 2023

Remnants and fat quarters combine to create a bright colorful bonus quilt with loads of movement.

The 8” Mill Wheel die by Blue Wren is fabulous for using up those larger leftover pieces. I cut and sewed random color combinations, then slapped them up on my design wall. After I laid out the blocks, I decided to add borders. But not just plain ones!

There was so much color already, I decided to go all out, cutting light and dark scraps with the 4” triangle in a square die. They aligned perfectly, and I added half triangles and a quarter circle on each corner. The result is even better than I had planned. All piecing was done on Elizabeth, my Singer 404.

Mill Goods is 56” square with rounded corners. I used some of my newly acquired bolt fabric for backing and another to cut bias binding. I quilted with light gray thread using a walking foot 1/2” from the seams on each row, then added a ruler quilted swirl in the center of each circle. Along the borders I used a circle ruler to make scallops.

I like planning quilts, but it's fun to get crazy now and then, going on instinct and without a pattern. I'm nowhere near using up all the remnants, but I'll keep trying. Just go for it!

Dies used:
Blue Wren 6865 Mill Wheel 8” finished
Accuquilt 55409 Triangle in a Square 4” finished
Accuquilt 55017 Strip 2½”

Flower Fantasy

Shades of lavender and blue floral prints were the perfect choice for this quilt, and the vintage block is one of my favorites that I requested from Blue Wren.

In this color palette, they look more like flower blossoms than fans. The little yellow center is a bit tricky to stitch, but I took it slow and steady. The larger curve is a breeze. Even the y-seam at the bottom went together nicely.

I added a narrow 2” border in lilac before pinning and quilting. I used light gray thread and a quilting ruler (Which Way border) to quilt the allover design. Flower Fantasy is 53” square. 

There's a story behind the backing/binding. The blocks were finished and on my design wall. My sweetie and I went out to run errands last Wednesday morning. When we grabbed a quick coffee & biscuit at McDonald's, I spied a pop-up $10 per bolt fabric sale on Facebook. At his urging, we made the 30 mile detour to Smart Art in Nashville to check it out. Yes, he is a wonderful enabler and I know how lucky I am to have him.

Oh my, bolts and bolts stacked on shelves. I ended up with 30 bolts of excellent quality quilting cotton, each ranging from 5 to 25 yards. It worked out to be about $1 per yard. I also snagged 15 large cones of thread for a dollar each. We left quite a bit behind, because I am running out of storage space! It's a great store, the inventory is all donated and changes often. I will definitely go there again.

Anyway, one of the fabrics was the exact color match for these blocks so I used some of it for the backing/binding. 

The moral of the story is: 
Always make time for detours and adventures!

Dies used:
Blue Wren 6981 Abaniko 12” finished block
Accuquilt 55017 Strip 2½”

Pieced on Singer 404 Elizabeth
Quilted on Janome 9450 Janelle

Just Flying Around

Aqua, pink, yellow, and coral prints look great sewed into traditional 12” flying geese blocks.

All piecing was done on Black Betty, our beautifully restored Singer 201. She was humming right along in the dining room. I set up an ironing station on a folding table next to the machine. I really enjoy using my vintage sewing machines; their stitch quality is unbeatable.

The blocks are separated with narrow sashing in the same aqua fabric, also used for binding. Backing is a cream swirl material. I quilted with white thread, making a grid of serpentine stitches using the Janome machine.

Just Flying Around finished out at 53” square and only took a few days from start to finish. I decided on the name after watching one of the Blue Angels practicing over our neighborhood on Wednesday. (Nashville's Air Show was this past weekend.) I'm used to seeing them when we vacation on the Gulf, but how amazing that they were flying around over my own back yard!

Dies used:
Accuquilt 55456 Flying Geese 3” x 6” finished
Blue Wren 6015 Strips 1½”

Japanese Lanterns

This cute quilt is great for using up scraps. I saw a photo of the block online and decided to recreate it. Having lots of dies comes in handy when you need different shapes, and I love the challenge of figuring out how to use them together to build a new design and save time.

Staying with my theme, I decided to piece with Tojo, my Japanese made Universal machine. I started with a stack of 2½” x 6½” rectangles, sewing three random ones together. After pressing, I carefully laid several on the 6½” snowball die to trim off the corners. Using cream background fabric, I cut new snowball corners (2½” HST) and stitched them on.

To make the lantern top/bottom strips, I cut 2½” x 3½” rectangles of cream background and black gingham. I sewed two cream and one gingham together, then used the 1½” strip die to cut perfectly sized rectangles. I sewed two of these to a 4½” x 6½” background fabric rectangle, made with 4½” strips, cut again with the 6½” square die.

I alternated these with the snowball blocks on my design wall. I liked the look, except that the lanterns on the top and bottom rows were not complete. To fix that, I added the narrow strip to those snowballs, then used a 6½” square in place of the 4½” x 6½”ones on those rows.

Once all the rows were stitched, I chose a wave ruler to quilt with cream thread 2” apart over the entire quilt. Japanese Lanterns finished out at 49” x 52” in size.

I used a lot of dies, and did a lot of cutting. I guess there could be an easier way to make this but I'm happy with how it turned out. I hope my description of the process makes sense. The extra cuts kept everything trimmed and squared up neatly. I had fun and used up a stack of remnants, so it's all good!


Dies used:
Blue Wren
6047 Rectangles 6½” x 2½” and 3½” x 2½”
6015 Strip 1½”

Accuquilt
55330 Snowball 6½”
55054 Strip 4½”
55006 Square 6½”
55017 Strip 2½”