This Plus 1 top is the first of two sets of blocks I pieced during Mom’s visit that needed assembling. It also counts as my project for this month’s precut challenge since I used a Jelly Roll.

I’ve got an old set of instructions from 2016 when I made my first version of this quilt that never made it to the website so I’ll update those and add it. While I love the tessellating Plus quilts, I don’t have the patience to keep everything in order while assembling it. This one is easy because the blocks are all pieced and then the spacers are added as you assemble the rows.

Mom finished another top … I keep losing count of how many tops she’s finished since getting here but I counted them up again and this Owl top makes 5. It’s based on a Fabric Cafe pattern called Pretty Please.

I have this same owl fabric in purple so you’ll see another one of these 3 yard quilts using it eventually.

While Mom was finishing up this one, I finished cutting another one for her and started quilting the doll top. I decided to use some leftover Minky fabric on the back which was not the best decision. I had to shove and pull to get it to feed through. I’m going to end up doing minimal quilting on it which is OK, it’s a doll quilt and it will be fine. It makes me appreciate how easy it is to use Minky for backings on the longarm.

I’ve been doing a lot of cooking while Mom’s been here trying to fix her some of her favorites. Tonight we decided to make a turkey dinner. We fixed a turkey breast, broccoli casserole, dressing, and cranberry sauce and it was yummy! Tomorrow we’ll have leftovers.

Mom finished piecing her 3+ yard Brick Street top. Pattern is from Fabric Cafe.

For some reason these photos never quite show how cute these quilts turn out. Here’s a closer view of the fabrics.

While Mom was finishing that top, I pulled a bin with leftover bits from the last 16 patch top I pieced and made a little doll quilt. I just can’t stand to let those little bits go to waste. I added borders to 2 sides to bring it up to about 23.25 x 25.5 inches.

I made the mistake of not measuring my fabrics before starting this morning and ran out of the Dinosaur print. I made it work but I won’t show a full photo until it’s quilted because this is another one of the 3 yard quilts that just is not photographing well. It’s really cute in person and in the close up but the overall photo looks odd!

I pulled a backing and pieced some batting leftovers and the 3rd top is ready for quilting tonight. I also trimmed the ones from the last 2 nights so they’re ready for binding but they’ll wait until next week.

The closing on the Tampa townhouse was delayed again as I expected. They’re just waiting for the permit to be closed by the city now and they’ve rescheduled for Friday but that might be too optimistic. We’ll see.

So, the scale is off on this one for me and the quilt doesn’t flow from block to block but I wanted to try a different 3 yard quilt and it’s another one that just doesn’t photograph all that well. I don’t dislike it, I just don’t love it.

Although, when looking at it closer up … it doesn’t bother me as much.

This is one I saw online when doing a search for 3 yard quilts and I debated what size blocks to use. I think I might have been happier with 8 inch finished blocks and a border rather than the borderless 10 inches finished blocks I went with. I did play a bit with the idea before piecing the top but I don’t think I’ll do this one again.

You might wonder what the appeal is in the 3 yard quilts – although let me say I always use more than 3 yards and adapt the borders, number of blocks and binding to suit my needs/taste. There are several reasons I’m enjoying making them.

• First, it’s always fun to do a project with a group and see what everyone else is coming up with and my HeartStrings group started making them this spring.
• It’s nice to work on a quick easy project in between scrap quilts which take me longer and involve a lot of sorting and cutting of fabric (not that I mind since scrap quilts are my favorites) but these are a nice break too.
• They’re great projects for working with larger prints or novelty fabrics for kids.
• They make cute kids quilts and nice lap size donation quilts for adults.
• And finally, they’re great stash busters. Because I can typically piece one of these in an afternoon, I feel like I’m making a lot more progress using up my large stash than when I’m making scrap quilts and see no progress at all so it’s a good balance for me.

And in case you’ve forgotten what my large stash looks like … it’s still a bit of a mess with the bins everywhere. One of these days I’m going to have to take some time and get a bit more organized.

This scrappy one probably won’t appeal to some of you … but I love rail fence blocks and using my leftover strips and strings to make one is a bonus. This top also meets my precut challenge for September. Since I didn’t have any “honey bun” precuts, I used some skinny strips and strings in my rail fence blocks.

In addition to getting this top assembled, I trimmed one quilt and got it ready for binding, got the binding on another and ready to hand sew down, and I got a backing pieced for one of the 3 yard tops I have here waiting for quilting.

I am working hard to finish things up before Monday so I can sew along with my HeartStrings group next week. I won’t make it to Maine this year but I will be working from home and our project will be 3 yard quilts.

I should have just waited a day to show you this 16 patch quilt. I got it assembled today.

While there’s nothing difficult about piecing a 16 patch quilt, I like this variation because it’s easy to use fat quarters and with the larger blocks, it goes quickly.

I found a free pattern online for this quilt several years ago but that blog is no longer active. After a lot of searching, I found an archived link but I have no idea how long it will be active so if you are interested, make sure you save a copy for yourself.

St Louis 16 Patch – https://web.archive.org/web/20131016220636/http://sewwithsass.blogspot.com/2013/04/quilts-st-louis-16-patch.html

This is the 4th time I’ve made it and I’ve been happy with how all of them have turned out.

I had a lazy morning but I did manage to get downstairs and get the Friendship Star top assembled this afternoon. Looking forward to starting something new now!

Finn’s trying to stay pretty close to me today …. He kept me company in the sewing room this afternoon. I’m trying to “train” him to lay in his bed instead of roaming around looking for scraps and threads to eat.

I finished up the green centered string blocks this weekend and got the top assembled this afternoon. This was intended to be a random HeartStrings quilt with no planning but I found myself arranging the blocks about halfway through to try and group colors together to make secondary diamonds … so of course it took twice as long to make the last blocks since I had to plan where I placed some of the strings.