Summer is almost here and it is time to start thinking about quilts for the upcoming patriotic season. The Millennium block is an easy and beautiful block for quilts for Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day. This block finishes at 12″ so it’s a nice sized block that will make a beautiful table runner too with just 3 or 4 blocks. Let’s get started!

This line of fabric is a combination of an American Basics roll of 2.5″ strips and a navy blue fat quarter.

Cutting instructions:

Block A (1) – 4″ x 4″ square.
B (4) – 2.5″ x 2.5″ squares.
C (4) – 2.5″ x 4.5″ rectangles.
D (4) – 2.5″ x 4.5″ rectangles.
E (4) – 2.5″ x 2.5″ squares.
F (4) – 1.5″ x 4.5″ rectangles.
G (4) – 1.5″ x 4.5″ rectangles.
H (8) – 2.5″ x 2.5″ squares. These squares matched Block A.

Start by making for flying geese units. Sew 2 of square H to 1 rectangle C. Draw a diagonal line on the back of square H and sew from the outer corner toward the middle.

Trim outside the stitch line to 1/4″ and iron the point open.

Repeat on the other side.

Make 4. They should finish at 2.5″ x 4.5″.

Sew together the F & G rectangles to make 4.

Sew the F & G rectangle to the C & H flying geese unit.

Time to make the corner blocks. Sew B & E together and make 4.

Sew the B & E unit to D.

Make 4 of the corner blocks.

Now lay everything out like a 9 patch!

Sew your nine patch together for a gorgeous Millennium block!

I’m going to make enough of these for 5 across and 5 down with sashing and navy cornerstones in between! So pretty!

Since we’re all quarantined at home, let me take you to a quilt show!

Hi friends!

I just want to give you a heads up that I’ll be doing a Christmas in July sew along using the Brother Scan N Cut and Simply Applique (much like I did last year with Howl-Lelujah). The pattern is by the same company – Urban Elements and it’s a precious Flamingo in wooly stockings. How fun!

Here’s the pattern by itself. You can source your own fabrics or shop your stash.
https://www.urbanelementz.com/warmest-wishes-quilt-applique-pattern.html

And here’s the pattern with pre-cut fabric pieces with iron-on adhesive on the back.
https://www.urbanelementz.com/warmest-wishes-quilt-applique.html

You don’t have to have a Scan N Cut to join in. I’ll be doing both quilts – one using the Scan N Cut and one without. So I’ll demo both. In fact, you don’t need Simply Applique software either! You can certainly sew down the applique pieces the old fashioned way, but using the new technology is so fun and you will absolutely love it. This program is very inexpensive so I hope you give it a try!
https://www.allbrands.com/products/65662-brother-sabessa-simply-applique-creative-embroider

Here’s a link to the Scan N Cut DX125. It’s perfect for this project.

Can’t wait to get started! We start July 6, 2020!

Vicki from Creative Notions was so generous to give away two of her 2020 Maker’s Planners with my viewers. On my most recent video, I offered them up to those who made a comment saying they wanted the “planner”. The giveaway closed at March 25, 2020 at 5:00pm CST.

There were 274 unique entries with the word “planner” in the comment. There were over 300 comments but some people didn’t want to enter the giveaway.

From those 274 entries, I chose two random selections using the YouTube Comment Picker.

Winner #1 – Robin Brown

Winner #2 – Fleta Hall

Winners, please email me at powertoolswiththread@outlook.com with your address! Congratulations!!

I’m in the middle of making a YouTube video showing how to make a mug rug for St. Patrick’s Day using Kimberbell’s Seasonal & Holiday Mug Rugs, Vol 2. I know many of my subscribers don’t have (or don’t want ‘gasp!’) an embroidery machine so I thought I’d share a pattern for those who just want to sew one. This mug rug is based on a traditional log cabin block and can be made for any season or event just by changing the fabrics. It’s super easy!

Here’s the pattern. Just right-click (Cmd click) the image to save it to your computer and then print it. The only measurement on the pattern is the width of the fabric strip. You’ll trim the length to match the side to which it is being sewn after you stitch it.

This pattern starts with a 3.5″ square for the center. If you want to add a seasonal applique you can add it here. I’m using a 4 leaf clover that I grabbed from Google Images and resized to be 2.5″ so it will center in the middle square. If you want to use this one, again you can just save the image and print.

I used the manual method to trace the image to an iron-on called Hot Fix Adhesive as a backing and then ironed it to the applique fabric. I was all gung-ho to use the Scan-n-Cut (SNC) however I’m writing this blog post from our coastal home and when I brought my old SNC down here, someone (not moi’ of course!) forgot to bring along the power cord. Note to self: Pack SNC power cord for next trip.

I laid out my pieces to get a general idea of how to piece them.

The log cabin method is so easy because you just have to sew on one side and trim to fit.

I continued to add the pieces according to the pattern. Once the top was all finished, I cut out some of the beer mugs and a lucky horseshoe from one of the fabrics and ironed them on. Then I layered the top, batting, and backing to get it ready to quilt.

I quilted using a simple serpentine stitch using the presser foot as a spacing guide.

I turned it over to carefully trim away the extra batting and trimmed the backing to within 5/8″.

I did a double fold for the self-binding.

What do you think? Works great!

My buddy Lisa and I and our husbands trekked up to Austin, Texas with “Media Creds” to check out QuiltCon 2020. QuiltCon gets its name as a take off from Comic-Con which is where all the comic book groupies join up for a comic book convention every year – usually in LasVegas. So QuiltCon is a quilt convention but it is the quilt convention for the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG). You can read about the MQG here. This year, there were 1,600 quilts entered into the show to be juried and 432 were chosen to be judged. Sorry about image quality throughout this post. I snagged the pictures as screen shots while editing the videos.

My previous experience with QuiltCon is limited. I’ve read about it on blogs over the years and have come across posts where quilters have had quilts accepted for judging. I was very excited to interview the Executive Director, Karen Cooper, and come to find out, we live about 20 miles from each other. From what I could tell, she did an amazing job and the show itself was very well-organized and flowed very smoothly.

I loved the Welcome Quilt.

We saw some very lovely work at this show. This quilt took 2nd place in Piecing.

We also saw some quilts that were designed to shock. I guess that comes with the territory of the modern quilting movement. There were political messages and other themed quilts that were very “in your face” about the divisive issues of our time regarding politicians, guns, oppression, political anarchy, immigration…you name it. We saw it all including profanity delicately hand stitched and pieced into fabric. Beauty and art is in the eye of the beholder.

Here is a glimpse of the Best In Show by Peter of Toronto, Canada. This is a screenshot of my interview with him in front of his winning quilt.

This one took Judge’s Choice.

There were also some we saw with no message but just a work of art.

So that’s a glimpse of what we did yesterday. Today we are off to another quilt show in Brenham, Texas that I’m pretty sure will lean more to the side of “traditional quilting”. Happy Trails!

It’s been a busy start to 2020.  I’ve picked up a couple of quilting projects and started Ava’s Garden from Connecting Threads in queen size.  

For the fabric, I chose Fields of Blue by Moda for some gorgeous Bluebonnets in the Churn Dash blocks.  I’m about halfway finished with this beauty and I especially want it done before the Bluebonnets bloom here in South Texas next March.

It’s been about a year since I remodeled my sewing room and I’ve done some refinements along the way.  While I’ve purchased bits of garment fabric here and there over the past year, I’ve really concentrated my fabric habit into quilting and embroidery.  Garment fabric has been removed to another room and space has been made for the Brother Luminaire that is on loan to me from #Allbrands.

I’m busy setting everything to rights around the room so I’m ready for a full-blown sewing room video tour I’m going to do this weekend.

I thoroughly enjoyed using the Luminaire with Simply Applique to make the Howl-lelujah quilt last December.  My next venture with that fabulous machine is to stipple around the applique pieces on the Safari Way-to-Grow wall hanging from Urban Elementz.  

I’ve seen videos where the Luminaire can, after scanning in the hoop, create a “stamp” around a shape, thereby creating an outline around the shape.  Then I can fill the empty space with a stipple to fully quilt the wall hanging using the embroidery machine.  I look forward to figuring this all out and sharing it with my YouTube viewers as well.

My next “First” will be attending QuiltCon in Austin, Texas on Feb 20.

I’ve never been and I’m interested to see if there is a different “vibe” from the Houston Quilt Festival.  The world of Modern Quilting is foreign to me so I’m excited to go to Austin to see what it’s all about.  Of course, I’ll be taking you along with me and will video my entire trip!

And last but not least, hubs Keith has started prepping for his retirement by re-engaging in his passion of woodworking. First off the lathe are custom acrylic and wooden seam ripper/stiletto combos. They, along with other fine sewing tools including ruler racks, sleeve boards, and tailor’s tools, will be in our Etsy shop soon!