Quilting Sisters & Sister's Choice!

We jumped right into our Sister's Choice retreat workshop yesterday morning!

It felt so great to walk into a house full of welcoming quilters ready to get down to business - or class time as it was.

Sometimes the scraps are just that much out of control and we need an easy project with great results to sew them all up into submission.

I'm thrilled with the different fabrics and quilt plans that everyone has chosen!

We moved the round foyer table out of the way and set up a large folding table on bed risers to add more cutting/trumming spaec - it's also a great location for grou pdemos.

Sister's Choice has been one of my all-time favorite blos since I started quilting in the 1980s.  What's not to love about a block with bright and colorful nine-patches in the centers?

You'll find the free pattern for Sister's Choice under the Free Patterns tab at the top of the blog.

This is a great quilt to use up leftover jelly roll strips you've had laying around - but beware!  

Meausre your strips to be sure they are 2 1/2''.  All companies do not use the same kind of pinking on their edges.

Some are 2 1/2'' if measuring the outer points of the pinking.  Some are 2 1/2'' if measuring the valleys.

Unfortuneately the only way to know is to measure your strips, and sew accordingly - adjust your seam allowance to the unit size you are working towards.

In this case, we are making our 9-patches from pairs of strips and one extra square - whichever fabric you want to end up in the corner.

More photos in the pattern so flip over there to see what we are talking about.

We had a discussion and demo on cutting fabric, and yes - seam tests.  Especially when working with Jelly Rolls and pre-cuts. Don't just assume they are 2 1/2''.

We sewed pairs of strips, pressed toward the corner fabric, and measured! Onlly then would we know that our fabric cutting, and the seam allowance and the pressing were working together to give us the 4 1/2'' strip set width we needed.

Quilters, concentrating so hard - on 9-patches!

Who knew that going back to basics would reveal so much!

But the results were so worth it!

Why 2 strips and an extra corner square?  Because subcutting after strip piecing is just faster and more accurate than sewing 9 individual squares together when you want ALL of the 9-patches to be different from each other.

If we were doing them all with the same 2 fabrics we could do the regular strip piecing method with 2 different kinds of strip sets.

But these 9-patches are one of a kind!

Looking good!

Fun color combos!

Black and red ones - and some other blocks being worked on in between!

A garden with floral blocks!

Sweet prints!

Autumn colors!

Blocks for this quilt are also being worked on in between.

There is a jacket in the making here - and more 9-patch blocks.

Our workshop instruction time goes until lunch every day, while the afternoons are free to continue working on what we were during during class, or quilters could feel free to sqitch gears and work on something else as a "palette cleanser."

I love this twister block pineapple!

As for my afternoon - more triangle cutting/sewing is happening.
But what about the X Plus blocks?
You know, some days are just not flying-geese friendly.  That's all I ahve to say on that. HA!
I do have my Leader & Ender Four Patch Fun block sets sitting right there to throw in as well.
We'll see what happens this afternoon after class.
Today we are oving on to the star point units and will start putting the Sister's Choice blocks together.
LAST NIGHT:  We had an awesome evening with some neighbor friends at the movies.
It was the last showing of the Downton Abbey Finale at our little local theater.

Here is my Craftours group from last December at Highlere Castle - home of Downton Abbey.
I loved the movie.  It was a great wrap up of the series.
I think I annoyed the hubster every time I saw the staircase and said "Yep, I walked down those stairs!" "I can't believe I went there and saw that!"
But it was truly amazing and a fun way to relive our day at Highclere by seeing the movie.
A bit from Switzerland:
I know this post is getting long, but I wanted to share a little video montage that I posted to the socials while I was gone.
We spent an afternoon at a wonderful Textile Museum outside of Zurich on our longest day - the same day we had the cooking class.
Back in the early 1900s many women earned money by doing pieccework of spinning, weaving, sewing, emnbroidery, ribbon making and more.

@quiltville_bonnie our visit to the textile Museum! 🤗 While many items were manufactured in factories, many trims, laces, ribbons were made by peace work at home by hard-working women. 🇨🇭 This was fascinating! ✂️💟🧵🪡 #quiltville #bonniekhunter #quilter #quilt #quilting ♬ Whimsical Woods - Maxtracks

The museum holds a fascinating display of working machinery from days gone by.
We were in our element!

I am so excited about this one!

Stars and colorful scraps were meant for each other! 

Create this stunning star quilt in scrappy pinks and oranges or pick two favorite colors and go with it! Fat-Quarter friendly and Inspired by the beautiful flame azaleas native to my corner of Appalachia. Piecing options, full color photos and graphics and many tips for easy piecing pleasure included.

Quilt size: 80'' X 80''

Introductory Pricing:  The PDF pattern for Flame Azalea is already marked 25% off in the Quiltville Store, No coupon code needed.  Sale good through 10/5/25.

And yes - there is a Gift-Away!

I'll be drawing for two winners who will each receive a Flame Azalea PDF pattern from me, and Facets of Orange color roll from  Cotton to Quilts. (Also great to enhance your Hallween quilting stash!)

They also have Facets of Pink in stock, as well as fabulous Notable Neutrals rolls. Check them out!

Head on over and get your entry in on my 9/23/24 Gift-Away Post!

We'll draw for our winners on 10/5/25.

Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Happy Friday, everyone!