Category: quilting

Posted in quilting

SAHRR 2026 Parade of Quilts

Posted on by Laura Kate

Some how the days of March went marching by me. Days I spent trying to finish my quilt were, unfortunately, insufficient. But by yesterday, I had completed the top.

This image came out a little dark, so below are the three sections for a closer view.

If I were to grade myself on following the prompts, I would earn less than an A. In the end, I had to choose between the fidelity of my theme and completion of each prompt. Maybe I get a C+.

In the final analysis, I had to drop the hourglass blocks. Given more time, I might have redone them. Instead I used the “double it up” blocks of double tulips to suggest some of the flowers that I saw in Costa Rica. These two blocks look a bit like an abstraction of the ginger flower to me.

Photo by Bill Riley

Another round that I sort of ignored was the “curves” prompt, unless you accept that my appliques contained curves (especially the squirrel monkey’s gorgeous tail.)

I fully indulged myself in rendering animals, a subject that I have come to love. Hence eleven nine coatis.

The finished quilt will measure 45 by 32.

Many thanks to the group of clever quilters who provided the weekly prompts and the spaces where we participants could share our photographs. Here are the links to Brenda, Kathleen, Emily, Wendy, Gail and Anja. You ladies rock.

The Schedule

And many thanks to my DH Bill for sharing the photographs that served as subjects and inspiration for this project. We are, after all, a team.

Posted in painting, quilting

More Monkey Business

Posted on by Laura Kate

It’s been two weeks since I last posted about my 2026 Stay At Home Round Robin project. This week I am finally getting back to the monkey blocks. For a reference image I am using the photograph above, by Bill, for the center panel of this round. When we spotted this guy working his way down a long palm frond, it was hard to tell where he would end up. Reaching the end of the branch, he just leapt away to safety. What a plucky little creature! I just had to include him in my Costa Rica quilt.

I started in my usual manner. Making an applique transfer of the monkey was not difficult. I just traced the shape from the photograph in one piece, laid the tracing onto fused fabric and cut it out just as you would a paper doll.

In this photo you see the monkey cut-out overlaying the background fabric pre-painting You also see the tracing I made of the palm frond. It required multiple pieces of fused fabric to render a convincing applique version of the various leaflets.

The work happened over several days. Here’s the background fabric painted and the monkey and palm applique pieces fused but not sewn down yet.

Today I got out my Jacquard Textile paints and finished the work.

And here is how my monkey row will look with the two monkey wrench blocks at each end.

I have a plan for one more landscape panel to finish out this quilt. It will depict a sunrise as viewed from the villa we stayed at in Costa Rica last September.

Wish me luck.

Posted in painting, quilting

SAHRR Challenge 6: Monkey Business

Posted on by Laura Kate

This week is the final challenge for the Stay at Home Round Robin 2026 quilt along. Anja Quilts is our host today. She most generously and kindly suggested that we each choose a block for ourselves. That’s right, it’s Quilter’s Choice. This makes me happy, because now I can monkey around.

One afternoon, our little group was hanging around the villa in Costa Rica when we heard lots of rustling noises in the forest. Dashing outside (with cameras in hand) we were greeted by a gang of spider monkeys, working their way noisily across our view. Specifically, they were squirrel monkeys. Bill got some good images. He shared several, and I chose three to use in my “Monkey Round.”

It took me three days to come to a conclusion about a block to use. I will need three blocks for my row, each featuring one photograph. The centerpiece was easy – it will be an applique block of the brave monkey climbing out on a limb. But what about the others?

I started to think about monkeys in the context of quilting. In researching several standard quilt blocks, I learned that the Churn Dash block is sometimes called the Monkey Wrench – Eureka!

I traced the photos to produce a pattern for each “side monkey.” They will look like portraits in the center square of the churn dash blocks. My backgrounds will be left-over hand painted fabrics. After fusing and stitching down the cut pieces, I compared my two blocks to the photographs.

This should come out just fine. Next, I took a little time to prepare the center panel. I will have to paint a background for this one (no more leftover painted fabric.) But I did prepare the applique of the monkey.

He is standing on a pattern I traced for the palm fronds.

Putting the center panel aside, I got busy painting details on the other two monkeys. My textile paint of choice is Jacquard Textile. The paint dried quickly, allowing me to sew up the churn dash blocks using pieces I had cut yesterday. They finish at 7 inches.

Here they are side-by-side.

Finishing the center block will have to wait a while.

To see what other quilters selected for their sixth round, visit Anja Quilts.

We now have until March 25 to do all the finishing work in time to add our quilts to the quilt parade. That round will be hosted by Kathleen McMusing. I invite you to check back then to see how my Costa Rica quilt turns out.

Posted in quilting

Stay at Home Round Robin Re-Entry

Posted on by Laura Kate

After a nine day trip to the west coast, I am jumping back into quilting. It’s crystal clear that one cannot do a stay at home round if one doesn’t stay home…….. hm. I departed just as Pieceful Wendy’s revealed her challenge: Use Curves. My curvy round will be delayed until next week. I’ve got a few cute animal images to work with that are chock full of curves. I arrived home one day after Quilting Gail’s prompt, so I will jump in there.

Gail told us to use any two colors, adding some background fabric if needed. Considering that my quilt is about a rain forest, I will use lots of green to represent all the leafy plants that grow in great profusion there: ferns, bromeliads, palms, vines and grasses. My second color will be yellow. I will need a background fabric as well.

To challenge myself, and to keep it interesting, I decided to use foundation paper piecing in constructing my round 5 blocks. Inspiration and instruction came from quilter Amy Friend’s book:

Amy’s goal is to tell stories with her quilts, utilizing fussing cutting and foundation paper piecing. Each chapter is a project. The project’s templates are included at the end of the book. I chose the project Grasslands.

And this is the template I will use.

I love the idea of the zebra hiding within the grass. Since time is of the essence, and I am a rank amateur at paper piecing, I won’t attempt to insert any rain forest animals into my grass blocks. It took me several hours over two days and a certain amount of seam ripping. Eventually I managed to sew up six blocks.

Inserting this row into my project will be easy. The background fabric will blend into the “ceramic tile” row and the pale yellow strips will blend into the coati row.

And here is the lower half of my Costa Rica quilt.

If you are now a fan of the Stay-at-Home Round Robin quilt-along, please follow along by visiting the Linky parties. This week’s can be found at Quilting Gail’s post.

Here is where you can check out all the past weeks’ work, and see what will come next.

  • January 14   Each of the co-leaders will be sharing their centre blocks (you will have to visit each of their blogs to see them). I will host the first linky party where you can show your centre block.
  • January 21:  1st Round:    Brenda @ Songbird Designs
  • January 28:  2nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
  • February 4: 3rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
  • February 11: 4th Round:   Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
  • February 18: 5th Round:  Gail @ Quilting Gail 
  • February 25: 6th Round:  Anja @ Anja Quilts
  • March 25:   Parade: showing all of your finished SAHRRs!
Posted in painting, quilting

SAHRR 2026 Round Three: Coati Parade

Posted on by Laura Kate

Imagine my excitement when Emily, of Darling Dogwood, chose Animal Kingdom for this week’s round! I had already decided to include a handful of animals to appear in my Costa Rica quilt. All I needed to do was choose one.

I picked this coati as my star attraction.

Bill captured this coati (pronounced co-ah-tee) as it stood alone foraging near the villa. The camera motion caused it to look up, straight at the lens. The hanging tongue could be a gesture of disapproval (!)

A few days later, an entire troupe of coati marched across the driveway from left to right. Bill collected a bonanza of photographs.

For my round of animals, I will use the photogenic coati in a center block made in applique technique. For the rest of the round, I plan to cut a stencil and paint fabric in an approximation of the procession. This animal will be my model for cutting the stencil.

Its posture is very typical of the group. It looks intent on forward motion, head down, tail up and eyes forward.

First the applique. In my stash was a piece of fabric I had painted for another project. The colors are well suited for this one.

After resizing my photograph to fit the block I had cut (5 inch square finished,) I proceeded:

  1. Cut out subject from photo to determine positioning. 2. Applique pieces cut, assembled and fused to background. 3. Applique stitched down. Details added. I used different colors of Micron pen, mostly brown and black.

I chose a strip of pale fabric printed with yellow horizontal lines as the background for my stencil.

Strip to the left of center. r
Strip to the right.

Having fun with the clownish properties of the coati, I painted my stencils in a variety of patterns using turquoise, violet, brown and black Jacquard textile paint. Aren’t they cute?

And here is my Round Three row, positioned below one of the tile rows.

This round was very fun, once I had honed in on my choices. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out Emily’s post, which holds the InLinkz site where SAHRR participants posted their results for Round 3.

And consider visiting the six SAHRR 2026 hosts at their homepages. Here is the list.

January 14th: Center/Centre blocks Gail @ Quilting Gail

January 21st: First Round: hourglass units   Brenda @ Songbird Designs

January 28th: Second Round: make it a double  Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing

February 4th:  Third Round: Animal Kingdom Emily @ The Darling Dogwood

February 11th:  Fourth Round:   Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

February 18th: Fifth Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail 

February 25th: Sixth Round:  Anja @ Anja Quilts

March 25th:  Parade of Finishes showing all of your finished SAHRRs!

See you around next time,

Laura