quilting – Daily Fiber

SAHRR 2026: The first round

Posted on January 26, 2026 by Laura Kate

It’s been a week of trial and error, as I struggle to make the first round of blocks suggested by Brenda of Songbird Designs: Hourglass, aka Quarter square triangles. I had come up with a plan for my Costa Rican inspired design and pulled suitable fabrics from my stash.

For this round, I chose green, yellow and pink fabrics. My objective was to have groups of blocks on either side of the center panel. The first attempt did not please me.

The border just didn’t look like a Costa Rican rain forest. My second attempt used more of the green with the blocks arranged to resemble the ginger flowers of the center block.

This looks a little better, but the scale was way off. The shape dwarfed my poor bird, which is the focus of this row. At that point, I dropped my rotary cutter and gave up for the day.

After a good night’s sleep, I had a new plan: Make the blocks smaller, placing the flowery colored fabrics in a more random way. That might suggest the lushness of the rain forest in an abstract manner. And if I cut the blocks to finish out at 2 and 1/2 inches, four of them stacked would fit the 10 inch length of my center block. Eureka!

Next came ripping apart, cutting down and sewing a total of 24 hourglasses. I added some pale blue fabric to represent the sky and separated the flower colors into discrete patches.

And here they are in the final layout.

To see what the other SAHRR participants are doing, visit our hosts and take a look at their interpretations of this round.

January 14	Everyone shares their center blocks	Gail @ Quilting Gail
January 21	Round 1	Brenda @ Songbird Designs
January 28	Round 2	Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
February 4	Round 3	Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
February 11	Round 4	Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts
February 18	Round 5	Gail @ Quilting Gail
February 25	Round 6	Anja @ Anja Quilts

You can find the link to see the rest of the participants’ quilts on Brenda’s post.

painting, quilting

A New Stay At Home Round Robin

Posted on January 14, 2026January 14, 2026 by Laura Kate

Yes, friends, Quilting Gail and her talented co-horts are at it again. The Stay at Home Round Robin for 2026 (better known as SAHRR 2026) is on, starting this week. For readers who are unfamiliar, I offer a link to Gail’s post, which explains it all.

https://quiltinggail.com/2025/12/18/announcing-the-2026-sahrr/

. As usual, there will be six rounds, plus the kick-off round. That’s happening now. Each participant makes or chooses a center block from which to build the quilt, then adds a border to it each week. This will be my sixth year to make one. The thing I love about SAHRR is how it provokes my creativity while providing a gentle amount of structure to keep me corralled and focused. For 2026, I want to make an art quilt that tells the story of our Costa Rican adventure last September. My DH took terrific photos, which support my memories of what we did and saw.

My center block is a fiery-billed aricari, a smallish toucan.

Using one of Bill’s photos as my subject, I painted the background fabrics with Jacquard Dyna-Flow, fused appliques into place, stitched them down, and painted details with Jacquard Textile paint. I’m pretty happy with my choice. If all goes well, I will draw on other vacation photo images to incorporate into future rounds.

I’m aware that my choice is complex and unconventional. But that’s just me. If you want to participate in SAHRR 2026, you can start with any block you have left over from a past project, or sew up a new one. There are no rules, only suggestions.

To see the co-horts who are providing the weekly clues, check out their posts from the list here:

The Schedule

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). Gail will host the first linky party where you can show your centre block.
January 21: 1^st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
January 28: 2^nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
February 4: 3^rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
February 11: 4^th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
February 18: 5^th Round: ME!!! @ Quilting Gail
February 25: 6^th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
March 25: Parade: showing all of your finished SAHRRs!

quilting

Sunday Reveal: Baby has arrived!

Posted on August 17, 2025August 18, 2025 by Laura Kate

Ten days ago, my sister texted me with wonderful news: My niece’s baby arrived, on her due date. The newest family member is a little girl, named Roseanna Joy. Within days I had assembled the Oregon Natives quilt blocks and added the border.

This quilt is made in strip-piece fashion and finished out at 48 x 58. I’m pretty happy with the result. Using fabrics (mostly from Connecting Threads) that match (or approximate) the color palette provided by the new mom, I organized the quilt around ten applique blocks with images of creatures and plants that live in the baby’s home state. My daughter assisted me in designing and sewing these feature blocks.

Color palette provided

For those readers who may be surprised by the hap-hazard way that individual strips meet each other, let me say this: It’s intentional. An ecologist would call this style “disordered uniformity.” At the detail level, things seem to be chaotic, but when looked at from a respectable distance, patterns emerge. It is the way of nature.

Here is a quick close-up of the mammals, birds, reptile, fish, insects, plant and fungus that will greet little Roseanna.

Steps to completion still await me. I will need to make the label, assemble the quilt sandwich and do the quilting. That part is making me a little nervous, because I haven’t figure out what quilt pattern to use. Any advice from you experts out there will be appreciated.

Linking to Songbird Designs

hand embroidery, painting, quilting

Fun Friday Finished Blocks

Posted on July 25, 2025 by Laura Kate

The Oregon Baby quilt block creation phase is ju……..st about done. Today I want to share two blocks that I finished and two images of blocks that my daughter finished.

Let’s start with sketches: My first attempt at rendering a painted turtle didn’t work out very well in the applique process. It was too complicated.

While I loved the drawing, I decided to start over. Here is my revised sketch with some colored pencil enhancements.

and here is my block complete with applique, machine stitches and painted details.

(there is a little smudge of paint that rubbed off my hand. I’ll have to find a way to cover it up before sewing this block into the quilt.)

Next I sketched a fish common to the northwest: coastal cut-throat trout.

This was easy to applique, and required very little paint to render the fishy details.

Yesterday, I was thrilled to receive two photographs of blocks completed by Amanda. During the preliminary phase of the quilt design, I had shared two sketches with her.

She took these designs and interpreted them in her own style. In addition to applique and paint, she added some expert hand embroidery touches to these blocks. Her results really bring these cute animals to life.

In the meanwhile, I have sewn up all of the strip pieced blocks. There are only two more feature blocks to finish before the quilt top can be assembled.

I’m pretty happy right now, and feel confident the quilt will be ready to send when my goddaughter’s baby arrives in August.

drawing, painting, quilting

Another Friday, More Finished Blocks

Posted on July 4, 2025July 4, 2025 by Laura Kate

This week was moderately productive. I finished several more blocks for the Oregon Baby quilt, including two feature blocks. There are now four features finished, except for any finishing embroidery touches.

I made the western meadowlark and baby rabbit blocks.

Beginning sketch for meadowlark:

Progress photos and finished block:

Beginning sketch of rabbit:

Some additional remarks about the rabbit: The original photo was of a hybrid rabbit – white fur and brown patches, pale blue eyes. I’ve been observing many wild rabbits that hop about the garden here in my new home. Their coloration is more earthy and the eyes appear jet black. So that is how I made this rabbit. Also, the poor bunny has no nose or mouth yet. Those details will be added with embroidery floss. And maybe a few whiskers to boot.

Now when I line up the completed blocks, the quilt looks like this:

Two rows out of five. The big picture is coming into focus.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are enjoying your long week-end (U.S. readers) Please drop me a word or two about your current project. I’d love to know what feeds your creative impulses.