Category: quilting

Posted in quilting

SAHRR 2025 Round 6: Kites

Posted on by Laura Kate

A brand-new-to-me quilt block, kites was select by Emily at the Darling Dogwood for the final round of the Stay at Home quilt challenge this year. First, I practiced making the shape with scrap fabric. I used instructions given by Diane at Little Penguin Quilts and came up with a decent sample. She recommended this site: Scrapdash, including a post called Catch That Kite Quilt Block.

Flipping through my Japanese block directory, I discovered no kites at all. There was a block that started out as a kite, but ended up as a tiny kimono.

Instructions and fabric cuts
Cutting and sewing the kite
Here’s where the kite is split and turned into a kimono.

So I went a different direction. I decided to “fake” a japanese style block by selecting a general design, inserting small kite blocks into the design, and then finishing the block with sashing. It went like this:

Kurume kasuri musubi is designed to be used with traditional kasuri fabrics (plain weaves in solid colors, also ikat fabrics) The design itself is based on a knot.

The four squares in the knot will be replaced with four kite squares. They finish at 3″ each, leaving room for the sashing and border in a dark color. I had to estimate my fabric cuts, but managed to figure it out.

My fabric choices are solid gold, dark gray, and a metallic print black which features little flowers.

Cut fabric for the first block
I love that my kites look like manta ray fish in the photo

Now the fun design decision: how will I orient my four kites?

And the winner is……..

As you might expect, the assembly of my made-up block did not go smoothly. I had to rip apart my first try, re-cut some of the strips and sew it back together. The second block went much faster.

These two will be added to the front of the kimono, just below the sleeve section.

Here is how my quilt looks today.

I still have two rows to make up, and the whole center front, which will be built from half blocks on either side of the opening. No doubt you may have trouble visualizing it. Me too – honestly, I haven’t decided what patterns to use for the remaining rows. They could be some simple repeats of earlier rounds, such as half square triangles or quarter log cabins. Or more Japanese traditional blocks.

Fortunately, I seem to have enough fabric left.

I hope you have been enjoying all the products of on-line quilters who are making SAHRR quilts this year. Check out their work at our design creators’ sites.

  • January 13th: Center: Gail @ Quilting Gail
  • January 20th: 1st Round: King’s Crown block or inspired by your first initial  Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
  • January 27th: 2nd Round: Half Square Triangles   Anja @ Anja Quilts
  • February 3rd: 3rd Round: Stars Gail @ Quilting Gail
  • February 10th: 4th Round: Slice & Insert  Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
  • February 17th:5th Round: Partial Log Cabins Brenda @ Songbird Designs
  • February 24th: 6th Round: Kites or inspired by your first initial or the letter “k”
    Emily @ The Darling Dogwood 🠜 You Are Here
  • March 24th: Finish Parade: Gail @ Quilting Gail

Be sure and check back with me after March 24th. Maybe I will be finished by then.

Posted in quilting

SAHRR 2025 Round 5 – Daily Fiber

Posted on by Laura Kate

Thank you, Brenda, of Songbird Designs, for choosing log cabin block for this round. It’s just about my favorite block to make, and one of the most beginner-friendly as well. Brenda has chosen to use the quarter log form of the block in her quilt. I like that, and made a few test blocks in this version.

Quarter logs, some borders added
or maybe they look better on point?

I’ll likely use quarter logs at some point. But for this round, I want to use a Japanese version of the log cabin. My block directory has two to choose from:

Pieced raimon, also known as the spiral block, is interesting. But those are very narrow logs to squeeze into a nine inch square block.

Hiratsume sanmasu is what we in the West might call Courthouse Steps log. I also like that this pattern has one set of strips cut 1 and 1/2 wide, to finish at 1 inch. And I have the perfect fabric to take advantage of the layout:

When I unwrapped this fabric, among the selection I purchased from kimonomomo on Etsy, I knew it would be a good companion for my crane star blocks. So I made three concentric square log cabin blocks. Here they are in place.

And this round finishes out the rows of blocks for the back of my kimono.

Next week will be the last challenge, and I have a whole front side yet to make. I will be repeating some of the block patterns used on the back, especially the blocks that make up the sleeve section. And I will be doing some improvisational design, inspired by Japanese quilts, of course.

To see how other quilters handled this challenge, visit Songbird Designs and click on the InLinz link. Here is the complete list of SAHRR 2025 host sites.

Posted in quilting

SAHRR 2025 Round 4: A Nod to Boro

Posted on by Laura Kate

Pieceful Wendy is our host for round 4. She has given us instructions that lend themselves very well to scrap-busting and improvisational piecing: Cut a square of fabric. Slice it in half in any direction. Cut a strip of another fabric. Sew the strip to the cut sides of the square. That’s it.

There is a pattern in my Japanese quilt block dictionary that references Boro stitching.

In Japanese sewing culture, boro refers to the technique of mending old clothes by sewing odd pieces of fabric over the worn places. It began out of necessity: in olden times, fabric was scarce and expensive, so each little piece was saved and used in the mending. In modern Japan, fabric is readily available and boro stitching is done just for the sheer pleasure of making things by hand.

To read my post about boro stitching, click here.

My blocks for Round 4 are not traditional boro. I was inspired by the idea of using scraps. I started by cutting many strips of dark fabrics.

Then, following Wendy’s instructions, I slashed them.

Because I have chosen to use the color gold as a unifying element, I inserted strips of gold fabric, cut at around 1 and 1/4 inch wide. They finish out at 3/4 inch.

I sorted them into groups by color and direction of the insert. Then I stitched them together in three sections, to become the shoulder area of my kimono.

Left side
Center Section
Right side

This ten-inch tall section will sit on the shoulder – 1/2 on the back of the garment and 1/2 on the front. Here is my quilt after adding the round four blocks:

Even though the back is not quite done yet, my focus for the next two rounds will be to build the blocks for the kimono’s front.

I hope you are enjoying the quilty fun happening during the Stay at Home Round Robin challenge. To see others who are participating, enter the InLinz link found on Wendy’s Pieceful Thoughts site.

And here is the complete list of our hosts for SAHRR 2025 along with their blog sites.

Posted in quilting, sewing

WIP Wednesday: SAHRR Round Three

Posted on by Laura Kate

It’s all Japanese quilt blocks all the time around my house these days. First of all, let me show you the fabrics that came yesterday from kimonomomo on Etsy;

They are all types. There’s smooth cotton and homespun, shiny metallics and quiet two-color prints. What I forgot to buy was fabric in light colors. So my completed squares are about to get darker.

But not this week. Quilting Gail asked us to make star blocks for round 3. I found only one Japanese star block in Susan Briscoe’s book. The Japanese word for star is hoshi.

This is a basic eight point star assembled from diamond shapes. But it is not an easy one. The directions are rated difficult and the technique includes sewing lots of Y-seams. No thank you.

A google search helped me get out of this assignment. I discovered many Japanese quilts that incorporated hoshi blocks in different techniques and styles. So I decided to use this criss-cross star block as described by Anorina on sameliasmum.com

To give the block a little Japanese style, I made the center square with an appliqued crane, which symbolizes longevity for the Japanese. This applique is included in Susan’s pattern book and described as a crest.

Crane on gold square
Crane on dark square

I sewed three criss-cross blocks in all. And here is my quilt at the end of round 3.

I will be continuing to stagger the placement of blocks. That means I need to wait for Round 4 to finish this row. Two blocks from Round 4 will replace the outside stars in this row. They will be moved to row 4.

I hope you are enjoying my little adventure in international quilting. Be sure to visit the Linky party. It can be found on Quilting Gail’s site.

Here is the line up of all 2025 SAHRR designers.

See you next week.

Posted in quilting

SAHRR 2025 Round 2: Japanese style quilt

Posted on by Laura Kate

Before I show my work for this round, I want to share a source for Japanese quilting and sewing supplies.

A few years ago, I was interested in learning about sashiko stitching. When it became clear that the necessary supplies and materials for this craft were not available anywhere in my quad-state area, I turn to Etsy and found kimonomomo. Returning to the site this year, I discovered that she carried hundreds of Japanese fabrics which are available in small amounts – fat eights, fat quarters, etc. I chose eight different fabrics which are presently winging their way to me – should arrive on February 3rd. I can’t wait to get my hands on them.

During my preparation of round two, it became very clear that I didn’t have enough fabric to complete the quilt. So in addition to the Japanese fabrics I ordered from Etsy, I bought three cotton solid colors from Hobby Lobby.

Since the color gold is quite prominent in my center paneI, I chose it as a unifying color that would help marry together the different block patterns.

Now on to Round Two: Turning to the Susan Briscoe’s quilt block directory, I discovered two layouts that feature half-square triangles (aka HST.)

Uroko (scales) is an all-over pattern of the HSTs. Yosegi (check frame) features it as a center square. I decide to make two blocks of each.

Starting with Uroko, I quickly sewed, pressed and trimmed all the little HSTs and then cut out the gold fabric for the setting triangles. Sewing together the first block, it was clearly too small. I removed the gold setting triangles, re-cut each piece 1/4 of an inch larger, and tried again. It measured out perfectly.

Turning to Yosegi, I had much less difficulty. The center HST was edged by four strip pieced squares and cornered by four nine-patch blocks. Easy peasy.

And here is my project at the end of Round Two.

I’m so glad I didn’t start sewing the rows together yet. When I added my newest blocks, it was obvious that I needed to change the layout. Alternating the blocks of Round One with Round Two blocks makes for a more pleasing design, IMHO.

To see the other participants’ round 2 blocks, visit Anja @  Anja Quilts

And here is the line-up for the rest of Stay at Home Round Robin 2025