Paige made this pretty Log Cabin quilt and chose “Paisley Curls” as the quilting design. Neither of us spotted the block with the wrong orientation until I sent her pictures of the finished quilt. Oh well, I am sure you have all heard the myth that Amish quilters always make a mistake in their quilts to show their humility, so Paige is in good company. And I think we all make plenty of mistakes without even trying, so there is no need to do it on purpose 😉 Nevertheless, it is a beautiful quilt, something to be proud of.

Fern Grotto was made by Brenda and is one of those quilts that I can look at for hours, watching the secondary patterns emerge. Clever colour and value placement add so much interest to quilts. For this one, you might even have to take a step back. Looking at the thumbnails of the pictures, the diagonal pattern emerges even more clearly. Those are my favourite kind of quilts! Brenda chose “Wild Wind”, a simple swirly pattern to finish her project.

It is October already, and we are going into the last quarter of the year and this year’s Monkey Business BOM. While I am not a big fan of winter, I am not too unhappy that this super hot and dry summer is over and I don’t have to spend so much time watering my vegetables anymore. Next year it will be drip irrigation for sure! I am still harvesting my second crop of broccoli, it was so worth the effort to install the cover for the brassicas. And my cherry tomatoes are still going strong, I can’t take off new suckers as fast as they are regrowing. I have decided to pull them this weekend though. I topped all tomato plants in mid-August, and the remaining green ones will ripen indoors. I just want to clean up as much as possible before the weather gets really ugly.

Our monkey friends are still on summer vacation and don’t have to worry about bad weather. I was trying to create a surfing monkey but all my attempts looked too much like the snowboarding penguin from last year’s Penguin Promenade. Then I realized that there is another kind of surfing, and now our little monkey is happily windsurfing across the water. Please make sure to double check that the pattern prints at 100% size, otherwise the design will be cut off in the middle of the block. (Ask me how I know… I have been printing my placement guides for years with the same settings, and I don’t always check, and Adobe Reader decided to switch from “Actual Size” to one of the other options, and I didn’t notice until I couldn’t make the block fit.) As always, the pattern will be available for free download until the end of the month and move to the pattern store in November.

Click to download Monkey Business Block #10 pattern (English/Imperial)

These cute quilts were made by friends Dorothy and Gerry. They purchased the patterns together some time ago and finished their quilts almost at the same time. Dorothy’s version came to me first, and I was delighted that she chose the design “Wedding Vine” for her quilt, it works so well with the appliqued leaves. Gerry agreed, and when her quilt was ready we didn’t have to think twice which panto to use. These quilts are just too cute!

Dorothy’s Quilt

Gerry’s Quilt

It’s almost October, so definitely not too early to start thinking about Christmas. Once again Carol of Just Let Me Quilt will host her Virtual Cookie Exchange in early December, and that’s a blog hop I don’t want to miss. I actually started working on my project in July, and it’s almost done. I am very proud of myself for not procrastinating until the last minute. Of course it all depends on the right idea coming along, and I ended up with enough inspiration for two designs. It was indeed Christmas in July!

What a crazy year it has been! Normally I would have written a few more posts about this year’s Row Along but with my constant health struggles I just didn’t have the time. Many of you are probably aware that Marian of Seams To Be Sew – who came up with the Row Along concept and organized the event every year – unexpectly passed away in March. We had just started the preparations and voted on the theme when we heard the news, and we decided to continue with the Row Along in Marian’s memory. Melissa of The Quilting Room With Mel kindly volunteered to take over as chairperson and put a lot of time and effort into making it happen.

One Fish, Two Fish – EQ Design

Inspiration for my row hit me when I was browsing the Northcott Fabrics website. They generously offered their fabrics to all the designers again this year, and we could choose anything from their current collections for our projects. I have always loved the look of ombré fabrics but I usually don’t really know what to do with them. When I saw the Stonehenge Gradations Ombré collection, the colorway Indigo jumped out at me right away. I could almost swear it was called “Ocean” at the time but I might be wrong. In any case, I suddenly had a vision of colorful fish swimming on this blue background, with the color getting darker towards the ocean floor and lighter towards the surface. The other fabric I chose was a light blue for the bubbles. Thank you once again, Northcott, for your beautiful fabrics.

DP39420-45 Stonehenge Gradations Ombre Indigo

9020-42 Toscana Escape

For the fish, I used leftover batik scraps. The bright colors shine on the blue background, and batiks often have interesting patterns that I thought were perfect for tropical fish. The bubbles were scattered randomly across the background. The instructions are for fusible machine applique (the only kind I do), and I used a machine blanket stitch to applique the pieces.

Once again, I added borders and turned my row into a wall hanging. I would have entered it in this year’s quilt show but unfortunately Covid is still around, and we won’t be able to have one. I am keeping my fingers crossed for 2022.

The pattern for the row will be available for free download for a week. Afterwards the pattern for the complete wall hanging will be available for purchase.

EDIT: A week has come and gone, and the full pattern for the One Fish, Two Fish wall hanging is now available in the pattern store, if you missed the free row download.

Click to purchase One Fish, Two Fish pattern (English/Imperial)

EDIT: Der One Fish, Two Fish-Wandbehang ist als Kaufmuster auch auf Deutsch und in metrischen Maßen im Shop verfügbar.

(Kauf)Anleitung One Fish, Two Fish(Deutsch/Metrisch)

And before you leave, don’t forget to check out the other two rows that are being published today. Visit Kris at Scrapdash and Althea at Blue Heron Quilting for two more fabulous free patterns. They are only free for a week, so be sure to visit right away. New rows will be posted every Monday until the end of October. For the full schedule please check The Quilting Room With Mel.

Every time I think I am mostly back on track, life throws me another curve ball. I am struggling with health issues right now, and I completely forgot to schedule today’s BOM post. Luckily the blocks are all sewn, and the patterns are all written, so there won’t be much of a delay, now that I finally realized that today is September 1.

This month, we are going back to the beach where our little monkey has built a wonderful sand castle, decorated with shells and a little flag. As always, the pattern will be available for free download until the end of the month and move to the pattern store when the October block is released.

If you missed September’s free download, the pattern is now available for purchase in the pattern store. I have also created a discount bundle for blocks 7, 8 & 9, if you missed more than just one block.

Click to purchase Monkey Business Block #9 pattern (English/Imperial)

Click to purchase Monkey Business pattern bundle 7, 8 & 9 (English/Imperial)

Den neunten Block gibt es jetzt auch auf Deutsch und mit metrischen Maßen im Pattern Store. Ebenfalls erhältlich ist jetzt das Blockbündel 7, 8 & 9 zum Sonderpreis.

(Kauf)Anleitung Monkey Business Block #9 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

(Kauf)Anleitungsbündel Monkey Business 7, 8 & 9 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

This modern quilt called “Yama to Kawa” was made by Jean. The pattern is by Lorna Shapiro, if you are local you have probably heard of her. She specializes in Japanese fabrics and silk. A few years ago she came to our guild for a trunk show, and her work is amazing. You can find out more about her on her website “Quilter’s Dream Fabrics”. Jean wasn’t sure how she wanted her project quilted and was undecided between custom quilting and a pantograph. I had to admit that this quilt didn’t immediately speak to me, it is a tough one to custom quilt. Looking through my pantograph collection, we found this one called “Time Warp”, and Jean liked it for her quilt. It picks up the rhomboid shapes of the quilt pattern and adds great texture.

“Binding Tool Star” is a very popular Missouri Star Quilt Co. pattern, and this is Sharon’s version. She put the star pieces together pointing outwards instead of inwards, quite an interesting variation of the original pattern. The “Binding Tool Star” is also very versatile when it comes to choosing a pantograph, almost anything goes. Sharon chose “Butterfly Tango” to complement the lovely spring colours in her quilt.

It’s August already, and nothing is back to normal in my life but I am trying to reclaim things step by step. I have started to post again, hoping I can keep it up. I certainly have a ton of quilts to show! My garden is doing well although we are having a very hot and dry summer. Lots of watering required, next year I am planning on having more soaker hoses. It takes up a lot of time to water everything by hand. But the biggest news is that we have adopted two quilt inspectors for quality control 😉 We actually got them in mid-June when they were just three months old, and they are making such a difference in our life. We had cats in Germany and have always wanted to adopt some in Canada, and we felt we needed some emotional support and were lucky to be able to adopt these two cuties. Their names are Lexi and Lucy, and they are full of energy and mischief, always ready to get into trouble.

Lexi

Lucy

Sleeping on the Job

Our Monkey friend has cut up a delicious watermelon this month and is offering slices for refreshment in the summer heat. Funny, I just realized that I don’t have watermelons in my garden, I should write them on next year’s list. The watermelon seeds are quite small. I appliqued them all but although I don’t mind small pieces, that was not a fun endeavour, so I changed them to embroidery for the pattern. Or you could sew on small black beads. I did that for a watermelon block some years ago, and it looked pretty neat. The August block will be available for free download until the end of the month and move over to the pattern store when the next block is released.

EDIT: September is here, and the August block has moved to the pattern store and is now available for purchase if you missed the free download.

Click to purchase Monkey Business Block #8 pattern (English/Imperial)

EDIT: Auch der achte Block ist jetzt auf Deutsch und mit metrischen Maßen im Pattern Store verfügbar.

(Kauf)Anleitung Monkey Business Block #8 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

This quilt in beige and brown colours was made by Bonnie. She knew right away that she wanted it quilted with “Diagonal Plaid Bias Cut”. This design is always a good choice when a quilt has lots of squares, and it complements Bonnie’s work nicely.

This quilt was made by Sandra as a gift for her mom. The fabric she used for the sashing has grape leaves, and those inspired the choice of quilting pattern. “Ground Cover” is one of my favourite leaf patterns, the leaves look a bit like ivy but can also pass as grape leaves and were just right for this quilt.