The October 2021 Sew Sampler box from Fat Quarter Shop included the Mon Cheri Whimsical Romance Collection 10" stacker by Keera Job for Riley Blake Designs and an exclusive quilt pattern. I hate to admit it took me over 2 years before I would sew this delightful quilt. 

Once I started this quilt, I was done in like 6 hours. It was one of the easiest quilts I have ever attempted to make. I did not make any alterations to the pattern and chose fabric from the same collection for my background, binding and backing. The pattern finishes at 52" x 62", so it makes for a great lap size quilt.

I love the way the fabrics come together on this and still not sure if I will keep or gift it. Once I got to actually quilting it on the longarm machine I was not happy with the first design, so me and jack (the ripper) had to hang out for a few days taking it all out. I changed the design to heart blossoms and it turned out really good or at least I was pleased with it. However, in the process of taking the first design out I ended up with a few oopsies and although no one else might can tell, I can and as such will probably never gift it.

The design seems to add some texture and just makes the whole thing pop!

The completed quilt top!

Love the heart blocks!

The quilted piece!

I love the backing!

The quilted heart block!

The quilted design on the back!

Can't forget the label! I started adding the city and state of where it was quilted since we move so much!

Millie's Dresses is another wonderful pattern by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet! She said this pattern was inspired by her grandmother. When I look at these dresses, they remind me of my Aunt Bill (her real name was Alice, but we always called her Bill instead, no idea why). Anyway, my Aunt Bill always wore dresses no matter what she was doing. They were never fancy, just a simple dress and an apron.

The QAL was to run from February to July 2024 and finish to a size of 58.5" x 70.5". We'll see if mine ends up being that size once I'm done. Usually mine are always an inch off, give or take. I ordered my kit and backing in plenty of time to start in February, but with me life always seems to get in the way as it did with this quilt, so it would be March before I started.  

According to the QAL, 4 dresses would be completed each month, so I figured starting in March would not be that big a deal and I could easily catch up. By the 23rd of March when I made this post, I had already made 8 dresses, so technically I have caught up at this point!

My first 8 completions are below:

As each block is finished, it is added to my design wall to wait for the rest to be finished. Once I have all 16 done, then I will move on to the next step of adding sashings and borders.

I completed my third chicken in the Chicken Club Series by Lori Holt. This one is called Cornelius and he is number 1 out of 12 in the series. Like the other two finished before him, I finished and framed Cornelius just like the design on the pattern using the same fabric and trim. 

In mid February I started a quilt called, Paper Hearts Bee Dot, which uses one of Lori Holt's fabric lines, Bee Dot. The pattern, or in this case, the setting instructions are a free download from Fat Quarter Shop (FQS) online. Click here for instructions. In addition to the setting instructions, Kimberly with FQS put out a video on their YouTube channel showing how easy it is to make the blocks.

For this particular quilt, you use paper hearts, which can be found on FQS as Lori Holt 10" Heart Quilt Paper, #ST-33027. 

On Kimberly's video, she gave helpful hints as to how you can get multiple cuts from one piece of paper instead of using the paper for every block you intend to make. This quilt calls for 80 blocks. Watching her video will be very helpful if you wish to complete this quilt; however, below I will try to demonstrate through my photos, the process I went through to create this masterpiece.

First step is to apply the paper to a piece a fabric by ironing it on.

Follow the guidelines on the paper and cut right down the middle first.

Continue making your cuts according to the papers and cut the line that says, "cut second." I done this on both sides.

Here you can see the cut down the middle and then both the Left and Right side having the second cut.

Now I cut the remaining pieces on each the left and right sides based on what the instructions state as to third cut, fourth cut, etc.

At this point, you need to separate your fabrics to create the actual hearts you will begin sewing together. 

You take the colored portion and group with background pieces and then take your background piece to make the heart section against the colored pieces to make the background. Sorry if this is confusing. Hopefully the photos will help to show what I mean.

I completed this process with all the fabric blocks and created a stack to begin sewing my actual heart blocks together.

You start by sewing piece L2 to L1.

Then that piece is sewn to L3.

After doing a couple of these I decided to do them in piecing mode. If you are not comfortable doing that, you can sew one at a time.

Piecing the next section.

More piecing.

Piecing makes me more productive.

Once I have L1, L2 and L3 sewn together, I ironed the seams in the same direction.

When you add the 4th section, you will have to figure out how much you will have overlapping the edge and you don't add point to point. Kimberly's video will help explain this section better.

Again, after sewing several together and getting the feel for what I am doing, I pieced several of these in a row.

After sewing on section 4, iron your seam to one side. I did not iron open seams on these.

My stacks with a left side and a right side. Now its time to sew the two together to create the block.

Before sewing my center seam to connect the left and right, I trimmed as shown below.

Once block is sewn, I pressed the center seam open.

At this point, the entire block is trimmed down to 7 1/2". I lined up my ruler down the center and then tried to match the outside points at the 4" line.

Trimmed block

Several completed blocks

At this point I am sewing blocks together to create rows and then the rows are sewn together.

The completed quilt top. She is waiting to be quilted and is the next in line for Miss Moxie. If I can quit procrastinating I might get her quilted by the end of the year.