2026 Graduation Season brought me the opportunity to make not 1, but 2 Flag Quilts for my favorite twin girls.
All posts by jeniK
2026 Graduation Season
It’s Graduation season and this year we have 2 sets of twins in our family that are graduating, plus 1 or 2 singles as well.
I got 1 very special request from one set of twins: We want Flag blankets…PLEASE!
So off I went to figure out what that meant.
And being twins, SURPRISE, we don’t want the same one, we each have an idea of what we want.
So my spring was filled with pattern shopping, fabric shopping – twice over in this case and putting it all together.
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Pink Geese Migration
Wanted to make sure the “Pink Geese” are included in the migration.
Pretty in Pink – another
I think I have lost count on the pink blankets I have made, not my usual color, but I am having a lot of fun doing them.
I am a bit behind on this one, but it is fun using up all the pink I have around here.
I will say that the minky background really kicks my butt, but if I would just do more of it, it would probably get easier.
Now to get this one to the little one before she out grows it.
Little bitty baby blanket
Seems that it’s baby season around here – this little guy came a little early so we haven’t been able to see him yet.
But I finally got this put together for him. Precuts that I have had in the drawer for a very long time and a left over piece of minky.
Don’t knock these little blankets – they are padded, yet can be stuffed in a diaper bag, great for laying on the changing tables at the public restrooms, or in a lap or on a shoulder, or just thrown over the carrier because the baby has fallen asleep and they need their quiet time. Very very versatile item.
A Little More Fall Sewing with a sprinkle of holiday cheer
Once I finished this one, I thought “why not make another one with left over pieces” ….
When I made the first on of these A little fall sewing, I used a precut – 5″ pack that I had there.
I sewed from corner to corner to make the HST’s. What is left over is a little smaller triangle. So, since I had so many of those, I might as well use them up.
I did try a something different when I made these ones, rather then leaving a section of the edge open, I opened an internal seam.
Then when I did the SITD (stitch in the ditch) I made sure to stitch on the side that had the material so that it closed off the seam.
It worked out so much nicer this way – I know seems weird, but it really made a difference. Closing the edge seems are so difficult.
Northern Lights – craziness
I have chased the northern lights the last couple of years, I have gotten some cool pictures, but nothing matches up with what happened around here on 11/11/2025.
I was driving home and the sky to the west started to brighten and turn pink/red.
At first I thought something was on fire, but as it got larger and larger – I started screaming – screaming because it was crazy how bright it was.
I drove for 40 minutes to get home, I was calling my hubby to get out and look up – he has always wanted to see them with his naked eyes, not thru the camera and this was it.
A little fall sewing
So my co-worker got a high-top round table for her office this year. To go along with her standing desk.
So naturally, she drops a not so subtle hint that her long, rectangle table runner will not work for this new table.
So off I went looking for a round table topper/runner.
I found a bunch of them, but just couldn’t decide on any one. I kept coming back to the same one so I decided to do this one.
I have a whole drawer of pre-cuts and I thought what a great opportunity to use some of them up.
I used 5″ squares, and started sewing HST’s with them. This pattern 10 HST’s and 4 HST’s that are a little bigger.
When planning this out, I was having a hard time figuring out the binding or trim on this. So I decided to do this like a blanket – perfect bound.
I did learn a lot doing this project, there are some things I will totally do differently on the next one (I already have 2 more laid out on the table).
- Do your math – remember, HST’s use up more of the 5″ square then you think
- Watch your color palate – the ones I choose were a little between Fall Harvest and Christmas – which is not a bad thing, as this can be used for both (but the person that this is for has a very specific color palate for Christmas and it is NOT red, green and tan)
- When doing the perfect bound method the corners will be a problem. There is a process that I have seen that you put heavy thread (sewn) into the corners before you turn it right side out, then you can use that thread to “pull” the corner out and get a better tip.
- go with a light weight batting – I actually had some of the heat resistant batting that I had on my large pressing board that I used and it was perfect and gives this the insulation so that it can also be used as a hot pad / protector / trivet also. “WIN WIN”
- One thing I had just recently seen done is using a wavy stitch when sewing around the edge – this helped so much, especially when closing up the gap where you flipped it inside/out.
All in all, I fell this was a great success – it’s not perfect – a couple of tips are wonkly, but it looks so nice on that table.
Twice as nice
What do you do when they say twins?
you make 2 blankets of course.
Not only are these 2 actual finished blankets, they are complete with tags.
But I didn’t take a picture of the tags – went thru all the trouble of making sure they are on and didn’t get the shot.
Caramel (Carmel) anyone?
Caramel / Carmel – which ever way you say it or spell it, it’s always delicious.
Made a Caramel Charcuterie board/shelf for a baby shower, with home made Carmel.
I made a little too much, we will be having Caramel covered everything for awhile.
