Quilters’ Playdate: A Palate Cleanser

A “palate cleanser” according to Wikipedia is a serving of food or drink that removes food residue from the tongue, allowing one to more accurately assess a new flavor.

I worked on that English Paper Piecing hexagon flower quilt so long I needed a palate cleanser before taking on a new big project. So I decided to make a little wall hanging from a kit I found in my stash.

But more on that later in this post…

Update on D’s Second Quilt

On Friday my quilting buddies D (the new quilter), J (the quilting teacher and long arm machine quilter) and myself met for another “Quilters’ Playdate” to hang out, catch up and help D on her new quilter journey.

D is on her second quilt in her quilting journey, this time it is one from a kit:

D revealed her progress over the past couple of weeks since we last met:

We were impressed!

Now it was time for J to help her measure and cut for the two borders to finish the quilt top. J provided an extensive tutorial on how to properly pin borders (starting from the center) and then D got to work sewing on the first border:

J provided an extensive lesson on pressing borders. D decided to finish up the last border at home but we laid out a mock up of what the piece will look like with the second (larger) border and then the binding (which came in the kit):

Next Friday the three of us go on another shop hop (yay!) to look for backing fabric for this quilt. Road trip!!! (I won’t lie, I really love my new community with a group of quilter neighbors!)

D is getting very close to having J do the long arm machine quilting on another quilt for her; and then she will have finished her second quilt as a new quilter in 5 months!

D has gotten very brave and is now even buying a couple quilt books on her own for ideas for future quilts!

My “Palate Cleanser”

Here is what I worked on during Friday’s Quilters’ Playdate:

I found in my stash, this little Charm Square kit called Cinnamon Stars that makes a 15.5 inch by 15.5 inch mini quilt. I think I bought it like 15 or so years ago or more! I think I bought it because of the adorable tin box it comes in. One of those quilt shop impulse buys!

It is part of Moda Fabrics Tin Box Sampler Series. It comes with 40 charm squares and a pattern for a mini quilt.

So I spent about half of my time during our 3 hour playdate cutting out the fabrics (and chatting while I did it, hence why it took me 1.5 hours to cut out a small quilt – ha!)