BluePip Designs

I've been on a purge streak lately, which for my sewing room means finishing up lingering projects.  My WIP count for quilts is currently at 7, which feels like an all-time low.  This was then immediately off-set by a shopping spree for the three (3!) baby quilts which I get to make this fall as gifts.  I'm excited for both the quilts and the new babies who will be receiving them. Quilt Tally WIP List to Start the Quarter: 10 WIP List to End the Quarter: 7 Active QAL Projects: 1 Untouched in 2026: 3 Finished in Q3: 4 quilts, 10 cross-stitch projects, 2 small projects Let's jump right in and look at how I did with my Q3 Goals : 2026 Q3 Goal 1: Halloween Snow Globes Done .  This was a carryover goal from Q2 and the fall weather gave me the push I needed to finally finish them up.  I've been putting finishing them off since January and it took all of 40 minutes to complete. 2026 Q3 Goal 2: Honeypot Sampler Nope.  I think my original int...

I spent a lot of time in September preparing for the next major holiday coming our way: Halloween! It started off with this adorable Boo to You piece that I stitched with The Fat Quarter Shop.  This was a free pattern that they released in conjunction with a quilt pattern.  I used my own colors and designed my own border and love how it turned out. Next, I tackled this Stitchonomy daily piece from 2021.  If memory serves me correctly, I finished more or less on-time, then decided I wanted to frame the final piece and set it aside to do "later".  And five years later, "later" is here.  I found a lacing tutorial and bought a frame and now I have a new Halloween decoration. A quick look at the back because I'm proud of how neat it looks.  I used a spool of thread that my sewing machine hates and I think I'm on my machine's side now - it broke several times and there was one place where the manuf...

What do you do with your scraps of quilt batting?  I buy my batting by the roll so I can always cut the perfect width of fabric, but the height is a different matter.  Sometimes the leftover is big enough for another project - if I'm lucky I can get a baby quilt from it, but mostly it goes to one of my mini quilts or cross-stitch minis.  But there comes a point when it's too small for even the smallest coaster. When that happens, it's time to cut the batting into squares and make tiny stuffed things!  I aim for roughly 1 inch squares and when the item is stuffed and finished, you can't tell that it was filled with batting scraps instead of fiberfill.  This lets me make custom-sized pillow inserts with ease (I think the largest size that I've made is about 18") or I can make small items like these Perfect Pocket Pillows that I made last month.  The best part is, I never run out of stuffing!  When my kids were small a...

I knew this wasn't going to be a big sewing quarter due to my son's graduation and then I was injured and spent the very first day of it in Urgent Care getting five stitches in my right index finger (not a sewing injury).  I took advantage of this time to get my sewing machine's annual maintenance done and learned that spring is a more popular time for that than fall is.  But I'm happy to report that today my finger is completely healed, my machine is home, my son has graduated, and I'm back on a "regular" summer sewing schedule! Quilt Tally WIP List to Start the Quarter:  9 WIP List to End the Quarter:  10 Active QAL Projects:  2 Untouched in 2026:  4 Finished in Q2: 2 quilts, 3 cross-stitch projects, 4 small projects Let's jump right in and look at how I did with my  Q2 Goals : 2026 Q2 Goal 1: Finish Blue Coin Done .  Once I pulled this back out, I was able to finish the quilting in a single afternoon and bind i...

One of my enduring goals is to catch up on all my old quilt-alongs (QALs) - they are so fun to start but hard to finish.  When I talked about my double-digit WIP list, most of the items on it were QALs that I had lost interest in.  Last year I really buckled down, finishing three QALs and starting zero!  2025 QAL Finishes: Marble Mystery , The Rest of the Quilt Back , Pooh Corner My WIP list currently has two old QAL projects on it and both of them are almost finished: the 2019 Summer Sampler (1 block and a lot of setting away from completion) and Under the Sea (3 main blocks and some finishing blocks).  However, there are several new QALs I want to start in 2026 so I made a deal with myself: one old QAL block before I start a new QAL project. One Under the Sea compass block down, one new QAL started guilt-free!   Farm Fresh  is a new QAL from Lori Holt featuring her old books, Farm Girl Vin...

Today I am sharing a tutorial for the fusion of my two favorite crafty hobbies: quilting and cross-stitch! The popular way to display cross-stitch pieces is to put them up in hoops, but as a quilter I like to have all my loose ends tied up and hidden away forever. I also have a system for displaying mini quilts in my house already and it's easier to switch out the cross-stitch pieces when they are actually tiny quilts. This tutorial is generalized so that it can be used with any size cross-stitch piece.  It also gives plenty of options for customizing your mini quilt for the perfect finish.  Please read through the entire tutorial once before beginning. Supply List A finished cross-stitch piece.  This method of finishing works best with smaller pieces (less than 7x7), unless you are planning on putting quilting lines through the cross-stitch part.  I've done this with larger pieces and they end up sagging in the middle until I add extra reinforcement. A piece ...