A guest post from Kayla…

Here it is, my completed “Hello September” banner on the door of my new classroom.

I had such a kind response from Mom’s blog readers after my guest post about my visit to The Quiltmaker’s Shoppe about the project I was working on. So many of you wanted to see the finished product and here it is.

This was so much fun to make. I love the design process of paper piecing. I start with a quick sketch onto graph paper and then designed each block on the computer. It is fun to translate the picture in my head into something that works with paper piecing. The design changes as I formulate it and then everything is in reverse. It is such a fun challenge!

I ended up making it into a pattern after some prodding from mom and Mary from Country Threads.  Mary said she’d wanted to post about it but unless there was a pattern, people would flood her with requests for a pattern.  Mom laughed when I told her that as she said, that is entirely true.

So, I wrote the pattern and I ended up drawing some more ideas for the upcoming months.  I want a monthly banner for my door at school.

This is part of what I’m calling my “Banner Year” series. I’m already started with October and November and look forward to having a door quilt to share for each month of the year. I hope it inspires me to have a “Banner Year” teaching. I have a lot of challenges ahead- A new building, Jasper in childcare, and all of the modifications of COVID. It will be good to have something special for me to look forward to creating each month. I can see how creative “me” time can easily disappear if I don’t make time for it!

Mom invited me to share the pattern in her shop, so here it is for download. I hope you enjoy making it as much as I did!

A guest post from Kayla-

I’ve been busy editing patterns for Country Threads and I caught a quilting bug. With my Internet down from Monday’s derecho (my home is fine- just Internet was our only problem), I did all I could on pattern editing and then had nothing to do but quilt!

I designed a banner for my classroom door. We have to cover our window for lockdown drills so I thought a little quilt would be just right.

I have a lot of fabric, but it is all themed (70’s floral, 80’s calico, 30’s reproduction, pink stripe shirts) and not very useful for paper piecing. Lucky me, that meant I had to go shopping!

I am within 30 minutes of three quilt shop options and I chose to go north to Manchester. I’m so glad I did! The Quiltmaker’s Shoppe was the perfect choice for a wide selection of every color in small scale prints and tonals.

I met the new owner, Leanne Fangman, who was very kind and helpful. She has stocked a great variety of current fabrics and has a wonderful stock of solids, tonals, and small prints organized by color. It was perfect for the project I had in mind!

The shop greets you with a baby flannel and novelty print section.

In hindsight, I’m realizing I did a bad job photographing the shop. Mom always does a nice job photographing samples (this shop has a lot!) but I was too focused on the fabric.

Then there are several sections of current fabric lines. I’m always a sucker for Moda! One of my jobs in high school was to fold fat quarters at a quilt shop and I LOVED it.

A fabulous selection of 30’s prints and Lori Holt.

And, most useful for me, small prints and tonals sorted by color. You’ll notice she also has many fat quarters to choose from. This is my preferred cut.

At the checkout, I found these chain piece cutters and couldn’t resist.

Manchester makes a nice little getaway. It is a much smaller town than my other two quilt shop options (Dubuque and Cedar Rapids) but still has amenities that I could quickly run errands while on my little evening away without trudging through traffic.

Here’s what I’m working on:

I love it so far! Since taking this picture I am to the step of tearing off all of the paper. I do NOT love that part. I wish I had a little nephew “twilter” to do that part for me!