Can you believe it’s September already? Labor Day – the unofficial end of summer around here – is still almost a week away. (This means I can wear my white capris to lunch on Thursday!) While our students have been back in school for a month now, we were surprised to learn that the kids in upper Michigan and on the both the US and Canadian sides of Sault Ste Marie don’t return to school until after Labor Day. Must be nice!

Sadie and I resumed weekly visits at a local elementary school today. CraftLAB kicks-off tomorrow. Teen sewing at the public library starts mid-month. Class calendars at my local sewing machine dealers and quilt shops are filled with new classes and events. I’m teaching Sewing Machine Maintenance at the Southeastern Quilt & Textile Museum on September 26th. Now’s the time to pull out your sewing machine and plan some projects to keep you busy as the days grow shorter and the weather (finally) turns cooler.

Ways to celebrate National Sewing Month:
(1) Teach a kid in your life how to sew.
(2) Find a local sewing group that meets on a monthly basis. Can be a guild, group at the library or local fabric/quilt shop.
(3) Sign-up for a class on a technique that interests you.
(4) Make a project to donate to a local charity. Pillowcases, placemats and quilts are always in need.
(5) Participate in National Jelly Roll Day on Saturday, September 19th.
(6) Begin planning now for 2027 quilt retreats. Many organizers start releasing dates this month.

As for me, I’ll be working on my guild’s paint-chip challenge quilt that’s due next month. I’ll be back to Friday sew days at the library and teaching kids how to sew. I’ll observe National Jelly Roll Day on 9/19, but am not exactly sure where I’ll be that day. And classes for the Myrtle Beach Quilt Party (in late January 2027) dropped today. Can’t decide between two of the classes, but I’ll be going – even if it winds up a BYO project retreat for me.

Most of the time, I use the Simple Folded Corners ruler from Antler Quilt Design to make folded corner units rather than drawing lines on the back of squares and sewing just to the right of the line. This week, I tried the Corner Pop ruler from Studio 180 Designs. It took a minute to figure things out, but if you are a member of team oversize and cut down, you’ll want to give this ruler some serious consideration. You’ll save on fabric used for the corner triangles. I didn’t have enough of the white print to cut 5″ squares as the traditional method requires. However, I was able to cut 96 triangles from slightly oversize squares to make the quilt. I used every bit of that fabric, but I had enough.

The pattern is RicRac and was featured at a Quilts for Compassion community sew day at JK Quilts. You can use a variety of precuts, yardage and/or a combination thereof to make the quilt. I used a combination of leftover layer cakes plus random 10″ squares and yardage. If you make the twin size, note that the pattern contains an error – you will need to make 48 blocks instead of the 35 listed in the pattern. I made my quilt in a 6×7 layout because I had enough fabric to make 42 blocks. :-). Borders and binding are from my stash. Backing is from Hobby Lobby (and on sale). I’ll FMQ it, pattern TBD. Swirls seems to be my current go-to.

Tips:
(1) Pair the two rectangles that will make each block before cutting. Check the orientation of the folded corners and adjust your fabric accordingly to have motifs or directional fabrics in running in the correct direction.

(2) When using the Corner Pop ruler, lay each pair of rectangles pretty sides together. This way, you can achieve the mirrored angles with a single cut. I like to cut all of my rectangles the same way. I merely rotate the rectangles 180 degrees when I have a pair that meet at the top.