Saturday, September 6, 2014

Little Finishes Fill the Wall

WooHoo! The yardstick gallery outside my sewing room door is now completed. Another yardstick and three more little quilts have been added. (See the "how to" tab above for the source of this idea, and instructions on how to make your own.)
I love having this to greet me every time I go to my sewing room! : )

These are the three recent finishes, and they all involve batiks.

The  9" square Storm at Sea (which I named "A Little Squall") was a flimsy for my mini trunk show in May. I finally got it quilted. Since I pressed many seams open I couldn't SITD between rows.
But I did SITD around all of the lavender and marine blue pieces. The border is a swirly free motion design.

Terry (of Terry's Treasures blog) hosted a SAL for a quilt called "Goodnight, Irene." Terry didn't want the bonus triangles from her quilt, so I acquired them. I showed the top I made a little while back, but I didn't like my border, so it sat around for a while. I've remodeled it and am much happier with it. The hourglass blocks are 1".
I do a lot of straight line quilting on my minis, and this one was no exception. Here is a shot of the back before I stitched the binding down by hand.

That used most of the HSTs, but there were still a few left, so I put this together.
I started out just putting the pinwheels on point, but then I put the whole block on point, and that gave me a chance to practice feathers in the setting triangles.

And through all of this, I have actually made a little progress on big projects. I am currently binding the churn dash baby quilt (see the bottom of the post in the link), and I have the rows all made for my Garden Maze quilt. Now I need to sew the rows together and put some borders on it. It will be so good to get this done. I know I got the block pattern in 2006, but it was a little while before I started making the blocks. I finished them a couple of years ago, and it is about time they became a quilt!

And while I was making the rows,  I was itching to be sewing with some Fall colors, as I could feel the nip in the air as I sewed at night. So I grabbed some fall colored HSTs left from other projects, and I made a bunch of little blocks as leader/enders. 
When I had used up the HSTs, I trimmed the blocks to a uniform size and then cut some little squares from a beautiful Primitive Gatherings yellow my friend Annie M. sent me a while ago. 
The top is webbed and I am getting the rows sewn together. The little blocks finish at 3/4" and the whole quilt will be just over 5"x7", if I don't border it.

I just read back through this and it sounds pretty dry--sorry. But here is some exciting news--next Friday and Saturday I get to attend workshops with Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Co.! Looking forward to that!

Until next time, 
Janet O.

27 comments:

  1. Your yard stick wall of mini quilts looks fabulous!

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  2. love all these little quilts, you have inspired me to make a few this week…
    ok this last one with the yellow OMG it is just adorable, LOVE it!!!!
    can't wait to see this one done. Thanks for sharing
    Kathie

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  3. Beautiful! I LOVE Little Squall! Well...I love them all, but I think that one is my favorite! :0)

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  4. Your yard stick wall looks great - definitely a nice greeting when you go to your sewing room! All those minis are just adorable.

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  5. My eyes are drawn to the little quilt with the flower blocks. Nice! You have quite a nice yardstick gallery. And would be easy to change them out as the mood hits.

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  6. What a fantastic wall to look at everyday because I know you must go into your sewing room at least once a day. Your quilting is just beautiful especially the feathers. It doesn’t look like you need anymore practice.

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  7. Your little quilt gallery is amazing. I love your yardstick installation.
    The Storm at Sea is so great!! I want to make another one. Seeing your little quits inspires me to do something better with mine.

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  8. Janet, those little quilts are fabulous! Posting them on the yardstick is brilliant. You can't forget how tiny they are!! Have a great time at the retreat next week!! can't wait to see what you come up with!

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  9. Oh my! You amaze me with all those lovely tiny quilts!!!! I would be in heaven to have those greet me in my sewing studio every day :) GORGEOUS feathers in your new quilt too - wow! You will love Jenny Doan - she's a real hoot and lots of fun!!!

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  10. All those little quilts ... sweet!! And that big one is just as gorgeous! I can't wait to hear all about your time with Jenny Doan.

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  11. Wow Janet, everything is just gorgeous.
    Love the yardstick wall of quilts,
    What fun, that you are doing a workshop with Jenny Doan, I love her tutorials.
    Have fun!
    Julia

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  12. I love the Feather work in the the Setting Triangles. Congrats on the Mini Finishes! Tell Jenny Hello! Where are you going for the workshop? I have her to thank for my Fast Finishes this past week. Can you get me a Siggy Square, Please??

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  13. Your gallery is a very impressive collection. Love all the colors in your garden maze. It's really lovely. So I hope you find some time to keep working on. Wow! What an exciting opportunity with your upcoming class. Should be fun.

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  14. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!!! As you know I'm not much of a Batik person, but your new ones are amazing!! I too, LOVE the feathers!!! I'm itching to do some feathers, but have some other projects going (as usual - more than I need!!) Your wall is GREAT!!! Have fun with Jenny Doan! Someday we will have to do a workshop together!! I'm loving that fall is getting here, though it be slower here in Texas. Finally cool today!

    Blessings and hugs!

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  15. There is so much lovely quilting going on! Love your rulers with quilts. Brings a smile to my face too!
    Your new fall quiltlet is going to be cute. We have an evening nip in the air- days still warm. I love it.

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  16. What a great idea to use yardsticks to hang your minis! They look fab... no wonder you smile when you see them. I also like that it gives a good reference to the size of the minis AND the little pieces of fabric in the minis! Great job!

    You're definitely luring me to the mini side... what fun!


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  17. You are a wonder Mom! I love how you are always finding something to do with your tiny scraps. Everything looks fantastic!

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  18. So far, I have 2 old yard sticks and when I went to the local JoAnn's to get some of the hooks, they didn't have any. So I will have to drive to a bigger store to see if they have some. I'm not quite ready to hang these right now anyway.

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  19. Loving the yardstick gallery! I love to pp and love mini/small/wall/doll quilts!

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  20. I am so jealous of you being able to meet Jenny. Maybe even taking a class? She is an excellent teacher and explains everything so well. I have "going on a retreat to Missouri Star Quilting Company " on my bucket list. I guess I will have to win a contest to get there, lol. I love your minis and your quilting is awesome. Your Mini wall is so very nice.

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  21. Dry? I don't think so! Love your stories and process tales. All good!

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  22. Love the look of the yardsticks and your mini's. What a terrific display of your workmanship.

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  23. Oh! Oh!
    Swoon! Swoon!
    Like.
    Love.
    Adore.

    Can't. Keep. Up. With. You.

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  24. Love your yardsticks! Those little quilts are all fabulous!!

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  25. Your wall of little quilts is lovely. I nice mix of quilts and I love how you hung them on the yardsticks. Good to put it in a place where you will see it often and they can inspire you.
    The batiks are bright and fresh but I can see how you would want to be playing with some fall colors. We, too, are feeling autumn in the air.
    I hope you enjoy the class. I look forward to hearing about it.

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  26. I love your little quilts. I think the yardstick idea is a great one!

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  27. I missed this post! Love the yardstick idea, I do have an old one here somewhere which I must hunt out and use! LOVE what you've done with Terry's scraps!!! Inspiring photos all round!

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