Two by Two

Well, true to my usual form of not being able to stop at one of anything, I got my second little Halloween mini quilted and bound. It is the larger, rail fence quilt in this photo. As I look at the photo I can see I still haven't removed the chalk marks. It is more obvious with the camera flash.

I quilted it with a swirl pattern. Makes me think of a windy Halloween night. : )

You can also see from the first photo that I've been busy with the Poor Lil' Punky pincushion pattern by Julie Letvin (of the tiny paper-pieced jewelry fame) that was in the latest issue of "Simple Quilts".

So if you buy the magazine on the left (I finally found it at Sam's Club), you will find the pattern on the right inside of it. I don't even like paper piecing, but I loved the pattern, and considering my recent pincushion obsession, I had to give it a try. I did do the same thing that I had done with the Tuffets pincushions--I made them boxy, instead of pillow shaped. And I mixed up the color scheme a little--two Lil' Punkys with no candle glowing, and two that are lit up.
If you want to make them and don't have orange fabrics in your stash, you can order a kit with the fabrics, if you'd like, on Julie's website. And if you want to make them boxy, check out my "Tuffet Tute" tab.

I took great advantage of The Stencil Company's September special offer for participants in SewCalGal's Free Motion Quilt Challenge. I have been waiting for these to arrive...

 ...so that I could work on this. It is one of the two Fall colored minis I made using the Temecula Summer Stars Quilt -Along. 

This one will be going to Carla, who won the drawing for it from those who had donated to my daughter's fundraiser. I got all of the straight line quilting done a couple of weeks ago, but I was waiting for my stencil order to finish it up. Something that I have learned along the way in this FMQ Challenge is that I like using stencils. I never thought I would say that. My first attempts with them were really pathetic.

From the back you can get an idea of how it is coming along. I'd better get busy and finish this. After all, there is a second one waiting to be done--and someone waiting very patiently for it.

I did draw the winner for my little Fall giveaway on Monday night. I notified the winner and sent off her prize, but never had time to sit down and post about it. Grace, at citymousequilter blog, informed me by email today that she has received her package. Thanks to all who entered, and congrats to Grace!
Hope to get some minis that I owe people finished up this month and get serious about some bed quilts that are intended as Christmas gifts. Gotta hurry! Do you have your Christmas "gifts to make" list under control? If so, please tell me how you do it. : )
Until next time,
Janet O.