All Caught Up (kind of)

The Buttermilk Basin Mystery blocks that have been revealed so far are all stitched. Here we have July. I know the pattern had a butterfly, but mine was begging for a flag--so it got one.

 

These are May and June's blocks (or June and May, since blogger reversed them).

I've decided my signature mark on each block will be a little round button somewhere--sometimes more than one. I even went back and put them on the older blocks.

But I'm not sure about those buttons on the purple background. They seemed to be a good match in the quilt shop, but in every lighting I have tried them under since, I don't care for the combo. I may have to switch those out.

Here is a shot of all of the blocks so far. I have continued to add little touches as I look back at them. They may forever just be works in progress. : )

The other project that needed catching up is the Attic Heirlooms Ornaments. Mine are little quilt blocks rather than ornaments. I'm cutting the blocks 5" for now, but will trim them down before assembly. It will be a small quilt in the end. I have the first four blocks finished and you have seen them before.

The next three are only fused, and it will take a bit of stitching to bring them to life. That is the "sort of" in my All Caught Up title.

The white and yellow blobs will magically turn into a cute snow angel with a garland. The others are self-explanatory, and they involve some beadwork, too. I don't have tiny beads--this will require some shopping.

These blocks are going to a friend who is making a quilt for a friend. The large ones are 12" and the small ones are 6".

Do you have any idea how long it has been since I made a 12" block? I don't either! : )

But look what those huge blocks gave me in return.

Lots of little bonus HSTs! I trimmed these to 1 3/8", which was easier than it sounds, with my Itty Bitty Eights rulers! They will finish at 7/8", or close to it, depending on how accurate I try to be.

Parting shot--my 85 year-old Mom with her final quilt! I mentioned before that she named this her Happy Quilt. It is machine pieced and hand quilted--all of Mom's quilts are hand quilted!

She says she has no regrets and will not miss quilting. She has loved it, but she is finished! In case you doubt the finality of this, she has given away her quilt books, fabric, and tools. The end of an era that has lasted decades! She was my first quilting mentor.

Until next time,
Janet O.

I couldn't help myself.

Even though the holiday has passed here in the old U.S. of A., I had to finish up more of my R/W/B projects. The tumblers were begging to be assembled, so I complied.

 Just a simple stipple pattern, which I find so relaxing to quilt. I did end up making one giraffe in there, with a long, straight neck. Can you spot it?  Then I bound it and placed it in its home for the summer.

Miss Stacy's free pattern from the Summerthyme blog hop she recently sponsored was another project that insisted on being finished. What can I say--I listen to my projects. : )
I found the typewriter key buttons that Stacy used on her pillow at the local Jo~Ann, but I decided to stitch the phrase on it instead. The whole time I was stitching I was also singing the song.

 Her pattern was for a little pillow, but I wanted to hang this. After seeing the banners that Karen (Log Cabin Quilter blog) has been making from Miss Stacy's patterns, I got my inspiration to border it and put that feather stitch around it that Miss Stacy likes to use. I had never done the feather stitch before I took that workshop from her back in January. I was afraid of it then, but I do enjoy it now.

Last time I showed you this 16" block made by Michelle C. (Michelle's Quilts and Stuff blog) that I sliced up.

 

 Soon it will be stitched up into this 11 1/2" mini quilt.

Every bit of this was cut from that large block, and I even have some leftover pieces.

I do have some of that red fabric in my stash, so maybe I will border it with red and bind it in navy.

So much red/white/blue in my sewing room lately. Even my leader/enders pinwheels have been pretty much in that color scheme (with a little black thrown in for depth).

But I do work with other colors, too. 

The mini broken dishes quilt I began when I was testing the Itty Bitty Eights rulers is now hanging in my yardstick gallery. Over the weekend I put up another yardstick and two more rulers in the gallery (which is in the very short hallway outside my sewing room). I thought DH would say something about how the quilts would soon overtake the house, but after two days and no comments I finally asked him about it. He hadn't even noticed. I think I will start hanging the quilts everywhere. Oh, wait--I already have.

Another nature shot--I just had to share this rainbow from last Sunday. The family gathered on the deck to Oooo and Ahhh. I ran out in the rain to get shots without telephone lines in them.

Until next time, 

Janet O.

Red, White, and Blue--Part Two

Last year about this time I did a little patriotic parade of all of the red/white/blue creations I have made over the last few years. You can find it HERE. Well, there have been a few additions since then, so I thought I would tack them on here.

 This fun hanging kind of came together out of nowhere--okay, maybe not "nowhere", but I started out to create a very different quilt.





As I was digging through my stash to find what I needed in order to make what I was seeing in my mind's eye, I came across these little flag pieces, shown below.






I have absolutely no idea which fabric company made these, or when. I think I picked them up years ago, in a now closed quilt shop that had a scrap basket I haunted fairly regularly. These were just as you see them and I never could seem to figure out a way to use them--until now. There were actually four of them in my scraps, but I couldn't get the fourth one to look like it belonged.

I'm pretty pleased  with the final results. The whole thing has a bit more of a whimsical feel than I usually do, but it seemed meant to be this way. The little star buttons, the swirly star border fabric, the striped binding fabric all surfaced just when I didn't know what to do next. Now I know what to do--hang it up! No name as yet. : )

I did it--I made one for me after all. I had such a hard time letting go of the little "Small Honor" hanging that I donated to my family reunion auction last month. Now there is one in my home. I just can't decide where it belongs. And in my last post I mistakenly listed it as finishing at 4x6 inches. I was wrong. It is a whole lot bigger than that. It is 4 1/2x6 1/2 inches. *LOL*


The banner hanging below was made by DD#2, and it graces my dining room wall during the summer. This year I added the little quilts at each end.

The little pinwheel quilt on the left is adapted from a quilt made by Kathie Holland, formerly of inspiredbyantiquequilts blog (anyone else miss her as much as I do?). Kathie donated the fabrics.
On the right is an AAQI quilt I purchased that was made by Jean Tanner, of Iowa.

Recently Miss Stacy (Buttermilk Basin), posted this wonderful free pattern for a little pillow, or pincushion, during the Summerthyme blog hop she was sponsoring.

I may just create a little wall hanging (can you ever have too many?), and was auditioning a border fabric. Everything is fused and ready to stitch. The buttons are being auditioned, as well. I just might get the stitching done on this tonight--then again, might not.

Her pattern makes a 5x9.5 design.
















I have a couple of other things in the works that obviously won't be ready for this year's celebration. I've wanted to make another little patriotic tumbler quilt, besides the flag (see tutorial in my Pages Bar, above).

So, as I have had my patriotic fabrics out working lately, I have cut some random 2 1/2" strips and come up with this. Nothing is sewn together--they are just clinging to a design board.

 The tumbler template I used to cut these is not the Tiny Tumbler from Primitive Gatherings that I used to make the Tumbler Flag. I wanted to make this to top an end table in my living room and it would take forever to sew together enough of those tiny ones to cover it.

I used the Missouri Star Quilt Company Mini Tumbler that is designed to fit perfectly on mini charm squares. You can see the difference between the two. Still small enough to be cute, but makes up a fair sized mini much quicker, when you have the need.

Finally, a while back I bought 7 of these 16" blocks from Michelle C (Michelle's Quilts & Stuff blog). I have 6 of them in a project box with a few other star blocks that I am going to combine into a throw quilt.

 So this orphan has been lonely, until I had a light bulb moment and decided to deconstruct it.

The block was made up of 16 squares, so I took my trusty "speedy seam ripper tool" (aka rotary cutter) and separated the blocks.

 Using the Itty Bitty Eights rulers, I sliced them into 3 equal strips.

 Then I turned my rotary cutting mat and sliced them into 9 equal squares.

When all of the HST blocks are sliced, I am going to play with some possible layouts for a R/W/B mini. May not get to this right away. But hopefully next year at this time, I can include the finished mini in that update.

July 1st we had a beautiful (though very hot) evening--moonrise and sunset were both gorgeous. I may put one of these in my header.

Have a glorious 4th of July, whether or not it is a holiday in your neck of the woods.
Until next time,
Janet O.