A Sewing Frenzy

Though I'd had a full schedule of appointments, Thursday ended up being a sick day at home. I probably should have slept,  but I needed to sew. I really needed to! I wasn't feverish, but I was feverishly sewing.

Made some progress on my blue/brown version of Primitive Gatherings Pinwheel Garden.

The pattern recommends paper piecing the HSTs, but  I opted for the "optional method" without the papers.


These blocks will finish at 4", which means that each pinwheel is 1". It is really fun to see these blocks come together.

The little pinwheel star quilt top I made recently was created from a bag of HSTs a friend had given me. She also gave me a little bag of Kansas Troubles 1" strips in a variety of lengths. It took me a while, but I finally figured out that they were for log cabin blocks. I used them as leader/enders for my day of frenzied sewing.

These blocks will finish at 3 1/2". Haven't counted to see how many blocks I will get out of these pieces.

I used some leftover pieces of other projects to whip up a couple of pincushions.

And I got a stack of little quilts pin basted so I have no excuse not to get quilting.

In fact, I have started stitching on the two in the bottom of the photo. 

This is what I created from the little purple stars in my previous post. The ditch stitching is done and I am marking it for FMQ.

A lovely surprise came in the mail from Sue. She made such clever, collapsible  thread catchers and showed them on her blog. She offered to send me the pattern. Well, it wasn't just a pattern that arrived all the way from Australia. A beautiful cheddar thread catcher was included. Thanks so much, Sue!!

Had lunch earlier this week with my good buddy Kris, from Lavender Quilts blog. Look what she brought me. Does she know me, or what? : )  Thanks bunches, Kris!!

I have already drooled over looked through it a couple of times. I need to finish some other projects so I can start some new ones!!







Felt so good to finally have a sewing day, even though I didn't feel good. : )
Until next time, 
Janet O.

Sundry Things

Just dabbling in this and that when I have a minute. Seems I can't focus lately.
This is something I have been wanting to make for a long time. Prepped the wool one evening and have been stitching in spare moments. Just have to finish going around the trees and then stitch it to the backing.

Designed by Lisa Bongean, this little mat is cut from a 12" square of wool. This blue wool came from a pair of slacks at a local thrift store. A lucky find.
The pattern is named Snowy Gathering, and is found in the Winter 2013 issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects.
One of these days I might do a "snowman only" post. Can't believe how many of them I have stitched.

Before the holidays I had cut a bunch of purple and neutral scraps into HSTs for a long overdue project. Life got in the way and I didn't get anything finished as planned. So I stitched them together as leader/enders over the past few weeks. I toyed with different settings, but finally settled on these stars, that will finish at 3". The size of star was determined by the size of triangles I could cut from the scraps on hand.


The blocks for my youngest son's college T-shirt quilt all need coping strips in order to get them to a uniform size. Not my favorite task, so I am forcing myself to border a few blocks when I have a rare day at home. Ten down, twenty more to go!

It seems that when there is no holiday imminent, I don't have a non-seasonal runner for my hutch--at least not one I like.

So I grabbed a couple of Kansas Troubles mini charm packs, and some KT scraps, pulled out my trusty 2 1/2" tumbler template from MSQC, and went to town cutting tumblers. Kind of went overboard and cut many more than I will need. 

Fun mail from New England, lately. I won a giveaway on Vic's blog and received these wonderful FQs, and a couple of her delightful, handmade lavender sachets. And Grace sent this fun quilt block calendar that is now hanging in my sewing room. I have had the delightful opportunity to meet both of these bloggers while in NH and I consider them good friends. Thanks, ladies!


I'll finish with this shot from my sewing room window. Love it when the sunset makes it look as if there is fire on the mountains.

Until next time, when maybe I will have finished something--anything!!
Janet O.

So Little Progress

This...                                                  has become this.                 

Eventually there will be 9 blocks to this little quilt.






Stars in the Garden has only had those few hexies in the corner added since last we saw it.



























I have sewn up a handful of the blocks for my blue/brown Primitive Gatherings Pinwheel Garden pattern. My blocks are 2" finished, though the pattern is for 3" finished (the pinwheels will finish at 1").

I don't think the fact that I am making my blocks smaller will come as a shock to anyone. 
You can see here that I make my pinwheels larger and trim them down to increase accuracy. The ones in the lower corner have not yet been assembled.

This is why  I haven't bothered sewing much lately. Little Maggie is here for a visit all the way from New Hampshire. (Oh, she brought her parents, too.) Would you be sewing if you could play with her instead? In a few days she and her parents will be going home and I will be very sad. I would try to tell you how good-natured this little gal is, but you would never believe me. Seriously!

I'll be back when Maggie and I have finished playing. : )

Janet O.

Happy New Year, friends!

Lots of family gatherings, and health issues for me and my Mom have made my time for blogging recently rather sketchy. Not much time to stitch, either, but I finally got an evening to spend sewing, so I'll share what came out of it.
First up, there was that mindless sewing of HSTs a friend had given me, that I showed in my last post. This is what I did with them. Kind of fun and festive.

The star blocks finish at 4". The quilt finishes at about 15". Did this very hurriedly and cut off lots of star points, but I needed a finish for sanity's sake, so I'll live with it. : )

Got my last block made for the Buttermilk Basin Mystery BOM completed. Chose not to put the snowman in the mitten, but used a free pattern Stacy had shared back in November (click on link above), and made it a little larger to fit the block. I added twig arms and snowflakes to the chilly fellow.





Here are all of the blocks together. Wonder how Stacy will be setting them? Wonder if I will do it her way?

My little snowball block from HeartTohand is ready for quilting. I wasn't sure, last time I shared it with you, what I would do for the border. Sandra (textiletimetravels blog) suggested a simple snowball block. I thought about doing tiny ones, but based on the size of the block itself, I settled for 3" finished snowballs. I really like how it turned out. Thanks, Sandra.




Remember I thought the tree's needles looked a bit spindly. I was going to leave it be, but finally caved and fixed it. I doubled my floss and went back and added needles in between the ones I had already stitched.

                                                     






I do like the end results better.
Compare it to the tree in the top photo.

I'm not usually a participant in after-holiday sales, but there were two things I couldn't resist this time around. All of the Christmas fabrics and kits were 50% off at my LQS. Though I went just to see the fabrics, and I don't tend to buy kits, I couldn't pass this up. This Kim Diehl pattern is free online at Henry Glass and I have loved it and pinned it. When I saw the shop had kitted it up with Kim Diehl fabrics in holiday colors, but NOT holiday prints (that is how I like my holiday quilts)--and it was half off, I snatched it up. It was the last one and I felt pretty smug.

The other thing I couldn't resist was buying a tower of Dark Chocolate Peppermint Roca on clearance. This is not just a guilty pleasure. It is a vital part of my keeping my most important Quilting Goal from last year (which I plan to continue into this year)--keeping dark chocolate in the sewing room. Any time you can combine that dark chocolate with a subtle peppermint flavor, the synergy of the two is undeniable. This is probably the only quilty goal from last year that I actually kept, and may be the only one I carry on into this year.


 

Last, but definitely not least, I have been the recipient of some lovely gifts from quilting friends the last few months. 

To the right are a pair of pretty crocheted coasters from Mary (quiltingrandma blog), and lovely purple mittens and scarf from Doniene (nowitsjustquilts blog). 
In the left photo are quilts gifted to me by Joy P. (top quilt--no blog), and Sandra D. (bottom quilt--kwiltnkats blog). Don't they look pretty hanging together? Each one of these gifts is a beautiful handmade treasure that has warmed my heart and the Christmas season. Thank you, my friends. 

As you all know, blogging takes time and now and then I think I can't do it anymore. Then I ponder the priceless friends I have made, and I know I can't walk away from it. This is about more than quilting. It is a connection with people that have enriched my life in so many ways, prayed with me and for me, laughed with me, shared with me, and widened my scope. I would never have dreamed I would feel so connected to so many quilters around the world.
Bless you all as we enter upon a new year of sharing.

Until next time, 
Janet O.

Heads up to all of you that read blogs without a Google profile. 
From Blogger Buzz posted Dec. 21, 2015:

...starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.