September Monthly Mini

I am so pleased that I am not posting this minutes before midnight on Monday. I took the last stitches in the binding on this little quilt while watching our local college football homecoming game on TV with hubby and my sons and DIL. The quilt finished at 9"x10", and each 9-patch finishes at 3/4". I am linking up with Wendy (constantquilterblog)  and her monthly mini links for September.

This had its beginnings when I had leftovers from the little quilt I made for a swap with Kris (lavenderquiltsblog) in early 2018. This one is a reverse of the value placement of Kris' quilt. It has been languishing in my sewing room for almost a year, waiting to be quilted. I had started quilting it months ago, but didn't like how it was looking, so I set it aside. Needing a monthly mini in a hurry (no surprise there), I unpicked the less-than-pleasing quilting and tried again.


This is the view of the quilting from the back. Better than my first try, but still not my favorite.  I was okay with it until I put that swirly border on. I should have practiced more, but I was not going to unpick this baby again!




Other than a bit of work on my Circa 1880 quilt, the only other progress for the entire month is that I finished up the piecing of the Circa 1880 club small quilt for August (we get a new small quilt pattern every other month). 

I really messed with the value placement on this quilt, making some of the churn dash blocks sink into the background, while others stand out. A few of the bits of fabric had to be pieced in order to be large enough to cut out the piece I needed. Three of the sashings were pieced. I wanted it to appear to have been made from a scrap basket, where choices were limited. I also slipped a little churn dash block into the center. I had fun playing with this one.

We have had a very wet weekend and Saturday morning I picked 4 pints of raspberries in the rain. I couldn't bear to see them go to waste and if I waited for the rain to stop in a few days, many of them would have been overripe and mushy. I love picking berries and I love rain (we live in a high mountain desert where rain is a welcome blessing most of the time), so I enjoyed the experience--except for the rain that ran up my sleeves whenever I reached for the berries on the taller canes. It is my Dad's patch, and I had helped him care for it the last few years of his life. I have tried to keep up with it since he passed almost three years ago
This evening my DIL made a gluten free/vegan lemon poppyseed bread with a lemon drizzle. We sprinkled our slices with fresh, rain-kissed berries and it was YUM!

I'm feeling an urge to play in the plaid fabrics from thrifted shirts. Maybe a baby quilt is in my near future--just for fun! I pulled a pattern today and I've chosen the shirts I want to use. We'll see if anything comes of it.

Until next time,
Janet O.

Insanity in the sewing room

I don't know what else to call it. I already have all of my rows made for my Circa 1880 quilt, so why is it that I have spent what little time I can get in the sewing room lately making these? These are all 2 1/2" unfinished blocks, with those centers finishing at 1".

When I started making the "rogue blocks" to put in my quilt a few months ago, there were a couple that were just an uneven 9-patch with a tiny block in the center.
This past week I've been dreaming up more center blocks that can be scaled down to a 1" finish.

Those 16-patch centers are strip pieced. There is no other way I could have made those squares finish at 1/4". Having a ruler with good marking, and using fine thread helps increase the accuracy in stitching 1/4" finished rows (and a good dose of insanity really helps).

 

And the pineapple and log cabin center blocks are foundation pieced, of course. Each 1" finished--more insanity!

Kat Keefes Quilting shared her "signature block" idea with our Facebook group. She used the selvedge with Pam Buda's name printed on it--so clever!
I played around with the idea and came up with one of my own, and included some sentiments from one of Pam's fabric designs, as well.

The only other sewing that has taken place has been on the August small quilt pattern for the Circa 1880 club. I tweaked the value placement on the fabric--inspired by a Kim Diehl churn dash quilt I love that has 9-patches in the center.

The center blocks and sashing are assembled, but I had still been auditioning borders until I recently settled on this lovely blue paisley from the Mrs. Miller's Apprentice line of fabrics. Notice that I tucked a churn dash block into the center block. This is larger than the other small quilts in the club so far, but I really love it.

I shared with you in my last post what I had received in my swap with Julie (my threadbare life blog). Now that she has received my package, I can share with you what I sent.
I had to swipe this photo from her blog, because I forgot to take a photo of this before I sent it (she did the same from my blog with what she sent to me).

I sent her an uneven 9-patch pincushion, a notepad,  my handmade herbal soap, a favorite treat, and a mini quilt I made from scraps found on top of the "trash" bin at retreat last January. Julie is the queen of rescuing unwanted items and up-cycling them into treasures. I wanted to send her something that I had rescued and this was all that fit that description. It was such a lovely exchange. Thanks so much for participating, Julie! This is my second swap with a New Zealand blog friend. Oh how I hope to see their homeland someday--and maybe even get to see them! :)

This is my first post in September--pretty pathetic. It had better not be my last. I need to have a monthly mini ready to share  in a little over a week. Yikes! I am nowhere near ready!! I'd better quit playing with the Circa 1880 blocks I don't need.

Until next time,
Janet O.