Little bits of progress.

I had hoped to have my Barrister's SAL flimsy finished by now, but it isn't quite there. After sewing on the two originally planned borders, it didn't appear finished to me. So after a couple of trips to the thrift store I found the two burgundy shirts that make the final border. I haven't had a chance to attach that outer border yet, but I am liking what I see.

I did get the outer border sewn on the Pam Buda Orphans and Scraps mini. Purple may not have been everyone's choice, but I liked it best of the 8-10 fabrics I auditioned, and I was tired of trying to find the perfect fabric. So this will do. It will be bound in black. Finished size will be 16" square.

Recently my mailbox yielded this fun surprise from Denise. I was so excited and spent much time perusing them when I should have been doing something else. I have already copied out dozens of pages for the mini foundation patterns. Can you believe all of the paper piecing this girl has been doing lately? Prior to making Julie's Poor Li'l Punky pincushion last fall I was sure I would never paper piece again. But once I had made that cute little thing I was hooked. I still don't love doing it, but I love the results! I can't wait to try some of the teeny patterns I found. Thanks, Denise!

I am way behind on this little SAL, but I finally got my first row of blocks cut for the Temecula SAL currently in the works. They should sew up quickly--if someone else was doing them. : )

And I am trying to keep my promise to myself to practice feathers this year. Just a little time spent yesterday doodling feathers. I am getting more comfortable with the form of the feather. I am determined to get comfortable enough to be able to include them on a quilt wherever I would like.



This lovely pile of wooly fabric is the product of my first attempt at felting wool. With a little encouragement and help from my friend, Gayle, I cut up my thrift store finds and went to work. I am excited to get some of my current projects finished (who am I kidding?) and choose one of Lisa Bongean's patterns to work on.
Thanks for all of your suggestions, Gayle. It worked! Imagine that! : )

Just wanted to show you something that caught my eye the other morning. Those frosty trees in my header have been looking like that every morning for weeks, but a few mornings ago I noticed some black specks in the trees near the end of the row. Could it be? I zoomed in as close as my little "point & shoot" would allow.

Sure enough, there were birds perched among the frosted branches. I guess I'm not the only one who doesn't have a second home in a warmer climate. : )

Stay warm,
Janet O.

I am so spineless!

The little rail fence blocks finish at 3".

Have I said that before? If I haven't, I have sure been thinking it. I wasn't going to make anymore minis for a while. You must admit I have certainly gone overboard in that area lately. But when I saw what Kris had made here with her orange and black fabric I couldn't resist. I really like holiday quilts in the holiday colors, but not in holiday fabrics. Get it?
You may notice that I slipped a little green in this one (and a lot in the next one). I actually considered throwing in some purple, because I love the color, but I guess I am pretty old school. I am still trying to figure out when purple was added as a Halloween color.

I had lots of leftover little 1" strips so, of course, I had to do something with them. Hence, this little 9-patch was born. Those 9-patch blocks finish at 1 1/2". So tiny--I love them!
There are still a few ends of strips and little squares left from making this and I considered a mug rug, but I was able to stop myself this time before going to that extreme to use up every scrap from a project.

When I made the two "Labor of Love" minis, I just kept making 4-patch blocks as leader/enders, even after I had enough. So today I made some HSTs out of some scraps that were handy, to go with those extras. This is bigger than the original. I didn't get quite the contrast I had thought I would in the HSTs. I wanted to use Fall colors, but maybe I should have chosen a brighter one as one of the two colors. This will probably get the same clamshell quilting that the other two received. I liked the look and the clamshells fit perfectly into the blocks.

Are you joining Lori of Humble Quilts on her latest QAL? You can see I have cut random strips from my CW scrap basket. I don't have any solid red, so I selected a Judie Rothermel FQ to create my "Mountain Trail". I have the 20 4-patch units made and I am ready for the next step this Friday.

I finished my two latest Barrister's SAL blocks tonight. Randy, is it something I did wrong? I was cutting off points right and left to get these blocks finished at 6 1/2". But I am leaving them as they are. I like the blocks, I just couldn't make them work the way I think they are supposed to. Probably operator error. Or did anyone else have this issue?

It is Fall in the Rockies and I love looking out at the color creeping over the mountains. 

When I step out my back door to take photos I often have visitors. Aren't they cute? Love how they posed for me.

Thanks to those of you who have sent your prayers and concern as I have been recuperating from surgery. I am doing well and the trouble is I feel like I can do more than I should be doing yet. But by the end of the day I am pretty tired and sitting isn't very comfortable. Hopefully I will be back in the swing of things in another week or two.
Until next time,
Janet O.

Hanging up, catching up and keeping up--barely!

HANGING UP--"Flies in the Mustard" is in its new home. I know my name isn't quite as refined as the "Pink Lemonade" by which Lori's QAL was known, but I figured with the shoo-fly blocks in the mustardy color I used, it was appropriate.

A friend bound this for me (thanks, Brenda) and it has been finished for a while. We just couldn't connect up to let it change hands. I love this little quilt. Aren't Lori's doll quilt patterns wonderful? Speaking of which, I have tried without success to locate a copy of Primitive Quilts and Projects with her pattern in it. Can anyone tell me how to find one?

CATCHING UP-- Randy will be posting the next batch of blocks for the Barrister's Sow-Along on Wednesday. I've had the plaid ones finished from the last postings for a few days and I just got the Christmas blocks made for the ones I decided to duplicate (I chose not to make Birds in the Air in the holiday fabrics). Many of these fabrics are from the recent packages from blog friends who have sent their leftover holiday fabrics. So appreciated!

Here they are all together. So I am ready for the next group now, Randy. Bring 'em on!!

KEEPING UP--I'd better post my April Free Motion Quilt project from SewCalGal's challenge before it turns into a pumpkin. I have 28 minutes to get this posted and linked before the link closes. What does it say about me that for the Feb., March and April challenges I have been the very last person to link up before it closes? Why am I always working on this at the very last minute?

Don Linn taught us how to make our own stencils using tulle, an embroidery hoop, Sharpie marker, and a fabric marker. Really quite effective. I chose not to use the design he provided, but I did use his technique. Here is the stencil I made from a design I found online.

Then I traced it onto my fabric with a washable marker.

 This is what I got.

 And this was the final product. I learned a valuable lesson from this. I am not good at staying on the line. I slowed waaaay down and still struggled to keep a fluid motion. I had a bobbin thread issue at one point and just left it there. I had already made a practice effort and I knew I wasn't improving much. It is an excellent method for transferring designs, I just need a whole bunch more practice sticking to the line as I go. It is much easier to me to freehand a flowy design. But I'm glad to have learned this. I'm sure it will come in very handy as my skills at following the lines (hopefully) improve. 

One last thing--a couple of posts back someone asked about my new machine. I would love to reply, but you are a "no-reply" blogger. If it was you, please email me (email available on my profile page) from an email address to which I can reply, so that I can answer you.

That's all for now.

Until next time,
Janet O.

Barrister's Blocks and a bevy of baskets!

I encouraged Randy to post more bonus blocks on her Barrister's Sow-A-Long and then I wondered what I was thinking. After all, it isn't like I lack for projects, but I just can't resist these little blocks in plaid. Here are the two latest additions. I made the one in greens in honor of the current holiday.

I don't know that I put enough contrast in the 4-patches of Prairie Queen, but I'm going to live with it.
Then there are the two blocks done in Christmas scraps. I went a little dotty on these!
                                                                                                                                                                     

I'm not always following the value placement of the original blocks--just working with the scraps on hand and whatever surfaces in the remnant table of the LQS.

Okay, now for confession time. It is supposed to be good for the soul. I hope so. I have seen the little Temecula Quilt Blessings Baskets SAL on other blogs and I thought they were incredibly cute. The baskets finish at 4 inches. I've always loved basket quilts, but I've never made one. I did the Temecula 12 Days of Christmas SAL and it was a fun little thing. The blocks are small so it goes together quickly, right? So why not do these little baskets?

I've had some blue and brown CW repro fabrics kicking around that I had wanted to transform into a mini of some sort--why not baskets? So I pulled them out and started cutting.

Yep, I see the error in the bottom right.

This was Thursday, when the third basket was posted. I got all three cut in the blue and brown and thought, "I bet these would look really cute in those 30s scraps I have."

These make me think of those color-
blindness test pictures in the old
encyclopedias.

So that box found its way to the cutting table and I went through the process again, BUT... as I pulled out the 30s box I saw that it was right on top of my batik scraps box. Wouldn't these look cool in batiks with black as the background? Of course!! So those came out, too.

After I had finished cutting I was putting the blue and brown repro scraps into my CW scrap basket and thought, "Why not do another CW scrap set in random colors?" (I need to stop asking myself these questions. I give all the wrong answers.) So that started a FOURTH set of baskets.

I will even admit that I considered doing another set in Kaffe Fassett scraps, but the prints are too large to be effective in these little pieces. Then there was the idea of a fall theme in a Sandy Gervais print. Stop already! I had to draw the line somewhere!
I have been stitching up these little beauties as leader/enders while putting together this.

Here we have Primitive Gatherings Picnic Quilt #2. You can see #1 here. All of the missing blocks are in strips awaiting sewing together. I am using a collection of background colors that are not as dark as I used the first time around. There will also be one more final border, as on #1, but I think I will use blue on this one (because I found enough of that color at a LQS and bought it while it was available. No one in my area carries a very large selection of KT fabrics on a regular basis).
So Happy National Quilting day. I am making the most of it.

Until next time,
Janet O.
P.S. Happy St. Paddy's Day, too!