An Out Of Season Mini

Last September, Lori (Humble Quilts Blog) hosted her annual small quilt Quiltalong called Land That I Love . Though I am normally all on board for anything in red/white/blue, I was longing for some fall weather and decided to pull autumn colored scraps from my basket and use those to sew along. I made the top last fall, but I just barely got it quilted. So I am terribly out of season.

I will be linking this with Wendy (The Constant Quilter blog) for our monthly mini parade. Check out the link for the other marvelous mini makers and their creations.

I almost bound it in a matching, subtle brown, but I couldn't do it. The quilt wanted a warm color that stood out, so terra cotta was the winner.

This photo shows the quilting. Not crazy about the way I decided to quilt it. After the fact, I decided the feathered wreaths in the center were a little highbrow for this humble quilt. But I'll live with it. The pieced blocks are just stitched in the ditch.

My version of Gay Bomer's Heartfelt has come back from the quilter. I am really happy with it. I will show you an angled view so you can get an idea of the quilting, and I will give you some better peeks after I have the binding completed (just a little ways into the second side--very slow binder here).

That sums up the quilty portion of this post. I just want to take you out on the farm for a moment. 

Tell me, are you familiar with the word "gambol"? Because that is what the baby lambs do every spring, and it is so fun to watch. The other day I stood at the kitchen window and tried to zoom in with my phone--picture quality not the greatest, but it was the best I could do, under the circumstances. You have to catch them when they are in the mood. Look at the lambs in the background of these 4 shots.

The lambs will just be running along and all of a sudden they will leap up into some of the funniest positions.

Dictionary definitions will say things like "frisk or jump about playfully". The lambs have it down to a science. And that, my friends, is gamboling!

There are no photos of the babysitting llama this year, as Coco has moved on to a better world.

There is a dirt road that runs along the north side of the farm, and that is where I often go to take walks at dusk. That is my favorite time of day to be out walking. Whether I am facing east or west, I have a mountain range in front of me. These photos were taken early this week. 

This was the sight just after the sun dipped behind the end of the Wellsville range to the west. This is the mountain range I see from my sewing room.

When I turn around and head for home, I am facing the Bear River range to the east. This is the range we see from our family room or deck.

Until next time, be creative and be kind.

Janet O.

September Monthly Mini

When I finished my two monthly minis for last month (seen here), I had just a handful of half-hex and thimble shapes leftover. They sat in a small stack on my cutting table for several days. Then one day, as I was cleaning off the cutting table so I could actually use it for its intended purpose, I saw that little stack and began to wonder. Could I possibly make a little quilt with those two different leftover shapes as my focus? I had to try. I knew I was going to try a strippy quilt. I just hadn't thought I would end up stacking those thimbles and half-hex shapes vertically.

This little quilt, with its one ray of sunshine, measures 13 1/2 x 10 3/4". It was amazing to me that the leftover shapes made exactly two stacked rows of half-hexes and one row of thimbles that were the same height. The colors aren't as balanced as I would have done if I was working with my whole stash, but that is part of the fun of this process--work with what you have. I found a Jo Morton print that had those two lovely stripes in the design. The biggest dilemma was that I had it in two colorways, and I struggled over whether to use the red or green. As you can see, the red won, but I went for a happy green Betsy Chutchian print for the binding.

This was actually finished very early in the month, and that is highly unusual for me! Linking up with our Monthly Mini Master, Wendy Reed at The Constant Quilter blog.

I quilted this on my domestic machine, going straight along the the seams between rows, and then with some very careful backtracking, I quilted between the stacked shapes. There is an egg and dart design quilted over the floral stripe and a straight line quilted down the narrow striped design.

Maybe you will be able to make out everything I just described if you click to enlarge this photo of the back.

I had hinted at a surprise/challenge in this post, but I didn't get all the details worked out before this post needed to go live (and I still missed September by 1 minute). Hopefully I can still get the challenge in soon.

Lately I have had much more time in the sewing room than I have had for years, it seems. It has taken a while for the sewing mojo to return, but the past two weeks I have finally got all of the blocks finished for the Heartfelt BOW with Gay Bomers, at Sentimental Stitches. I am not doing the center applique block and am playing around with other possible settings. Will share the results soon. I have also been trying to catch up with the Barbara Brackman Hands All Around BOM. I am still two months behind, but it is doable. However, now I remember why I don't usually sign up for these things!! LOL

And then there is Lori's SAL at Humble Quilts. Just caught up with that today. Doing it a bit differently, which you will see soon. And in about a week Pam Buda will begin her next doll quilt SAL. It is very cute and there will be no resistance here. You can see what we will be making here, and maybe you will choose to join in, too.

That's it for now, other than I hope you will enjoy a few photos of the Fall color as we drove over the mountain yesterday to my favorite "local" quilt shop. You should be able to click on any photo to enlarge it.

Until next time,

Janet O.

It has been such a hot, dry year that we had been told not to expect much color. I was surprised to see it this bright, but it was very much a treat to this autumn loving gal.

And this is the view out my sewing room window. I zoomed in so you could see the sprinkling of color better.