Pineapples and Poor Lil' Punky ...

... came together to make this. My third and FINAL Halloween mini--at least this year. : )

I think I liked it better the way I imagined it would look than how it actually "materialized", but I'm not unhappy with it. If you enlarge the photo you will see that the little pumpkin centered in the lower right pineapple block is upside down. I don't know how that happened because I paid careful attention to that as I laid out the nine blocks to sew together. But I do know that it is staying that way!

Making the pineapple blocks and dealing with this reminded me why I don't do more paper piecing.

When I made these four Lil' Punkys I did the first one using the foundation paper piecing method as the directions said. I made the next three and the one in the mini above using perforated paper piecing (see tutorial tab at the top).

This is the only mess left from making all four of them. That is also why you may notice that in the photo above, one stem points to the right and the other three point left. As I did my perforated paper base, I didn't realize I was reversing the pattern.

Thanks, Julie, for the fun "Poor Lil' Punky" pattern. I tried to resist it, but it didn't work. (If you missed this pattern, the info and links are in this post.)

Until next time,
Janet O.

Two by Two

Well, true to my usual form of not being able to stop at one of anything, I got my second little Halloween mini quilted and bound. It is the larger, rail fence quilt in this photo. As I look at the photo I can see I still haven't removed the chalk marks. It is more obvious with the camera flash.

I quilted it with a swirl pattern. Makes me think of a windy Halloween night. : )

You can also see from the first photo that I've been busy with the Poor Lil' Punky pincushion pattern by Julie Letvin (of the tiny paper-pieced jewelry fame) that was in the latest issue of "Simple Quilts".

So if you buy the magazine on the left (I finally found it at Sam's Club), you will find the pattern on the right inside of it. I don't even like paper piecing, but I loved the pattern, and considering my recent pincushion obsession, I had to give it a try. I did do the same thing that I had done with the Tuffets pincushions--I made them boxy, instead of pillow shaped. And I mixed up the color scheme a little--two Lil' Punkys with no candle glowing, and two that are lit up.
If you want to make them and don't have orange fabrics in your stash, you can order a kit with the fabrics, if you'd like, on Julie's website. And if you want to make them boxy, check out my "Tuffet Tute" tab.

I took great advantage of The Stencil Company's September special offer for participants in SewCalGal's Free Motion Quilt Challenge. I have been waiting for these to arrive...

 ...so that I could work on this. It is one of the two Fall colored minis I made using the Temecula Summer Stars Quilt -Along. 

This one will be going to Carla, who won the drawing for it from those who had donated to my daughter's fundraiser. I got all of the straight line quilting done a couple of weeks ago, but I was waiting for my stencil order to finish it up. Something that I have learned along the way in this FMQ Challenge is that I like using stencils. I never thought I would say that. My first attempts with them were really pathetic.

From the back you can get an idea of how it is coming along. I'd better get busy and finish this. After all, there is a second one waiting to be done--and someone waiting very patiently for it.

I did draw the winner for my little Fall giveaway on Monday night. I notified the winner and sent off her prize, but never had time to sit down and post about it. Grace, at citymousequilter blog, informed me by email today that she has received her package. Thanks to all who entered, and congrats to Grace!
Hope to get some minis that I owe people finished up this month and get serious about some bed quilts that are intended as Christmas gifts. Gotta hurry! Do you have your Christmas "gifts to make" list under control? If so, please tell me how you do it. : )
Until next time,
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.