October Monthly Mini

I hadn't planned on making a Halloween mini, but when I was sorting through some Sandy Gervais Fall fabrics I've saved from years ago, I came across a small pile of Halloween themed fabric tucked in among them. And this was born. It is about 8 1/2" square. I think I will name it "Boo Who?" If you look closely you will see that much of the fabric has "boo" printed on it.

Linking up with Wendy (The Constant Quilter blog) where all good mini-acs go at the end of the month.

The hyper-quilting of the spider webs in the setting triangles makes the blocks poof out. On a normal quilt I might not like that effect, but for a Halloween quilt it somehow seemed appropriate.

I don't usually use holiday themed fabrics for holiday minis (I usually use holiday colors in my good old repro fabrics), but I couldn't resist seeing what I could create from these scraps that were passed on to me by another quilter. I added the orange for the setting triangles (from an old Primitive Gatherings line), and for the back I chose a piece from a bundle my Mom once picked up years ago at a yard sale. You can see it in the photo below.

Though this was not my "Baggie Challenge" mini, it could probably qualify. I have set aside a baggie of scraps that I intend to use for that, but it may be December before I get it made.

In the meantime, I am ready to start quilting my "Land That I Love" from Lori's (Humble Quilts blog) doll quilt SAL. And I have almost finished the piecing on Pam Buda's "Dear Prudence" doll quilt SAL (Heartspun Quilts blog).

My design wall is currently covered with this project--my version of Gay Bomer's Heartfelt BOW. None of it is sewn together yet.

The lighting doesn't show how purple this really is, but I think you can still see the pops of cheddar I had to add. Since I don't applique, I left out the center medallion and set my blocks on point with triple sashing and 9-patch cornerstones. Once those are all made and this is assembled, I may add a couple of borders to make it queen size. Such a novelty for me to make a quilt that actually covers a bed. :)

Funny story for you--are you familiar with Pinewood Derbies? Around here they are usually associated with cub scouts, but our church had one as an activity last Wednesday, and beforehand they had encouraged families to create derby cars together. They brought in a specialist with a fancy track that electronically determined the place of each car in each heat, and each car raced in several heats to determine the final place they earned. Hubby and I made a car together (the only old people who did). He cut and sanded a simple, aerodynamic wedge shape. I painted it, and he attached wheels and weights. We took 4th place against all the young people who entered cars in the "classic" division. No one had trouble telling our car from the others.

Until next time, I'll leave you with the view of the setting sun on the mountains as I was going into the church for the Derby.

Janet O.

This and That

Last week hubby and I celebrated our 43rd anniversary. The day before we went to a few local downtown antique shops and had lunch at a crepery. There was a quilt in one of the shops that caught my eye, but I talked myself out of buying it. The next day hubby placed money for the quilt in my anniversary card and told me to go get it. It took me a few days to get back to town, but it was still there, and it came home with me.

It is in great condition, has no odors or stains, and is well put together and hand quilted.

 

Interesting to see the quilting pattern. See how every other line stops a few inches from the circles in the inner corner?

 

And love that pretty purple backing!

I am very happy that I had a second chance to get this quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are only two prints in the quilt, and the rest are solids. I don't know much about fabrics of this era. Would you say these are 30s fabrics?

A few posts ago I shared photos of my mini quilt rack that I'd had for months, but only recently got stained. Several of you had asked for dimensions so you could have someone make one for you. One person sent me photos of the finished product. I would love to see any others that have been completed. It is fun to see the tweaks each woodworker makes. This is the photo Sheri Lesh of Iowa sent to me of the quilt rack her father made for her. If you had someone make one for you (or made it yourself), please email me a photo and I will include it in a future post. Thanks, Sheri--and I love your little quilts! Just from what little snatches you can see in the photo, doesn't it look like a fun place to play?

 

I have had a couple of good sessions in the sewing room this past week. I've mostly been catching up on the latest blocks in my SALs and working on my monthly mini--but I won't show it just yet. I still have to quilt it. I think this will be the last time I will attempt a block of the week. I struggle to keep up. I altered last week's Heartfelt pattern and ended up with these 8" blocks.

If you are sewing along, too, you can probably tell what I changed. And now Gay has thrown a curve ball at me--an appliqued medallion for the center. I guess I will have to make a Feathered Star or a Mariner's Compass.

 

You may have noticed that I've added a new email subscription option in my sidebar. It seems to be working, but I have not been able to make the transfer of my Feedburner email subscription list work. It is supposed to be "easy", but it keeps telling me it failed and I can't get anything more than an automated response to my requests for help. If you are following via Feedburner, you may need to transfer yourself using that subscription option, if you still want to follow along. I do appreciate each follower and don't want you to feel like you can't follow if you prefer email notifications. If you know of a better choice, please let me know and I'll look into it.

 

ETA: I have had an email from the follow.it people that addressed my issues. They had me send them the email subscription list from Feedburner and they were going to transfer the email addresses. If you have been following via the Feedburner emails, would you be kind enough to let me know going forward if the transfer worked and you continue to get notifications? Thank you!

 

Until next time, 

Janet O.

Click photo to enlarge and enjoy a full screen of this sunset!