Down in the Ditch

I believe I have stated before that I take ditch stitching very seriously on my mini quilts. Well, that is what has pretty well consumed my sewing time since my last post. Here is the evidence.

Only just beginning the ditch stitching on the little log cabins. Then I have some cable designs I am thinking will go well down the furrows.

I was going to try to do this entire basket quilt with straight line quilting, but after doing all of the ditch stitching, and the basket weave and handles, I was sick of straight line quilting on this piece. I will set it aside for now.

The cross-hatching I had planned in the setting triangles may just be too much straight line for one little quilt. I may put feathers in them to juxtapose some curves onto all of the angles here.

This was a little Pam Buda SAL (Orphans and Scraps) a year or two ago. She made hers as a mini runner, but I wanted a little square. The blocks finish at 4". The 9-patch cornerstones are 1 1/2".

This was all ditch stitched, except the border. Often on minis I feel like too much fancy quilting can detract from the piecing, so I usually keep it pretty simple.

Here we have one of those Temecula SAL quilts that I tended to do in excess. I think I made three of these. The other two were gifted long ago and this one has yet to be finished. This SAL was called Summer Stars.  I wasn't enamored with the layout Temecula used, so I exchanged it for a layout they had used on similar sized blocks in another SAL called Blessing Baskets (I made 4 of that one).

Ditch stitching all finished here. This will probably get curved cross-hatching in the setting triangles, and I haven't decided yet on the outer border.

This is not a small quilt--it is a holiday table topper for the breakfast nook table. I pieced it from scraps I got in a scrap bin at a LQS years ago. I wanted to try a freehand holly design, and never could get up the courage. I finally went for it (after ditch stitching the borders).

This is the result. Better than I had hoped. As I stitched, I felt like the design was going down very unevenly, but it doesn't look as unbalanced as I feared.

 Had a sweet surprise in the mail yesterday from Pat (Amity Quilter blog). I had commented on a fabric she had used in a quilt and I was interested in it. She sent me some and I already know where it will go. See all of those HSTs a friend gifted me? This will be a perfect border fabric for a quilt from these pieces. I will throw in a little more darker blue with the triangles to tie it all together, but the orange-y coral and browns work great! Can't wait to get a chance to work on this. The quilt has been dancing in my brain for a while now.
Thanks, Pat!

Until next time, I am doing my best to stay away from SALs!! They really suck me in, as you can tell above.  : )
Janet O.

P.S. The Beast is in hibernation right now, but I really need to wake him up and finish him. It is so peaceful in the sewing room when he is asleep.