Summit, Schoolhouses, a Swap, Sunsets, and CJ

Lori of Humble Quilts blog usually hosts a doll quilt SAL each year. This year it was called "Summit". I did not get it completed in time to be a part of the "Summit" linky party, but I wanted to share it with you. I finished the top on January 2, after having worked on it during two Zoom sessions with the Chookshed Stitchers the last couple of days of 2025.

Though the quilt that inspired Lori's SAL had three borders, I wasn't sure I was going to put any borders on it at all. Then I made the decision to pay homage to my house quilt, and use leftovers from that border to put a border on this little thing. You see, the five stars in this quilt were the leftovers from the cornerstone stars I made for the house quilt. When I saw that "Summit" had 5 stars that finished at 4", I decided to use these five leftover stars, but they finish at 3". That meant my 16-patches had to also finish at 3". Not as hard as I first imagined. The strips I cut in order to make the 4-patches had to be 1 1/4", so those squares finish at 3/4". I cut the borders 1 1/2", and the quilt measures 17 1/2".

I am also thrilled to show you the finished house (or schoolhouse--in order to maintain the alliteration of the post title) flimsy!

One side appears darker than the other--my sewing room lighting just makes it seem that way. This fits nicely on our queen-sized bed, but I haven't decided yet if I am keeping it. It will be a hard one for me to give away. I am planning on having my usual quilter do Baptist Fans across this one. If you are new to this blog, you will find the information on the pattern that inspired this in my previous post.

For Christmas my guild did a mug rug swap. I was feverishly working to get mine finished the day of our usual meeting, when a friend from the guild called to see why I missed our meeting the night before. Such a "duh" moment. We had talked the previous month about needing to have the meeting a day earlier in order for our president (who was hosting at her home) to have us over. I made that note in my guild notebook, and then promptly forgot all about it. Anyway, this is the mug rug I made, which someone will be receiving in our meeting this month. The rotary cutter is for perspective--and because it matched so well. ;)

We had some gorgeous December sunsets. It was hard to narrow things down. This was taken on December 9th. You can click on these for a full screen view.

The photo below is of CJ, my brother-in-law's llama. When I am out moving around the yard taking photos (or for any other reason), CJ moseys on over to the fence to see if I have anything to feed him. 

On December 10th I caught the following photos of the sunset.

Of course, CJ had to get in on the action.

I felt like he was saying, "This is my best side."

I hope your new year has begun well. I'm not a resolution maker. I work on goals each day, so I don't feel inclined to set new ones as a year starts. But I do like to continue to focus on being kinder, more grateful, more thoughtful, and more intentional. There is always room for improvement, and it usually works better for me one step at a time, rather than huge leaps and bounds that are hard to maintain.

Thank you to all who visit my little corner of blogland. I appreciate the comments, suggestions, inspiration, laughs, and most of all, the friendships. Blogging has broaden my horizons in ways I never dreamed!

Let's make it a happier new year!

Until next time,

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.