Just a bunch of stuff.

Mountain Trail is all quilted and bound!

You can see the quilting pattern better from the back.

I'm going to link this up with Lori at Humble Quilts. I had just checked her blog to make sure I wasn't too late to link and I was surprised there weren't more links. I have seen so many of these around blogland. If you have made one and haven't linked yet, please join in. It is fun to see the unique qualities of each quilt, working from the same pattern.

I decided to get my "Random Roses in Jamestown" block done early this month. One more block to go and then I will make some kind of setting squares. I am thinking chain blocks instead of the log cabin blocks in the pattern. I love chains for tying sampler blocks together. I am so proud of myself for keeping up with this, since I am doing it on my own and there is no group, or link to keep me motivated and on track.

I also got another mini quilt finished. When Cheri posted her "labor of love" directions on Labor Day I made two and gave one to each daughter. But I just kept making 4-patches as leader/enders and finally decided I'd better stop and make something out of them. So I made another, larger "labor of love". As is my recent trend, I made the setting HSTs out of rather similar value fabrics--not much contrast there. The 4-patches save it from being too drab. I also bound it with something rather nondescript. I was determined to make this entirely from the scrap basket, and nothing else worked for me any better than this did.

I continue to plug along on Orca Bay (aka SOTMD). I have 32 more of those rectangle unit thingies to make and then I can stitch it all together and figure out how I want to border it. It will only be about a twin size. That is as far as I could stretch the peach and purple shirts. Even after a year, I still love the movement the string blocks (faux, in my case) give this quilt.

 Next up in the quilting cue are these two minis. Both are gifts and the recipients know who they are. I started marking the basket quilt this evening.

My main project for November will be to piece the quilts for my grandsons for Christmas. I have all of the fabric, but have barely begun to cut and stitch. Speaking of grandkids, some have asked to see the costumes I made for two of them for Halloween. 

Abby was a black cat. I made her skirt, tail, and faux fur collar and ankle and wrist cuffs. The ears were purchased. Can you hear her meow?

Ben was The Cat in the Hat. I made his hat and tail, and stitched a white tummy to his shirt. He was thrilled to be "Go-go", as he calls him, because of something on the PBS Kids Cat in the Hat show.
And lest one of the other two grandchildren feel left out, here they are. Matt's Ninja costume was purchased (and can you tell he took his role seriously?) and Josh's Mr. F. costume came mainly from the thrift store, but my clever daughter created his headgear.

That's enough for now. I'm going to go reset clocks and get ready for bed.
Until next time,
Janet O.

Just under the wire again!

I almost didn't do this months FMQ Challenge at Insights From SewCalGal. I have yet to miss a month (though several times came as close to missing as I could without actually missing). The reason I thought I wouldn't do this one was because it involved using different battings, fabrics and threads. Let's face it, I'm boring. I have no silk anything--fabric or thread. My battings are all cotton or cotton/poly--no wool here. My threads are similarly bland. So I decided right off the bat that I was going to skip this one. Maybe I would make it up with a bonus tutorial, maybe not. Just possibly I would drop out all together. Oh, I was getting drastic in my thinking. But other, more daring souls forged ahead with what they had on hand. Why didn't I think of that? They inspired me. So I am posting my link by the skin of my teeth again. Here it is.

 I usually stick pretty closely to designs I have tried before, but this time I branched out with some new stuff. I had fun, other than the changing of thread. Am I the only one that doesn't enjoy frequent thread changing? Oh, and the feather wasn't fun, either. Feathers are my nemesis. I wasn't going to do one, but I figured I needed to get brave. This is patterned after Sally Terry's hooked feathers. It is better than some I have quilted, but that is still my least favorite corner of this project.
The fabric is cotton, the batting is a scrap of cotton left from a larger quilt. These are the threads I used--a couple of size 30 Poly Quilter's Choice by Golden Threads, size 40 Poly Glide, size 50 cotton Aurifil, size 50 cotton Mettler, size 40 cotton Signature, size 40 poly Isacord, and size 50 cotton Gutermann.

I've also worked on quilting my Mountain Trail today. Hopefully I will get it bound in the next day or two and link it up with Lori at Humble Quilts.

My time is almost up to link this with the FMQ Challenge, so I'd better do it now. 

Until next time, 

Janet O.

Unfinished Business

When Randy apologized for taking more "grandma time", which would make the next Barrister's Sow-Along blocks late, I breathed a sigh of relief. How about you? I was not caught up on the last three. But I am now! I have filled the design board I have been using to keep these displayed, so it is a good thing we are nearing the end of our "Sowing". This is what it looks like.

The three blocks on the bottom right are the newest. I'm not finished with Fall colors yet, so I chose some fall-ish plaid shirts for these blocks. Maybe I could have used more contrast (that seems to be a reoccurring theme with me), but I still like them. Here they are at a closer view.

And speaking of low contrast--I played with border options on my "Mountain Trail" from Lori's QAL and this was what finally clicked for me.

I bordered it with the same dull red (it seems to appear brighter in this photo than in real life), but I have tucked a little blue around the edge to show that I am going to bind it with that when I have it quilted. For some reason an inner border didn't do it for me on this quilt, but I felt it needed something more than red binding.

And finally, I have gone back to the bay--Orca Bay. I didn't start it last year until it was no longer a mystery. I don't know how so many of you can keep up with Bonnie's mystery during the holidays. I just watched in fascination and then decided to do it after it had been revealed. It got put on the back burner months ago. I have everything cut and have pieced a little on it now and then, but recently decided I would use it as my leader/enders while I work on Christmas projects.                                                  You may recall that mine is named "Sunset Over The Men's Department" because I'm making it from men's thrift store shirts--yes, even the peach and purple were men's shirts. I cheated and didn't use string blocks (not my favorite to make, but I love the look). I subbed stripes and plaids instead. Mine won't be as large as Bonnie's and I don't have enough of the solid cream and black shirts to make her border. But I think it captures the feel of Bonnie's design and I love it, even though it is so outside my normal comfort zone. Hopefully it will be a flimsy by the end of the year.                       I am binding another little project and will be starting the quilting on another. I will share those soon.                                   Until next time,                                      Janet O.                                                              

                                           

An Obscure Mountain Trail

Have you ever hiked a mountain trail that wasn't very well marked and you weren't always sure if you were still on the path? That is what we have here. These are my "Mountain Trail" blocks from Lori's QAL at Humble Quilts. I didn't have a solid red, so I chose a muted red print from my CW FQs. Everything else was from my CW scrap basket. I guess I should have seen it coming, but it wasn't until I finished putting the blocks together today that I realized my trail doesn't stand out. Live and learn. I still like it, but I wish I had used a red that was a little more "outstanding".

Now I need to sew these blocks together and determine how I want to border it. There is a plain red border on the original, but I can't decide if I want to go that route (with my dull red) or if I should do something to liven it up a little. As I look at the photo I can see there are some blocks I want to switch. Once I get started down that road I have a hard time knowing when to stop.

I  got Falling Stars bound tonight. It just needs a label and then it will be on its way to Carla in Idaho.

I like how the quilting turned out. Sorry I couldn't get a better photo of it. Wrong time of day.

 Next up for quilting are two minis that I will be sending to the two gracious women (Doniene and Randy) who donated quilts for my daughter's fundraiser raffles. Then there is a belated b'day gift to quilt and at that point I am going to buckle down to get quilts made for my 3 grandsons for Christmas. 

I think it is doable if I can keep myself away from pincushion patterns and mini quilt sew-alongs!! I don't know if anyone noticed, but I was pretty pleased with myself when Cheri had a SAL recently for three little quilts featuring flying geese and I DID NOT participate. 

I wanted to share this photo I took this morning. It was an overcast day, but the sun had broken through just enough to highlight the red foliage at the base of the shrouded mountains. The air had that golden Fall glow. Love 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.