August Monthly Mini--Love Thy Neighbor

If you were around the blog three years ago you may have a faint memory of this--"Love Thy Neighbor."

Three years ago Maureen (pursuitofquilts blog), extended an invitation for others to join her in making a quilt titled "Love Thy Neighbor," and to consider using house blocks. This was in light of the troubles going on in Charlottesville, VA at that time. I made the top, but I didn't get it quilted. Now seemed like as good a time as ever to complete this little quilt. I can't think of what we could use more right now than love for our neighbors.

Once again, I finished it up with some hybrid quilting. It was machine quilted, except for the echo quilting around the hearts. The house blocks were hand pieced, which I rarely do. They were part of an "airport layover kit" sent to me a few years back by my friend, Annie. This is the second little quilt I have made from the blocks in that kit and this one finished at 14" square. You can see the quilting a little better in this photo. Linking this to Wendy (the constantquilter blog) for our monthly mini roundup.

I know you have seen this next quilt quite a bit, but now that I have the binding completed, I want to share it one more time. This is "Mom's Flower Garden," so named for a few reasons. First, Mom and I started making Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts at the same time 22 years ago, after I learned the technique of EPP and shared what I had learned with her. Second, most of the fabrics came from my Mom's stash, since the fabrics I owned at the time were for clothing construction. Finally, almost all of the blocks were appliqued to their backgrounds during the hours I have spent at Mom's side over the past 15 months. Since Mom finished her quilt within a year of starting it, she is happy to have lived to see the day that I finished mine.

 

 

I have to throw in one more glamor shot. After having almost tossed this UFO out a few years ago, I am just giddy to have it finished and to actually like it. When it was haunting me in its unfinished state, I wondered if it would even be worth it to finish it because I didn't love the fabrics anymore. Well, the principle of synergy is at work here, because when it all came together it was better than I imagined. 

We have been getting the smoke from the fires in California, thanks to the jet stream, and at times it has been so bad that we couldn't even see the mountains that surround us. That is why this view from my evening walk was so welcome. A windy day had cleaned out the valley and the mountains were clearly visible again. That is the moon just rising above the mountains and the clouds.

I'll admit that all of the divisiveness in the country has been getting me down. Those who are hijacking the BLM movement as an excuse for violence disrespect the cause and efforts of those who are trying to bring about positive change through peaceful protests. The politicizing of good health practices during a global pandemic seems crazy to me. And the vilifying of all police officers due to the heinous actions of some is unfair to those who bring honor to the uniform. How did all this hate and venom find such fertile soil in our country? Can we not remember how to love our neighbor?

 

Will you join me in seeing if you can find something kind to do for a "neighbor"? Keep it simple or get creative. Just reach out and brighten someone's day, somehow (I know many of you are already doing this). It will brighten your day, too. And couldn't we all use some day brightening?

Until next time,

Janet O.

A smattering of mostly small stuff

If you followed along with Temecula's Marvelous Mini Monday, are you going to use their final setting? Right now I am just laying the blocks on fabric to audition standard sashing (and I did make 5 extra blocks). I am trying to decide whether or not to use cornerstones. I may also need to play with an on point setting before making a final decision.

These 4" unfinished blocks aren't really as wonky as they appear. It is just hard to get tiny blocks to lay flat without starch, and I don't use that much. (Well, maybe some of them are that wonky.)


Thanks to the help of two generous quilters, Barbara and Eileen, I was able to sash my Love Thy Neighbor mini, and get the border attached. I hadn't planned on cornerstones on the border, but I was just barely shy of enough of the red to complete the border. Not even enough to piece it--and I wasn't going to beg again this soon!

This was made in response to Maureen's invitation to join her in making a house quilt with the theme of "Love Thy Neighbor". Thanks for the suggestion, Maureen.

I have sewing machines in two places in my home--the sewing room, of course, and a nook off the family room. The windmill leader/ender project I have shown on occasion sits beside my sewing machine in the nook. So when I am working on my featherweight in my sewing room, I grab whatever I can to serve as my leader/enders. As I worked on the above projects, I was running out of bonus triangles to sew together. So I did a little digging, and look what surfaced.

Remember these little trees? Kevin the Quilter posted the pattern here. Of course, I downsized it. I had cut out 8, but had only made one. Now I am almost ready to sew the rows together on #3. Maybe I will actually have this ready for Christmas, if I keep sewing in my sewing room.  What a concept! :)

My enabler friend, Karen (Log Cabin Quilter), sent me a photo she had found on a Facebook post on Jo Morton's page. A woman had made a mini quilt featuring these tiny trees that she said finished at 3.5 inches. Was it possible, Karen asked--innocently? Of course, I had to find out.
I used leftover HSTs from my Christmas version of Bonnie Hunter's Smoky Mountain Stars. That wasn't the best idea for something this small, because some of the shirt fabrics I used in that quilt were rather heavy and coarse. They made it hard to get sharp points and creases, but I forced them into submission, and here it is. With no pattern, it was a guessing game on some things. If I ever make one again I will foundation piece the trunk portion, as in Bonnie Hunter's Crab Apples pattern.

I need to get quilting some of these little quilts. The stack is beginning to grow again, and it doesn't yet include the WIP shown above. I don't want a repeat of last year!
These are currently awaiting quilting in the small/mini pile. The three on the right are last year's leftovers that would have taken me to 50 small finishes, had I completed them that year.

But there is something I should quilt before any of those (besides the beast, that is a quilt-when-you-gather-the-courage project).

I finally assembled the top for Mom's quilt from Dad's blue plaid shirts.
I don't know why this has taken me so long. It is such a simple thing and should have been finished months ago.
Now to get it pressed and basted, and "quilt as desired".

It has been such a long, hot summer here, but today is cool and cloudy with occasional showers. I am so ready for Fall! Maybe it is time to break out the Fall colored quilts.

Until next time,
Janet O.
 

A Swap, a Scrap, and a SAL

My third little quilt swap this year was one that went across the ocean. Raewyn  (stitchingfarmgirl blog) and I had set up a June swap, and then real life set in. We finally pulled it off this month. After our long day on the road for the eclipse on Monday, I came home to this little beauty in my mailbox.

 

Isn't it sweet?? Amazingly, Raewyn had made note of the fact that I love this pattern, and she made me one! And do you see there is purple in almost every block. This gal played to my heart!! Thanks so much, Raewyn! You know I love it!

And it looks good wherever it goes.

The dining room table is where it currently resides, and it makes me smile whenever I glance at it--or stare at it in wonder. 
The colors make me think of mixed berries.
But this little gem did not cross the ocean alone. It was in the company of several other small treasures.

From a towel trimmed with Kiwiana fabric (representing flowering trees that grow on their farmland), to a bundle of Australian wool, a few New Zealand souvenirs, and an incredible appliqued journal!
Isn't it incredible? Such beautiful work! This alone would have been worth the swap, but I received the quilt, too!!

Oh, something is missing from the photo above. There was another treat. Raewyn and I share the need to be gluten free, so I know I can trust treats she sends. Good stuff!


I feel privileged to have been a partner in this swap. Raewyn has been a good blog friend for many years. She is an incredibly hard working woman, and a very talented and creative quilter. If you aren't familiar with her blog, I encourage you to check it out! See her account of our swap here.

So what did I send Raewyn? Well, I am sorry to say that it wasn't based on a pattern or colors I knew she loved. I just had an idea in my head and ran with it. This is what came of it.

I don't even recall the size of the blocks. Maybe Reawyn can tell us--are the finished pinwheels 1" or 1 1/2"? (You can see in her comment below that they are 1 1/2"--the quilt is 12".)
You can see the quilting in this photo of it, pre-binding.

I named this "Wind Farm", and I just realized I never explained to Raewyn why it is named that. When the top was finished, and I was studying it to decide how to quilt it, I realized it made me think of those areas in the west where you see the large windmills dotting the land, generating power. And even the colors between the pinwheel blocks made me think of the land and sky. In fact, from where we "car camped" on our jaunt to see the total eclipse, you could see just such a sight. At night there were red lights that flashed on and off on the windmills. That could account for the red in the pinwheel blocks. :)

So, there you have the swap. Now for the scrap.
When I put out a call a couple of posts ago, asking if anyone had a piece of the green fabric I needed to finish the sashing on my Love Thy Neighbor quilt, Barbara (myjoyfuljourney blog) responded immediately that she had a 5" piece among her scraps that she would be happy to send me. (If you don't know who Barbara is, you should! See an interview with her for The Quilt Show here.)
I calculated that with the piece she would send I would be able to cut 5 more sashings, and with my scraps and the leftovers from her piece, I could piece together the remaining 3 sashings. I often do the "humble piecing" thing, but it is more obvious on minis, so I avoid it on them if I can. But this is not a show piece (who am I kidding--I have NEVER entered a show), so I was happy to piece the last three sashings, if need be.
Then I heard from Eileen (no blog), and she will be sending along another piece that will enable me to complete the last three sashings without the need to piece them. WooHoo! Thank you to you both! You saved the day for me! Don't we always say it? Quilters are the best!

And finally, the SAL--Temecula's Marvelous Mini Monday. I had really expected  the layout last Monday, but what do I know? We got another block, with the promise of the finish next week. 
I made one of the block, and realized there was no contrast, so I made another. Pretty obvious which is which.

Now we have 20 blocks, which is a much more workable number (excuse the glare from the overhead light).
 
Of course, I had to play with layout possibilities.

If it turns out that I am not head-over-heels for the final layout, I think I know where I will go with this one. I'll make 5 more blocks, and I may or may not set it on point. We'll see.

Oh, wow. Another long, rambling post--and I am not finished yet. As to the scraps I offered, there were a dozen of you interested, so I dug up more scraps, and drew 3 names. Vic, mangozz, and Nancy, you will each receive a small bundle of scraps. I need addresses from mangozz and Nancy. It may be Monday  before I can get to town and pop these in the mail.

Until next time,
Janet O.

p.s. I just have to say that Blogger was giving me fits as I wrote this post. Whatever I typed would NOT stay in place. The words were dancing back and forth, and up and down. I have never experienced this before. Drove me nuts! I almost deleted the whole thing and walked away. Anyone else experience this?

Love Thy Neighbor

In her latest post, Maureen (pursuit of quilts blog) suggested that in light of recent events, she felt compelled to make a quilt using some house blocks that were under construction at her place to create a quilt with the theme "Love Thy Neighbor".  She invited any and all to join her.
Just so happens that I had some little house blocks awaiting placement in a mini quilt I had planned. Well, plans change. This is what I am doing with them.

The blocks finish at 2 3/4", so this won't be terribly big, but I think it gets the point across. I will border it with something, and I think that will take it a little beyond 12" square.
But can you see that I ran out of sashing fabric? That soft green is a Paula Barnes fabric. I was working from what I thought was a generous scrap that would do the job, but the last bits just were not large enough. Even if I piece them I will only make about half the sashings I still need. No other green blends with the greens in this quilt well enough, and I do want the green all the way around the outer edge. An internet search came up empty.

Anyone have any of this fabric I can buy? I really only need 1" WOF, or 2" from the longer edge of a FQ, but I'd love to buy yardage if anyone has some they are willing to sell. I do love this soft green.








I used the heart block that was in the Temecula "Box of Chocolates" mini, shown here. But I had to redraft the block so that it finished at 2 3/4", and I wanted the hearts to float just a bit. I think it will work when I have it all sewn together. 

And speaking of Temecula, they didn't post a finish for their Marvelous Mini Monday SAL this week, as many of you know. Just another block. And now I am more curious than ever about how the blocks will fit together. How do 19 blocks play well together? And 10 of them are sampler blocks--the newest rests in my hand.

I had several tell me they couldn't find the error in my Midnight Flight block, so here you go. See the black triangles in the red circle? See how they point away from the purple, and all the other ones point toward it?


Here is the corrected version.

Much better! 
It is a tricky block to lay out.  I am glad I am only doing a throw size. :)

You often see mountain views on my blog, but lately I haven't really been posting them. So here is one for you. 

This was the view over the weekend when a fire erupted on the other side of the mountain. As we sat out on our deck with a grandson Sunday evening there was a light ash falling from the sky. Not the view I prefer, but interesting, nonetheless.

Almost forgot--in trying to come up with another snip of that green Paula Barnes fabric, I sorted through my scrap basket. My scrap basket is small, as scrap baskets go, but I have decided it is time to replenish it with new stock. From time to time, when kind bloggers share their scraps with me, I set them aside until I decide to purge my basket. It is time. So if you are interested in a pouch full of this, let me know. Keep in mind that I have mostly been making mini quilts, so the scraps are not large--and these are all CW repros in this basket.

Finally--are you chasing the eclipse, or do you live in its path? We are set for a wild adventure trying to brave traffic jams and crowds to see it in its totality. I'll let you know if we even make it. :)

Don't forget--do you have the green fabric, and are you interested in the scraps? Thanks!
Janet O.