On a Roll

When I completed the quilting on "Burgoyne Strikes Gold", I felt rather invincible. I had faced my fear and had walked away victor, so to speak. I decided I needed to ride that wave and pull out something else I have been afraid to quilt, before the feeling passed.

This was what I made when Lori (Humble Quilts Blog--this link takes you to the beginning of her latest little SAL) had her "Faithful" SAL. We were to use any  6" block we might have on hand, or make a new one, and she walked us through the steps of adding those HST borders.

The 6" Mariner's Compass that I used for the middle was made a couple of years ago on a dare (sort of) from Karen (Log Cabin Quilter blog). I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I had to see if I could really make it. The pattern is named Sunburst (find it at the bottom of this blog post). It seems to fit, so that is what I think I will name the quilt.

I had decided that I would ditch stitch around the compass points and all of the HSTs, and put feathers in all of the black borders and around the compass.

Using the bendable ruler (this is a method I learned from a Patsy Thompson tutorial), I marked my feather spines.

Then I pin basted, and as I always do on minis, I did the ditch stitching on my DSM. I take ditch stitching  seriously. Stitching slowly, I really try to stay in the ditch.

The final touch was the feathering, on Gidget. When I feather on an outer border, I always draw a containment line 1/4" from the edge, so that my feather plumes don't end up under the binding.










Then finish with the 1" cut, single fold binding. Very happy with the results of this one.

My two "brave" finishes together.

I had a rather low-key Labor Day weekend, but I did get in some stitching. With the leftovers from "Burgoyne Strikes Gold", I made this little quilt, which finishes at about 7" square.

I think I'll name this little quilt "Pumpkin in the 9-patch".

And the little pincushion (yet to be stuffed) was from the leftovers of the little quilt.




I have been eager to try out this little pattern from issue #21 of Miniature Quilts Magazine. I have simplified it by not lining it. It is too tiny to see inside of, anyway.



















They are paper pieced, but it isn't as involved as the little ornaments. I'm pretty sure I am going to be making a few more of these.












Speaking of ornaments, I also made a few of those over the Labor Day weekend.

Have yet to stuff them and add the hangers. That is the easy part.

I didn't feel like I had accomplished much over the weekend, but when I put it all together I guess it adds up.

One last thing. I have made slow, but steady progress on my little Thimble quilt in honor of my visit to Cyndi's Busy Thimble shop last month, in Maine. I've been using it as a leader/ender, but you don't do much of that when you are machine quilting, or paper piecing.

I love seeing how these little quilts shrink as the pieces get sewn together. This is at the halfway mark. It will probably finish somewhere in the neighborhood of 10"x16".

One of these days I am going to make progress on my current big quilt project. Won't that be shocking?

Until next time,
Janet O.

"Quilt as desired"

Do you dread those words as I do?
My mini version of Lisa Bongean's Burgoyne Surrounded is a flimsy. It has been on a design board in my sewing room for a couple of days.

 I find myself sitting in a chair across the sewing room from it--just staring, trying to decide how it should be quilted. This is small; the blocks finish at 3 3/4".

It is a miniaturization of Lisa Bongean's version of Burgoyne Surrounded from the APQ designer SAL last year. Her quilt swept me off my feet. It is shown in the lower corner of the photo to the left, and you can see the post about it here.

I used a pattern from issue #11 of the OOP Miniature Quilts Magazine, but followed Lisa's colorway, as the pattern is for a 2 color quilt.
If you are not already lucky enough to have the magazine, but want to get the pattern, you can usually find most of the issues on ebay.

My little Leprechaun Lamb quilt just needs the binding hand sewn. I've been toying with names and right now "Leaping Lulu" is the frontrunner (with apologies to the local Celtic band of the same name).
It will be hanging on the wall before St. Patrick's Day, which is a vast improvement over the Winter and Valentine's Day lambs.  Pattern (by Lisa Bongean) from which this is adapted can be found here.
The other 3 unfinished lamb quilts have all of the machine quilting completed and just need the big stitching around the wool applique before binding.

A couple of other minis have been getting some love. "No Big Diehl" (my miniaturization of Kim Diehl's "All in a Row" design), just needs stitch in the ditch around the outside of each churn dash. The rest of the quilting is finished. Can't wait to get this one bound.

 These blocks finish at 1 3/4"

This little quiltlet is made from the leftovers of "No Big Diehl". It needs a name, but I am drawing a blank. Any ideas? This little baby measures 5 3/4" x 6 3/4".  The blocks finish at 1/2". That is a pint jar behind it, for some perspective.
 It is all quilted, but the binding needs to be hand stitched down.




















Just wanted to share this handsome guy that was in the pasture beside our house. I took the photo from our second story kitchen window with the camera I got for Christmas. It has a great zoom!

That is all I have to show for the past two weeks. Hope you have had more sewing time than I.
Until next time,
Janet O.

I know what you must be thinking...

...hasn't she finished that yet?

This is a miniature version of Lisa Bongean's quilt shown here.

Obviously not (and these blocks obviously need trimming). Each of these 3 3/4" blocks (finished)  has 97 pieces and it is no small task (pun not intended) to put them together. After having not touched my sewing machine for 10 days, I finally got a couple more of these assembled. Eight down, four to go.

My little leaves (the larger ones finish at 3") are made and waiting to be put to use. They are looking pretty hairy, too. I must be neglecting the trimming lately.
I finally have a setting idea in mind, but don't know when I will make it happen--next Fall maybe?

The 4-patch is now a completed top. Gayle (The Middle Sister blog) was the only blog comment with the correct guess that the 4-patches finish at 1/2". She wins the prize--didn't know there was a prize, did you? I'll be sending Gayle a mini charm pack and a gift bag of my herbal soap. Congrats, Gayle!
I put a quarter on the flimsy in the photo so you could see how tiny the blocks are.
I threw this one together rather haphazardly, without much trimming (seems to be the theme here) or pinning. Turned out better than I thought it would, but there are some  pretty wonky spots.

This cupboard full of trays of soap is one of the reasons I haven't been sewing much. Fifteen batches of soap made and curing for holiday gift giving. Such a relief to have that done!! It is the only thing I have done for the holidays. I don't want to hear about how you have your shopping done and gifts all made.

Today DH and I took a little outing to celebrate an upcoming event. He took me to my favorite not-so-local quilt shop to the south of us (I have a favorite to the south and a favorite to the north). A 90 minute drive to get there, but we stop at a favorite ice cream shop on the way home and get the best coconut almond ice cream cones, so he is happy to go. 

Okay folks, that is all for today.
Until next time,
Janet O.