How many little quilts do you think you have?

That was a question posed by Sheryl at Temecula Quilt Company back in a February post. I really had no idea how many little quilts there were around my house--they are tucked everywhere. So that question has been on the back of my mind ever since. Today, on a rare day at home, I had a notion to find out the answer. I pulled little quilts from every nook and cranny. My plan was to lay them out on the living room floor and take a photo from the loft. I could quickly see there were too many--even after moving the furniture. So I limited it to quilts I had made that did not involve wool applique, or that were not table runners. This is the final outcome.

I came up with 98 little quilts. If you add in the little wool applique quilts that didn't make the photo, the number comes to 123. There are another 30 little quilts that I have from swaps, gifts, or purchases. So now, months after Sheryl asked the question, I have an answer--153 finished little quilts. Actually, that is less than I had anticipated, but I realized I have given away or swapped around 60 little quilts, so mentally I was probably still including many of those.

 

Here is another view from a different perspective. Kind of fun to have a carpet of little quilts.

This is what it looked like in the living room after I finished gathering all of the little quilts. I had just been tossing them into the living room as I scurried from room to room, collecting them. Now I have the fun job of returning them to their homes--or finding new homes for them. Hmmm, why did I think this was a fun idea?
My little quilt obsession began a few years back when I was asked by a good friend to do a trunk show for her mini quilt guild. I panicked because I had given away most of the little quilts I had made. After a few months of very focused little quilt production, I was ready to go--with the help of a few people lending back the quilts I had given them. I have now done 3 trunk shows, and I still give away little quilts, but since I keep plenty on hand for a trunk show, no one asks. Isn't that the way of things? :)

Do you have little quilts around your house? Are you crazy enough to gather them and share a photo on your blog? Or if you have no blog, send me a photo and I would be happy share it. Maybe I am the only one that wanted to try making a quilt carpet. We'll see.

The winner of the drawing for the patterns in my last post is Barbara--more than one Barbara commented, but only one expressed an interest in the patterns. She has been contacted, and responded very promptly. Thank you, Barbara. That makes it easy.

Until next time,
Janet O.


 

Final small quilt swap of 2017

Yep, you read that right--I said 2017. So what, if it happened in January 2018?
Early last year I had set up 4 swaps with blog friends, and Julie and I would be ending the year with a November swap. For a variety of reasons, we each needed to extend the deadline, more than once. This week it finally happened. Look at this beauty that arrived at my house!

Can you believe it? Those little 9-patches are only 1 1/2" finished! And it is hand quilted, to boot! Here is a glamor shot.

Julie has made an entire big quilt out of those tiny blocks! What was she thinking? LOL You can find the pattern for it on her website, here.
I'm thinking I am pretty lucky to have this sweet thing. Take a peek at the gorgeous backing fabric.

There were some other goodies in the package, too.
There were Deb Strain note cards, and one of those wonderful spray bottles that you are going to want, if you don't already. I just purchased one at retreat last month for water. Now I have one for my Best Press, as well! You can find them on Julie's website.
Thank you, Julie for a marvelous swap!



And what did I send to Julie? This mini feathered star went to her house this week. The star finishes at 5 1/2". I can't recall for sure, but I think the whole thing is around 12" square.

Here is the glamor shot for this little thing.



This was made with a foundation piecing pattern designed by Cindi Edgerton. The pattern was sent to me by my sweet friend, Annie M., and I have been wanting to try it for some time.







I knew her patterns were printed on tissue paper, and I was interested to see how well it worked. I have to say that it didn't work well for me. The tissue paper wasn't stable enough for the precision I was seeking. So I copied the pattern onto sheets of newsprint. It is solid enough to be stable, but easy enough to tear away when you are finished. I bought a pack of 500 sheets on Amazon 4 years ago, and I don't think I am even halfway through it. Very reasonably priced. You can find it here.

You can see to the right how wrinkled the tissue paper pattern was after pressing--and I didn't even use steam. You can also see how flat the newsprint paper foundation is after stitching and pressing it. I ended up having to draw a foundation for the border I wanted, and copied it onto the same newsprint.

 Got the top completed November 8, 2017, and ditch stitched it soon afterward, but the rest of the quilting didn't happen until this week. Just couldn't decide how to quilt it.

I tried a new-to-me thread for some of this project, which I will report on later. This is too long already. Also, I took photos of the binding process to answer some questions I have received over the years about binding minis. That tutorial will be coming up.

Thanks, again, Julie, for such a great swap.  I am thrilled with my little 9-patch quilt!

Until next time, 
Janet O.


It was cloudy here when the eclipse of the super moon occurred, but the evening before, I caught the moon coming up over the mountains.

The Show is Over, Folks!

And I survived!

I want to start off with the last few quilts I finished up. I started this Mariner's Compass soon after agreeing to do the show. The compass has a 3" diameter. I had tried to set it in a circle of flying geese, but in trying to combine the elements from two different patterns, I couldn't get them sized compatibly. So I ended up with the border from the original compass pattern. The original was in shades of blue, but I wanted Christmas colored batiks. I'm happy with how it turned out. I've been trying to decide whether or not to hand quilt it, or leave it unquilted and frame it. I'm not anxious to hand quilt on batiks. This piece is 9 1/2" square. I think I will name it "Sailing Home for the Holidays"

I got the little "Wandering Geese" quilted and bound. I did SITD around the geese and columns. The border and sashing are hand quilted. I don't usually bind in a lighter color than the border, but I liked this better than any of the other colors, and I didn't have enough of the border or sashing blue to do the job.

Ended up doing straight line quilting, in diamond formation, in the center of this, and kind of a half orange peel design in the border. Because of its diminutive size, this is named "Trip Around the Block" (rather than TATW).

If you look closely at this one you may be able to discern that the binding is only pinned down. Didn't quite have time to get the whole thing finished before the show. Since this was made from part of an "airport project kit" gifted to me by good friend Annie Miksch, before DH and I flew to visit DD#1 last fall, I have named this "Annie's Neighborhood". I hand quilted the houses and did the rest by machine.

Okay, here we go--show time. My apologies to those who asked for lots of pictures of the show. I didn't get any of the actual show. Though my friend took at least a couple dozen with my camera, something went wrong and when I tried to download them, nothing was there.
But I took a shot of my setup when it was all over.

 As I would tell about a quilt, I would take it from the little trunk (this was a mini trunk show, after all), and hang it with small clothespins to the lines strung between the poles. Many thanks to those who loaned back minis in their possession, that I had made. That helped so much, as I did not have time to complete everything that I had planned to make. In fact, four of the mini quilts are still flimsies.
Closer view of each display below.

Barb Vedder (Fun with Barb blog) made that sweet little flying geese quilt
in the upper left corner of this display. I used it with her permission.

I had another group of quilts that are small, but not mini. As they fit into the story of how I came to make miniature quilts, I would hold them up. Tonight I stuck them all up on my design wall and took a photo.

 You may recognize eight of them from SALs and QALs from Humble Quilts blog, Temecula Quilt Co. blog, quiltsbycheri blog, and Heartspun Quilts blog. Seven of these have not yet been quilted.

This is a re-creation of the display I had on a little table. Those are pincushions made of tiny quilt blocks in a bowl under the tree. To the far right is the trunk that held the mini quilts.

Click on this photo if you'd like a closer view of the tree ornaments (many of which were made by DD#1) and pincushions.

On the felt covered bulletin board I placed jewelry by Julie Letvin (Me & My Stitches blog), and two micro minis.

Which brings me to my final photo. Friday was the 3rd anniversary of my blog. Sometimes I think I have been blogging forever, and other times I feel like I am such a beginner. But however long it seems, I have met some incredible women who inspire me and support me and make me want to be better (not just in quilting, but in life). To thank those of you who are following along on my quilting journey, I offer this little anniversary giveaway.

There are 2 charm packs of new lines that I love, one of my micro minis (Baby Steps to Heaven), a 2" basket ornament, and a bag of my herbal soap. If you are interested, leave a comment and I will draw a name when I get around to it (that shows you how tired I am as I am typing this up--getting punchy). Let's say Wednesday is the cut off. I will draw at 9 p.m., or thereabouts. : )
Giveaway now closed.

Until next time,
Janet O.

p.s. Saturday morning I am attending a class by Sue Patten on quilting feathers. I am anxious to see what I can learn.

No Surprises Here

 I'm still making minis. Imagine that. : )

The three pictured below are all at flimsy stage. 

This photo is misleading. Those are oversized, decorative spools.

 You may recall these houses that my friend, Annie Miksch, prepped for me as a travel project when I went to visit DD#1 last Fall. There are six more houses waiting to be stitched up. Maybe the last six won't look as wonky as these first six do. My hand stitching skills were very rusty! I already have plans for the rest of the house blocks, but I won't be trying to finish them up for the trunk show.
These houses finish at 2 3/4 inches.

This little medallion style quilt is centered around a leftover basket from an earlier quilt. The basket finished at 2 1/4 inches. The geese finish at 1/2"x1" and, yes, they are paper pieced.

Didn't you expect me to make a mini pineapple
quilt? These blocks are the same size as my little ornaments--2 inches finished. Haven't removed the papers from this yet, and I am not looking forward to that!

Next up is a tiny Feathered Star. The star block will be 4 1/4" finished. I haven't yet decided the setting for this. The pattern puts 4 of them on point, but I don't have time to do that.

I've got 5 mini flimsies that need quilting. I need to get finished with the piecing and move on to the quilting and binding very soon!

Spring is finally here, and as proof there are 19 baby lambs on the farm. Triplets were born Friday. Maybe I can get a photo of some of the cute babies tomorrow to share in my next post.
Until then,
Janet O.