This monthly mini (with Wendy @ The Constant Quilter blog) is posted with not a minute to spare. I had thought I would quilt the indigo/cheddar quilt in my last post for my monthly mini, but I still can't decide how I want to quilt it. I was down to the wire time-wise. I rummaged through the sewing room looking for something that would be a quick finish. The black/red/gold quilt in the photo below is what happened.
It was probably 5 or 6 years ago that I assembled the 4-patch and gold blocks. When I noticed that one of the black 4-patch units was turned the wrong way I decided I needed to fix it. I set it aside, but every time I thought I would fix it I decided I didn't love it enough to put the time into it to either fix it or finish it. I was desperate enough this time that I felt I could finish it without fixing it. So I slapped a couple of borders on it, did simple diagonal lines through the blocks and straight lines around the red border, with some loops in the outer border that you can see if you click on the photo to the left. I think I even like it now.
This week I also sewed up the final two rows of my Pam Buda Circa 1880 Quilt. I am loving this quilt, and I have enjoyed slipping in a few "rogue blocks." In fact, I added another one to my very last row. If you have ever tried to draft a churn dash block to finish at 2", you know the challenges I faced. Blocks based on a 3x3 grid don't play well on a 4x4 grid--but I persevered and finally ended up with parts assembled for three blocks.
I stitched them up and proceeded to add one of them to my last row. After pinning it to the design wall along with all of its friends, I stepped back and wondered what had gone wrong.
Okay, I admit I was sewing late at night--again! In my sleep deprived state I just added this block to the row, without removing one of the other blocks to make room for it. I still haven't fixed it. But I need to do it soon, and start sewing the rows together. I made mine with 27 rows. Every other row is made with blocks I swapped from another quilter. So I made 14 rows from my own blocks, and 13 rows with blocks from friends. I have really enjoyed the swapping.
Last, but definitely not least, Julie (My Threadbear Life blog) and I had agreed to do a little exchange. It ended up being a pincushion exchange--and so much more! Her package arrived today from New Zealand, and I am a little hesitant to send hers now. Look at the glorious contents I received.
The whole package smelled like lovely lavender, thanks to the soaps and the sachet. There are amazing flavors of chocolate, and a beautiful handmade card.
Get a closer look at this clever pincushion from an up-cycled old spinning wheel bobbin. Notice the little alphabet beads spell "quilt", and there are tiny hexies, and sewing related charms attached. I love it!
Up-cycling is Julie's specialty and her blog is a constant source of amazement for me. She is so creative.
I told Julie I hadn't sent her package yet because I wanted to include some of my herbal soap, and it isn't finished curing yet. I will probably send it next weekend, and when she has received it I will share with you what I sent. A huge thanks to Julie for the fun surprises, and for all of her inspiring blog posts!
If I don't hurry and post this it won't be August anymore, and my monthly minis are tired of always being late.
Until next time,
Janet O.
In Pam Buda's Circa 1880 Club you get a new pattern for a small quilt on the even months of this year. This is April's pattern--I only have the top assembled. I am not sure how I will quilt this so it will sit on the back burner for now.
The cheddar Xs contain the names of the makers of the four blocks surrounding the X. I used up some of my extra swapped blocks to make this, and I wanted to remember who made the blocks I used.
My trial run cheddar and indigo piece is my April Mini-of-the-month with Wendy at The Constant Quilter blog. I hand quilted it and found enough long, skinny strips of the vintage indigo pieces from Sandy (my material creations blog) to make the binding. I really love how this turned out.
Now I need to get going on the actual mini I have in mind for the Indigo Challenge, which is to be completed by the end of next month. I really appreciate Sandy sharing her vintage indigo scraps and inviting a few of us to join her in a challenge to use them in making a mini. As I said, this was my trial run to get a feel for working with the fabrics. My actual challenge piece is sketched and waiting for some action.
You can see the quilting a little better in the photo of the back. Nothing fancy--just stitch-in-the-ditch, and triangles inside the large Indigo triangles.
This finished at 9 1/4" x 10 3/4".
The backing fabric is a pretty large-scale print that was sent to me by a generous blogger. I thought it finished off the piece nicely.
My Circa 1880 quilt continues to grow, and with that, so do the number of tiny rogue blocks I am inserting. To make sure they are "period correct" blocks (after all, this is an 1880s quilt) I pulled a bunch of books from my "quilt history" shelves and spent some time perusing their pages, looking for blocks that could be made smaller and work on a 4 x 4 grid. This is my latest creation. The blocks all finish at 2".
I now have 6 "rogue" blocks in my quilt. There will probably be one more. I have made 23 rows, and that is where the pattern ends, but I plan to put 4 more rows in mine and one of them will include the 7th "rogue" block.
Four of the blocks are completely different from the uneven 9-patch, but two of them are just different centers on the regular block. Can you find all six?
Okay--that concludes the quilty content. Stop here if that is all you want. Otherwise, here we go!
Did you know that April 21st is National Tea Day in The United Kingdom? Well, the little tea shop next door to the quilt shop over the mountain held a "British Invasion" tea tasting on April 19th in honor of that day. There were British flags hanging all around, Victorian furniture out front, Beetles music playing, and you could put on a fancy hat and have your photo taken with the queen. And you could taste any and all flavors of tea they had in the shop. On top of that, the tea was "buy 3 get one free".
Left: Me and the queen
Right: My friend Chris, trying another flavor
We certainly made the most of this event. Chris likes all kinds of tea, and she tried 15 varieties on her own. I only do herbal teas and she also tasted a few of the 10 herbal blends I sampled. She could probably take home a prize for the most teas tasted at a tasting, right Chris? We each have a generous stash of teas at home and admitted we didn't "need" more. But that didn't stop us from taking advantage of the sale. It was a fun evening. They hold these tastings the third Friday of every month, and the quilt shop next door keeps its doors open until 8 on those nights, too. Win/win!
Just wanted to share a few photos of the signs of spring around the farm. You can click on them for a better view.
Before posting this I looked back at my last post. I ended that one by saying it had been two weeks since I had posted and I hoped it wouldn't be that long before my next post. Well, it wasn't--it was longer. Three weeks!! Where does the time go?
I'm making no promises about my next post.
Until next time (whenever it may be),
Janet O.
Get a closer look at this clever pincushion from an up-cycled old spinning wheel bobbin. Notice the little alphabet beads spell "quilt", and there are tiny hexies, and sewing related charms attached. I love it!
