Done and Done!

I have now completed all of the challenges I plan to do as part of the SewCalGal 2013 FMQ Challenge. With the deadline less than a week away, I can breathe a sigh of relief!
I had only planned on doing one more, but you will see that I succumbed to two!

"It's All About Borders" was a challenge provided by Patsy Thompson. Her challenge in Dec. of 2012 was what I was working on last year when feathers finally started to click, so I have a soft spot in my heart for her. : )
For this challenge we were to create a quilt, table runner or wall hanging with 8-10 borders. In each border we were to quilt a different design, with at least two of them coming from Patsy's 2012 tutorial. We could design it in any way we wanted. Here is my finished piece.

Hard to see the quilting in that photo. Here are some close-ups.

The back side.

The fourth and eighth borders were from Patsy's tutorial. The third border was a variation on one of those designs. The first, second and sixth borders were made using stencils. The fifth border was based on Sarah Vedeler's Spiral tutorial in the November 2012 SewCalGal FMQ challenge. The seventh border was my take on a border design from LuAnn Kessi's sketchbook.
I had a lot of fun putting this together and choosing and quilting the border designs.

The last challenge I chose to complete was Quilted Postcards by Janet McElroy. We were to create one or more quilted postcards, with the option to participate in an organized exchange.  I dug into my batik scraps to make these four postcards, using Janet's tutorial.

This gives you a little better view of the quilting on them.

 These were fun to create, but more time consuming than would be practical any time I want to send a postcard. : )

They are all now addressed and ready to send off. Hope to get them in the mail tomorrow. I am not participating in the swap, but am sending them off to mostly unsuspecting recipients. What fun!

This is about all the quilting that has happened around here this month. Prepping for our trip to NH, taking our trip to NH and recovering from our trip to NH took a good chunk of the month. Then I spent a couple of days sick, and finally, on Tuesday I looked out my kitchen window to see my MIL lying in her driveway (she is my neighbor, across the pasture). She had tripped and fallen, breaking her upper femur and lower hip. So I have spent many hours this week at the hospital. I have been stitching on my little house blocks there. Maybe I'll share those next time.
Until then,
Janet O.

Bordering on Insanity

Does canning season make anyone else crazy? Boxes and buckets and bushels of ripe produce needing immediate attention, but life doesn't have a "pause" button while we take care of it all. So this week while jams and sauces were put in jars and pies and frozen veggies were crowded into the freezer, all I have had time for in the sewing room is borders!
This was a sampler made from Cheri's blog. It is a little thing--the blocks are about 3 inches. I'd link you to the instructions, but all of the photos are gone from her posts for it. However, she is starting a new fall SAL on Monday, if you want to join in.

Then I got the border on my version of Pam Buda's Nabby's Dowry.

I think I am going to name this Mahana (aka The Eight Cow Wife). Kind of a reverse on the dowry theme in Pam's title, and plays along with the tropical feel of the fabrics I have used. It is from a 1960s movie called Johnny Lingo, that is iconic in Mormon culture. It was based on a short story that appeared in Woman's Day magazine way back when. You can read about it on Wikipedia here, or even find the 30 minute movie on Youtube.

These 4-patch blocks had been getting shuffled around my sewing room for years. I don't even recall when or why they were made, but a few weeks ago I sewed them into this little quilt and this week I bordered it, too--why not? I was on a roll! This one may need tea dying.









I put another round of borders on this little piece that I made from scraps of Old Glory Gatherings recently. I thought it looked okay when I was doing it, but when I saw the photo, I wasn't crazy about it. I was thinking of binding it with a blue stripe cut on bias. Maybe that will help it. Or maybe I will just have to take off that outer border and try again.

The final border project really is insane. As my last project for this year's SewCalGal FMQ Challenge, I am doing Patsy Thompson's border challenge. You have to make a piece that has 8-10 borders for practicing a variety of border designs. It has to be finished by the end of October, and so far all I have done is select fabrics. This is what is piled on my cutting table waiting for inspiration to strike. More batiks!

I will be on the other side of the country for 8 days of October, and probably recovering from that trip for a few more afterward. Something had better come to me soon.

There was a very slight dusting of snow on the mountaintops this week, but whenever I thought about getting a photo they were shrouded in clouds. I love the contrast of white topped mountains when there is still fall color dressing the slopes. There wasn't enough snow this time to provide much contrast. It looked more like someone had sprinkled a little baby powder over the peaks, but I'm sure that will change soon enough.
Until next time,
Janet O.