JUNE monthly mini, etc.

I did have this almost finished in June, but the binding didn't happen until July. But here you have it. Linking with Wendy (theconstantquilter blog) for our monthly minis. Thanks for keeping us motivated, Wendy.

This is a very simple, straightforward little piece. Ten inches square with 4-patches finishing at 1". I had a bunch of little bits of red and blue binding pieces left by one of my machines over time, and there were many little red and blue strips in my scrap basket. I had been using these as leader/enders for a while, creating little 4-patch blocks. The muslin squares are from the backs cut out of the Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks after I appliqued them onto the muslin background. Everything came from one scrap basket or another. I usually make a patriotic mini in June for our family reunion auction, but that was canceled due to Covid19. I guess old habits die hard.

The quilting on this is all straight line done on my domestic machine. I thought about quilting something in the white, but opted to leave them empty and just quilt around the 4-patches and the borders.

We went camping for a few days last month and I took along the project-that-never-ends, otherwise known as Stars in the Garden, from a back issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects.

Who knows, it may get done in my lifetime yet. I think when I get the two center flowers finished I might start assembling what I have so far in order to keep me feeling motivated. That feeling comes and goes every year or two.

We celebrated our 42nd anniversary in June. Since we can't do many of our usual celebratory options, we visited a nearby migratory bird refuge and then got milkshakes. I wish I had taken my real camera. The photos I captured on my phone don't do justice to what we saw, but this was one of my favorites.

Back in April I dipped my toe into the mask-making pool (after having said I wasn't going to make masks), and at one point I thought I was done with it. But as our area has had a surge of new cases, I have made more than I ever thought I would. Have sewn and distributed 190 masks to date, and have orders for about 10 more at present. I don't charge for them, but when people find out I am making them I get inquiries.

This is what is currently in the works, with another pile of fabrics ready to be cut.

I think the color and pattern of fabric people choose tells me something about their personality. It is interesting.

My quilting and blogging time always decreases when there is yard work to be done. Add to that Mom's needs and mask making, and I have really been lax with the blog. May not be changing soon, but I will do my best to keep in touch.

Until next time,

Keep your hands clean and your face covered,

Janet O.

A Jewel Box made of scraps

Jewel Box is a traditional quilt pattern I have always admired. So when I started seeing quilts made from this pattern on a few blogs lately, I had a hard time resisting.

It is still a work in progress, but you get the idea. The individual four-patches will finish at 1".
It wasn't hard to get this far when I had a pile of these leftover from one secret project...









...and a bunch of these leftover from another secret project.








One of those secret projects is my August entry for the Mini of the Month with Wendy, and it will be revealed sometime next week. It was made for a "basket" mini quilt swap with Randy. Until then, I will give you another little peek.

Really gave it away there, didn't I? :)

The only other stitching I have done that I can show is a little bit of work on my lifetime hexie project, while on a quick trip over the mountain recently. I started a new flower.

In case you are new here, this is my project box for this little quilt. I keep a printout of the quilt taped into the top of the box, and I cross off each flower or star as I get it made.

I would like to start stitching together the parts I have made--sometime when I am in the mood to work on hexies. Except that never happens. :)
I love hexie quilts, but have no fondness for the process. 

We have family visiting for the next week or so. I won't be stitching or visiting blogs much, but I will be back sometime next week to post about my swap with Randy.
Until then,
Janet O.

Seeing Stars Again

Haven't touched a sewing machine for over a week, and even the hand stitching has been minimal. Instead, I have been busy making soap and testing some new-to-me gluten free flours.

I have managed a bit more stitching on Stars in the Garden.

There are two more flowers cut out and ready to stitch.
Trying really hard on this project NOT to make the flowers and stars all matchy-matchy.  I am combining fabrics I would normally never combine, in an effort to make this look like a real "make-do" quilt. On one of the stars I even used one hexagon of a different print from all the others in that round. I had enough of the original print, but I wanted it to appear that I hadn't. Can you spot it? : )

 Last night I felt like I should be stitching, but couldn't bring myself to drag out a work in progress. Then I remembered Lisa Bongean's recent block for the Splendid Sampler. I am not doing the sampler, but I really liked this pretty little applique block. Lisa did not do hers in wool. I did--and I changed the colorway.

At only 7" square, it is a sweet little block. Here I am auditioning Valdani flosses, and the possibility of adding tiny black buttons to the flower centers. Jury is still out on that.

I discovered that many of the wools I had chosen matched quite well with Lisa's Floral Gatherings line. I may need to piece a border to go around it--when I feel like it.

It is stitching up very quickly. Lisa named it Dedication Rose.

Fun mail today from my sweet friend, Pam Buda. Look at these wonderful scraps from her recent red/white/blue line of fabric. Love this line! Do you think I need to make a few more r/w/b minis? : )

 Maybe this will inspire me to get stitching again. I don't ever seem to stall with this color scheme!

I'll end with this photo of a photo of one of my Mother's quilts. Somehow the original photo became torn in half, but you can still see the lines of the feathered wreaths and diagonal lines Mom hand quilted. It is difficult to tell that the 9-patch blocks are double 9-patches.

She made this in 1991. It won Sweepstakes at our county fair and our state fair, and went to Houston that year. Just the quilt went--wish I had, too.
Until next time,
Janet O.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig!

Last word you had was that we had been stranded after setting off for Oregon and had ended up coming back home in a tow truck.
The next day we learned it would be a long repair job on our van (still isn't done), so we rented a vehicle and headed to Oregon again that afternoon.
Spent lots of time in the car working on this.

 

Stars in the Garden

One of our first stops was in Bend, where I had the great pleasure of meeting up with Randy (Barrister's Block blog) for lunch. We talked and laughed and felt like we had always been friends.

Randy is a very caring, kind woman--and lots of fun!

Three Sisters in the background

The Dee Wright Observatory

We couldn't resist stopping to climb this.

Our objective was to get to Eugene to spend time with this little gal--and her parents, of course.










We also took a couple of hikes to LOTS of these.

Upper Proxy Falls

On the Sweet Creek Trail--one of many Falls

At the beach below the Heceta Lighthouse

We spent a few hours at the coast...

Heceta Head Lighthouse

...and visited this.

Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Store, Restaurant and Bakery

On the way home we stopped off here to stock up on gluten free grains and have lunch in the restaurant.

Mt. Hood in the background

And we stretched our legs here.









When opportunities presented themselves, I stopped in at quilt shops and accumulated this.

Four shops in all--Quiltworks in Bend, The Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Piece by Piece in Eugene, and The Gathering Place in Rupert, ID.

We arrived home Friday afternoon, and after unpacking and settling in, I finished the quilting on the little corner basket blocks and got the binding stitched on while watching the Olympic opening ceremonies .

Now it is ready for some hand stitching to get the back of the binding sewn down. This will be small quilt finish #41 for this year!!

Had a wonderful time in Oregon--looking forward to future visits. But it is also "good to be back home again" (I feel like launching into a John Denver song here).
Until next time,
Janet O.

So Little Progress

This...                                                  has become this.                 

Eventually there will be 9 blocks to this little quilt.






Stars in the Garden has only had those few hexies in the corner added since last we saw it.



























I have sewn up a handful of the blocks for my blue/brown Primitive Gatherings Pinwheel Garden pattern. My blocks are 2" finished, though the pattern is for 3" finished (the pinwheels will finish at 1").

I don't think the fact that I am making my blocks smaller will come as a shock to anyone. 
You can see here that I make my pinwheels larger and trim them down to increase accuracy. The ones in the lower corner have not yet been assembled.

This is why  I haven't bothered sewing much lately. Little Maggie is here for a visit all the way from New Hampshire. (Oh, she brought her parents, too.) Would you be sewing if you could play with her instead? In a few days she and her parents will be going home and I will be very sad. I would try to tell you how good-natured this little gal is, but you would never believe me. Seriously!

I'll be back when Maggie and I have finished playing. : )

Janet O.

Slow Stitching

Over two weeks have passed since my last post, and my only stitching has been of the slow variety in the evening. I enjoyed Thanksgiving with my family, spent the weekend following making my holiday soaps, and since then it seems I have just been putting up Christmas lights and decorations (shown here), and doing physical therapy for multiple parts of my body. : )

I have worked a little on this. It is a pattern called Snowball, from Kathi Campbell of HeartToHand for a recent Farmhouse Threads blog hop. Lisa Bongean also had a great block I hope to stitch up. They are blocks for a quilt, but I am making them as little wall hangings.

You can click here to see what this is supposed to look like. I still need to stitch down the hat, add the pine needles, snowflakes and words. I am removing Christmas from mine. I want it for January.


I've also got this prepped for stitching.

This is the latest Buttermilk Basin Mystery BOM. You can click the link to see what it is supposed to look like. Can you even tell what that blob at the bottom of the block is? Hopefully it will be more defined with some embroidery. It is my own addition.


And I actually made a little (very little) progress on my Stars in The Garden project. The first flower is made, and it gives you a taste of the fabric that will be the path between the stars and flowers.

That is one of my favorite tiny neutral prints. It is an early design from Primitive Gatherings.





And I have Skyped whenever possible with DD#1 so I can visit with this little sweetie. 

This is the granddaughter I have gone to visit in NH twice this year. The adoption is now official and I can finally share her photo with you! Isn't she precious? Of course, I am totally unbiased. :)





I drew the winner for my giveaway last Saturday, as I said I would. Sarah (sarahdidit blog) was notified of her win and the package was sent on its way to her, probably crossing in the mail with the package she is sending me, because I ordered some of her great zippered bags as gifts. 

Maybe by the next post I will have dusted off my sewing machine. I might even sew something with it. : )
Janet O.

p.s. So far I am liking the drag and drop feature blogger has implemented for adding photos.

All "Tuckered" out!

In trying to redeem my botched effort at Pam Buda's Tucker SAL, I made my first attempt at 1/4" hexies. Remind me to make it the last. 

Just those 7 little hexie pieces to go in the center had me ready to scream. DD#1 has made some incredible things with this size. I'll leave it to her. I probably could have gone with a 3/8" size and maintained a bit more of my sanity in the process, while still having something that would fit in that center.

 

While we are on the subject of hexies, Karen's finish of her Stars in the Garden top has inspired me to pull mine out. There has actually been some progress here, though it is difficult for the untrained eye to detect.

There are 5 of these finished stars in the pattern, along with multiple partial stars, lots of hexie flowers, partial flowers, and connecting paths. You can see I have a long way to go. 

                                                                              

DH and I took a quick birthday jaunt yesterday. Among other things we ended up at the little quilt shop over the mountains. I picked up some wool and Valdani floss, and then a couple of other fun finds--the mini quilt holder on the left, and the ruler boxes on the right. A sweet blog friend had sent me a Temecula box last year and I love it! 

So one of the ruler boxes, with a few other items (herbal soap, ornament, and mini charm pack), will go to one lucky blog reader. Tell me how you think you would use the little box in your comment, and I will choose a winner on Saturday. If you aren't the winner, check out Me and My Stitches. They have just started carrying their own ruler boxes and have some very clever designs!

Most of my sewing time lately has been taken up with this project. Not the most fun type of quilt to make, right?

But it does mean that child #4 has graduated from college, and that is a good thing. I have just begun to put the coping strips around the blocks to bring them to the same size. Then I will sash it with a blue plaid (fussy-cut, of course) and hopefully it will end up looking something like this...

This was the quilt I made when child #3 graduated a few years ago. I will actually be using the very same blue plaid on the second quilt. I couldn't find a blue plaid locally that looked good without being too distracting, and I wanted a plaid. I knew this was an old South Seas Import fabric, but that is all I knew. Thank goodness for the internet. Within minutes I had found it in an etsy shop and was able to order plenty.

To my US friends, have a happy Thanksgiving, and no matter where you live, take time to give thanks for the good things in your life. One of the things I am grateful for is the view from my sewing room window!

Until next time, 

Janet O.

Drawing now closed.

All my bags are packed...

... I'm ready to go. Just sing along with me here, unless you are unfamiliar with the song "Leaving on a Jet Plane."

I am only going to be gone 7 days, but there are so many things people want me to take to the new baby or the new Mom--and there are a few things I wanted to take to them, too. : )

Maybe I can put my carry-on inside my checked bag on the way home (I hope).








There are a couple of hand-stitching projects tucked into those bags. Nothing new, but some that I will enjoy working on when I have sitting time.

Making Houses From Scraps was a gift project from my friend Annie M. when I was flying to visit my daughter a couple of years ago. There were 12 houses in the kit she sent and I got a few of them finished on that trip and then I worked on them at home until I got enough of them completed to make this little quilt which I call "Annie's Neighborhood."

 It currently hangs in my living room and greets you as you walk in the door.  I have a different layout planned for the other house blocks. I hope it will work out.

This is an old photo of the other project I packed. I have made a little progress on it, but it is packed away and I can't get a photo of it.

Maybe I will have something more to show when I get home.

I leave for the airport in less than an hour, but I wanted to let you know that Taryn (of Repro Quilt Lover blog) won my giveaway. Congrats to Taryn, and if you aren't familiar with her blog, check it out. I love her style.

I probably won't keep up with blogs much while I am away, but I'll catch you in a week.

Until then,
Janet O.