Two by Two

Well, true to my usual form of not being able to stop at one of anything, I got my second little Halloween mini quilted and bound. It is the larger, rail fence quilt in this photo. As I look at the photo I can see I still haven't removed the chalk marks. It is more obvious with the camera flash.

I quilted it with a swirl pattern. Makes me think of a windy Halloween night. : )

You can also see from the first photo that I've been busy with the Poor Lil' Punky pincushion pattern by Julie Letvin (of the tiny paper-pieced jewelry fame) that was in the latest issue of "Simple Quilts".

So if you buy the magazine on the left (I finally found it at Sam's Club), you will find the pattern on the right inside of it. I don't even like paper piecing, but I loved the pattern, and considering my recent pincushion obsession, I had to give it a try. I did do the same thing that I had done with the Tuffets pincushions--I made them boxy, instead of pillow shaped. And I mixed up the color scheme a little--two Lil' Punkys with no candle glowing, and two that are lit up.
If you want to make them and don't have orange fabrics in your stash, you can order a kit with the fabrics, if you'd like, on Julie's website. And if you want to make them boxy, check out my "Tuffet Tute" tab.

I took great advantage of The Stencil Company's September special offer for participants in SewCalGal's Free Motion Quilt Challenge. I have been waiting for these to arrive...

 ...so that I could work on this. It is one of the two Fall colored minis I made using the Temecula Summer Stars Quilt -Along. 

This one will be going to Carla, who won the drawing for it from those who had donated to my daughter's fundraiser. I got all of the straight line quilting done a couple of weeks ago, but I was waiting for my stencil order to finish it up. Something that I have learned along the way in this FMQ Challenge is that I like using stencils. I never thought I would say that. My first attempts with them were really pathetic.

From the back you can get an idea of how it is coming along. I'd better get busy and finish this. After all, there is a second one waiting to be done--and someone waiting very patiently for it.

I did draw the winner for my little Fall giveaway on Monday night. I notified the winner and sent off her prize, but never had time to sit down and post about it. Grace, at citymousequilter blog, informed me by email today that she has received her package. Thanks to all who entered, and congrats to Grace!
Hope to get some minis that I owe people finished up this month and get serious about some bed quilts that are intended as Christmas gifts. Gotta hurry! Do you have your Christmas "gifts to make" list under control? If so, please tell me how you do it. : )
Until next time,
Janet O.

Why do I do this?

Do you recall the problem I had when Temecula Quilt Co. posted their Blessings Baskets SAL? I couldn't stop and ended up making 4 of those (you can see them all HERE).
So I wasn't going to do that with their Summer Stars SAL, and I didn't. I only made three sets, (but there is a fourth one playing with my mind). This was the first. In my last post I was struggling with the dark sashing overpowering it and asked for input. I tried the options and advice and this is how it finished. The narrow band of blue at the top is the tryout for the binding.

Before they posted the setting I decided to make the "Fall"-ing Stars mini using their star block patterns and I put it in the setting of their Blessings Baskets (see it HERE, along with info on how you could win it by donating to Dravet Syndrome research). Both SALs use 4 1/2" blocks, so they are interchangeable. I thought that was handy.

I liked it well enough that I decided to make another one as a gift, but using only five of the stars. I tried narrower sashing on this one, and I liked it, so I used the narrower sashing on the first one (I assembled it last of the three).

Here we have all three.

Maybe I should just stop following the Temecula blog. Their little quilts are like Lay's Potato Chips--I can't do just one. You may recall a few posts ago I showed a mini rail fence quilt I made using a quilt on their blog as inspiration. Then I made a second one with the leftover rail blocks. And a third mini materialized from the trimmings. I had to take the border off of the third one to finish the sashing on the star quilt at the top of the post, so I finally bordered this little piece with something else and yesterday I quilted it and finished the binding today. This is a 7 1/2" square. The little squares are 1/2" finished. Would you say this is a Super-Sized mug rug or a very tiny quilt? I can't decide.

 You can see the quilting a little better on the back. Nothing fancy.

Recently my very kind blog friend, Teresa, loaned me her Marti Michell templates to finish cutting my "Ramblin' Rose Meets Jamestown" (aka Random Roses in Jamestown) BOM blocks. So they are now all cut (much more easily than without the templates) and I finally got last month's block stitched up. It is top, left. The blocks along the bottom are on design boards, waiting their turn to be stitched. The pattern calls for log cabins as setting blocks. I think I may use chain blocks instead.

Finally, in keeping with my lack of self-restraint, I'm showing what I did after Cheri shared some little quilts on Labor Day.  These finish at 8 1/2" by 10 1/2". I needed some quick leader/enders while I made the star quilts and the BOM. My CW scrap basket was handy, so this was a no-brainer. But why couldn't I just make one?

Lately I have really been going overboard on the minis. I need to get serious about finishing a big quilt for a change. But first I need to quilt some of these minis that are soon to be gifts. I'd better go warm up  Gidget. 

Until next time, 

Janet O.

Thanks for your support!

This was the donation quilt for my daughter's fundraiser yesterday before we went to the event. Thank you, Doniene, for relieving so much stress from my shoulders by providing a finished top.
This was the quilt this morning when the happy winner, Debby P., and her daughter picked it up. She was thrilled to receive it.

Several of you have asked how you can help in our efforts and some of you have already donated. I have been trying to think of a way for you to be able to participate in our drawing and while I was working on the binding of this quilt I came up with something. When Doniene sent this quilt top she included some of the leftover background fabric. I had backing and binding fabric left, too. As I was stitching the binding I saw the pile of these leftover fabrics sitting nearby. I also saw the Temecula Summer Stars that I have made sitting on a design board. That is when the idea clicked. These lovely fall colors with the Summer Stars blocks seemed to need to come together in "Fall"-ing Stars (get it?).

Today was the culmination of my daughter's first fundraiser. The second and last one for the year will wrap up September 15. Between now and then I will be getting this quilted and bound. During that time any of you that make a $10 donation to help support Dravet Syndrome research on my daughter's blog HERE, will be included in a drawing for this little quilt (It will be about 23"x30" finished). Those of you who have already donated are automatically included--one chance per $10. If your name on the donation is something I wouldn't recognize because it is so different from your blog name, just leave your blog name in the notes or email an explanation to me. I will draw the winner at midnight on Sept. 15th.

I appreciate your patience with me as I spread the word about this devastating syndrome that has my youngest grandson in its grip. I am not begging for money--I am just trying to provide a way to thank those who have chosen to help, and to invite others to participate if they choose. I'm sure if you had to stand by helplessly and watch a precious grandchild repeatedly endure seizures that at times have lasted 30 minutes or more, I think you would want to do all you could to raise awareness and funds for research. The photo to the right is Ben wearing the helmet that helps protect him from head injury when seizures cause him to fall, which can happen many, many times on a bad day.

Two other quick items--I have been making the Temecula Stars in Civil War scraps and had been thinking there would be eight of them. That was before I noticed on the calender this week that there are 5 Fridays this month. I had already been guessing at settings for 8 blocks--in fact, the setting I used for "Fall"ing Stars (above) was my guess. So now I am caught up and will wait for the 9th star before assuming that I know how they will be set.

And finally, I was happy to be able to snag the last of the three AAQI quilts that were a collaborative effort between Lori D. and Kathie H. When I finally figure out where my wall of little quilts is going to be, I will be happy to include this.

Oh, you patient followers (and lurkers) who endure these long posts. Bless you all!
Until next time,
Janet O.