Minutia

This post is a rundown on recent small quilt happenings. Just a string of little things.

At quiltsbycheri blog there has been a SAL for three little quilts made from 9-patches. She called this "Gathering Patches." 

I made enough blocks for the first two (wish I'd made the third one, too). This was the first. It is finished and in its new home. I bound it in red, as threatened.

The second one is still in flimsy stage. It did not have a border as Cheri made it, but I'm toying with the idea of putting one on mine. I am a border gal--not necessarily fancy ones, but I do like the look of a border. I know many vintage quilts did not use them, but I struggle to leave them off. Cheri's was also bound in cream. I've been trying to talk myself into that, too.

January's SAL at quiltsbycheri was "Counting Down The Hours", which I showed in my last post. I now have it bound.

 Does anyone remember this little quilt? Sometime last year Kathie Holland (inspiredbyantiquequilts blog) made a cheddar/red/green 9-patch set on point. She offered the trimmings when she squared up the sides and I was happy to receive them. I put this top together right away, but couldn't decided on the quilting, so it went in the closet. I wanted to do Baptist Fans, but I wasn't sure how to do it with FMQ. I finally found a way to mark them that worked for me. This was my first attempt and I went wonky a few times, but no unpicking.

I got Abundance (Lori's QAL at Humble Quilts) hand quilted and have machine sewn the binding. On the right you see it with what I call Irish Clover. I made it last year for St. Patrick's Day and started machine quilting it, but couldn't decide how to finish it. I finally got it done and have the binding machine sewn on. Maybe I will actually finish it before St Patrick's Day this year!  Now for some hand stitching on the binding of these two.

The little quilt above was made with scraps from an exchange with Sandi at kwiltnkats blog. I tried a feather swirl design to quilt it. I have decided that variegated thread isn't the best choice when doing "bump, bump" feathers. Backtracking is much more obvious when the thread changes color as you are retracing your stitches.

That's it for the mini quilt progress, but there will be more. I still have a few mini flimsies that I am determined to get finished before I pile too many more on.

Now I want to show you the latest addition to my sewing room. I've been saving my pennies since some time last year so that I could retire the kitchen island as my cutting surface. What a relief--for many reasons, that I won't go into here.

 Last month this was delivered to my house and today I went to the local JoAnn store with a 50% coupon and got the 2'x3' cutting board. I love my cutting station! I chose the option with the open shelf below the cutting surface. Not only was it a little less expensive that way, but it turned out that it is a perfect fit for one of my scrap baskets. Serendipity!

If you need me, I'll be in my sewing room--cutting things. : )

Janet O.

Temecula's Rothermel 25th Anniversary SAL quilt, sort of

I tried to follow Temecula's SAL directions all the way to the end, but I just couldn't make it work for me. So, with my apologies to them, this is the resulting flimsy.

Most of my CW stash is in the form of FQs. I tried to find fabrics to make the long vertical pieces in between rows, but from my limited CW yardage, nothing emerged that clicked for me. My default setting is sashing and cornerstones, so that is where this went. The outer border fabric is a Judie Rothermel design. I didn't have enough of her fabrics to make the whole quilt, but I thought I could at least surround the blocks with one of her designs. This isn't the best looking border I could have put on this piece, but it is the best of the two "Judie" fabrics that I had in large enough quantity to cover the territory. This was a fun SAL. The blocks made up quickly and the quilt is a little larger than most mini quilts.

 I don't know if you recall this little quilt that was a New Year's project on the quiltsbycheri blog, she called "Counting Down the Hours." I thought the little hourglass blocks were a clever idea for the new year. I made them from a French General charm pack that was gifted to me by Kris. On Tuesday, after having a delightful lunch in town with Kris the day before, I decided it was about time I quilted this up. I used the Sally Terry Twist stencil for the blocks and then called upon my SewCalGal FMQ Challenge experience to feather the border. Patsy Thompson's excellent December tutorial gave me the courage I needed to attempt this. On the first photo you can see the line I drew (using a bendable ruler as guide) to create the spine of the feathers. No, the feathers aren't perfect--far from it, but they are coming along. On the back side you can see the overall effect.

I have also played with another design of Patsy Thompson's that I want to use in a quilt sometime soon. I really enjoy quilting this one. It is on her website in her free downloadable designs, and you can buy the DVD where she demonstrates this one and many others.

'Gathering Patches" is the current SAL on quiltsbycheri blog. She is making three mini quilts from nine patches. I opted to only make the first two, which she has now posted. I followed the directions for the first one, but when it came to the border, mine just didn't look put together right. I know there isn't a "right" way, but I should like it, shouldn't I? So this is my flimsy--just added a narrow border before the outer one. So many of my fabrics were dark. Just thought it needed a bit of something to lighten it.

Don't cringe, but I think I will bind it with a red that came from my Homestead Hearth scrap bag. I have the second little "Gathering Patches" quilt on a design board, ready to sew together. I'll save that for another time, because I want to show you this...

I played in Kool Aid with my wool again on Wednesday. It is so fun! I left some of them bright for now (though the camera flash makes them appear brighter than they really are). Who knows, I might actually use some of it that way, but I really like creating a color and then making it "muddy" for a vintage look. Now I need to get busy and use it!

 I have made some progress (quite minimal) on Easy Street, and have almost finished hand quilting  Abundance. By next time I hope to have my Rancher's Daughter QAL blocks ready to link up with John'aLee at The Scrappy Appleyard.
So much fun stuff going on! : )
Janet O.