Two more down,

...about 18 more to go. I'm talking about little quilts that have been waiting to be quilted.

The patriotic one is the little quilt I made by slicing up a large LeMoyne Star block made by Michelle C.
The leaf quilt was made with the trimmings I begged for received from fellow class members after a demo of Carmen Geddes' fusible piecing method.

Kept the quilting simple on these two. 

The leaves got a hooked swirl and ditch stitching in the light border.

The stars were ditch stitched and then a paisley filled in the background. A simple looped border finished it off.

So now this pile of little basted quilts has become this pile of finished quilts--well, kind of. I had already gifted the snowman quilt, so I subbed the tumbler topper that I had made in the midst of the quilting frenzy. BTW, I have a bunch of those cut tumblers leftover. Anyone interested?

Now I have another pile basted and ready for quilting.

The pile includes a Temecula Summer Stars quilt, Pam Buda's Patchwork Pocket SAL, and the little r/w/b one at the bottom was a block gifted by Vic. It has taken me too long to get these quilted!

This is the state of my current little projects. Pinwheel Garden (blue and brown one) is receiving most of my attention, when I am not working on the ubiquitous T-shirt quilt. The other two projects are all cut, but haven't seen much action.

I'm not paper-piecing, as the pattern recommends, so it isn't perfect, but I am happy with it. The blocks are 4", as opposed to the 6" in the pattern. Everything seems to shrink in my hands. : )
Five out of twelve blocks made. I have all of the fabrics chosen and two more blocks are cut. The only rush on this project is my own anxiousness to see it completed.

 Took this shot from the front deck as the setting sun was sending a golden glow to the mountaintops across the valley. This is NOT the view from my sewing room window--opposite sides of the house.

Until next time,
Janet O.
 

Chalk up a couple more finishes!

 I am on a roll! Five of the seven little quilts I basted last month are now quilted and bound (plus the tumbler topper I made for my hutch). These are the latest two.

 

You may recognize that one of these quilts is my version of Pam Buda's "Tucker" SAL. 

 The other quilt is from a Lori Smith Fit To Frame pattern. About 4 years ago when a new LQS opened, they had this little star quilt on display. I remember loving it and wanting to make it. I bought the pattern, which was a rare event for me, at that time. Usually I made up my quilts as I went along. Though I loved the shop sample from a distance, I wasn't thrilled with the machine quilting--mostly SITD. I determined that I would hand quilt mine.

Well, according to my blog post from back in Oct. 2011, when I got this project to flimsy stage, it was the first "mini" quilt I ever made. Can you believe it? This was the first!! (And today I don't know that I would even consider it a mini.)
This little top has been sitting ever since then, waiting for me to hand quilt it. I finally faced reality and machine quilted it this week.
To the left is the back view.

I took one final photo of Snowball before gifting it. I added some quilting to the "snow base" and took it out for a photo in its natural habitat. I didn't use a flash so the quilting would show up.

If you follow the Temecula Quilt Co. blog you may have recently seen this rustic looking clipboard from Pottery Barn being used as a mini quilt holder. It was on sale and there was free shipping. How could I resist? This is hanging on the side of my kitchen cabinet now. I love it.


 Look at this cute little heart quilt that was my Valentine from a sweet blog friend (thank you, thank you). Perfect for the little quilt hanger I got for my birthday last year.

 And speaking of Valentines, hubby and I took the day last Friday for a Valentine getaway. We drove south a couple of hours to a couple of events...

The new LDS Temple in Provo, UT is currently open to the public for tours prior to dedication, and the BYU Museum of Art was hosting a Norman Rockwell exhibit. Thoroughly enjoyed both experiences. We also took a test drive in a car we are considering, got a little lunch, and stopped at Trader Joe's before heading back home. Not a single quilt shop was visited in this excursion. I'm slipping!

Until next time,
Janet O.

Bound--and Determined!

The little purple star quilt is bound now. I don't have a name for this yet. Any ideas?


 This photo on the left gives you a better view of the quilting.

I got this one bound, too. I stitched tiny buttons into the cornerstones.
Haven't come up with a name for this, either. I had considered Christmas in Kansas, since it is all KT fabrics in Christmas colors. Maybe that will stick--maybe not.

This Snowy Gathering mat, designed by Lisa Bongean, is all blanket stitched now and the edge is bound.


Is this a great match, or what? This is a mayonnaise jar turned candle holder that a very talented friend painted for me years ago. It looks like I tried to make the mat to match, but it never occurred to me. It just happened. : )

The tumbler topper got stitched together last week. Yesterday I did some simple meander quilting on it  and got the binding sewn on one side and pinned. It is waiting for some slow stitching in the evenings to complete the binding.

Then I will finally have a topper for my dining room hutch when there isn't a holiday topper to fill the space.





Last of all, Snowball got quilted and the binding is pinned down ready for hand stitching.

Now I am determined to get back to work on the T-shirt quilt AND I am determined NOT to join any of the bazillion fun SALs that are popping up like daisies all over blogland. My goodness, it is tough to be strong, with temptation at every turn! But I have made it all the way through January and the first week of February without succumbing. So far, so good!

Until next time,
Janet O.

A Sewing Frenzy

Though I'd had a full schedule of appointments, Thursday ended up being a sick day at home. I probably should have slept,  but I needed to sew. I really needed to! I wasn't feverish, but I was feverishly sewing.

Made some progress on my blue/brown version of Primitive Gatherings Pinwheel Garden.

The pattern recommends paper piecing the HSTs, but  I opted for the "optional method" without the papers.


These blocks will finish at 4", which means that each pinwheel is 1". It is really fun to see these blocks come together.

The little pinwheel star quilt top I made recently was created from a bag of HSTs a friend had given me. She also gave me a little bag of Kansas Troubles 1" strips in a variety of lengths. It took me a while, but I finally figured out that they were for log cabin blocks. I used them as leader/enders for my day of frenzied sewing.

These blocks will finish at 3 1/2". Haven't counted to see how many blocks I will get out of these pieces.

I used some leftover pieces of other projects to whip up a couple of pincushions.

And I got a stack of little quilts pin basted so I have no excuse not to get quilting.

In fact, I have started stitching on the two in the bottom of the photo. 

This is what I created from the little purple stars in my previous post. The ditch stitching is done and I am marking it for FMQ.

A lovely surprise came in the mail from Sue. She made such clever, collapsible  thread catchers and showed them on her blog. She offered to send me the pattern. Well, it wasn't just a pattern that arrived all the way from Australia. A beautiful cheddar thread catcher was included. Thanks so much, Sue!!

Had lunch earlier this week with my good buddy Kris, from Lavender Quilts blog. Look what she brought me. Does she know me, or what? : )  Thanks bunches, Kris!!

I have already drooled over looked through it a couple of times. I need to finish some other projects so I can start some new ones!!







Felt so good to finally have a sewing day, even though I didn't feel good. : )
Until next time, 
Janet O.

Sundry Things

Just dabbling in this and that when I have a minute. Seems I can't focus lately.
This is something I have been wanting to make for a long time. Prepped the wool one evening and have been stitching in spare moments. Just have to finish going around the trees and then stitch it to the backing.

Designed by Lisa Bongean, this little mat is cut from a 12" square of wool. This blue wool came from a pair of slacks at a local thrift store. A lucky find.
The pattern is named Snowy Gathering, and is found in the Winter 2013 issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects.
One of these days I might do a "snowman only" post. Can't believe how many of them I have stitched.

Before the holidays I had cut a bunch of purple and neutral scraps into HSTs for a long overdue project. Life got in the way and I didn't get anything finished as planned. So I stitched them together as leader/enders over the past few weeks. I toyed with different settings, but finally settled on these stars, that will finish at 3". The size of star was determined by the size of triangles I could cut from the scraps on hand.


The blocks for my youngest son's college T-shirt quilt all need coping strips in order to get them to a uniform size. Not my favorite task, so I am forcing myself to border a few blocks when I have a rare day at home. Ten down, twenty more to go!

It seems that when there is no holiday imminent, I don't have a non-seasonal runner for my hutch--at least not one I like.

So I grabbed a couple of Kansas Troubles mini charm packs, and some KT scraps, pulled out my trusty 2 1/2" tumbler template from MSQC, and went to town cutting tumblers. Kind of went overboard and cut many more than I will need. 

Fun mail from New England, lately. I won a giveaway on Vic's blog and received these wonderful FQs, and a couple of her delightful, handmade lavender sachets. And Grace sent this fun quilt block calendar that is now hanging in my sewing room. I have had the delightful opportunity to meet both of these bloggers while in NH and I consider them good friends. Thanks, ladies!


I'll finish with this shot from my sewing room window. Love it when the sunset makes it look as if there is fire on the mountains.

Until next time, when maybe I will have finished something--anything!!
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.