Monthly Mini Maker Baggie Challenge

Okay, here is the challenge I mentioned in a previous post. With Wendy's blessing, this challenge is open to bloggers who have participated or are participating with Wendy, at The Constant Quilter blog, making a "Monthly Mini".  When I was initially clearing off my cutting table after making my two monthly minis in August (seen here), I had planned to sweep those leftover half-hex and thimble shapes into a baggie for future use, before I changed plans and used them to create my September mini. I often put leftovers from a little quilt into a baggie, if I think I can make another little quilt out of them someday. Sometimes I will combine the contents of two or three baggies into one baggie because I think the combination of scraps would create a great little quilt. Sometimes I just find a bunch of scraps I like together as I am rummaging through my scrap baskets, and I bag them up for future use. At other times I am working with scraps someone else has sent me--whatever the source of the leftovers, they are usually stored in baggies at my house. Here are a few examples of mini quilts I have made using this approach.

 

I know many of you make your minis from scraps, but do you package up a bunch of them together for future use? Do you have little bags (or boxes or canisters, or whatever) filled with scraps that you think would make a great mini quilt someday? Several of my little "Monthly Minis" that have been created over the past few years were made by grabbing one of my baggies and seeing what I could make happen. I love that it forces me into more of a "make do" situation, than if I had my whole stash from which to pull. Here are a few more of my monthly minis made from bags of scraps.

The one above, on the left (July 2018), was made from homespun HSTs that had been sent to me by a good blogger friend, that I had stored in a baggie. It was patterned after a little quilt made by Marian Edwards (seen here). The one on the right (May 2021) was made using Kansas Troubles scraps my retreat buddy had given me (in a baggie). I added the 4 basket blocks I had leftover from another project. They were made from mostly KT fabrics and had been pinned to the side of my design wall for years, waiting for some love. Each of these have been given a good home.

The fall colored one above, on the left (November 2020), was from another baggie of scraps of fun Sandy Gervais fabrics that had been given to me. The one on the right (August 2019) came from my own scraps. I made a couple of purple/gold/black minis several years ago, and the leftovers went into a baggie. I did have to dig up a strip of neutral and some black for the border. These both still live with me.

There is a story behind the one above, on the left (March 2019). Something about scraps in a garbage can. You can read that story here. That quilt is now at home in a faraway land. The one on the right (July 2020) was primarily from a baggie of scraps sent by a good blogging buddy. I did have to turn to my scraps for the neutral sashing and the brown border. This quilt is staying with me!

So, my fellow "Monthly Mini Makers", here is my challenge, if you would like to accept it (cue the Mission:Impossible theme music). If you have a similar habit of storing scraps you think you'd like to turn into a mini someday, let's make that day come sooner, rather than later for one of those baggies. I challenge you to create one of your monthly minis during the next three months from a bag of scraps. Either October, November, or December will qualify, just have it done before the year ends, and when you post that particular monthly mini and link it to Wendy's Monthly Mini post, explain that it is your "Baggie Challenge" mini. Come January, after all those who participated have posted their Baggie Mini, I will draw a winner and send them one of my little "Baggie" quilts.

Wait! Before you go off to see if you have scrap bags, there are a few "guidelines".  

#1. When you have chosen your scrap baggie, lay out the scraps and take a photo. This photo shows the scraps that I used in making the quilt above, on the left--the one with the garbage can in its history. Believe me, my scraps aren't ever this neat.

#2. If you were to compare these fabrics to the mini I made from them, you would see that I added a neutral and one colored fabric. That is guideline #2. You don't have to use every bit of fabric in your baggie, but you can only add a maximum of 2 other fabrics--one being a neutral and the other one, a color.

#3. You are free to use your own stash to come up with binding and backing fabrics--they don't count as your options listed above in #2.

#4. When you post the finished product for your monthly mini, be sure to include your photo of the scraps in your post. We want to see "from whence they (meaning the quilt) came."

If you are doing the monthly minis, but just don't keep scraps stored as I have described, I may be able to help. I was trying to make room this month for all the fabric I picked up in Maine, and on a recent "shop hop" with friends, when I came upon a drawer full of several such baggies in my sewing room. Some of them had been long forgotten. And some were recent creations. So if you want to play along, but don't have the bagged scraps, the following are available on a "first come, first served" basis.

(Taken) #1 Madders and Blues that I had pulled from my scraps bins, thinking they would make a nice small quilt.

#2 Purple, Gold and Black are leftovers from a variety of projects, and since I have always liked these three colors together, I kept dropping more in the bag.

 

(Taken) #3 Cheddar and Blue with some neutrals added. I have always loved this combo and have made several quilts with these colors, so I kept dropping leftovers in this bag, too.

(Taken) #4 Pink and Brown with a couple of neutrals. I have been saving pink and brown CW repros in a tub for years and finally pulled them out for Barbara Brackman's Hands All Around BOM this year. These are some of the scraps that have been piling up from that project.
 

#5 Red, White and Blue--It might be kind of hard to tell from the photo above, but the first three piles on the left are for #5. I didn't think about how confusing it would be to have the red/white/blue scraps right next to the red/white scraps. I am always looking for an excuse to make R/W/B quilts, so as I saw these colors piling up in my scrap baskets, I did some thinning of the herd to get a baggie of R/W/B.

#6 Red and White are such a classic combo. I set these apart from the fabrics in #5 because these are brighter, truer colors, rather than the muddied side of the spectrum, but there aren't as many pieces here as there are in some of the other baggies.

And if you are not a repro fan, you have a couple of options.

#7 Bright Red, White and Blue, not the darker shades of the repro collection above. This collection came mostly from one of those "fill a bag as full as you can for $$" at a shop just over an hour away.

#8 Fall Colors--leftovers from the "It's So Vermonty" fall quilt I made from Bonnie Hunter's Crab Apples quilt.

So, if you participate in Wendy's Monthly Mini, let me know if you plan on playing along with this baggie challenge, and if you need me to send you a baggie of scraps, let me know that, too. You can keep on doing the monthly mini and NOT do this challenge. This is just if you want to make it a little more "challenging" during one of the next three months.

 Until next time,                                                                                          

Janet O.

September Monthly Mini

When I finished my two monthly minis for last month (seen here), I had just a handful of half-hex and thimble shapes leftover. They sat in a small stack on my cutting table for several days. Then one day, as I was cleaning off the cutting table so I could actually use it for its intended purpose, I saw that little stack and began to wonder. Could I possibly make a little quilt with those two different leftover shapes as my focus? I had to try. I knew I was going to try a strippy quilt. I just hadn't thought I would end up stacking those thimbles and half-hex shapes vertically.

This little quilt, with its one ray of sunshine, measures 13 1/2 x 10 3/4". It was amazing to me that the leftover shapes made exactly two stacked rows of half-hexes and one row of thimbles that were the same height. The colors aren't as balanced as I would have done if I was working with my whole stash, but that is part of the fun of this process--work with what you have. I found a Jo Morton print that had those two lovely stripes in the design. The biggest dilemma was that I had it in two colorways, and I struggled over whether to use the red or green. As you can see, the red won, but I went for a happy green Betsy Chutchian print for the binding.

This was actually finished very early in the month, and that is highly unusual for me! Linking up with our Monthly Mini Master, Wendy Reed at The Constant Quilter blog.

I quilted this on my domestic machine, going straight along the the seams between rows, and then with some very careful backtracking, I quilted between the stacked shapes. There is an egg and dart design quilted over the floral stripe and a straight line quilted down the narrow striped design.

Maybe you will be able to make out everything I just described if you click to enlarge this photo of the back.

I had hinted at a surprise/challenge in this post, but I didn't get all the details worked out before this post needed to go live (and I still missed September by 1 minute). Hopefully I can still get the challenge in soon.

Lately I have had much more time in the sewing room than I have had for years, it seems. It has taken a while for the sewing mojo to return, but the past two weeks I have finally got all of the blocks finished for the Heartfelt BOW with Gay Bomers, at Sentimental Stitches. I am not doing the center applique block and am playing around with other possible settings. Will share the results soon. I have also been trying to catch up with the Barbara Brackman Hands All Around BOM. I am still two months behind, but it is doable. However, now I remember why I don't usually sign up for these things!! LOL

And then there is Lori's SAL at Humble Quilts. Just caught up with that today. Doing it a bit differently, which you will see soon. And in about a week Pam Buda will begin her next doll quilt SAL. It is very cute and there will be no resistance here. You can see what we will be making here, and maybe you will choose to join in, too.

That's it for now, other than I hope you will enjoy a few photos of the Fall color as we drove over the mountain yesterday to my favorite "local" quilt shop. You should be able to click on any photo to enlarge it.

Until next time,

Janet O.

It has been such a hot, dry year that we had been told not to expect much color. I was surprised to see it this bright, but it was very much a treat to this autumn loving gal.

And this is the view out my sewing room window. I zoomed in so you could see the sprinkling of color better.

New England Visit--Part 3A

Part 3A? What does that mean?!? Well, it means that my visit to The New England Quilt Museum cannot be summed up in one post, so there will be a Part 3B coming up--probably in October, because my next post will be my September Monthly Mini. I have a little surprise planned for that post, so that is why I will save the rest of my museum post for early October.

If you have been to The New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts, these are familiar sights to you. We parked on the back side and this sight let us know we were parked in the right place.

Since we arrived a few minutes before opening, we walked around to the other side of the building, past the front entrance, and waited in this pleasant little area for the minutes until opening to pass.

There were two featured exhibits and I think each one deserves their own post. I will begin with "Quilts Japan".

The quilts were incredible. I had such a hard time choosing which ones to share, but finally narrowed it down to my top 10 favorites. They are in no particular order. Blogger does not cooperate anymore on photo placement, so we will have to take what we get here. The documentation, and any close-ups I may have taken, will follow each quilt.

This one was so vibrant. It really took my breath away! I can't believe I didn't get any close-up shots.

When you look at the close-up of this below, the stitching doesn't seem complicated. But the way it was put together just radiates movement and flow.

I loved this--a traditional design (Pickle Dish) used in different ways. And I hope you caught the lovely appliqued butterflies flitting across the surface. Again, no close-ups. What was I thinking?

 

              A wonderful Baltimore Album in Japanese fabrics. Meticulous work!

               This has a very playful feel, and the name seems to back that up.

I've always loved a good Mariner's Compass, so this really caught my eye. Wish I had centered the photo better.

 

The last line of the description fits this quilt perfectly. Maybe that was why I was so drawn to it.

If you can't tell from the photo, the energy practically vibrated from this quilt. I almost expected to be able to hear it.

This show had so much variety, and was very beautifully displayed. I only had a little over an hour to see everything the museum had to offer. I solved that problem by taking a photo of everything that caught my eye, and also a photo of the documentation. And sometimes, when I thought of it, I took a close-up or two of a quilt. That way when I came home I could study the photos and read the documentation closely. 

I had been "warned" that The New England Quilt Museum wasn't large, but I have to say, it did NOT disappoint! The quilts were well hung and lighted. The documentation was easy to read. The flow through the museum was well-planned, and the Museum Store was very tastefully stocked. I couldn't have been more pleased. The exhibit I've shared here is no longer available there, but the current exhibit is of "Quarantine Quilts." Yes, it includes Wendy Reed's wonderful "Community Supper." Wish I could go back and see that hanging in the museum! And the incredible quilts of Kathy Cray are still there. I'll share those with you in part 3B. :)

Stay tuned for the next post on Thursday (hopefully), where I will have my Monthly Mini, and also invite you to participate in a challenge with me.

Until next time, be kind, gentle and understanding, in a world where those qualities are too often forgotten.

Janet O.

p.s. You should be able to click on any photo to get a closer look!

New England Visit--Part 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cyndi Black's quilt shop, The Busy Thimble, is like a cottage in the woods in Litchfield, Maine. Wendy Reed drove me over the winding, hilly roads of New England to the quaint shop. I had been here once before with my daughter, six years ago. I was so happy to be back again, and be greeted by this wonderful sight--that is Cyndi on the porch to meet us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once inside, I let my monthly minis from last month go to their new owners.

 

We had a chance to look over a wonderful work in progress that Cyndi brought out to share.

And we did some serious fabric shopping, while talking and laughing, and solving the world's problems. Quilters are so good at that!

But I want to give you a trunk show of Cyndi's wonderful little quilts from all over the shop. I was in small quilt heaven! Hang on, and enjoy! Click to enlarge the photos to get a better look.

In this one Wendy is being a good sport and standing in the photo, too, because I told asked her to. 

 

 

 

 

For some reason, this photo will not enlarge like the others.

Wasn't this a fun show of little quilts? I have more photos, but you get the idea. It was a dream come true to visit Cyndi and her shop again. She is a gracious woman, and a talented quilter.

After the shopping, we went outside to get a selfie together, sans the masks. You may have already seen this on Wendy's blog, but here we are again. A memorable couple of hours, that went by far too quickly!

I was in the presence of greatness with these two women, and loving every minute of it. Thank you, ladies, for the friendship and the laughter--and the fabric!! Don't forget the fabric!

This is what I brought home. Most of it is in 1/2 yard to 1 yard cuts. There are a couple of charm packs and a few bundles of smaller cuts. My focus was toiles, conversation prints, older Judie Rothermel prints, and anything else that caught my eye. And how did I get all of this home? Well, I hadn't brought a carry-on bag, so I stuffed the fabric in this lobster shopping bag I had picked up in Maine, and that was my carry-on for the trip home. In the photo it is resting on my checked bag. It was heavier than it looks, and when I had to lug it through the Chicago airport on our layover, I wished it had wheels!

It was a magical morning with Cyndi and Wendy, and I hated to have it end. 

My  next post, Part 3, will cover my visit to The New England Quilt Museum. It did not disappoint!

Until next time, be kind, especially when you think someone doesn't deserve it.

Janet O.