That was a question posed by Sheryl at Temecula Quilt Company back in a February post. I really had no idea how many little quilts there were around my house--they are tucked everywhere. So that question has been on the back of my mind ever since. Today, on a rare day at home, I had a notion to find out the answer. I pulled little quilts from every nook and cranny. My plan was to lay them out on the living room floor and take a photo from the loft. I could quickly see there were too many--even after moving the furniture. So I limited it to quilts I had made that did not involve wool applique, or that were not table runners. This is the final outcome.
I came up with 98 little quilts. If you add in the little wool applique quilts that didn't make the photo, the number comes to 123. There are another 30 little quilts that I have from swaps, gifts, or purchases. So now, months after Sheryl asked the question, I have an answer--153 finished little quilts. Actually, that is less than I had anticipated, but I realized I have given away or swapped around 60 little quilts, so mentally I was probably still including many of those.
Here is another view from a different perspective. Kind of fun to have a carpet of little quilts.
This is what it looked like in the living room after I finished gathering all of the little quilts. I had just been tossing them into the living room as I scurried from room to room, collecting them. Now I have the fun job of returning them to their homes--or finding new homes for them. Hmmm, why did I think this was a fun idea?
My little quilt obsession began a few years back when I was asked by a good friend to do a trunk show for her mini quilt guild. I panicked because I had given away most of the little quilts I had made. After a few months of very focused little quilt production, I was ready to go--with the help of a few people lending back the quilts I had given them. I have now done 3 trunk shows, and I still give away little quilts, but since I keep plenty on hand for a trunk show, no one asks. Isn't that the way of things? :)
Do you have little quilts around your house? Are you crazy enough to gather them and share a photo on your blog? Or if you have no blog, send me a photo and I would be happy share it. Maybe I am the only one that wanted to try making a quilt carpet. We'll see.
The winner of the drawing for the patterns in my last post is Barbara--more than one Barbara commented, but only one expressed an interest in the patterns. She has been contacted, and responded very promptly. Thank you, Barbara. That makes it easy.
Until next time,
Janet O.
This post may come as a shock to some who know that I don't spend a lot of time on hand work. But since most of the piecing I have done this week has been for the Indigo Challenge with Sandy, to be shared at the end of the month, I had to scrape the bottom of my quilting barrel to come up with anything to share.
First off--quilting on my BIG hand quilting project that has been basted and waiting for years! (I can see from the photo that this needs more lines for the background quilting.)
When I started quilting this I was having shoulder troubles and finally gave up on it until I could have the surgery. That got postponed a couple of years. Then my healing was slow, and I felt like I couldn't stress my shoulder. But eventually it got better, and now I have no more excuses. I gave myself a swift kick recently and committed to at least quilt 30-60 minutes a few nights a week. Back issues keep me from doing more at a time.
This quilt was to commemorate my youngest son's time as a missionary in Brazil--he has been home for almost 10 years (yikes)! He'll get it eventually.
Then there was the stitching I did while we were on the road for about 3 hours today (Saturday). My Stars in the Garden mini hexie quilt is my "go to" road trip project. The problem is that I don't enjoy stitching hexies and this little thing could very well be my lifetime project. I forced myself to attach 3 hexies to this flower today. That was all I could manage.
I keep a photocopy of the potential finish in the lid of the project box. As I finish a section I cross it out. When I look at what I have crossed out I try and tell myself that I am making progress. Then I remind myself how many years this much has taken and I realize I am practically standing still on this one. (Don't roll your eyes at me, Sarah--the hexie queen!)
I also made a smidgen of progress on my Circa 1880 quilt. I stitched my final "rogue" block, and laid out the row it will call home. This was foundation pieced, and I still have to remove the papers from the block. This will be in row 24--it is the last one I will make from my own blocks. The final three rows will be made from swapped blocks, when the last of my swaps are completed. This one is so close, I can almost taste it.
I have a few more patterns that want a home where they will be loved. Most of them are wool projects. Some are patterns I have already made, some are duplicates, and some I'm just sure I never will get made. I am not separating them--I just want to send this out as one bulk group.
If
you are interested, please mention it in your comment--and if you don't
know whether or not you are "no-reply", please include your email
address if you are serious about it. I will choose a random name from
the interested parties.
Just for fun, I am sharing a photo of me that was taken exactly 60 years ago. I came across this as I have been working on my Mom's history lately.
And exactly 8 years ago I began my blog. What fun it has been to build a blogging community with so many kind and generous, fun-loving and mischievous (you know who you are) quilters. Thank you all for reading, commenting, lurking, or whatever it is you do here. :)
Until next time,
Janet O.
In Pam Buda's Circa 1880 Club you get a new pattern for a small quilt on the even months of this year. This is April's pattern--I only have the top assembled. I am not sure how I will quilt this so it will sit on the back burner for now.
The cheddar Xs contain the names of the makers of the four blocks surrounding the X. I used up some of my extra swapped blocks to make this, and I wanted to remember who made the blocks I used.
My trial run cheddar and indigo piece is my April Mini-of-the-month with Wendy at The Constant Quilter blog. I hand quilted it and found enough long, skinny strips of the vintage indigo pieces from Sandy (my material creations blog) to make the binding. I really love how this turned out.
Now I need to get going on the actual mini I have in mind for the Indigo Challenge, which is to be completed by the end of next month. I really appreciate Sandy sharing her vintage indigo scraps and inviting a few of us to join her in a challenge to use them in making a mini. As I said, this was my trial run to get a feel for working with the fabrics. My actual challenge piece is sketched and waiting for some action.
You can see the quilting a little better in the photo of the back. Nothing fancy--just stitch-in-the-ditch, and triangles inside the large Indigo triangles.
This finished at 9 1/4" x 10 3/4".
The backing fabric is a pretty large-scale print that was sent to me by a generous blogger. I thought it finished off the piece nicely.
My Circa 1880 quilt continues to grow, and with that, so do the number of tiny rogue blocks I am inserting. To make sure they are "period correct" blocks (after all, this is an 1880s quilt) I pulled a bunch of books from my "quilt history" shelves and spent some time perusing their pages, looking for blocks that could be made smaller and work on a 4 x 4 grid. This is my latest creation. The blocks all finish at 2".
I now have 6 "rogue" blocks in my quilt. There will probably be one more. I have made 23 rows, and that is where the pattern ends, but I plan to put 4 more rows in mine and one of them will include the 7th "rogue" block.
Four of the blocks are completely different from the uneven 9-patch, but two of them are just different centers on the regular block. Can you find all six?
Okay--that concludes the quilty content. Stop here if that is all you want. Otherwise, here we go!
Did you know that April 21st is National Tea Day in The United Kingdom? Well, the little tea shop next door to the quilt shop over the mountain held a "British Invasion" tea tasting on April 19th in honor of that day. There were British flags hanging all around, Victorian furniture out front, Beetles music playing, and you could put on a fancy hat and have your photo taken with the queen. And you could taste any and all flavors of tea they had in the shop. On top of that, the tea was "buy 3 get one free".
Left: Me and the queen
Right: My friend Chris, trying another flavor
We certainly made the most of this event. Chris likes all kinds of tea, and she tried 15 varieties on her own. I only do herbal teas and she also tasted a few of the 10 herbal blends I sampled. She could probably take home a prize for the most teas tasted at a tasting, right Chris? We each have a generous stash of teas at home and admitted we didn't "need" more. But that didn't stop us from taking advantage of the sale. It was a fun evening. They hold these tastings the third Friday of every month, and the quilt shop next door keeps its doors open until 8 on those nights, too. Win/win!
Just wanted to share a few photos of the signs of spring around the farm. You can click on them for a better view.
Before posting this I looked back at my last post. I ended that one by saying it had been two weeks since I had posted and I hoped it wouldn't be that long before my next post. Well, it wasn't--it was longer. Three weeks!! Where does the time go?
I'm making no promises about my next post.
Until next time (whenever it may be),
Janet O.
This post is a real hodgepodge. I'll start with this little cheddar and indigo quilt top. Sandy (my material creations blog) recently had the good fortune to receive a bundle of old indigo
scraps that appear to be leftover cuttings from clothing construction.
She has been kind enough to share and there are a few of us
participating in a small quilt challenge incorporating the indigo scraps
in any way we choose.
When I think indigo, my mind immediately follows with cheddar, and I knew what I wanted to do with these lovely blues. But Sandy cautioned that the fabrics were on the thin side and they frayed easier than what we are used to using. So I decided to do a "trial run" little top to get a feel for working with them. That would give me a chance to see whether or not my idea would work.
I have always admired a little quilt Marian Edwards (Dream Weaver blog--scroll to the bottom of her post) made back when the Panama Pyramids craze was in full swing. It was the inspiration for this, but I switched the placement of the cheddar in my quilt. I wanted to show off the indigos. After working with the fabric, I think I may be able to go ahead with my original plan, if I am careful. Thanks, Sandy, for the chance to work with these wonderful vintage fabrics. Can't wait to see what the others create.
While digging for some particular scraps this weekend, I came upon my ancient string project. Just so you know, I don't love working with strings, but many years ago (like, more than 10) I took a class on foundation piecing with no pattern. Sounded interesting. We worked on 3 projects. One was finished into a quilt and donated. One was given away to someone who was more interested in finishing it than I was. And this one has been in a box for longer than I have been blogging. But Lori (humble quilts blog), who has been hosting a string-along, encouraged me to at least pull it out and look at it. So I did, and I do like the look of it.
And now that I have looked at it, it is once again in a box in the closet. :)
My design wall looked like this earlier this week. I got all of the Scrappy Trips blocks made. I need to press them and square them up before I start assembling them. I pulled out my Kansas Troubles fabric and found the light piece I wanted to use for the inner border. But I didn't have enough of anything I liked for an outer border (I want this bigger, but am so done making these blocks--started this in 2013).
So I ordered a piece from an etsy shop. Always risky--not knowing the true colors, but it is a Kansas Troubles fabric and they usually work pretty well together.
Now my design wall looks like this.
I have 14 rows made for my Circa 1880 quilt. Last post not a soul even tried to guess how many of these little blocks I had made. And I had planned to send a prize to the one who came closest. Oh, well. :)
These rows are not sewn together. I haven't trimmed the dog ears yet, and I am pondering whether or not to stay-stitch the edges, as some have recommended.
Every other row is made with blocks I received from someone via swaps. It is fun to be able to look down a row and recognize the person who made them based on their style and color preferences. But I won't leave it all to memory. I am planning on labeling each row with the maker's name.
If you look closely you may spot a rogue block. Last week at our Circa 1880 Club meeting it was mentioned that someone was making the quilt King Size AND they wanted to add a border around the edge of 2" basket blocks--with appliqued handles! It is a guy who works part time at the shop that is doing all this. Then someone else mentioned that it would be fun to put 2" baskets mixed in the quilt. I thought about that, and ended up deciding, "Why just baskets?" So right now my plan is to include a 2" log cabin, pineapple, star, and one or two other blocks. There will just be one of each, randomly scattered through the rows I make out of my own blocks. I like giving that little tweak to the design.
I guess that covers things for now. Hopefully it won't be another two weeks before I can put another post together--but don't hold your breath.
Until next time,
Janet O.
The Circa 1880 Quilt I am making as part of Pam Buda's Circa 1880 Club involves lots and lots of uneven 9-patch blocks (aka Puss-In-The-Corner blocks).There are 500-and-something of them in the finished quilt as designed by Pam. I am making my quilt two rows longer, and two rows wider. It is all that I have worked on in the two weeks since I last posted, though there is not much new to show. Here is what I have so far--hasn't changed a whole lot since my January retreat. I have sewn a lot more blocks since January, but haven't made many more rows.
There are 13 rows completed (or almost completed)--the bottom three in the photo still need to have their ends finished. I will make at least 12 more rows.
These are the blocks I have left of the ones I have made that are ready to use. There are 135 blocks here.
These are the blocks I have sewn, but have yet to press and trim. There are 125 blocks here.
Any
guesses as to how many of these blocks I have made--including the ones I
have sent away in swaps? Hint--I have made a whole lot more than I will
need for this quilt. :)
I have swapped with 7 quilters and these are the blocks they have made that are yet to be sewn into rows. There are about 160 blocks still to come from swaps. Seven of the rows in the top photo are made of blocks I have received in these swaps. As much as possible, I am making the shorter rows each from one quilter's blocks, and I will write their name on the end of the row made from their blocks.
And here is the next row laid out and waiting by my featherweight for the next time I can sit down and start stitching it together.
I am sure you will be seeing a lot of this project in the future. I hope to complete the top at some point during the year. The quilting will most likely wait until I have some other projects completed. Pam's is quilted with beautiful, small feathers, but I am considering an allover Baptist Fan design.
I will be starting to work on a fun mini quilt challenge soon. I am looking forward to sharing that with you as soon as I can.
Until next time,
Janet O.
This is actually my second mini quilt finish for March (highly unusual for me to have even one finished this early in the month, let alone two). The other one is in my previous post. I couldn't decide which one to let claim the honor for the Mini-a-Month challenge with Wendy (The Constant Quilter blog). They are both Pam Buda patterns. This one is from her book "Vintage Patchwork." Wendy is also sponsoring a SAL for the projects in this book, but I can't keep up with both.
May I introduce you to "Emma"?
She really is a tiny thing. I've been showing her around the house and maybe a couple of those shots will give you a better size perspective.
Here she is beside her namesake.
Yes, I love Brit Lit, which is one of the reasons I love the names of the little quilts and projects in this book of Pam's. I think I have read 10 of the 12 books whose titles she used--most of them multiple times.
And this is where Emma will reside for the next little while.
There is a story behind how I came up with the color palette I used. When I was at retreat back in January, on the last night you may recall that I shared how almost all of the participants had packed up and gone home hours before we had to vacate the building. I was furiously focused on my project as people were gathering their things and saying their good-byes, and when I heard someone announce that they were throwing away scraps larger than an inch, I didn't even look up. Now that is focused!
A couple of hours later I made my way to the large and almost overflowing trash bin to empty my thread catcher before packing up to go home. Sitting on the top of the heap, in a cardboard tray, was this amazing collection of scraps! They were pristine--no food scraps had been dumped on top of them. They were just sitting there waiting for me.
The largest pieces were folded and if you ignore the pointy corners they measure 3"x6". The smallest pieces are 2"x3". In my world those are huge! And there were four pieces of almost every fabric.
In order to make "Emma" I added two other fabrics in colors that matched a couple of the scraps, and I added the background fabric. I also pulled small bits of fabric from my scrap basket for the binding and backing. And I still have a lot of these little bits left for another small creation or two.
This shows you the backing, binding and quilting a little better.
I keep the quilting pretty simple on pieces this small, not wanting to overpower the piecing.
The half log cabin quilt top is finally off the design wall. I pushed my way through putting borders on in a timely manner. It is too big for the wall now, so I have it on the floor for this photo, and I am up in the loft, leaning over the railing to get the shot.
The final border is similar in color to my carpet, but I think you can tell where the quilt ends and the carpet begins.
This is what is on the design wall now--my version of Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips. You may recognize it as one of my projects from my retreat--for the last two years. It is all in Kansas Troubles fabrics collected for various projects over the years.
I only need 6 more blocks along the bottom before I can put these together. I have them all laid out on design boards, ready for when I have a few minutes to make a quick block.
I started this quilt in January of 2013 when the Scrappy Trips quilt-along was sweeping across the country. It has been in hiding (other than the last two retreats) for much too long. I am excited to be breathing life into it and hope to have the top finished soon. I do believe I will border it to make it a good bed size. It is pretty shocking that I am finishing quilts this year that are large enough to keep a real live person warm, instead of just decorating a wall or table top.
Quilts for warmth--what a concept. :)
Until next time,
Janet O.
The quilt for my Mom (made from my Dad's shirts) is finished and delivered.
Really happy with how it turned out. There is enough quilting to look nice, without being so much that it felt stiff. After washing it was soft and cuddly.
Mom was very happy with it. For all the quilts she has made, she only has two at her house--the one hanging behind her sofa that you can see behind her in this photo, and the one on her bed.
On the label of this quilt I explained that I quilted hearts on it so Mom could be wrapped in Dad's love.
I also finished off my Pam Buda Circa 1880 Club Small Quilt #1.
Couldn't resist feathering this outside border, and I rebelled against the directions that called for dark blue binding. I auditioned red, purple and pink for the binding--red won, obviously.
Another finish (kind of--it is a flimsy) is the half log cabin top. I started this just a year ago this month, a couple of weeks before I had shoulder surgery. You can read about it here.
I want to put a border or two on it. It will be for our youngest son one day. I took it up to our bedroom and laid it over the bed to see how much bigger I want it to be. That will play into my border decisions.
Hmmm...wonder if I can talk my son out of it. :)
Now for the fun mail. I received my little swap quilt (made from thrifted shirt fabrics) from Mary (quiltin grandma's blog). She used honeycomb shaped English Paper Piecing. I love it when I get a quilt made from a method I don't love to do--because I always like the look, even if I don't enjoy the process.
I took several photos, but this was the one I liked the best, posing it with some Valentine Teddy Bears I had yet to put away. Mary appliqued the edges to the border and then did straight line machine quilting. I especially love colors from the purple family that sing out from this cutie.
There were a few goodies tucked in with the quilt (hmm, looks like the chocolate has dwindled a bit). Thank you for a fun swap, Mary!
More fun mail--Barbara (my joyful journey blog) has been selling some
things from her sewing room. When it came to the quilts, I jumped at the
chance to have this one come live with me.
When she posted this finish I was so taken with it--for a minute I actually pondered whether or not I could bring myself to do enough applique to make one like it. I got over the feeling quickly! Happily, I can now hang it in my home without the pain of actually having to applique. Again, I love the look, but not the process. :)
The final fun mail was this FQ that arrived from Wendy. I had recently lamented using the last bit of this fabric on the back of a quilt.
Soon afterward Wendy discovered this among some FQs she won at a guild meeting, and she sent it on to me. Thanks so much, my friend!
There has been more activity in my sewing room lately than it has seen in quite a while--and it has been fun!
Until next time,
Janet O.
The winner of the drawing for the patterns in my last post is Barbara--more than one Barbara commented, but only one expressed an interest in the patterns. She has been contacted, and responded very promptly. Thank you, Barbara. That makes it easy. 
