July Monthly Mini

 

I borrowed this idea from many others who have done this. Scene within  a square of toile, framed with scraps. Lightly quilted. See more on Wendy’s blog, here. 

Meanwhile I finished piecing the center of my BIL’s Quilt of Valor. 

Far from perfect, but at least I managed to not cut off any of my star points. Next round, two rows of 3” blue and light nine-patches, with alternating light blocks. Fun! 

All for now,

Sandy

 

a day late

In my apparent state of (ambivalence? dimentia?) I forgot to hang my Flag Quilt yesterday.

 I took care of that this morning.

 Meanwhile, while I'm here, I thought I'd try to share with you something I came across this morning while surfing around on Pinterest.  Like many of you, I was and am still a great fan of Sue Garman, and was stunned and distressed when she passed away several years ago. I continued to follow her blog when her girls took over, a brave and challenging thing to do. What footsteps to follow! 

I always think of Sue Garman as the creator of beautiful exquisitely detailed quilts that are painstakingly planned and perfectly constructed. But the following post shows her love of scrappy quilts and off-beat quirky quilts, the type that have come into popularity more recently. And I love her take on this! I don't remember seeing this post before. Click on the link and enjoy! http://suegarman.blogspot.com/2012/11/

Also, I just realized that "Come Quilt" is another blog I lost when I inadvertently deleted my blog list a few years ago. I'm still working on finding the missing blogs. It helps to peruse the lists of others, but I'm still missing a lot. 

Here's something new. Yesterday I discovered I can no longer view more than the most recent ten blog posts on my list. The thing at the end that says "show all" ? Its not working. Not on my ipad, nor on my computer. I have gone into my settings, and the maximum blog posts it allows to be shown is ten. Can't be changed, apparently . So if I don't check my list at least once or twice a day, I may miss your post entirely. Extremely annoying. Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas how to solve it?

Sandy

 

June Mini

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Obviously, I'm a little late with my June Montly Mini. 

After my vacation, which was immediately followed by guests in my sewing room, I was so itching to sew something I actually started three little quilts at once. Two planned, and one that "just happened". I got the binding stitched down on the first one a couple nights ago (more on the other two next time) but my husband was monopolizing the computer, so I failed to post. I did try to do it on my ipad, but things weren't working out too well there, so it had to wait another day. 

Without further ado, here's my finished mini for June:

The yellows and the green are from Sheryl Johnson's Veridians and Ambers. The double pink I found in my stash.

The back is an old classic from my stash. All hand quilted, as you can see. I haven't washed this yet, as I'm enjoying a "smooth" look for now. I will try to tag on another picture once its properly crinkled up.

The inspiration is an antique doll quilt, which I found on Pinterest.

I actually have a tiny bit of the that green, which I gleaned from a cutter top a few years ago. Look closely and you can see that the maker turned it over to the "wrong" side for the binding. They look like two different fabrics, both usable as "right" if you know what I mean. I may have one or two 1 1/2' squares left of it. Oh how I wish I had just a teeny scrap more! (or a whole bolt) 

Before I forget, here's the link to The Constant Quilter (Wendy's blog) for more Montly Minis. Check it out! 

Meanwhile, I finally put the finishing touches on my Pandemic Quilt, which as you may recall was a virtual round robin with my "beach" group (so named because for the past several years - up until Covid - we rented a beach house for our annual quilt retreat.) 

I'm calling this my Moda Medallion because most of the fabrics came out of my Moda bin - which of course are not necessarily all Moda, but whatever. Years ago I would have custom quilted this by hand, as that would be the most fitting, IMO. However, these days my hand quilting is restricted to small projects such as doll quilts. This will go to a long-arm quilter - I'm thinking an overall small stipple - then will be donated to charity.

Next up are finishing up a few quilts for the VA, and then I want to get started on a Quilt of Valor for my brother in law, who served (and was injured) in Vietnam. Maybe I'll make a few stars this evening, just to celebrate the day!

love,

Sandy

Back on Board ...

... with a couple of new mini quilts for this month. 

I had already started making bunches of 9-patches with the idea of making a large throw using a double-nine-patch pattern, which I still want to make, btw.  But that was before I saw this charming little quilt on Pinterest.

I love the colors. The Browns/blues/grays, naturally ... (for me) ... but also the orange, which I have vowed lately to try to use more of. I found a couple of orange-y fabrics in my stash I thought might work well with my dull-ish 9-patches. I didn't want anything too bright.

After playing around awhile, I came up with this.

I thought it needed a little something to frame it in. I had just enough of a pretty blue and white print for two small borders, the binding, and the back.

I quilted the ditches by machine (with my handy almost-invisible Microquilter thread) and completed it with simple hand quilting, diagonally across the blocks.

But I had lots more 9-patches, so I continued to play around.

I got a little braver with the orange on this one, which ultimately turned into this.

Same quilting strategy as the first one, but all by machine. I think the blue binding sets it off.

For the photos, I once again default to my crusty old bench swing in the corner of the back yard. 

That creme and blue fabric is so soft! 

And a pretty brown floral for the little guy.

Don't forget to look at Wendy's blog for more little "Monthly Mini" quilts!

love,

Sandy

 

March Mini and other things

 

It seems like I just wrote a blog post, but that was a month ago. Good grief. Where does the time go? I have been sewing, apparently too much because I'm suddenly experiencing flair-ups of extreme pain in my right hand. My guess is tendonitis. As for cause? Most likely, rotary cutter. 

Its torture to not be able to sew. I'll have to find other activities. Walking/hiking works. But most everything else I do involves my hands. Ugh. 

Anyway, lucky for me, I have lots of scraps that can be sewn into little quilts with little to no cutting. I have little bins of these things everywhere. One is full of "waste" triangle squares, which I rename "bonus” triangle squares. I grabbed a handful of them and made this.

I had to cut the border strips and stitch on the binding, but that was before the worst flair-up. I hand quilted some simple lines down the centers of the rows and the borders, and though you can barely see the quilting, ts a sweet little quilt and feels heavenly to the touch. It will probably be a gif. 

Good news! My friend has offered for me to come over and use her electric Go-cutter, which I have been taking her up on. But I still have to pre-cut the fabric, so even that will have to wait for a bit.

Meanwhile, I was really itching to do something fun, and so I grabbed my little bin of 1 1/2 x 2 1/2" bricks. I was inspired by the darling little brick quilt Janet O gave me, and taking her idea as a starting point,  I made this:

The only thing I had to cut were the binding strips, which is actually a fake binding. I sew it on like a border, then sew the quilt together like a pillow. I had only a four inch opening to close at the end. As of now its un-quilted. I did machine quilt in the ditch between the “binding” and the body of the quilt, which gives it definition. The "binding" is a little wonky, and slightly wider than I had planned, but that's because apparently I can't do even the simplest math, and I cut the strips 1/4" too wide. The method needs a little fine tuning, but is potentially a brilliant way to fake a binding onto a tiny quilt or a mug rug. 

 

 

Here they are, relaxing on a bed of dry maple leaves. (See the little tree starts coming up?)

 

 Here's the link to Wendy's blog for more Monthly Mini's

 

 

I also made a throw for a friend, before the hand issue got out of hand (no pun intended).

I saw this on Pinterest:

 I thought it would be a good way to use up some of myy reds (or any other color, for that matter, but I have an overabundance of reds). So I started in and got this far ...

 

... then I thought I'm not so sure I want stars, so I played around with it. 

This is what I ended up with. 

 

I'm calling it Exploding Star. You can see how simple the blocks are, and there are no doubt many design possibilities.

I have an appointment with the hand doctor coming up, hopefully some PT. I have a big first-time four-day quilt retreat coming up at the end of next month. Hopefully I'll be in shape to do some sewing!

(editing seems to be on the fritz tonight. Oh well ... )

love, Sandy

A Matter of Scale

 

I think I've finally recuperated from our Quilt Show, and thought I'd go ahead and show you the two quilts I had in the general exhibit. 

 

Above is the Log Cabin I made as a sew-along with Temecula Quilt Company a couple years ago, followed by a detail shot below.

 

 This quilt was really fun to make, because it allowed me to use a ton of scraps and small pre-cuts, as well as dig into my "precious" tiny pieces and other fabrics I'd been hoarding for years. 

Compared to the detail shot, I think the full quilt looks rather bland. It does not necessarily pull the viewer in to examine it up close. The wonderful array of fabrics is completely lost at a distance. Many may pass it by in favor of the more graphic and colorful quilts. 

I believe the problem is a matter of scale. It wasn't until I finished the quilt and saw it hanging that I realized the scale was all wrong, and I wish I had either made the blocks bigger, or made the quilt smaller. The upshot, however, is that I live with this quilt up close and personal, as it is in the rotation of "cover up" quilts I use on a daily basis. Like when I take a nap, or for a throw on the end of the bed. Up close, I can examine and enjoy the individual blocks, and appreciate the array of fabrics within. But a learning lesson, for sure.

A different example of scale caught me by surprise, when I turned the corner into an exhibit bay and saw this:

 

I thought, "Oh, that looks like a miniature version of my Road to Oklahoma quilt."  Then I realized, that IS my Road to Oklahoma quilt! It just looks tiny hanging next to the larger quilt its next to. 

 

Designed by Nancy Mahoney and published in Marsha McClosky's book "A Dozen Variables" close to fourty years ago. Ageless! The design is paramount in this quilt, and the individual fabrics are secondary. The scale of the blocks is perfect. 

Following are a few more quilts, just to highlight the amazing talent and variety of styles used by the quiltmakers in our guild.

 

Quiltmaker/artist Lisa Saporta, who does beautiful improv. 

 

Quiltmaker/artist Thom Atkins, usually noted for his beadwork, "paints" a beautiful scene in fabric.

 

Quiltmaker/artist Kristie Schulman, who's use of color and shape makes her quilts sing! (you can see why I might not want my quilt next to hers ... ha ha!) 

As always, I wish I had taken more pictures. As always, I wish there were at least one or two more days to thoroughly examine each and every quilt in the show. Sigh ...

 

All for now, 

Sandy 

February Mini

Real quick post here as I have to leave for my haircut in a few minutes, and we all know how important that is. Plus this will be a total experiment because Blogger has totally changed the format for creating a post. Everything is appearing in code! Anyway ... a couple months ago I thought I'd try to recreate this little antique

I substituted black for the strips because I couldn't find an appropriate red in my stash.

Cute, but far from the original. Fast forward, our beloved Wendy to the rescue. Several beautiful cuts of red fabric appeared in my mailbox! I chose one and got started right away, recreating the recreation. I set it aside when done, then realized when I was getting ready to post this morning that I hadn't quilted it yet (!) so I proceeded to do so. That's why I'm late.

Here are the two "sisters" ( or maybe cousins?)

I love them both. Now go to Wendy's page to check out the rest of the bunch. Love, Sandy