Monday, November 30, 2020

November

Hello! 

I hope you all had a decent thanksgiving holiday, in whatever form that might have taken. My husband and I got "Thanksgiving dinner for two" from our local grocery store. With the exeption of the green beans (which were like cardboard and went promplly into the compost bin), the rest of the meal was actually pretty good, plus we had enough left over for two more meals. All that for twentyy bucks! Then we zoomed with family, which was fun. 

Here is my mini for the month of November. Again, it is a bit of a cheat, as I made it several years ago as a gift for my mother-in-law.

Does it look familiar? That's because its a shameless copy of someone else's quilt. The original was made by Marion Edwards - though I didn't know it at the time, but who has recently and graciously given me permission to post mine on my blog today.

Below is Marion's original "Three Dolly Quilt", and the book that inspired her to make it.


You may remember Marion Edwards Dreamweaver blog, which has been inactive for several years, but you can still find her (and her adorable quilts) on instagram. 

So back to the story of my own three dolly quilt. I had initially machine quilted it, very sparsely and purposely wonky, as I was going for the "primitive" look. However instead, I think it ended up just looking sloppy. Every time I'd see it over at my MIL's house, it bugged the heck out of me. When we were there last month, I asked her if I could take it home and fix it, and she agreed. So I picked out all the sloppy quilting and proceeded to hand quilt it, IMO a huge improvement.  And ... it makes it fresh, so hopefully that means it qualifies for this month's Montly Mini? 😄

It is now ready to send back to Mom.

To see more November Monthly Mini's, please check out Wendy's blog, The Constant Quilter. Enjoy!



Meanwhile I finished my Madders quilt, which I'm now calling my Autumn Quilt. 
 

And I machine quilted my Log Cabin in the ditch around all the blocks, and now I'm considering hand quilting inside the blocks. Yes that's a lot of quilting for these poor hands, but I really like how it looks. That's DMC perle cotton, which so far handles pretty easily, and I think I'm finally getting the hang of the Big Stitch. This may take me forever.

So... still have several things to finish. I still haven't sewn together my blue 16-patch bedspread. The blocks are all done, but they need to be squared up first. I'm stalling. What I really want to do is start something new (of course!). I have several ideas brewing... stay tuned! 


love,                                                                                                           Sandy






12 comments:

  1. That is a pretty dolly quilt, and it looks wonderful hand quilted. I am quite impressed that you are going to hand quilt the big quilt too. I like the rogue blocks in the madder quilt.

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  2. Your little three dollies quilt is so sweet, and it's fun that you renovated it:). The hand quilting looks great and suits it. LOVE the fabrics in that log cabin block.

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  3. Absolutely qualifies as a monthly mini in my book! So hard to unpick quilting. But it sounds like you feel it was worth it.
    Your Autumn Quilt is beautiful!
    That hand stitching looks great in your log cabin block. I admire that you are going to do that.

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  4. Very sweet little;e quilt! I've never seen that particular book by Gwenny ! Do you have a copy? And your Madder quilt is amazing and the hand quilting on the log cabins is a nice touch, It will be worth the effort! take care!

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  5. The addition of the handquilting is so warm and lovely on your Three Dollies quilt. Picking out the previous machine quilting definelty makes this more than qualify for this months mini. Your Madder quilt is beautiful. I love the simplicity of a two color quilt with your couple extra surprises.

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  6. Cute story about the Dolly quilt. It's funny, when something bothers me on an item I've made - it's what I zero in on whenever I see it. I think the big stitch looks fabulous on your log cabin blocks. I use DMC Pearle cotton on most of my big stitch projects. It a reasonable cost and comes in dozens of colors. I have a tendency to make my big stitch a little too big sometimes. I think the size you did is so much more attractive.

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  7. The three dollies are loving their hand quilted makeover, it is just beautiful and so wonderfully vintage. Its a great mini! I love to see hand quilted touches on a quilt like your log cabin, even if the majority has been ditch quilted by machine. Have done that on several quilts and after they're finished the machine quilting seems to disappear into the fabric and all you really see is the hand quilting. Love that!

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  8. Fantastic mini! A little dolly quilt is so perfect for Christmas time. I adore your madder quilt too. I saw it as a 4-patch at first but I can't remember if you did individual squares. I will have to scroll back! Love the little surprise blocks in it too. Thanks for another great mini. Have a happy day!

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  9. Cute, cute, cute, mini dolly quilt! Love the look of your Autumn quilt--it's just so appealing! Nice job on your Log Cabin. I have some of that gray w/red/white fabric in the last round :) Have fun doing the big stitch. I've done it once and it took a bit of practice to get it right.

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  10. Love your mini. The hand quilting looks great on your log cabin quilt. Hugs

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  11. Love your fabrics, of course, that is why I'm here! And you little quilts are sew cute!!

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  12. Your log cabin quilt is beautiful! So "Sandy" which is always wonderful. I hope your MIL enjoys the revised dolly quilt. Keep sewing and be easy on yourself.

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