Monthly Mini December 2021

I hope you all had a nice Christmas, and were able to spend time with family and friends. Ours was quiet, but we connected virtually here and there for some fun times. I'd never done Face Time before, and my sister caught me off-guard when she called on Christmas day. I was totally unprepared a (ie looked like a hag, lol!) but who cares! My two nieces were there and we had a great time!

For my Monthly Mini, I thought I'd do something more light and festive for Christmas. 

 

I think this has kind of a mid-century vintage look. The green is another Cranston print probably from that era, I wish I had more of. The center shirting is from Sheryl Johnson's Delightful Dozen (Temecula Quilt Co.) a beautifully done repro of a classic print. The rest are ... well, anyone's guess. My friend Pam shared her pattern for the tiny star, which finishes at 4 1/2". I will be making more of these in the future. 

When I thought of lining up the three stars, I had in mind a horizontal orientation. But it seems to be perhaps a little happier standing straight up. I never hung it up for Christmas (no decorating at all this year) so its future remains to be seen. 

I had just finished machine quilting a huge monster of a quilt, and another not-so-huge but still large one, so I'm not looking forward to any more large quilts any time soon. I'll try to get some pictures of those two later. 

Meanwhile, I'm really enjoying working small, and especially working with scraps.  As you know, I love antique doll quilts, and love making little quilts inspired by them. I wanted to try to recreate this one, but my reds are all wrong. I need to find some brighter reds, that look old.

 So I went the other direction and used black.

This little quilt falls right into Janet O's scrap challenge. The hourglass blocks were leader/enders made from the bonus triangles left over from my Flying Geese quilt a few years ago. You haven't seen the last of these, as I still have lots more. 

I have a quirk when it comes to binding. I like to machine the binding on to the back, then fold it over to the front and hand stitch it down. There are a few reasons I do this. Often I want the binding to have more of a presence on the front of the quilt and this way I can make it a titch wider, if I desire. It also lays flatter, which I believe lends a more organic look. Also, I feel I have more control of the corners this way. Yep, after 35 years of making quilts I still struggle with the corners. 

For Christmas, in an effort to pare down some of the bigger pieces in my stash that have been hanging around too long, I made everyone shopping bags. It was sort of a last minute hairbrained idea, so had to plow through and get them done in a hurry in order to get them in the mail on time. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a single picture! But fret not, as I went ahead and kitted up several more bags to assemble at my upcoming quilt retreat, and hopefully I'll remember to take a few pix. 

Now I'm back to the scraps, making little gift-y items such as mug rugs and pot holders. 

Not a very good photo shoot, but there you have it.

Happy New Year, my friends! 

love, Sandy

Ooops ... I almost forgot the link to Wendy's blog for the rest of the Montly Minis!

Ps. None of the comments I left today have shown up on the blogs where I left them. I hope this is just a fluke  

 

November Mini

 This little quilt has intrigued me ever since I first saw it on Pinterest.

Looking at it closely, I've come to strongly suspect it was a piece cut off a larger quilt or top, that someone cleverly framed in a complimentary fabric. (Note all the cut off triangles on the left and bottom edges, due to damage? or to the wonkyness of the mother piece itself?) But what makes this little quilt so interesting is the layout of the triangles. I wonder what the original quilt looked like. I also wonder if the "salvager" fussy cut the section for its design effect, or if it was just a scrap she found. However it came to be, its very intriguing, don't you think? I was smitten at first sight, and developed a deep fondness for the little guy, and for a long time I've wished I owned it. 

So I started thinking about reproducing it. I have fabric very similar to the border fabric, so that's a good start. I also have shirtings that are very similar to those in the quilt. I was halfway there, right? But when it came down to the other colors, it became more challenging. 

 

The only thing I could do was to try to approximate the look of the various fabrics the best I could. Some of them I got pretty close, others, well ... not so much. But I went ahead and forged forward, knowing that it would not be perfect. It was not too difficult to piece, and of course the wonkiness of the original worked in my favor. Ahem ...

After I got it all pieced together and trimmed (including several chopped off pieces for authenticity, ha ha) I brought out the border fabric and .... the one I had previously thought would be perfect didn’t work so well. The tone was wrong, or something. 

It looks better now that I look at it again, at least in the photo. I think I have a bit of a “vision problem” as another blogger put it, 

 

 

Anyway ... I ended up with a darker fabric which shows off the colors nicely, but takes it even further away from the look of the original. 

Hand quilted, simple diagonal lines

Still I'm happy with it, especially all washed up and crinkled. It could be the original quilt's smart cousin.

But you know what? I still covet that funny little quilt that inspired it!

Now go check out Wendy's blog and see the other minis for this month!

love, Sandy

October Mini, and Mini Scrap Challenge

I always look forward to Wendy Reed's Monthly Mini Challenge, as I adore these little gems which are darling to behold and really fun to make. 

Then right on the heels of last month's Mini Reveal, Janet O. challenged us to make a mini out of just scraps. A baggie of scraps, to be more precise, being leftovers from a previous quilt. I jumped on board right away. This is right up my alley, as I have made many tiny quilts with exactly this sort of thing in the past. I could probably do a whole post about them.

But lets just stick to the present for now. I've been obsessed with the four-patch lately. I am also in love with antique doll quilts, which may explain my obsession with four-patch quilts. So simple and innocent, and so very cute. What's not to love.

So I made two little quilts featuring the four-patch this month. They started with a pull of reds and neutrals. Simple, simple, simple. Arrange them with a coordinating setting block, add a border (maybe) and binding. Simple hand quilting. Its hard to go wrong with this formula. 

This is the first one I made. I actually made two of these, but I used the alternate fabric for the binding on the other one and gave it to a friend. Sorry I never got a decent picture of that one. 

Meanwhile, I saw this on Pinterest, made by Cheri Payne.

I thought, what a darling little quilt! Then I realized its a single block from her 2015 sew-along, Everyday Patchwork. Which I sewed along with, the resulting quilt now living with my MIL.  I fell in love all over again, and thought it would be fun to make this block again, as a mini. I had lots of extra scraps from the above quilt, cut in the form of strips, so I was ready to go.

 I love it. Of course, now I want to make more. Of course.

But then ... Janet had issued her challenge. I still had leftover scraps.

Not in a baggie, but still corralled, only in a plastic tray. I hope that's ok. Does it count that they might have ended up in a baggie if I hadn't had a plan for them right away? 

By now I didn't want to get redundant with the four-patch idea for these particular fabrics, so I thought I'd try flying geese. 

The green strips are the one "extra" fabric that Janet allowed. I did simple hand quilting, and installed a butted binding. I'm loving this one, too! 

So, three for the price of one, and triple the fun! 

Now scroll back up and click on the link to Wendy's blog, so you can look at the rest of the little quilts!

love,

Sandy

September Montly Mini and other things

 First up, my Montly Mini for September.

Another easy-peasy little scrap quilt that was a lot of fun to make! 

The hourglass units were made from scraps from my Flying Geese quilt from a few years ago. The orange and blue border fabrics you might recognize from my stash haul at our Bargain Garden sale last June. In fact ... my June mini features the same orange. Very simple quilting: machine in all the ditches, and a single line of big-stitch hand quilting in the border. 

The back is from a freebee pile I brought home from my small quilt group meeting a couple weeks ago. 

(psssst ... go here to see more "Monthly Mini's" on Wendy's blog)

 

Meanwhile, I finished the following top, which was accepted by Quilts of Valor.  (sorry about the crappy photo.)

Its made almost entirely from a line I fell in love with called Hickory Road, by Jo Morton. I still love it, but it grew to a size I can no longer handle in terms of basting and quilting. I was unsure QOV would accept it because its not "patriotic" colors, and not a completed (ie quilted and bound) quilt. But I got a resounding "yes" from the woman in charge in the Bay Area, so off it went.  It might have helped that I sent along a 108" backing piece to sweeten the deal. At any rate, I'm happy I won't have to struggle with it, and it will be going to a veteran.

Another top that grew out of my control was this one.

Made from another line I fell in love with, Upstairs at the Manor House by Jeanne Horton. I had bought a bundle of the entire line plus several large pieces, with the intent of making a large bedspread for my guest bed. I don't know what I was thinking as there was no way I was going to be able to baste and quilt a top of that size. Plus it was not planned out very well, as you can see. 

So I decided to divide it into two quilts. 

 This is the first one, which is going to a young mom I met up in Crescent City last July, who had lost her home in the Camp fire (Paradise, CA) two years ago. She told me she like muted colors which is right up my alley, right?  I'm calling this "Sand and Sea" because that's what it reminds me of.

I quilted wavy lines, which, to me, are evocative of waves on the ocean. 

Plus, I have a big enough piece left over from the original top for a second quilt, which will be a throw, or topper for my guest bed. Win-win, as they say!

All for now ...

Sandy

August Mini

 I sewed along with Pam Buda earlier this summer, and made my version of Abigail's Doll Quilt. 

 

I intended to make this in blue. 

Actually, I did make it in blue. I had just enough of this really pretty indigo pin dot to make an abbreviated version of Pam's quilt. I wish I had taken a picture.

Pam's inspiration

So what happened is, I tried to "age" mine. I dipped it in a coffee bath to give the muslin a stained look. The muslin wasn't having any of it, but the back turned a very dark brown. Not wanting that, I went ahead and re-dipped it in a diluted bleach solution, and watched in horror as it sucked the color right out of that beautiful blue. Leaving it a very lovely ... gray.

Let me say that I'm usually pretty successful when it comes to using bleach. I know how to properly use it to get all sorts of stains out of clothing, etc. and when soaked in a weak solution, I've even be able to ever-so-slightly fade the commercial color from a cotton fabric. Never in my life though, have I seen what happened here. I was, and still am, stunned. 

 

At least I got the brown out of the back.

I can't say I'm entirely unhappy, as it is still a nice little doll quilt, and it really is a very lovely shade of blue/gray. I even found a little cubbyhole to hang it in.

 

Meanwhile I finished yet another scrappy Log Cabin top:

I'm debating whether or not to fix my mistake, or leave it and call it "quirky". Thoughts? 

And a sneak peek at another project I've been working on:

 

That's about it for today, now go check out Wendy's blog for more Monthly Mini's!

love,                                                                                                              

Sandy

July

My sewing has been limited to doll quilts lately, due to time restrictions and the fact that my sewing room has been in guest room mode for a lot of the summer and I couldn't afford to make a huge mess with a bigger project and clean it all up before the next guests arrived. Mostly I've been working from my vintage fabrics, which I've been itching to get back to for a while.  Meanwhile, my blog has been on the back burner. I know ... I should have kept up and at least taken pictures along the way, but ... 

I got ahead of myself and decided to hang my new little quilts right away.

Here's a partial pano of my string of doll quilts hanging above the closet in my sewing room. I think youve seen most of these before, at one time or another. Can you tell which ones are comprised of vintage fabric?

Here's the other half of the pano. The red quilt on the left is a re-work of a doll quilt I made from a vintage block and some other pieces a few years ago, that I was never happy with. So I took it apart and re-designed it. 

                             

Its better now, but I'm still not crazy about it. You can see how degraded the fabrics are (not to mention dirty) Really, pretty junky but something made me want to rescue them (the pieces) and see what I could do. Oh well, I'll leave it alone for now. 

The three quilts on the right I made this month.

This is the third or fourth one of these simple one-patch mini's I've made from a stack of vintage (30's - 60's?) 16-patch blocks and they sure are fun. The fabrics are amazing, but I can only glean 2" squares from the individual patches, which is somewhat limiting. I still have a huge stack of them though, so there are sure to be more creations down the line.

This one is from the same bunch, but I cherry picked some of the more geometric pieces for it. I did use a contemporary fabric for the border, and vintage 60's (I think) for the binding. I hand quilted it with black thread, which was quite challenging visually. I finally took it outside where the natural light really helped. If you click to enlarge the photo, you'll be able to see the quilting better. 

This one was made from a different group of fabrics, mostly from a couple of vintage tops I deconstructed a while back. I struggled with what to do with the borders, and took it apart more than once. I ended up adding the red on top of the top and bottom bindings after the fact, which is why it looks so clunky. However it needed "something" ... and I like how it looks, clunkiness and all, and will leave it alone. For now, anyway. 

I have to say, this summer has been the busiest summer I can remember in many years, if not ever. In between several sets of guests, I made three back-to-back road trips (!) me driving, (!!!) which is huge for me. First a trip south to pick up my MIL and head to Temecula, where we shopped til we dropped at Temecula Quilt Co, and then Primitive Gatherings the following day. Oh, and a baby shower after the shopping trip. Busy busy. On the drive home, Apple Maps (or was it Google?) took me on a real adventure 😳 but I ended up finding my way home, safe and sound.

MIL Lela, above, and our sweet neice (Lela's granddaughter) Katie, who had her baby boy just about a week ago.
 

Next a fabulous quilt retreat in the Sierras with what we call our "beach" group. Not on the beach this year, but our hostess' home does have an amazing infinity pool! 

Lastly, I and my two best "crone" buds had our yearly rendezvous in Northern Cal and Oregon, which was the BEST, partly because we missed last year due to covid. 

Our attempt at a selfie in the redwoods. 😀 Can you guess which one is me?

Here's the link-up to Wendy Reed's "montly mini" page .. take a look!

love, Sandy                                                                                                (pssst ... bottom left)

 

 

New Goodies

 My friend Claire hosted a one-off Bargain Garden event at her home a couple weeks ago, and I came home with some excellent finds. This was a PVQA event (our guild), held in lieu of the Bargain Garden we were unable to have due to our Quilt Show being virtual this year. I did not take any pictures while I was there, but I can show you what I bought. 

 

I didn’t buy much, just a small stack, shown with the Color Catcher they were washed with. No doubt the red and/or the orange released a bit of color in the wash. 

This is a huge piece, almost four yards. This is what it looked like when I bought it, and what it looked like coming out of the dryer. Its cotton, but its one of those fabrics that doesn't soften up with washing. Color wise, I guess you would call it a "madder"?  I would have been happy with a half or quarter yard of this, but that's not how purchases work at the Bargain Garden. Maybe having this big of a piece of orange/madder will force I mean encourage me to get out of my "box" and experiment more. 

Here's a close-up, with the ID, such as it is, on the selvedge. 

 

Next up are a couple of Cranston Print Works fabrics, which I've always been attracted to and buy whenever I see them.

If you know me at all, you know I love brown. I especially love this "faded" looking one. Don't be surprised to see it appear in a doll quilt soon.
 

  y 

Pretty Judie Rothermel print

 

 

  Looks like someone took a bite out of it.

 

 

 

Nice little contemporary looking print. I was surprised to see it was made by Thimbleberries. 

 

Not sure what to make of this one. Unusual, anyway. I'm not even sure what color I would file this under. May be good for borders or a binding. 

 

This looks like a repro to me, but ? I believe it definitely qualifies as "cheddar" which I have little to none in my stash. Its a fairly big piece, at least a yard. I'll get plenty of little color splashes, and a few bindings out of this.

This batik piece is about a yard and a half, big enough to back a lap quilt, which is no doubt what I'll use it for. What a great score on these pieces! I spent a whopping $18 for several yards of great fabric!

 

I’ve been itching to make some doll quilts lately, and also itching to dig into this fun stack of fabrics, so right away I gathered up some other Cranston and similar prints, and before you know it, I'd finished this little doll quilt.

Meanwhile that big piece of Cheddar was staring me in the face, so I got out some bonus triangles that were laying around and started playing, and next thing you know, I had this one. 

These were so fun to make! Wendy will be shocked ! I now have two minis, made from scratch (ie no cheating) for June, and its only the 6th! That's it for now, but I already have more ideas stewing. It feels good to be back in the "mini" groove.

 love, Sandy