I'm a Winner! (and other stuff)

You all know about (The Constant Quilter) Wendy Reed's "Montly Mini" challenge, right? which in itself is loads of fun and results in many very cool mini quilts every month. Then a few months ago Janet Olsen  (Rogue Quilter) challenged us to make a mini from a baggie of scraps left over from another project, which we referred to as "The Baggie Challenge". I jumped on board right away. Even more fun, right?

At the end there was a drawing, and lo and behold, my name was drawn! The prize was this darling tiny quilt made by Janet. I just love it!

This little beauty came in the mail a couple of days ago, along with an array of other goodies, including ...

Two bars of Janet's handmade soap! Any of you that have been lucky recipients of Janet's soap know how wonderful it is. All natural ingredients, and smell heavenly.

Also included were a purse-size hand lotion, two Utah Chocolate Truffles, one of which I ate immediately, and mini charm pack. How fun! 

Let's go back to the quilt. How cool is the back!

And check out her corners. Talk about perfect! 

Thank you so much, Janet!

😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄😄

OK, on to other things. I thought I'd go ahead and give a sneak peek of my  Quilt Show entries, and Auction quilts.

First up, "Amish Inspired" which started as a Block of the Month in 1999. I won the blocks, and right away proceeded to build them into a quilt. Its quite large, measuring 76 x 100". I had intended to hand quilt it, a daunting prospect even back then when my hands were still good. Meanwhile I got stuck on a backing. Long story short, it got put on the back burner and I moved on to other things. 23 years later (ahem ... ) I decided I needed to move it out. I enlisted my friend Claire (cspoonquilt) to baste it for me on her long-arm, I machine quilted it on my Janome, and we are donating it to our live auction as a fundraiser for our guild.

(psst ...  our Quilt Show and Auction is in two weeks! Click here for information.)

Next is my Scrappy Log Cabin, which I've posted about before, also going into the auction. 

I also completed two quilts for the general exhibit. The first one was a sew-along with Temecula Quilt Co, which I'm simply calling "Log Cabin". I haven't been able to get a good picture of the full quilt yet, but here's a detail picture. 

Its based on this antique quilt.

I've seen many versions of this on the internet, as many folks sewed along. I just love the colors. 

Lastly, I made Road to Oklahoma, out of the book A Dozen Variables my Marsha McCloskey and Nancy Martin. 

Here's a close up

Again, those blues and browns I love so much. This one is going to my niece, Hana.

That's about it. Wow. Two posts in two weeks! I'm exhausted.

love,

Sandy

ps ... don't forget our Quilt Show and Auction is in two weeks! Click here for information.

Better late than never: my January mini

  

Do you ever look at a picture of a quilt, let's say in a book or Pinterest for instance, and say to yourself, "I want to make this quilt, like... right now!" ? 

That happened to me a few weeks ago. I was browsing through an old quilt book of mine, American Doll Quilts by Kathleen Tracy, and got stopped at this one.

I don't know. I've looked at this picture dozens of times, but for some reason this time it grabbed me. Its just so ... innocent, and simple. And darling. The thought occurred that it might be a fun little project to do at my upcoming quilt retreat, which was in a couple of days. So I immediately started pulling fabrics and quickly (if that's even possible) kitted it up. I did cut lots of extra pieces, so I could pick and choose as I went along. 

Fast forward, here's my version of Kathleen's Prairie Quilt:

Of course I didn't have her fabrics, but I did try to capture the feel of her little quilt. I was lucky I had a nice small check for the border, as I feel that was/is intrigal to the look. I auditioned a pink binding, but I didn't have the right pink, so I went with another "oldie" light, having the slightest tinge of green in the print. I think it works nicely. 

But then I had leftovers. Of course!  Ha ha ...you know what's coming, right? 

Naturally, I made another mini!

So ... late as I am, these are my offerings for January's Monthly Mini challenge. If you haven't already done so, go on over to Wendy's blog to see all the other January minis. 

There is one other item I finished last month, something I've been wanting to make for a long time - a homemade cover for my sewing machine.

I had been visualizing this, made with postage stamps, but didn't know quite how to go about actually making it. It was serendipitous timing that Lisa Bongean offered up a pattern on her Blog recently, which is exactly what I was visualizing. It was also lucky that she made her pattern to fit her Juki, which is the exact same model that I own. Anyway, I simply sewed together several of my postage stamp blocks and adapted them to her pattern. Voila!

Looking forward, my guild's annual quilt show is only three weeks away. We took a leap of faith and made the decision months ago to hold a real "in person" show this year, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that this will actually take place. I'm thinking with Omicron on the wane (here in central California, at least) and no new covid varients for now ... yet... we should be OK. Meanwhile I've been busy getting my entries and auction quilts ready, and I'm just about there. My quilts will be hanging, which gives a nice opportunity to take some decent pictures, which I hope to post at the end of the month. 

That's it for now!

Love, Sandy