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