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

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

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