October's Purely Practical Minis

When Wendy posted her October mini earlier today, she invited folks to participate even if your mini is only a mug rug - music to my ears!

I've been experimenting with using felted wool from an old blanket as a filling, along with a layer of Insul-brite, for kitchen oven mitts and pot holders.  The first oven mitt was shown in an earlier post, and I was pleased with the results.  The next two items are potholders, just finished tonight. 

I must have cut from a portion of the felted wool that was thicker than the piece used in the oven mitt because these are a bit stiff at the moment.  If they don't soften up a bit, they will end up being used as hot pads on the table or counter, and there are plenty of scraps around here to create more!  These are thick enough that it was difficult to keep them completely straight in the sewing machine as I attempted to stitch the binding onto the front, not to mention that a 2-1/2 inch binding was really tight to turn and stitch onto the back.  A 2-7/8 inch binding on the second one turned out a bit too large this time.  Live and learn, and try again!

Here are the backs:

Linking to Wendy at Constant Quilter where you will find links to the other October miniquilts featured this month.

2019 Stringalong Finale

Lori at Humble Quilts has just posted her final linky party for her Stringalong Challenge here. 
Over the past few months I began a spiderweb quilt in blues and white, which is still not finished.  The top is progressing slowly and there are still over half the blocks to be completed.  Here's an older progress photo to give you an idea what the eventual quilt will look like.

"Sing the Blues MamaLou" in progress

a bit closer

Over the summer this project got derailed when I decided to work with a little box of colorful batiks and Fossil Fern squares that were cut into strips for these two tops, now awaiting quilting.

"Joseph's Coat"

"Joseph's Coat II"

I'm hoping to get back to "Sing the Blues" after the planned holiday quilting is finished.  That top could probably be completed in less than a week if I could wrangle some 'nothing-but-sewing' days!

Linking with Lori at Humble Quilts.  Thanks Lori for another motivating quiltalong!

Almost Amish Quiltalong

After a month of indecision about my chosen colors I finally bit the bullet and completed my Almost Amish top on Saturday.  It wasn't until I made the decision to use up some of the last scraps of my much-loved "windows" print which had ALL the colors I loved together that this thing finally came to fruition.  So it's a bit of a rebel, but still a maybe-sorta, almost Amish little top.

The last fabric pull, still more colors than needed.  Plain-Jane brown exited quickly, just too dull and boring.  I really loved the two cheddar/gold solids but they were too similar in value to use together.  So the little print "windows" strips ended up becoming my "light" in the mix.

The black fabric (the only one available) must have been a scrap piece picked up from the bins at quilt ministry, and proved to be mostly polyester and refused to play nicely with the rest.  The remainder of that is now in the trash. And that green used for the sashing strips - there was so little that two of the sashings are pieced, one vertically and the other horizontally with three smaller scraps.  All that's left of that green is a couple pieces less than 1/4 inch wide and an inch or so long.  Cut it just a bit close that time, lol!  Still a decision to be made about whether to add a wider border, but for now it will simmer for awhile until the tote of solids emerges from the closet again.

Saturday was a gorgeous sunny fall day and I finished the flimsy just before the sun disappeared behind the western hills.  

Linking up with Lori at Humble Quilts who hosts these little quiltalongs each autumn.  They are always such fun, and a nice diversion from all the rest of the late summer/fall chores.  Thanks Lori! 

Sunday afternoon fun!

It was a productive weekend, a couple goals accomplished, but the most fun began on Sunday afternoon, with piecing a few fabric slabs in QAYG fashion onto a piece of old felted wool blanket. I ended up with this

after cutting off the margins of this slab.

Oops, forgot to take the slab's photo before cutting into it!

I'd seen an oven mitt on Svetlana's S.O.T.A.K. blog that I absolutely loved and needed to give it a try. She referred to a pattern by Bombazine which I discovered was very similar to my ancient and well-loved oven mitt that I'd deconstructed last week to make my own pattern.

This was so much fun!  Until the final turning and stitching down the last little bit, when the thickness of the mitt precluded finishing on the Singer 201 as it would not fit under the presser foot.  Using the Janome had issues of its own, as there is very little room between the built-in even feed foot mechanism and the base of the machine to stitch around the small circumference of the wrist.  But it's finished, and I love how it turned out!

The lining is a soft homespun stripe with a layer of Insul-Bright loosely quilted to the palm side of the mitt.  Both sides of the outer layer are quilted to a layer of the felted wool blanket.  I'm pretty sure the heat won't penetrate through all those layers!

This prototype is actually a hostess gift for an upcoming dinner at my SIL's home.  She is also a quilter and her specialty is extremely intricate Halloween quilts!  I know she'll love the colors, fallish yet not screaming Halloween or pumpkins.  Now, to replace my oven mitt before I need one again, then on to pot holders, the newest ones are from my late mom's kitchen - probably 40 years old at least.  Make-do, use-it-up, wear-it-out in the extreme!

Trying to keep up with whatever it is I'm working on ...

A few of the projects occupying my spare minutes over the past couple weeks.  Someday maybe I'll actually make a list and keep track of completed stages of everything being worked on, though then that would take up time that could be spent stitching ...

First, I got a good start on piecing a bed-size quilt for the not-quite-12 year-old grandson that will be the major part of his Christmas gift.  When he and his siblings last visited I sat each of them down with paper and pencil and asked them to write down 7 things they liked to do or were interested in.  This guy's list included architecture (building sets), Eiffel Tower in particular, New York City, London, and reading spy novels.  Since his favorite subject in school is math, and they are also  studying world cultures this year. I figured I had enough subject matter (and fabric pieces) for building his quilt top.  As of now nearly half of the top is constructed.  I'm using a slightly size altered version of Bonnie Hunter's Sticks and Stones pattern that can be found under the Free Patterns tab on her Quiltville blog. 

I'm building the quilt top in four sections, the upper left quadrant was completed this afternoon.

The second quadrant (upper right side) is still on the design wall.  Blocks not yet sewn into rows. Fabrics focus on city streets, buildings, lots of numbers representing his interest in architecture and math, and even one spy-related block.  Text in foreign language blocks, etc.  In hopes of keeping this masculine and "grown-up" the sashings are understated with just a bit of color pop in the cornerstones.

Fall is such a fleeting season and with the holiday season coming (sooner than I'd like)  I began quilting the first Christmas quilt that will actually remain in our house, one that has been patiently waiting in the closet since the end of February. 

Ditch quilting all 30 stars 

Do you ever ditch quilt using your free motion foot rather than a walking foot?  I've tried it a few times, and found it fairly easy to accomplish, though my limited eyesight these days prevents ditching while stitching sideways so the quilt still needs to be turned every time I pivot around these stars.  I've found it easier to focus on the needle's path when using a smaller free motion foot rather than the bulky even feed foot and so this is what works for now.   I'll stencil some holiday motifs in the blocks for FMQ in the next couple days and really hope to have both this and the grandson's quilt completed by the end of November.

I still plan to do the Almost Amish quiltalong being hosted by Lori at Humble Quilts.  After dithering about a month because my first fabric selections just didn't gel, when I started cutting all the little sashing squares for my grandson's quilt the fabric just jumped out at me and fairly screamed "use these colors!"  

And so I will.  And hopefully on Saturday if all goes well there will (finally) be about of six uninterrupted hours when this little quilt can finally be stitched.  It's a nice thought, we'll see what happens.

  

Oh yes, one more oldie-but-goodie, wondering if anyone out there also has an unfinished Westering Women top still awaiting quilting!   I finally pieced a back, marked the entire front with my largest Baptist fan stencil, layered and pinned it last week, and am whiling away my evenings in the recliner big-stitch quilting this one.  What a wonderful way to spend the evening.  Especially loving the wool batting I'm using for the first time, so easy to quilt through.  A friend had given me a partial batting a few years back, she had just cut a small piece off, and the remainder was the perfect size for this quilt.  I can hardly wait to finally finish this one, hopefully before winter is over.

This has gotten long and the hour is late, so I'll close for now.  Til next time, happy stitching!