January Mini or There's More Than One Red Holiday!

As you might recall last November I finally finished our very first Christmas quilt,

and every one of those 30 stars had eight flippy points, translating to 240 leftover tiny triangle squares!

So, what to do but start stitching some of them together.  January seems to be a clean-out month for a few of the swiffer boxes of scraps that are underfoot, littering piling up in every spare spot on shelves, under tables, etc.  And so was born this little table topper, just in time for the next red holiday in mid-February.

At just a bit over 13 inches square this is one of my smallest minis, other than a few mug rugs and potholders.  Simply machine quilted in the ditch with a wavy machine stitch in the border, it finished up fairly quickly.  And the bonus being I got to use a few more hoarded scrappy strips of my vintage Quaker Reds for the borders.  There are just a few small bits left now for another scrappy project.

I love the back as much as the front of this little quilt, a leftover piece from a fat quarter of a 2009 In the Beginning print by Jason Yenter.

Especially this little scenic vignette:

So, this used up 36 of the 240 triangle squares - guess what's coming up for February!

After reading Wendy's (The Constant Quilter) and Cynthia's (Wabi-sabi Quilts) posts earlier today about their tree blocks for Australian fire victims, I was inspired to create one to send along.  Since the blocks are being requested by the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild in New South Wales, I attempted to make something a bit ad hoc and improv, or at least a reasonable facsimile!  Here's the block I'll be sending along in a few days:

Since modern really isn't my forte, and I was working with fairly narrow background strips, the piecing got wild and wooly toward the end, and all the white edges are on bias.  They've been stay-stitched to keep everything in place, and after starching and giving it a final press amazingly everything laid flat and square. There's a dark strip of green print at the bottom which may or may not be visible in the photo depending on your monitor as the photo was taken after dark.   I may try again tomorrow and see if I can improve the improv in a second block.

If you are interested in joining in and making a tree block for this cause, more information can be found here:  https://www.facebook.com/WollongongModernQuiltGuild/.

Linking with Wendy's Peacock Party, and I'll also link with Wendy at The Constant Quilter when she posts her monthly mini round-up next week.