From Bits and Pieces a Mini is Made

Recipe for one spring table-topper (because we need to be READY for spring, right?

From a piece of wide backing cutoff, make some squares and strips, add a generous sprinkling of cast-off HST's, a few narrow strips of leftover Christmas fabrics (because that bin is still at the top of the pile in the closet), and you have a January mini!

Add some more of that cut-off backing fabric, sandwich in a bit of frankenbatting ...

Lots of free motion quilting practice - feathers!

A very narrow strip of that Christmas fabric for binding, plus generous amounts of help ...

And somehow it all comes together!  

All ready for the bistro table's return to the covered porch come the first of May.  Linking with Wendy at The Constant Quilter when she posts her end of the month roundup of minis.  Thanks Wendy for continuing this fun get-together of mini-makers!

OMG Complete - Diamond Jubilee Quilt Backgrounds

Very happy to report that the backgrounds for all my sunflower blocks are stitched down!  They still need a final trim before making the flying geese sashings, but that will have to wait for February.  Here is what they look like now, all together on the design wall (and taped to the adjacent wall).

After trying a number of layouts, I think this may be the final location for the blocks relative to each other.  There are a couple of outliers that I dithered about whether to remove the first backgrounds and substitute something else, but in the end decided that would be way more work than it's worth, especially since the blocks will be separated by sashings.  I'm hoping to make the entire quilt from stash and my scrap tubs and trying to achieve an overall scrappy look similar to the featured quilt in 19th Century Patchwork Divas' Treasury of Quilts, shown below.

A quick look at the individual blocks while they were still up on the design wall and away from the kitty's ever-exploring paws.  Had to hold the camera at an angle and attempt to get them more or less level.  As you will no doubt see, several of the backgrounds required piecing in order to cut a 14-1/2 inch square.

There are several pieces of this near vintage (1980s?) Joan Kessler print (Concord Fabrics) in the stash.  Considering using this for the setting triangles, though will likely root through the stash more before making a final decision.  

This completes my One Monthly Goal for January, and I'll link this post when Patty at Elm Street Quilts posts her January month-end OMG linkup.

Looking forward to working on a few other things for the remainder of the month.  Maybe even beginning the machine quilting on one of the five tops awaiting their turn!

Til next time, happy quilting!

Looking Forward

 Now that the last year is finally in our rear-view mirror , it's time to look forward with anticipation and hope.  I tend not to make resolutions but choose to call them goals. 

My big quilting goal for this new year is to finally finish the oldest ufo in the room, Quilty 365.  Hoping to work on the hand quilting for at least an hour every day, and beginning with good intentions I started working on it again yesterday.  It may take most of the year since my hand quilting progresses slowly, but slowly is definitely better than not at all!

My goal for the month of January is to set all the sunflower blocks for my Diamond Jubilee quilt into their backgrounds.  I worked on the first one today, my least favorite of the 13 total (in case it turned out to be a disaster - which it nearly was).

The background is just a tad lighter than the photo would indicate.  There was only a smallish piece of this fabric, and the ONLY thing in my stash that even came close to being a good background for this particular block.  And, I was planning to cut a big circle out of the background and inset the sunflower, pin baste and stitch it all down on the old Singer 201.  Of course I read the directions for the circle cutter template wrong and my first cut out was an inch too large!  So, trimming up the remaining pieces of that fabric I stitched a frankenblock from three pieces (wouldn't our great-grandmothers have done the same?) and recut a smaller circle.  Lots of pinning and slow stitching later this is the result.  Needs a better press and a bit of squaring up but I'm pleased overall with the result.  Now, on to the more fun blocks!  Maybe one or two per day until all 13 are finished, then we can move forward to all the surrounding flying geese sashings in February.

I'm joining Patty at Elm Street Quilts again this year by linking this post to her One Monthly Goal linkup for January. 

I hope you're enjoying this first day of a brand new year with better weather than we have right now.  We're expecting freezing rain over the next 12-18 hours, our area is expecting around 1/2 inch of ice before it warms up sometime on Saturday.  That will probably mean loss of power over wide areas of the state, so my husband powered up the generator to be sure everything is in working order when that happens.  

Til next time, or when the power comes back on,

Happy Quilting