Last of the Christmas Makes and a December Mini

Christmas came almost faster than my stitching could keep up,  and these last two little projects were each finished the evening before being gifted - just in time! 

A set of potholders for my daughter-in-law, whose favorite color is green.

And for the second, you'll just have to use your imagination as I apparently neglected to get a photo of the finished set.  They started out as these two prototype arrowhead blocks from a few months back. The finished potholders have a coordinating green fabric border and binding.  For one of my step-daughters who also happens to love green.

You might say that all my December projects are minis, but here's the real thing, for Wendy's (The Constant Quilter) monthly mini challenge -- gifted on Christmas Day to my son. 

This was the best photo I was able to obtain of the finished quilt.  The hand quilting just did not show up very well in any of the photos, but mostly consisted of outlining the major elements in each fabric slab, and echoing the butterflies and pine tree sashiko in the indigo borders.  I didn't want to risk stretching the bias edges on the triangular pieces so this was quilted without use of a hoop, more difficult than I thought it would be, but the quilt hangs fairly straight and he loved it, and that's what counts. 

And that brings my 2019 quilting adventures to a close.  Thanks so much to all of you who read this little blog and leave encouraging comments.  You are appreciated, more than you know.  And for those readers who are "no-reply" commenters, if you would like a response, please include your email in your comment so that I can add your address to my contacts list. 

On to the new year, and a new decade!

Holiday Littles

Still hoping to make one more project before Wednesday morning!  I wonder how many others are doing the same ...  Christmas cookie-baking in full swing as well (finally) and tomorrow's list includes pumpkin pie for Christmas dinner with son and DIL and three of the grands.  Happy times.

I did manage to finish a couple small projects, the first for my daughter's birthday last week.

The second is yet another in the "pieced from Lois's scraps" series.  Last year she made a Christmas quilt from a kit of Moda's Gingiber fabrics.  She must have downsized her version a bit as there were all these lovely fabric squares and strips in the box that showed up at one of our meetings last summer.  When nobody snapped it up, I snagged it and made this cute set of placemats.

Easy-peasy piecing and a bit of simple FMQ, add binding and done!  And yes, we're keeping these for ourselves - Merry Christmas to us!  They reverse to this sweet wintery print I've had in my stash for several years.

A couple close-ups:

OK, off now to raid a couple scrap bins and see if another set of potholders and an oven mitt can be finished by tomorrow evening.  But not before wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year!   I'll be back in a few days with a December mini finish.

Welcoming December

Welcome December, season of hope!  After an unintended blog break during November, it's good to have that month in the rear-view mirror - enough said.  Some good came out of the last few weeks though, and here are two new finishes, just in time for the Christmas season!

First up, a Christmas gift for my grandson, since it was reported that he needed a new bed quilt.

I used a slightly size-altered version of Bonnie Hunter's Sticks and Stones free pattern.  "November Skies" is what I'm calling this one, since the overall colors remind me so much of a November landscape with only a hint of the earlier fall color remaining, and the predominantly gray skies we see around here in late fall.  Totally machine quilted, very simply with stitch-in-the-ditch and a grid through the blocks.  Once again I took measurements before and after:  original top 91x80; after quilting 89x78; and after being washed and dried 87 x 75 1/2 inches.  Lately rather than soaking and drying the Hobbs 80/20 cotton batting I've been just using the steam setting on the dryer to partially shrink and de-wrinkle the batting prior to layering and pinning.  Seeing a little more shrinkage this way, but I think the batting itself behaves much better and I'm not seeing as many thin places when it's laid out for pinning. 

One of those rare partially sunny mornings, about 20 degrees outside.

And a closer view.

Next up is our very own Christmas quilt!  After all these years hard to believe this is the first Christmas quilt I've made just for us.  Really happy with the way this one turned out.

This was begun in an, as it turns out, vain attempt to use up all the Christmas fabrics left in the bin.  I had seen a photo online last year of a similar quilt, but with no attribution or pattern available, so I drafted my own.

Used this tree stencil in two sizes for much of the quilting.

And "organic" holly leaves and berries between the stars.

I was able to use up all the remaining Christmasy flannels for the back and learned a valuable piece of information in the process - that being flannel and Aussie fur are natural magnets.  Yikes!

This photo was taken yesterday, before the nor'easter Ezekiel came to town, bringing with it a less than welcome accumulation of freezing rain, sleet, crunchy snow, more sleet, and on it goes.  Areas east of us are expecting 12-18 inches of snow on top of the ice.  Not a happy travel day, but a great day for sewing and catching up on some blog reading.  I hope the weather is better in your neck of the woods!

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!

Stringing Along in September, and a Finish

September seemed to fly by, what with the last of the garden harvest and canning, and changing over to autumn mode that I'd hoped would be more leisurely, though maybe October will be the start of that, who knows?

I made great progress on the 2019 Stringalong hosted by Lori at Humble Quilts.  There were extra batik rails left over from piecing last month's flimsy Joseph's Coat, and I had been hankering to use that piece of red/orange batik that was a runner-up for the alternate strippy panels on that first flimsy.  So I pieced a few more rails, cut some strippy panels and borders and came up with this.

I love the stained glass effect of a sunny fall afternoon, however when I brought it inside for another shot I was a bit disappointed in how the borders kind of faded away.  I'll need to be on the lookout for the perfect binding to punch it up just a bit.

This second flimsy measures 55x72 inches before quilting.  I'm thinking I'll give these two a quick machine quilting and keep them here.  I had originally begun piecing the first Joseph's Coat for a young girl known to one of our quilt ministry members, however the family seems to have moved from the area and haven't been heard from in a couple months.  The quilts are about a perfect size for the grandkids to use when they visit and are sleeping on air mattresses in the sewing room, or an adult napping on the couch.  Never can have too many utility quilts it seems!

Lest you think I've totally forgotten about Sing the Blues Mama Lou, not so!  I've been busy cutting and marking the final 80 quadrants and getting them ready for stitching the strings.  And here is the mess by the Singer 201 as I write this!

I have high hopes of completing the stitching of the strings in October and then begin assembling the blocks in November, or maybe January depending on progress on a couple other Christmas projects.

And finally, to finish off September, over the weekend the last stitches were put in the Swiffer Box quilt, and it is now done, washed, and ready for delivery to our grandson - yay!!   After the outside photo shoot in the back yard Sunday afternoon I wanted to call this one "the green, green grass of home" but I guess I'll stick with the original name.   Still need to make a special label for this one naming my grandson as  the block designer and color coordinator for the sashings and borders and me as the stitcher.  Finished size after a wash and dry is 67x52 inches.  I hope he likes it!

Linking to Lori's Stringalong Progress post here.  And a good Monday to all.

Monthly Mini - September

In cold inky skies
snow geese take wing southward as
golden sunset fades

This month's mini challenge began with a baggie of small scraps from a frequent donor of fabrics to our quilting ministry.  Included were some partially completed tiny flying geese.  Too small for any of our other quilters to be interested, they came home with me.  A couple of my own scraps for sashing and borders/binding, a bit of hand and machine quilting, and done.  Finished at 11-3/4 by 13-1/2 inches.

My August mini continues to languish simmer while I dither a bit more.  Maybe October will bring that one to completion?

I'll link to Wendy's (Constant Quilter) when she posts her monthly mini lineup for September.

A Small July Finish

A few months ago while searching for a tutorial for making spider web blocks I came upon the blog of Marit in Norway.  Sadly, her blog seems to be inactive now.  Anyway, she had a great tutorial that I have followed for my current string block project, that I need to get back to very soon!

Scanning through some of her older posts I also came upon a series of equilateral triangle quilts she had made a few years ago.  You can see one of her quilts at this link Summer Breeze Triangle Quilt.  After all these years of quilting I had never tried using a 60 degree equilateral triangle to construct even part of a quilt!  So an experiment was in order, and this is the result, made entirely of older scrappy leftovers from my bin of baby and young child-related fabrics.  I'm always looking for a little challenge to try to keep the brain cells active, and being spatially dyslexic, triangles are a challenge for me!  This turned out to be so much fun though that I'm already looking forward to making more of these soon. 

First layout at the point when I ran out of said scraps.  Several of the triangles are made of smaller bits and pieces stitched together to make a piece large enough to cut a 6-1/2" triangle.

Vertical layout as stitched together.  I decided against borders and let the triangles do all the work on this one.

Some quick straight-line quilting and voila, a finish this afternoon

My faithful helper followed me around for the entire photo shoot.  He declined to sit on the quilt though!  Whoever heard of a pet not sitting on a quilt??  Maybe because he knows they don't belong in the field or up a tree for that matter!

I had never tried fusible batting before so when Connecting Threads had their recent batting sale I ordered a crib-size one (Hobbs 80/20 fusible).  Well, all I can say about that is I probably won't be using it again.  The package says it fuses the layers together "temporarily."  "Momentarily" might be a more accurate term, as the quilt required pinning  anyway to hold everything together.  The one tiny advantage might be that the batting remained slightly tacky and I think that helped prevent too much fabric slippage as I quilted the straight lines.

Anyhow, there is now a baby quilt finished and ready for donation to our quilt ministry.  I haven't yet decided whether it will be another camp benefit auction donation.  That will depend on whether any other needs come up before then. 

Joining Wendy's linkup for this week's Peacock Party.  Have a lovely weekend!

A June Mini Finish

This was a fun and relaxing small doll quilt for Wendy's (The Constant Quilter) monthly mini challenge.  A simple one patch top made of leftover mini-charm pack squares and remainders from my version of Barbara Brackman's Checkered Past 1862 quilt pattern of a few years back.  Quick and easy piecing.

I used the half-hoop found at a yard sale last month to hand quilt most of this piece, using the full hoop only for the very center.  Quilting is big stitch in a simple cross-hatch pattern.  I've been working at my big stitch quilting in an attempt to get the stitches to come out a little more even.  Seems after all these years my regular hand quilting is much easier to accomplish than the larger stitches with 12 wt. or pearl cotton thread.  More practice needed (always)!

I always love seeing the wide variety of mini quilts Wendy links to in her monthly mini posts, everything from traditional to modern improv is represented. 

There will be no more quilting or blog-reading time until Sunday evening as my daughter and 2-1/2 year old grandson will be here visiting - happy grandma time!!!  Til next time, happy quilting!

Mini Tumblers

I wasn't sure if this little quilt would be finished in time for Wendy's (The Constant Quilter) mini challenge, but the last binding stitches were finally put in earlier this evening - yay!  The weekend promises to be rainy and busy with family birthday parties, etc., so indoor photos under the lights will have to do.

A close-up of a few of the luscious fabrics.  All the tumblers and I believe the outer border (my favorite) were gifted from my blogging friend Janet at Rogue Quilter a couple years back - thanks again Janet!!  I tried some wonky big stitch hand quilting of the tumblers, and the borders were just ditch quilted on the Janome.  It was while ditching the narrow light purple that I discovered one of the pieces had been mis-cut, and is wider at one end than the other.  At that point I wasn't about to take it apart and recut - a humble little quilt indeed!

The back, a piece of an older purple tiny floral print from my stash.

And, just because I really wanted to have some outdoor photos with a daffodil backdrop and these are the only available stand-ins!

Have a wonderful weekend, and happy stitching until next time.

Marrakesh - An April Quilt Finish!

I put the final hand stitch in the binding of Marrakesh this morning, and wasted no time getting a few photos while we had dry, partly sunny, and very windy weather.  Warning, photo-heavy  post follows!

Marrakesh is destined for the annual benefit auction for the church camp, held over Labor Day weekend.  After washing it measures 72x70 inches.

These photos were taken before washing out all the stencil markings, so some might still be visible to eagle eyes.  A bit closer look at the stencils used for the central portion.

The back.

Though I used stencils for most of the quilt, the outer border was quilted with freehand feathers, three on each curve.  Barely visible on the front, you might be able to see the quilting on the back a little better.

Moving outside, we were experiencing strong wind gusts all day, though the temperature rose to the low 70s!! Since it wasn't snowing or raining, some outside photos seemed like a good idea even though the yard was a tad muddy and more than a little drab.

Second attempt at keeping it over the rail until I could snap a picture.

Ha! Caught mid-fall.  Couldn't resist posting this one!

My favorite tree in the back yard.

We (the quilt and I) wandered back by the creek.  A lull in the wind made it fairly safe to shoot a couple quick photos on the rocks left by the winter floods/ice jams.  Every spring it's like a new shoreline along the creek, with plenty of new fossil rocks for the finding.  We have yet to find an arrowhead or any evidence of earlier Native American occupation here, though it seems like it would have been a great hunting area with all the wildlife, especially deer, that we see on a frequent basis.

And some miscellaneous photos of every blooming thing I could find while hiking the fields.

Snowdrops at creek's edge, no doubt replanted during a flood some years back.  Thinking of moving them closer to the house when they finish blooming.  This spot was covered with remnants of last winter's ice jam just a couple weeks back.

The beavers aren't far away.

Looking across the creek, more beaver damage to three adjacent trees, this one being the worst.  Between beaver damage and that mountain spring/stream cutting into the soil at it's base, we will no doubt lose it in the next year or so.  Nature rules!

After a soaking rain this afternoon, we're hoping for another partly sunny day in the mid-60s tomorrow.  I for one sure hope the snow has left for the season! 

Linking with Wendy's Peacock Party.