A Second September Mini

It's been a good month for finishing up a few mini and small quilts!  This mini is the second in my "Pieced from Lois's Scraps" series.  The first is yet to be quilted, maybe October will see that one finished.

It finished at 16 inches more or less square, after trimming.  An interesting observation, I usually use a square hoop for hand quilting, but in this case used an older round one since my square hoops are too large for this little quilt.  Generally I haven't had to square up a hand quilted project but the edges of this one were seriously distorted after the quilting.  I ended up trimming a good quarter inch or so on each side to square it up as best I could. 

Trying to find an angle to show the quilting a bit better

The backing is another vintage fabric, the texture of the base fabric looks and feels much like the feedsack I used on the back of Palmateer Point, though in this case the printed flower/dot design appears to be some sort of paint?  I wasn't able to needle through those printed flowers as they were just thick enough that the tiny #10 between needle would veer off to the side everytime it came in contact with them.  It would be interesting to know exactly how the design was printed and what that material is.

This fabric was in the same bundle of feedsack and vintage fabrics I had found at an estate sale back in Oregon.  In its most recent life it had been made into a cafe curtain, with rod pocket and nicely (machine) stitched hem.

This will be my last finish for September, as tomorrow will be taken up preparing for our quilt ministry's second quilt show at the annual fall harvest festival held across the road from the church at the old grange hall grounds.  With all the cool rainy weather we've been having I'm happy that our show will be inside the church building.    I hope to have some photos to share early next week.  

Busman's Holiday

Last Saturday I awoke with a fair amount of pain in my wrists, most likely from the binge machine quilting of late.  So, considering I really didn't want to continue aggravating my wrists, what to do?  The ziplock baggie of blue-gray scraps came out and I played all day made this little doll quilt top, #2 in my series Pieced from Lois's Scraps.

I have a ton of admiration for those quilters who can work with teeny-tiny pieces of fabric, making them and their sewing machines piece in harmony to create perfect little teeny-tiny blocks. These cake stand blocks finish at 4 inches, and only one of the four blocks went together without a hitch. I guess my fingers are just a bit too clumsy to work with tiny pieces! But I love this scrappy little flimsy anyway, for all its quirks and lopped off points! It will finish at about 17 inches square when quilted, hopefully sometime later this fall.

A closer look -"The good block"

One of the other 'bad boys' on the block (though not the worst!)

I wonder if Google will ever get around to fixing the comment-to-email issue that currently plagues all of us. I hope so, as it seems so many of the bloggers I follow are getting mighty discouraged and seem ready to throw in the towel. Sure would hate to see that happen. Is this Google's master plan to discourage and eventually discontinue Blogger? One has to wonder at this point. So very sad.

Pieced from Lois's Scraps and Other Happenings

We're having a heat-wave here in western New York, not entirely unheard of, but 10-20 degrees above the normal temperatures for the end of May is a bit unusual.  Making up for a very late, cold and wet spring I think.  I'm thankful the sewing room manages to stay at a tolerable temperature most days despite the heat.  The grass is growing fast, the industrious farmers are getting their first cutting of hay in, and here in our garden the first iris opened today!  Summer has officially arrived!

One of the gals at our quilt ministry group has been bringing in donations of fabric including some cut-offs and scraps from a few of her recent projects.  A few weeks ago I brought home a baggie of her small scraps and decided to make a doll quilt top, using just one additional fabric, and this is the one that I posted about previously.

I brought the remaining scraps back to quilt group and challenged the other members to make a doll quilt size top using some of the scraps plus one additional fabric, and see how many little quilts we could get from Lois's scraps.  So far one gal, Nancy, has taken me up on the challenge and the following week she came back with this:

At that point she was debating whether to add a border from one of the two fabrics shown at the top of the photo, and we haven't seen it since, so it's probably still awaiting that decision.  She did a fabulous job with this block though, but with farming in full swing now and a wedding quilt for her daughter needing finishing before September, I suspect we won't see this little gem again for awhile.

Another gal took the remaining scraps from that baggie home, so we shall see what transpires next.  Meanwhile a couple weeks ago I discovered another baggie of Lois's scraps in one of the fabric bins, so they came home with me to try again.  I haven't gotten too far yet but this is the first block, and three more are cut and awaiting stitching.  Still deciding what my setting fabric will be for these little blocks.  My play time while machine quilting all those church camp donation quilts! 

I just love the primitive and reproduction fabrics that Lois consistently seems to choose for her quilts, and it's been such fun using some of the bits and pieces to make small quilts from her leftovers.  And setting them against a colorful, sometimes non-vintage fabric occasionally too, since I seem to gravitate toward the bright oranges and golds in my own fabric stash.   So this begins what I hope will be a continuing little series I'm calling "Pieced from Lois's Scraps."  Even sounds kinda vintage, yes?

On to the winners of the blogaversary giveaway posted last week.  My hubby had the honor of drawing the names for the two books, and the winners are Kyle (http://kyleredente.blogspot.com) for the 1718 Coverlet book, and Ruth (http://countrylogcabin.blogspot.com) for the Fantastic Fabric Folding book!  Thank you to those who commented and those who read this little blog, whether occasionally or those who faithfully comment nearly every time I post. I appreciate all of you and your friendship and quilty advice and encouragement! 

Happy stitching!

Playing with Scraps

One of our quilt ministry members donated some fabrics recently, and included in the box were these cut-offs and remnants from one of her recent quilts.

To give you some idea of the size of the scrap pieces, the little squares and strips measure 1" finished, the larger black print square at the front about 6-1/2 inches.  On a whim I decided to take this batch home last week and see what they might become.  During spare moments over the weekend and today, my handy seam ripper and sewing machine reconfigured some of the scraps into 9-patch blocks that eventually became this little doll quilt top.

More than a little wonky since I didn't bother to square up anything as I went along.  In the beginning I'd planned to just use Lois's scraps for the top, but eventually decided there just wasn't enough of anything to make a good background for the 9-patches, and this off-red was handy in the stash.  The narrow stop border is made up of three different black prints, and each side has several pieces seamed together to achieve the needed length.  The top measures 20-3/4 by 25 inches, and the 9-patch blocks finish at 3 inches square - more or less ;-)

I hardly made a dent in all the little scrappy pieces, so tomorrow the remainder are traveling back to quilt group and I'll put out a challenge to the gang, to see how many doll quilts we can make from the remainder, with the caveat that each person only choose one extra fabric to be used in addition to the scraps while making her top.  I'd love to see this become a round-robin of sorts, though  I wonder how many will take me up on the challenge!

Meanwhile, my hand quilting buddy in the evening.  Sleepy eyes ...