Snippet Fun!

 My local “Kaleidoscope” quilt group had such a fun project this month. We made “snippet” quilts. 

 We each brought our own supplies: An inspirational image (painting, photograph, etc.) a roughly 10” square of batting and backing, scissors, glue stick and a bag of scraps. 

This Henry Isaacs painting was my inspiration. 

 Each person starts her own quilt by cutting and gluing pieces onto the batting. After 5 minutes, we pass the quilt, the picture and our bag of scraps (keeping our own scissors and glue stick) along to the person to our right. Each person has 5 minutes before they have to pass it along to the next person. We allotted around 30 minutes, so 6 people had their input onto each quilt. We had a ball!

This is after the fourth person was finished – two more to go. 

 In the end you simply add tulle (I used a light green) over the entire piece (to keep the little pieces contained) and quilt and bind it. 

This is the one I made last time we did this, over 10 years ago! 

I glued the inspiration picture on the back next to my label. 

If your group is looking for something fun to do, I highly recommend it. 

National Quilting Day Lows and Highs

 

I hope everyone had a fun and productive National Quilting Day on Saturday. Mine started out with a giant hiccup, but after a walk to calm the mind, it ended up just fine!

 I started by trimming two of the borders for my “Bird’s Nest Soup” in preparation for binding (you may remember that this is a potholder quilt and all the center blocks are already stitched together). After careful cutting, I decided it would be best to double check my measurements. Yup, they were both an inch and a quarter too short. After a few moments of reflection, I popped the quilt into the washer with about 100 color catchers. After a few minutes in the dryer (I know, just breathe…) I set it out on the bed and picked up the tape measure. It was hard to measure with my fingers crossed so tightly, but miracle of miracles, it had shrunk exactly 1” all around.

 Before I started binding, I spread everything on the floor. Hmm…, second disaster of the day. I didn’t like it at all. Maybe it will look better in a photo

– ah, no!! This is one of the problems of not having a design wall big enough to audition everything at once. This is where I take my (long) walk.

 When I returned, I knew that it truly wasn’t going to work for me and that I had to salvage this somehow. The quilt could stand on its own at this point but I had my heart set on a border and I already have the corner blocks done. So, off to the drawing board. I have a number of things in mind which I will share when they are finalized.

 The good news it that I have been thinking about a “strippy” potholder quilt for a long time and with those silly border pieces, it is already half done!!

 After all this turmoil, I needed a pick me up. I grabbed some happy juvenile novelty prints and started cutting squares. I used Katy’s (KatyQuilts) US map quilt as my inspiration. What fun! Thanks Katy!

The squares finished 2 ½” and I realized it wasn’t quite big enough to be useful for a crib quilt, so I added this marvelous border. 

This was designed by Brandon Mably for the Kaffe Fassett Collection. 

I adore it and am sad to now be down to one 5” strip. I'll quilt it next weekend. I’m sure it will be cheerfully used by some precious child.

 And, to top it all off… I played thread chicken and won!!

So, my day ended on a happy note and I hope yours all did too!

 Happy Spring!!

Healing My Heart With My Hands

 

I want to thank each and every one of you for such kind comments on the loss of my mother. It means a lot to me to know I have so many dear quilting friends.

 Needless to say, it was a rough weekend. All of her 5 children and most of her 10 grandchildren were able to be with her. As we sat together, we couldn’t help but feel helpless for our situation and for the world and the Ukrainian people. Mum would have been the first to ask “what can I do to help”.

I spent Sunday after noon piecing blocks to send to Claudia Pfeil in Germany, who will be making them into quilts to give to refugees as needed. There are more organizations who are coming together to help now too, but this was the first I saw. Here is the link to her plea on the Quilt Show. I could only fit 10 into the Global Priority envelope but I am sure I will be sending more as other opportunities open up. 

I made a number of easy pieced ones to fill out the envelope. 

 My mother was an artist and she was always making drawings for her grandchildren. I will leave you with a few she has made for us over the years. 

 

Have a wonderful day! 

Update: It is difficult to know which sites are the best for donating to the Ukraine people. I just went to Pat Sloan's blog (here) and she has a wonderful free pattern and a link to donate money through Unicef. With a smile like Pat's you know it must be trustworthy! 

My Beautiful Mother

 

My beautiful Mum.

11/24/1936 – 3/4/2022

 

Everything I am,

I am because of you.

Thank you. 

February Monthly Mini

 I just love my mini this month! Happy and scrappy! 

 My Betsy Chutchian “circle” quilt has been on hold until the latest line (Mary Ann’s Gift) of charm packs arrives. You can read about the “mother” quilt (here). Or, I can just tell you that it is on hold because I need 10 more fabrics to complete the circle applique blocks in order for this to be a true “charm” (every fabric is different) quilt.

 I had over 200 pieces leftover from the circle cutouts that looked like this. 

So, I simply cut triangles until I had enough to make this sweet little quilt. I ended up with 80 half square triangle (so that is 160 different fabrics).

 The border fabric is one of my favorite prints (I know, I have a lot of favorites) and it was all I could do to leave it plain. In fact, I was so surprised that I liked it this way, that I have decided to call it, “Look Ma, no corner blocks!”.

 Now what to do with the remaining pile of leftovers.

I kept half and sent half to an unsuspecting friend who I know will do something superb with them. Mine are already thinking about what to become for next month’s mini.

We’ve picked up a few new mini makers, so grab a cup of tea and click away! Remember it is a short month so if they haven't posted their mini yet (or even if they have decided to skip a month) come back with a second cuppa!

Quilting Babcia (Amity Quilter)

Randy (Barrister’s Block)

Cathy (Big Lake Quilter) 

Cyndi (Busy Thimble)

Grace (City Mouse Quilter)

Barb (Fun with Barb)

Gladi (Gladi’s Quilts)

Shasta (High Road Quilter)

Nancy (Joy For Grace)

Joy (Joyful Quilter)

Julie (Julie K Quilts)

Kathy (Kathy’s Quilts)

Katy (Katy Quilts)

Sandy (My Material Creations)

Meredithe (Pomegranate and Chintz)

Angie (Quilting on the Crescent)

Barbara (Quilts, Gravestones and Elusive Ancestors)

Janet (Rogue Quilts)

Tazzie (Tazzie Quilts)

Kyle (Timeless Reflections)

Cynthia (Wabi-Sabi Quilts)

Cecile and Corinne's Sampler Sew-a-long

 Finally finished a few of the applique blocks. I simply drew flowers that have graced the Whitman’s Sampler boxes over the years. I took a lot of liberties! 

 This one was really fun.

I wanted to applique a tiny circle of yellow in the center so I cut out a circle from this “sunny” fabric.

When I applique a circle that finishes about ¼” like this one, I applique it onto the background fabric “before” I cut the larger circle.

This way it is easy to “center” the inner circle. 

 The minimum for the challenge is 8 pieced and 8 appliqued blocks – all different patterns. I’m still in the planning stage as far as layout, but I think I have finally decided that “8 is enough”! 

 I wouldn’t mind doing a few more applique blocks, but that means making more pieced blocks and it was quite a challenge for me to come up with 8 different baskets.

 So… on to the layout and then the quilting. I really enjoy this sew-a-long challenge every year.

 Click (here) to see all the creative sampler blocks on Cecile and Corinne’s Facebook page. Enjoy the day!

New Baby Quilt

 I finally made it over to my sister’s to deliver this for her newest grandson. A simple, yet satisfying one patch. 

 I didn’t know he was going to be a boy until he was born, but I think this one fits the bill for a little man. Don’t you just love that center panel? Wouldn’t every child want a ride in these cars? 

 And, of course my signature cowboy fabric on the back. This fabric is at least 15 years old but it never goes out of style (for me). 

 And speaking of old… I picked this gem up the last time I was at Cyndi’s (Busy Thimble). She had integrated some marvelous “oldies but goodies” from her half yard cuts in the “larder”. I used the last piece of this years ago so it was nice to have it back in the fold (no pun intended). 

She also passed these to me (2" x 6" strips) while I was there. We like to trade strips whenever we are cutting quantities of larger strips. I was thrilled that they fit perfectly in this Betsy Chutchian “Frivols” tin. Now I can make something expressly with these little beauties. 

 Hope your day is filled with fun scraps!