October Monthly Mini

 

This month’s mini was a real change for me. I challenged myself to make something “modern”. I decided to make it strictly by machine and to utilize only solid fabrics (a real rarity for me).

 My friend Barb Vedder (Fun with Barb) is a whiz at whipping up fabulous quilts with solid fabrics. I participated in her Zoom lecture at our state show in July on “Sensational Solids”.  It was fabulous! If your group is looking for a great speaker, I highly recommend her. (I’ll take my payment in fabric Barb!)

 So… I used that inspiration to create my October mini. It is a fabric interpretation of a Wassily Kandinsky study in color. I love his circle paintings! 

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 When using the potholdermethod, I usually hand stitch my blocks together. I was determined to make this little guy completely by machine. I pillow cased the blocks,

then appliquilted (I couldn’t think of what else to call it) the circles on each block and zig-zagged them together. For some reason I had a spool of variegated thread on the shelf, and I love the way it brought everything together. It won’t win any machine work awards, but it was a lot of fun!

 I’m calling it “Candynsky”. The name has a 3-way meaning this time. I try to give my potholder quilts utilizing some sort of cooking or food reference, and, since this is the “candy” month, and… well you get the last one!

 Let’s see what the rest of you have in your candy bag this month. Let me know if I have missed anyone or if you are joining for the first time. And, don't forget Janet's (Rogue Quilts) baggie challenge. I'm having a ball working on mine. Hope to reveal it as my November mini.

Quilting Babcia (Amity Quilter)

Randy (Barrister’s Block)

Cyndi (Busy Thimble)

Grace (City Mouse Quilter)

Barb (Fun with Barb)

Gladi (Gladi’s Quilts)

Shasta (High Road Quilter)

Julie (Julie K Quilts)

Kathy (Kathy’s Quilts)

Katy (Katy Quilts)

Sandy (My Material Creations)

Angie (Quilting on the Crescent)

Barbara (Quilts, Gravestones and Elusive Ancestors)

Janet (Rogue Quilts)

Kyle (Timeless Reflections)

Cynthia (Wabi-Sabi Quilts)

Happy Halloween!

Such a Sweet Retreat

 What a treat to have our first real retreat in over 2 years! Our “Seven Sistah’s” group was hand picked (by me) nearly 10 years ago and we have been doing our best to gather as a gaggle whenever we can. Our first official retreat was in June of 2012 in a wonderful facility in the mountains of Rangeley, Maine. We met there for four years before moving to a location that was closer to all of our homes. Some of us had conflicts that year and we needed to be more flexible. In 2019 we met at the Vermont Quilt Show instead of our annual summer retreat. And, of course we all know what happened last year!

 So… needless to say we were so excited to have an actual retreat again. Thanks to Fotini for finding this fabulous cottage on Wells Beach, Maine. We all decided it was so well laid out for our needs that we booked it again for May. 

 This was cozy room on the first floor. I like to bring my own quilt and pillow whenever possible. I even had a little sofa so I could applique and not wake anyone up (I am a very early riser). 

 Tina and I brought only hand work, so we took over this comfy couch that has electric recliners at both ends – wow! Tina was finishing up all sorts of little goodies. 

I was simply doing hand applique of my “Bird’s Nest Soup” blocks. I went up to the second floor to take these shots as Susie Karen helped lay it out and then turn the blocks over to get a feel for how the back will look. 

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 Kathy pieced these delicious blocks. I see one of these quilts in my future. I adore it and it uses up a lot of 2” squares! 

 Susie Karen worked on her challenge and then went with Fotini, Charlotte and Kathy to the Portsmouth Fabric Company for some retail therapy.

 Fotini worked on some holiday masks for the British Goods store she works in. Somehow I missed taking a photo!

 Charlotte finished her little challenge and then worked on the most amazing Double Wedding Ring quilt (sorry my came out very blurry – I must have been too excited!). Then she pieced these blocks together. We figured that they put that big black thing there for us to hang our finished tops on, but later discovered that we could watch our British comedies on it! 

 We all had fun stitching along, but Karen, won the prize for accomplishing the most! She had a few blocks that her aunt had given her and she had fun laying them out finishing 4 little quilt tops. Good job! 

 We usually set some sort of a challenge for ourselves. This year we were to make seven “Inchie” quilts that measure 2” square. As usual, I finished mine only last week. However, amazingly enough, I wasn’t the last one to finish. Karen, Susie Karen and Charlotte all finished theirs on site! I was blown away at the creativity of this great group. From left to right: Kathy, Fotini, Susie Karen, Karen, Charlotte, Tina and me. I think I am going to stitch them all together and make a mini potholder quilt to commemorate our fabulous weekend! 

 Hope you get some stitching time with friends this week too.

Rogue Quilter Challenge

 

I hope most of you have seen Janet’s (Rogue Quilter) challenge post by now. If not, you can read about it (here).

 She has issued a unique and fun challenge to all of us monthly “mini-acs”. Most of us have leftover scraps from previous projects. Janet keeps hers in baggies and has even offered some of her collection to anyone who does not have a pile of scraps (is that really possible?).

 My father used to call me a pack rat. I have always been enamored of little boxes for my treasures. I have dozens of boxes filled with little bits of color. 

  I don’t use baggies unless I intend to pass the contents off to someone else. These went to my friend Charlotte. 

The first one was a joke, but somehow, I knew she would try to make something with those little slivers.

 Admittedly, I have more strips, squares, scraps in all matter of containers than I will ever be able to use.

Sometimes I pack a few up and toss them on the “freebie” table at our monthly meeting. If Janet runs out of “baggies” to offer, let me know and I will send you one from the pile.

 Do check in with Janet and let’s see what we can come up with. Thanks for the challenge  Janet!