Happy 200th Birthday Maine!

Happy birthday Maine. Sorry we won’t be celebrating the way we wanted to just now, but we will get together with all the “Maniacs” soon! 

All my non quilting friends now understand why we stockpile fabric! 

Stay safe and healthy my friends!

Bea and Cecile's Quilt-a-long stars

Once again, I am participating in Bea and Cecile’s sew-a-long. This year the theme is stars. 

I used bright Pennsylvania colors and chose a Lancaster blue as my background. It looks rather dull in the photo. I think it needs a little applique. As Audrey (Quilty Folk) often says, everything is better with applique! They don’t have to be finished until May 31, so I have time to ruminate. 

As I trimmed these little stars, I saved these tiny triangles (less than 1/4") as a joke for my friend Charlotte who makes the most amazing things with small pieces. She will get a chuckle out of it. 

You can visit the Facebook page (here) for more delightful star blocks and tops. Enjoy!

Monthly mini February- Life is a Bowl of Cherries

I cannot remember the last time I got chocolates for Valentine’s Day. In fact, it may have only been once when we were young and I was on one of my perpetual diets and I probably gave him the idea that flowers would be better from now on. Anyway, this little mini reminds me of chocolate covered cherries and Valentine’s Day. Perfect for February.

This teal stripe just begged for mitered corners.

For the first time in my life, I managed to match up a stripe only to cover it up with a silly red cherry! Such is life. 

I’m sorry I am posting late! I had intended to post early, but... Please visit all the hard working mini makers to see what they have come up with. And, please let me know if I have missed anyone. I’m so proud of all my mini followers this month as we only had 29 days to make one!

Quilting Babcia (Amity Quilter)

Janet (Rogue Quilter)
Shasta (High Road Quilter)

Sandy (My Material Creations)

Barb (Fun With Barb) 
Kathy (Kathy's Quilts) 
Cathy (Big Lake Quilter)

Cynthia (Wabi-Sabi Quilts)

Barbara (Quilts, Gravestones & Elusive Ancestors)
Kyle (Timeless Reflections) 
Randy (Barrister’s Block)

Cassandra's Circle Block #1

I enjoyed Barbara Brackman’s (Civil War Quilts), “Hospital Sketches” so much last year that I have decided to participate again. This year’s applique sew-a-long is called Cassandra’s Circle.

My Hospital Sketches background was a beautiful, albeit unusual, shade of green. I thought perhaps I would go softer with this one and started auditioning fabrics. I narrowed it down to these three. 

And then of course ended up with this one.

You just can’t change a leopard’s spots.   

 

Do visit the Facebook page (here) to see all the variations. I am definitely not the only crazy person out there. There are so many creative people in the world!

C1880 Home and Bound!

My C1880 quilt is back from the quilter. I was going to hand quilt the Baptist Fan using Barb’s (Fun With Barb) fabulous stencil. I contemplated all those tiny little seams and decided my needles (and my fingers) couldn’t take all that pressure. My friend, Kathy the Wonder Quilter found a perfect Baptist Fan for the longarm and worked her magic. I think it has that traditional look I was going for. I used this fabulous print on the back with all my favorite colors.

Kathy's quilting really makes it sing. 

Thanks Pam, Janet, Cyndi and all of you who traveled along on the C1880 journey. I haven’t decided on a name yet. I’m leaning toward, “With a Little Help from My friends” but that seems a little wordy. And, in reality it should be “With a LOT of Help from My Friends”! What do you think?

Thanks again to Pam Buda and my trading friends, Janet (Rogue Quilter) and Cyndi (Busy Thimble) for all the fun. There are all sorts of setting variations popping up on the Facebook page (here). Some people are so creative!!

A New Adventure

back

Last winter Shasta (High Road Quilter) showed us a very unique bed covering (here). Shasta is making one with 30’s reproductions and her yo-yo’s are piling up (here).

I found it fascinating and thought instantly how much fun it would be to make it with colorful vintage feedsacks. Of course, my decision had nothing to do with the fact that I had over 700 feedsack yo yo’s already made up.  

Several years ago, I cut 3” squares from around 800 different feedsacks in my collection and began to make 1” finished yo yo’s. They traveled with me in my Roy Roger’s lunch box and whenever I was at a meeting or lecture or red light (just kidding) I would make a few of them.

Not having seen the original spread in person, it was trial and error with the assembly method. I decided to make the front squares from just one feedsack fabric to give it some sort of unity. The back of each square is a different feedsack fabric (99 in all).

My squares finish approximately (and, I do mean approximate!) 3”. I cut the front and back fabrics at 3 ½”, faced them together and placed a 3 ¼” piece of cotton batting on top.

Then I stitch with ¼” seam allowance around the edge leaving about 1 ½” opening to turn the block inside out. I lop off the corners a bit to reduce bulk.

I press from the front and then top stitch close to the edge so that I do not have to hand stitch the opening.

I’m learning a lot about stitching yo-yo’s together. It is not as easy as I thought it would be. Have any of you made a yo-yo quilt? I’m wondering if you end your thread with each yo-yo or do you travel from one to the next? I am traveling from one to the next, but it has been tricky to make sure you don’t catch the edge of the yo-yo and have your thread show though.

Since it is technically a potholder quilt, it has to have a name with some sort of food reference. I think I am going to call it “Candy Dish”. I have a lot on my plate already so this will be my “pick up” project this year. Whenever I am in between other quilts, I’ll add a few yo-yo’s and hopefully be done by the end of the year. Or, in true Wendy fashion I just may end up making another lap quilt! 

And, I wanted to show you all how lucky I am to have such great friends! The last time Randy (Barrister's Block) visited me here in Maine she gave me this cute little caddy which I use every day for my water and starch sprays. I love it! 

And I was blown away on Saturday when I went to visit Cyndi (Busy Thimble) and she presented me with this little quilt! I had admired one that she made earlier (here) and she made one for me.

Beautifully hand quilted!

How sweet! I am indeed lucky to have great friends!

Monthly mini January

“A Little More Light” - a simple start to the new year’s monthly mini quilts! I had planned on finishing a sweet little applique quilt for this month, but alas, it has turned into my “possible” February mini and this simple little quilt made with vintage feedsacks will have to suffice. It represents our trek toward Spring with later sunsets and just a bit more light each day!

I love some of these novelty prints. 

Feel free to jump in any time during my 2020 mini quilt making venture. Katy (Katy Quilts) is not one of our regular followers on this mini march, but she made many fabulous minis last year that are too good not to share (here). I follow Katy regularly and she is a very prolific quilter. 

I'm not sure how many crazy people will continue this mini madness, but check out January's gems. Thanks for strolling along together! They are all winners this month!

Barbara - (Quilts, Gravestones & Elusive Ancestors)
Cynthia - (Wabi-Sabi Quilts) and be sure to check out Cynthia's posts of the Tokyo International Quilt Show - Fantastic quilts!
Randy (Barrister's Block)
Janet (Rogue Quilter) 
Sandy (My Material Creations)
Kyle (Timeless Reflections)
Cathy (Big Lake Quilter) 
Shasta (High Road Quilter) has a super early finish!
Kathy (Kathy's Quilts) 
Quilting Babcia - Amity Quilter