Hello Minnie My Old Friend

This time of year there's always a lot on my plate, to the point that I seem to start losing time in one-week chunks, and this year is no exception, which is why I love to have some hand quilting to help calm things down a bit. Minnie to the rescue!

She has been in the hoop for some time now but I don't honestly know that I've picked up a needle all year, until recently. It's so good to be back.

Reacquainting myself with all of the different diamond hexies in this quilt and their colour combinations is so much fun. It's becomes a bit of a game to see how many I can quilt in one sitting. She is by no means close to being finished so that means many more hours of enjoyment for me.

Another project that has been keeping me busy is Miss P. Spoiler alert: she's all together now. Miracle of miracles! I will give it a good press and have something to show you pretty soon, hopefully in the my next post....M

The Joy of a Slow Sunday

The Wonder Clips at the top of this photo tell the story of my day today: slow stitching binding on Falling Leaves.

When the calendar flips over into September I'm always on high alert because it's time to get some Holly Bazaar projects under way. But this year it also means finishing up this raffle quilt for the church.

The binding was cut and pressed yesterday and I managed to get it sewn on before hitting the sack (it's a large quilt - 88" x 100" - so there was a fair bit of gratuitous wrestling to get that job done). And that put me in good shape for today. This is the beautiful backing fabric.

That's what I'm binding it with, and it's looking really nice against that piano key border. It's currently about half finished so I'm happy with that. Linking up with Kathy and the slow stitchers who are joining her today...M

My Need For Speed

You know me, I rarely work on one project at a time, often motivated by the last thing I pass in the sewing room or see on my TO DO list, and often by the need to feel that progress is able to be made more quickly somewhere else. Well, here is proof positive that I am consistent.

To break up my date with the pincushion in assembling the Miss P blocks (so close!) I started another Quilts for Survivors project. I'd been mulling this one for a while as an experiment for how to use this cute autumn-themed print with funky little turkeys, 

pumpkins and leaves,

and a nattily dressed squirrel.

It's fairly simple but I think it does a good job of showing off the fabrics. I raided my 2.5" remnants and also cut several additional 2.5" squares - many of which are remnants from the Falling Leaves charity quilt - for scrappy 16-patch blocks. 

Once I had pairs sewn together I set out sets of 8 so that I would be sure to get the colour distribution that I wanted and then it was easy to work through the pile.

And then I framed 4.5" squares of my larger print with a tiny polka dot in coordinating colours. Very fun, I must say.

The framed blocks came together very quickly and the 16-patch blocks followed a few days later. I am loving the combination of prints - very autumnal, which is timely as our weather has suddenly turned cooler. 

It's not together quite yet but it's now time to return to my pins and finish getting Miss P together....M

There's Gonna Be Pinning

Final assembly on Miss P has begun, and true to form for this pattern, it's slow going for me, but it will be so worth it.

There are 6 seams along each side of of each block that are not conducive to nesting so use of the pincushion is in full swing. By the time I sew the rows together there will be 36 pins per row!

Because the blocks have been sitting around for so long, I've been giving each a good press to help re-establish crisp seams and hopefully make for better joins along the way. That includes pressing the corner seams open so that they lie flatter.

It's been so much fun revisiting every block.

And coming across wee surprises like this little bee (I'm easily entertained).

And even more fun to see actual progress. The two rows to the left are together now but not yet sewn to each other....M