Happy Little Houses

My sewing seems to be having to fit into tiny bits of time as of late, what with Thanksgiving prep and all, but I'm making every minute count, and having lots of fun doing it. 

I mentioned that I am using the Missouri Star tutorial as guidance for making these Cottage Star houses. If you watch it you'll see how enthusiastic Jenny Doan is about sewing these little houses - she was just gushing about how cute they are and how addictive as well. Well, she isn't wrong! Each new house is proving to be a delight to sew.

Soon I started adding little 6" stars to the mix; they will run down the centre of the rows of houses and are cute as a button, too.

I was anxious to see what both blocks would look like together, and they didn't disappoint.

For the second runner I mixed things up a bit and chose a few different prints for the star points on a single star. They look just a little more rustic and add an unexpected element to the whole piece.

I didn't put a whole lot of thought into what colours to use for the points or where to place them - just about anything worked.

I just love the extra bit of interest it creates.

Pretty soon my design wall was looking like this. On the left, each star is made all in the same fabric, but I'm using a few different golds so they won't be identical. On the right, stars made with multiple fabrics.

I'm glad that I found the inspiration photo with this colour combination (even if it was created by AI) because I'm not sure that I would have included the blues, but they are such a nice touch. They look a little odd in this light but are really quite subtle. 

As I say, I'm having lots of happy time with these little houses, even if they seem to be taking me ages to build....M

Lovin' My Bordered Nine-Patch

Incredibly, my Bordered Nine-Patch is all together! I started this hand stitching project thinking that it would take me well into the fall/winter but I've been able to surprise myself with an early finish, and I just love it.

After a fairly uninspiring start I was questioning if I just hadn't figured out the secret to making this pattern sing but eventually, as more and more variety in colour and print came into play it came into its own. 

A huge shout out to Linda at KokaQuilts for her inspiration. Her blocks and finished quilt were just a tad larger than mine but so lovely.

I have to say that the idea of that three-inch-block border is brilliant - it takes the humble Nine-Patch and adds just that little bit of interest to take everything to the next level.

My August post about this flimsy showed a map of how I laid out the blocks in strips to sew them together. That was all done by hand but then I moved to the machine to sew all of the strips together, which saved me a lot of time.

This quilt was an attempt to make a bit of a dent in my 2.5" squares and strips, and it's done that. But fear not, there's plenty more where these came from so I anticipate making more of these in the future. And I suspect that each will take on it's own colour story given that the scraps on hand will vary each time it's made, which will be fun to see. This one is delightfully autumnal....M

Maggie Makes a Quilt

Most Wednesday mornings find me around the quilt frame at the church but last week our small circle did something just a little different. 

Maggie, our brave and fearless ACW President, frequently drops by to check our progress and cheer us on. When encouraged to pull up a chair she has always maintained that she could never do what we do. Fair enough. But lots happens before a flimsy gets put up on the frame so we convinced her to join us in a day of sewing to help create a few more quilt tops to include with this year’s Quilts for Survivors (QFS) shipment. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to invite other quilters, past and present, to join in the fun, including our rectors. And, just like that, Maggie Makes a Quilt Day was born.

I was hoping for some great progress on our sew day so I drafted a pattern for a simple Bricks quilt in advance and circulated it, so several people came with quilts precut and ready to go.

These are the fabrics for the first one that I cut and which Maggie set to work on.

And I also cut this combo for a second one - very similar, but a little lighter.

These gorgeous pinks and golds were cut by another quilter - so soft and delicate.

I also cut 6.5" squares for two Crossroads quilts using burgundies mostly from Jean's stash and randomly inserted the 1" strips before our workshop so that it would be quicker to assemble. 

Jean had donated most of the fabrics. Intent on using all of it up, I cut out two tops but not before I did several deep dives into my stash to squeak out enough fabrics that would work. I don't tend to buy burgundy so I really had to dig deep.

This print has been around for ages and I still love it; it makes a terrific binding too.

About a dozen of us arrived at the hall bright and early, sewing machines and irons in hand (Maggie, for some reason, brought a healthy supply of band aids; not quite sure what she thought that we were going to put her through!). The room was humming in no time.

We were also very fortunate to have a couple of folks volunteer to press seams for us, which moved things along beautifully.

It turned out to be a very fun and productive day; next time I'll show you our progress....M

Variations on a Theme

With all of the blocks for my last Bordered Nine-Patch together and in the process of being assembled into a flimsy, I still have tons of 2.5" squares to play with and am in need of a new hand piecing project, so more Nine-Patches it is!

This time I'm using 8 squares all in the same colour family and then a neutral - not necessarily plain white - for the centre of the block.

It's fun, but fairly quickly I was back to cutting down either some of the 2.5" strips in my box or strips from yardage to get the 8 squares of one colour that I need. And so the pile grows!

I only have 7 blocks together so it's early days in terms of layout, but I'm thinking of maybe putting the blocks on point with a narrow sashing and bright cornerstone(s) and then maybe adding a border or two. That would mean fewer blocks to make. Time will tell....M

Lots of Ooohs and Ahhhhs

When I visited with Sandy recently she gave me a lovely bundle of goodies to include in our Quilts for Survivors shipment this fall, the main one being this fantastic Postage Stamp quilt.

It's made from tiny 3" Nine Patches made with 1.5" squares. 

If you do the math, she's got 9 Nine-Patches per block (81 tiny squares) and there are 20 blocks - all hand pieced - so that makes for 1,620 squares!

Apparently she was channeling me and trying to use up as many of her tiny scraps as she could in this one. I'd say mission accomplished! It sounds like there were several times when there was a fair bit of blue smoke as she worked her way through this, but finish it she did, and it's just gorgeous.

And she didn't stop there. It's machine quilted and bound and, after they add a label, ready to be shipped to a survivor.

Yesterday I shared it with our circle of quilters at the church and they were completely gob smacked, not only that she put all of that work into this beauty, but that she was prepared to give it away. That butter yellow border was a huge hit. Several doubted that they could be quite this generous.

Thank you so much Sandy; someone will receive and enjoy a real treasure to help them along on their healing journey....M

No Longer Sewing in Circles

My effort at completing Jan's Double Wedding Ring flimsy has worked, and no one is more surprised than I.

Thanks to some very rainy weather over the August long weekend I was able to hide in the sewing room and slowly work my way to a finish, and I'm tickled. More than once I was convinced that this just wasn't going to happen, but happen it did!

Remember that corner that I ripped off the existing panel? Well, I decided to try and use it to help minimize the yellow on the 'new' side of the quilt, and it worked. I ripped the vertical seam between the rings so that I could add the circle segments to the columns that I was creating to help complete that big 'S' curve that I needed to.

When it came time to sew that S seam I matched up the seams at the corners and then found the middle of the cream centres of each block, finger pressed them and then attached them to the relevant arc. It meant that half of the time the cream curve was facing me and the other half it was the pieced arc. Surprisingly, both systems worked well as long as that centre point was accurately marked and pinned.

I don't think I've seen a Double Wedding Ring lap quilt but it's very sweet at this size. And the strong colours are lovely, a very different look from the one that our quilting circle finished off earlier in the year.

This one is scrappy with a capital 's', so lots of treasures to unearth as you work your way through it. These vintage cherries are a favourite that show up several times...

as is this sweet almost checked green, which is modern day.

I found a piece of the cream fabric in the project box large enough for a backing so I will send that along to the folks at Quilts for Survivors as well.

Interesting that in all of the years that I have been quilting, this pattern has never been on my list and yet this year I've worked on two of them! Can't wait to let Jan know that her project will now find its forever home....M 

My Nine-Patches Take a Getaway

Wanting some hand stitching to do during a short getaway, I got busy and threw the scrappy Nine-Patches that I've been working on lately for another QFS quilt up on the design wall. I wanted to lay everything out and then pin the rows/columns so that I could easily stitch in the car or as we sat and gabbed. 

Not sure just how many I had made, I discovered that I needed a few more. I also decided that I wanted it one row longer (you know my aversion to square quilts!) so I whipped up a few on the machine in order to meet my deadline. The blocks weren't in any particular order and I made very few tweaks to the final layout, which I really like. Those 3 1/2" border blocks make me happy. I snapped a photo for insurance so that I had a reference in case I got myself messed up.

I made a rough sketch of how everything would go together, numbered and pinned each row/column, and everything was tucked into a bin with thread and scissors. Time to hit the road!...M

It's Decided

I've taken the plunge - the Double Wedding Ring quilt will be a lap quilt and not full-sized. My intention when picking up Jan's WIP was to make it for Quilts for Survivors and that's what I'll do. It also makes it much more likely that it will some day be a finish. I haven't let my mind move forward too too much as to just how to finish it yet - just dealing with the bits and bobs in front of me - but I'm counting on the quilting gods to have my back.

So, I've taken the panel that is all sewn together and ripped out the seam that joins the bottom two rings to the rest of the top, planning to make it 4W x 5H rings.

And I'm left with a corner piece that looks like this. It may be the start of something else but for now its removal has helped move me along. I've just parked it in a corner of the design wall.

Then I started puzzling just how this baby is to come together. I've been referring to Christine Baker's tutorial and the goal is to have columns come together in an elongated S seam. But because I jumped into this midstream, instead of having two consistent shapes, I'm working with an interesting combo of partial rings, like tops of rings...

right sides of rings, and ...

corners of rings (if that's possible...).

I'm just talking myself through it like someone trying to convince a jumper not to jump, but progress is being made....M

My Little Dilemma

Off and on I've been assembling more ovals for the Double Wedding Ring quilt that I showed you in May. Jan left us a full box of bits and pieces before she moved and I'm keen to avoid it being relegated to a life on the shelf, never to be seen again. I decided to put the piece that is assembled up on the wall and see how many more I need to make and then make a plan of action.

This will be a Quilts for Survivors flimsy and they like lap-sized quilts approximately 48" x 64", so if I go that route, I'm thinking I need four circles wide by five long. You can see by the puddle of quilt on the floor that if I make up the entire quilt using all of the bits that have been prepared it would be considerably larger.

It's really quite striking when you get it up on the wall.

After placing two more columns of ovals it looks like I'd need only three to make this work for the lap size, which was a very pleasant surprise as it's proving to be a bit challenging working with pieces that aren't always consistently cut to come out with a good product. The dilemma as to whether I go small or large with this one seems to be tilting in favour of the small size.

So I'm sewing the missing three ovals and hope that a decision will be made along the way.

I pull ovals randomly from the box to work on (many have already been organized and pinned to a small cream oval piece) and it's interesting to see, now that they are on the wall, how so many have yellow in them compared to the circles already sewn together.

Pretty soon I'll have to figure out how to assemble complete circles. If you're old enough to remember, it's feeling sort of like cracking the secret of how they get the caramel into the Caramilk bars 😉....M