A Cold January MIni Quilt

For many people, January seems like 

a very long month.

Maybe because it follows the busy holiday season.

It was nice to have another

monthly mini to work on

during these wintery days.

Long Winter Days

28" x 33"

This pattern was from the #140  Quiltmania magazine

and the designer is  Maria Tamaoka of Pinwheels .

You can find this pattern on her web site.

One of the things on my 2022 list

was to dig deep into my stash,

and maybe find some useable surprises.

I found the navy and white star fabric for the background of the trees.

Notice the date on the salvage, 1990.

The trees were made with a variety of light plaids

and strips.  

The other fabric above is what I used on the back.

Sweetwater fabric by Moda used to be called

Farmyard Creations way way back when. 

Two very old fabrics from the stash, but were 

still perfect for a 2022 monthly mini.

Another thing I had on my 2022 list of things to do

was to make something using paper piecing.

These little trees were perfect.  

A lot of quilters had been make 

cute little trees over the holidays

so why not in January as well. 

I love trimming up the blocks.

Everything comes out so neat, crisp and perfect.

So cute!

I loved the low contrast  trees against

the night time winter sky.

The other day my pines were frost covered

and resembled the trees in the quilt.

With some simple straight line quilting 

and a flange binding my January mini was complete.

The cold January morning light

casted a blue shadow which was prefect for this quilt.

I discovered as many of us begin another year

of monthly minis coordinated by 

Wendy, the Constant Quilter, 

that I have a nice collection of small quilts.

January - A Blue and White Series

The snow doesn't look deep, but it had drifted up

by the barb wire fence and had a hard crust on top.

You can see where I kept breaking through.

It was actually a challenge hanging these up!

Running Man watched out the window 

 wondering if he would have to come out

for a snow rescue.

I made it back in.

Until Next time-

Kyle

 

Flower Garden Blocks 1940's

Taking on another Quilter's beautiful

Flower Garden blocks has been a 

lovely way to start the new year.

If you remember, I bought these

blocks at my Quilt Therapy silent auction

in November and throughout the holiday

I have been enjoying slowly piecing them together. 

There ended up being 97 individual blocks.

I have sewn them into long panels 

and are now sewing very long

zigzag seams.

 

All the while, 

I have been trying to figure out,

why the blocks were sewn both by machine

and by hand.

Were they sewn by two people or

if not, 

what was the Quilter thinking and what was the plan.

Well, I  figured out

she was a very efficient and systematic person.

She had come up with a plan

where she could save time and still

stitch perfect blocks.

Because she was not using an EPP method

she could vary her method of sewing.

Here's what she did.

After cutting out all her hexies,

and there are no pencil marks to indicate

she drew around a template,

she began sewing them together with a 

1/8" seams allowance.

Remember she did all

that fussy cutting .

A very talented quilter.

Step 1.

Then after machine piecing part of the first ring,

she sewed the two hexies on the sides 

to complete the ring by hand.

This clever Quilter found herself 

half the time at her machine and

the other half sitting and hand stitching.

Now look what she did for the next ring.

These next hexies would be floppy.

By leaving the seams allowances free

and because she used an 1/8" seam, 

she could easily insert and connect

other sections of a ring.

Do you see a pattern?

A bit of zigzag zag stitching.

She could work on multiple blocks at a time

sewing a bunch at the machine

and then finishing the rings later.

Here's the third ring.

Sew individual plain hexies to 

the second ring, 

sew 4 plain hexies together in a row, and

then attach these to both sides.

There's a completed block.

She could work on a bunch

of these at a time.

Her combination of methods seemed a

very efficient use of her time and skills.

But that's where she stopped.

I couldn’t think of a combo

method to sew the blocks together.

Could that have been part of the 

reason she put all these beautiful blocks away?

Whatever the reason, I feel very

fortunate to have been the next part of the plan.

So, slowly, 

 I've been zigzaging these together. ❤

Until Next Time-

Kyle