Thursday, January 27, 2022

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 
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





 

Monday, January 10, 2022

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