Monday, February 28, 2022

A February Mini, 2022

 One of my favorite games
as a kid was Pick Up Sticks.

The object was to pick up each stick
without wiggling another stick.

That led me to 
dig into my overflowing strip basket
and pick up  pink, brown and light strips and


 see what I could make with them.

My February Mini

Pick Up Sticks
33" x 30"

My February mini reminded me of that game.
Lots of narrow strips, side by side, with me
 trying to sew them together
without wiggling the strip next to it.  

To give me some sense of order and control,
I precut both light and dark strips,
then randomly picked up pieces,


sewing them into the alternating light and dark combinations.


The "sticks" created a zig and zag pattern when 
stitched together.


All those tossed strips 
that were pulled from my basket
were fun to stitch together for this month's mini.


I kept thinking as I was machine quilting in the ditch,
why can I sew perfectly straight in the light areas
and then wiggle so much in the dark areas.
Always a little bobble, just like playing 
"Pick Up Sticks".


In keeping with my January photos,
I realized I had another series.

Browns and pinks,
a classic combination.
 

Yes, I trumped through the snow again
to reach my barbed wire fence,
but for the sake of art, I did it in 6 degree weather!
Oh, what  mini makers will do.
Check out the other hearty makers on 
Wendy's blog, The Constant Quilter. 

*****
Our world feels much smaller today
And filled with sadness and apprehension
Until Next Time-
Kyle


Tuesday, February 8, 2022

A Flannel Quilt Workout

 With the beginning of a new year
and the Winter Olympics currently going on,
maybe it was time to think
about "shaping up".


Well, I wasn't necessarily thinking about
it physically, but rather,
thinking about  "targeting" some of 
those long forgotten projects.

In my sewing room 
lingering right over my shoulders
in plain view

are these adorable practical picnic baskets.



And this one has been holding 
flannel fabric for a project for over a decade.
The original idea had long ago
"stalled out".

Now was the time to "reshape" 
these already cut 8 inch squares of 
Kansas Trouble flannels into something new.

But with flannels I didn't want to be too "aggressive"
and cut 
it all up into very small pieces.
So I happened to find a free pattern
by Kim Diehl available through Henry Glass Fabrics
called Heritage Stars.


It's similar to patterns we've seen before, and
I thought I could "workout" my fabric sizes with
Kim's ideas pretty easily.

With a little imagination
interpretation,
and  "endurance"

it was becoming a "winning" solution.


You can see that I "stretched" the idea
of the stars into the borders
and "maximized" the use of the flannels.

It will be perfect for our winter weather 
and it was  the perfect project to "tackle" and
"rehabilitate" those lingering flannels.

Until Next Time-
Kyle