February Mini

Can you believe it's the end of February already? Time for another mini! 

It all started last month when I was sorting through Carol's scraps. These looked like a February possibility.

I laid them all out to see if anything spoke to me. I had an assortment of strips, triangles, and the LOVE panel to play with and was thinking a square-shaped little quilt.

Then one day it all came together like this--totally unexpected! But how to finish it?

I toyed with the idea of backing it with pink wool and finishing the edges with a buttonhole stitch but I didn't have the right color pink embroidery floss and that meant driving nearly an hour to buy some. Then I had this urge to go to the antiques shop in Lake Placid just to look around. Well, what do you know? There was a package of vintage DMC floss for sale but--no pink. So instead, I added a layer of flannel and quilted the top in-the-ditch.

I had this wonderful toile for the back, which I thoroughly washed again and again, and sewed the entire piece pillowcase-style. So there's no quilting on the back only the label that I made with a piece of the pink wool I thought about using from the start :)

Look how pretty this Valentine's Day tulip is! Another beauty from nearby Little Farmhouse Flowers :)

Crow tracks in the driveway :)

It's 50 degrees here this morning and much of the snow is gone BUT we're in for a snow storm Thursday and Friday with 6-10" expected. That's the way it is here in the north country.

Wendy will be posting her mini on the 28th along with links to all the other mini makers for the month. So be sure to stop by and see what they've been up to! 

Enjoy your week!

Copyright 2022, Barbara Schaffer 

It Took A Very Long Time . . .

. . .  to finally finish this UFO! Nineteen years, in fact, and all it needed was a backing, quilting, and binding. No big deal but enough for me to lose interest all these years. 

So in my quest to work on some older projects this year, I started with this one. If you'd like to go back to the beginning, I posted about it here. That was almost 5 years ago when I finished the top during the '17 in 2017' challenge. Remember that? 

Initially I made 5 blocks but could never figure out the setting. Once I realized 4 blocks were the same size and the 5th was larger my problem was solved.

All the fabrics in the pavement blocks were from my stash while the border print was a Windham reproduction that once belonged to Jill R.

I remember hastily adding those extra squares for the inner sashing. After all, they were the right size and I had just enough for the intended space. 

Last month I finally pieced the backing from my thrift shop bargains. Truly a bargain piece on the right because the print was even off-grain. 

I contacted Dawn at Cabin Creek Stitchery and together we chose a very pretty interlocking three-loop pattern for longarm quilting. Thank you, Dawn!

I had just enough blue for the binding . . . 

. . . and sewed on the label after washing the quilt :) Ta-da!

BTW, the 5th block that was too large to fit in became another small piece :)

Check out this early morning sunrise which only lasted a few minutes before the clouds rolled in. 

Love these Adirondack blue sky days!

As part of my monthly fresh flower birthday present, these tulips were February's pick. Aren't they gorgeous? Believe it or not the owners of the farm grow thousands of tulips in the basement of their house. That's pretty amazing!

See you next week!

 

Copyright 2022, Barbara Schaffer
 

Playtime

 I have so many projects--but first . . . 

. . . I sorted the box of scraps from Carol Y. and organized them by shape and size: large rectangles, small rectangles, squares, triangles, large pieces, and crumbs. Have you ever done anything with crumbs??

I continue making strips from these scraps . . . 

. . . and now have 10 in varying widths: 3-1/2", 4", 5" and 6". The next step is to get them all the same length - 54".  Still working on what's next :)

I thought I might change the layout of these Elizabeth Green Album blocks by putting them on point but that would mean sashing, corner blocks, and edge triangles. I'm not so sure I want to make it that complicated. I like the blocks but don't love the fabrics as they were all outliers that I wanted to use up.  

On a whim yesterday morning I turned them all back so they were set side by side.

What a difference it made, to my eye anyway. The colors seem more intense and I like the visual effect. I'm going to move forward with this layout and add a striped border. 

Since I'm into scraps I thought I'd drape a few of my other scrap quilts over the railing in my sewing room--Potluck on the left and Scrappy Squares on the right.

Two more--unfinished scrap top 2021 on the left and Summer Scraps on the right The piles of fabrics on the floor are all for future projects that I want to concentrate on this year. 

One pile is a group of fabrics that I pulled to go with the Hewson panel and birds that I purchased at the thrift shop not long ago. I think these fabrics will work up nicely into Ohio Star blocks. At least that's what I'm thinking right now :)

We're waiting for the big storm to hit today.

Hope you are all staying safe :)

 

Copyright 2022, Barbara Schaffer