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 

January Mini ++

Here we are entering our 5th!! year of mini making under the guidance of Wendy, The Constant Quilter. Can you believe it? This month is quilt #49 :) If you haven't joined in on the fun there's always time to jump in. Check Wendy's blog the end of the month when she posts her own mini along with links to lots more. 

It's not surprising that I started with this asterisk block that was actually the sample for the little quilt I showed you last month. I followed the instructions for making these blocks on Darcy Quilts. 

I framed that little block with alternating 1/2" borders of black and Barbara B's Best of Morris prints . . . 

.. . . then added 2" floral borders and cornerstones. 

I had this wonderful blue leaf print that I purchased at Garden State Quilters (more than a few years ago) and put it on the back. It's hard to see the quilting lines but they are ITD around the inner borders and double zig-zags on the outer ones. The piece is 16-1/2" square. 

Every year I publish my blog using Blog2Print. I now have 7 years' worth. It's a great way to keep track of what I've done throughout the year. 

When I sat down to take a look I noticed on the very first page that two images were missing. Oh, no! I emailed customer service and within minutes I was told they would reprint the book. Thank you Blog2Print for your quick response :)

I bought myself a Christmas present--do you ever do that??? Both books are by Di Ford and I'm especially enjoying the second one where she talked about the types of fabrics she liked to use in her quilts.

The snow is piling up on our deck. It's so pretty outside--but C-O-L-D. The other day the nighttime temp hit -18 but this morning it's -6 warming up to a high of 6 deg at 2 pm :) 

That's all for now.

Copyright 2022, Barbara Schaffer

Digging Into Lots of Scraps :)

Thank you Carol Y. in VA for sending a huge box of scraps my way! There's just something about using someone else's scraps that sets me off in a new direction :) What fun!

In a big Staples box were three bags of scraps which Carol had accumulated over the past 45 years including some that belonged to her mother.  

I took the first bag and started sorting shapes and sizes.

I set aside these pieces as they spoke to me for a possible February mini :)

Some small scraps were already pieced together so I started with those and sewed them in a column on the far left. The large black, gray and multi prints were cut in wedge shapes that I sewed together for another column.

I decided to cut that black column in half and make it twice as long. That's much better. 

So as I continue to sort, iron, cut and sew, I'm striving for 54" columns that are determined by the width of the scraps. Carol mentioned there are scraps that she overdyed, some are cutaways from a pajama factory, others from clothing that were cut for the fabric. And she also worked in a quilt shop!

We finally got some snow! Of course, the first thing I noticed were the animal tracks in the driveway. Probably a little squirrel :)

Enjoy your week!

 

Copyright 2022, Barbara Schaffer

2021 is Gone--Part II

The second half of the year was a little different than the first mainly because the Deacon blocks were ALL done! In their place I finished a couple small quilts and continued making minis. Scraps seemed to be the norm :)

July 2021

July mini was made from leftover (what else??) strips from a large-print top that I was working on. Don't know that I ever would have intentionally planned this layout but that's the fun of making minis!

August 2021

This was made using a thrift shop brown and border print--I had a lot of both.

 September 2021

I finished Marbles--my much smaller version of the ever-popular Quilty 365 :) Should have replaced that light block on the right. Just sayin'!

This mini was made from leftover tumblers from a UFO that I hope to finish soon--yes, soon!. Why didn't I notice that pink before in the lower right? It just seems to blend in with the border and looks really washed out. In hindsight I should have moved it to another position!

October 2021

More thrift shop finds made their way into October's mini. I'll never forget Wendy's description of the green/yellow/black stripe as a "moose with sunglasses." That really made my day!

November 2021 

Get It Done was finally finished! I'm not crazy about this quilt but after many iterations this was the end result. 

What fun it was to work with someone else's scraps! When Janet O. announced her Baggie Challenge I chose one of her baggies and made this November mini. 

 December 2021

The last mini of 2021 included some French General fabrics mixed in with pieces from the scrap quilt I'd been working on. That center strip was from Barbara B's Ladies' Legacy line and fit right in. The border was a thrift shop goodie :) 

Oops! I almost forgot this one even though I made it a while ago. Love those Best of Morris fabrics by Barbara B :)

 __________

The day before Christmas we went to watch the Olympic Team Trials in Lake Placid. A gift from my daughter and her husband.

 The event was the Nordic Combined . . . 

. . . which started at the Lake Placid Olympic Ski Jumping Complex . . . 

. . . and ended at Mt. Van Hoevenberg with a grueling 10K cross-country ski. The winner, Taylor Fletcher, was nominated to the 2022 U.S. Olympic Team. He is one of the fastest cross-country skiers on the world circuit. NBC was there filming but it was also fascinating to watch a drone flying overhead!  

Well, that wraps up 2021!

It's time to move on to 2022 . . . 😊😊😊

 

 

Copyright 2022, Barbara Schaffer