Pinwheel with "turnovers" and a bit of waste

This pinwheel was made using a half reduction of the tutorial by Jenny Doan. Her video called this a Stack and Whack with Turnovers, though it does not fit what I find others calling "stack and whack". Anyway, I like the block and was mainly challenged by positioning the solid or background in the proper places with the print wheel pieces. So, take care there.

Using 3 inch squares with 4 x 1.5 inch rectangles and less than perfect quarter inch seams, I came up with this 6.25 square....which might should have been more along the lines of 6.5 inch. I was still working on getting quarter inch seams down when I did this one. (sorry).

One reason I like doing the mini versions of blocks is that I like using up scraps from quilts for which the colors have already been selected, and to my eye, work well. The above patch work is from my first son's "Buddy Quilt".  Seen  here in my October 2012 post.

Photo was taken using my nifty difty tripod, which has a flip feature accommodating set up for macro shots. When the central rod is flipped, the camera is positioned between the tripod legs and can therefore be used for photographing things placed beneath. This pic was shot inside on a cloudy day with no flash. ;o) On my monitor the colors hold true.

Depression Era Quilt

 

This panel is from a quilt made by my great grandmother (mother's father's mother). The quilt itself has batting oozing out here and there, was mistaken for a pee pad by my grand puppy, and has now been passed on to my dog/cat owning son who says he'll cherish it, regardless. I've photographed it and hope to come up with a semblance of her pattern using scraps I have and hope to obtain. It's a look that, though off kilter in places and a tad off color in others, has grown on me. 

Great Grandmother "Sally" did the stitching on this one by hand, though I have some that she machine stitched. Can't date this one exactly, but maybe in the mid- 1930's.

I especially like the counter pointed reds.

Boxed Hourglass from a Tube

Found a nifty Missouri Star Quilt Co. tutorial a while back and worked up a block to use as practice for free motion quilting. The practice block stayed with all my other quilting helps, but eventually I forgot where I had found the pattern and how the block was cut and sewn! Aaaargh! Happily I ran across the tutorial tonight. Click here and see what you think of it.

       Use two strips of 2.5 inch WOF (width of fabric) strips sewn togehter. Then lay a 4.25 inch WOF strip on top and sew using 1/4 inch seam to form a tube. Use 45 degree angle line of ruler laid on the 1/4 inch seam of tube at one side of tube; make cut, then move the angle line to other side of the tube (on 1/4 inch seam line again) to make cut. Do for four cuts and you get the pieces of the double hourglass set on point.

Salvaged by the Sashing

Unfinished, a photo by Jane-Ace on Flickr.

one of my favorite tutorial sources has been the videos posted by Jenny Doan of the Missouri Star Quilt Company. (Quack.) ;o)

   The blocks pictured here were thrown together using five strips of 1.5 inch widths along the lines of her posted tutorial for the "Three Dudes'" block. I was not especially careful with my quarter inch in stitching these, and ended up (somehow) with three sets of three different sizes. So, I had nine blocks, but each set of three was incrementally larger than the last. If I cut them to size, I would lose some of the corner color. I finally decided to "fix" it by cutting sashing in the odd sizes needed to end up with a square. I would be more specific, but honestly, I don't know how I did it. 

I tend to like downsizing patterns, but this one would be more effective had I stuck with the 2.5 inch strips suggested in the tutorial. I nearly lost the effect of the framed mid-section due to the smaller size strips I used. Also... this won't work unless each strip is equal width as the other strips.


[See Nov. 12 "Scrappy Quilt" post for photo of completed quilt.]

  

Scrappy Quilt

Scrappy Quilt, a photo by Jane-Ace on Flickr.

  This was just going to be a throw together piece for me to practice free motion quilting, but I wound up using only "stitch in the ditch" stitching, after all. My class instructor had shown me an article about how, even for free motion quilting, it is good to stabilize a quilt with "stitch in the ditch"stitching...so the free motion does not make the quilt wonky. 

Some of the fabric in this came from stash dating back twenty-four years! My daughter saw it and laid claim for her hope chest, since she recognized some of the fabric as having been from outfits I had made for her when she was preschool age. 

Nice that she will treasure it, even though I had to make some of the sashing narrow to get the less-than-accurately stitched blocks into a square for the borders. [See "Salvaged by the Sashing" post for more about that.]The finished size is about 30" square.

 

Binding a Matter of Connecting Threads

Binding the Scrappy Quilt of the post by the same name was pretty straightforward. The backing fabric was this yellow and brown print I found on the summer sale table at our local Hancock fabric. I loved the little terms of endearment scattered across it: "sweet pea", "sweet heart", "pea pod", etc. I used a beautiful pink floral print both for the front border and the binding. It was a remnant found at Hancock's, as well. Anyway, there was just precisely enough of it to do what was needed. I went back to the shop, because I liked it so much. I would have bought a few yards, even though pink is not what normally attracts me. Apparently the remnant was the very last of it, though.

   When I get to the part of joining the binding, I like the method used by Connecting Threads in this binding video:  Bumpless Binding. It was first illustrated for me by our local quilting instructor. (Yea! Sandy!) But since I seem to need to look over someone's shoulder every time I get a quilt this far, I was glad to find the video. Do be careful, in using this method, when you get to the actual cutting of the overlap, only cut the top strip. If you cut through both, you'll end up having to piece more binding on to the truncated lower strip. Ask me how I know. ;o)

Afternote: Check on this video from the 8:25 minute mark for a clearer picture of the lining up of the end pieces.

Mini "Them"s

The scraps from the three "Buddy" quilts for my kids were just too few for a new project unless I were to make three mini versions of the lap quilt I had done. While the pattern was still fresh, I reduced the measurements for these three mini quilts. My intention was to practice some free motion on them and possibly group them as a wall display. That way, when the kids and their families come, they will see a little taste of what now is in their homes. Not sure yet how I'll mount them.Whenever I see them, though, it will be a reminder of each of them and their households, and unlike photos, I'll not need to update them every few months!