Finishing Stitches

Another week has come and gone, and  the wonderful weather  outside has pulled me away from my quilting. I did get the garden planted and  weeded and mulched my azalea/ hosta bed. Hopefully, this week I can get my focus back and finish two miniatures.  I plan on slow stitching the binding  on my flying geese miniature tonight.
The other mini was complete until I noticed as I was hand quilting it that one of them seams an alternate block frayed and came loose. I ended up removing the hand quilting in it and replacing the block. So, there will be more slow stitching as I applique  a new block into place and do the hand quilting. I have been trying to finish up projects since the beginning of the year so that I can start a new applique quilt.  I am starting to wonder if it will ever happen. Since I love to garden as much as I love to quilt, so this time of year the gardening always wins.  It won't be long, and summer heat and humidity will arrive and then hopefully I can spend hot summer afternoons working on my new applique project.

 

Slow Stitching

Well, the ground hog sure had the prediction of spring wrong this year. It is cold and blustery here today.  So, why not take advantage of being couped up and get some enjoyable hand quilting done on these two miniatures.  My miniature wall still has a lot of room for some colorful minis and I really enjoy making them.  They are great ways to try different blocks and not be committed to making a large quilt. I machine basted them and have completed hand quilting the stars on the bottom quilt.  I can't wait to get them added to the wall.

Back to Basics

I often wonder why we do the things we do.  My husband once described quilting as the act of cutting up prefectly good fabric to sew it back together again, what's the point?  I see it a whole different way.  I find quilting therapeutic and very rewarding.  One of the struggles I have always and still have is accuracy. I find miniatures are a way for me to work on the basics of quilting, accurate cutting and pressing make all the difference.  I am not always as successful when it comes to larger projects, probably why I have moved to applique and hand piecing more as of late.  So when I set a side a day to tackle a mini, it is always a very satisfying endeavor.  Not only do I get to work on my skills, but I end up with a miniature version of a quilt on my bucket list, which is way to long to ever complete. 

 

Red and White Miniature

I came across this paper pieced mini atThe House That Kaffe Built. I am not fond of paper piecing but really wanted to do this one in red and white. There is still a lot of room on my mini wall and I have always wanted to do a school house block.

The miniature that I made has four blocks across and four down and sashing in between. I wish I had used a water soluble paper, however, since picking out the paper pieces was quite tedious.

Noah's Ark

A year or so ago, I found this BOM online from designer Lynette Anderson of Australia. I finally got it put together in this mini wall hanging. Overall, it measures 22x14.5 inches. I throughly enjoyed embroidering the animals. Her drawings are wonderful and whimsical.

Mini Log Cabin

Finished another mini this morning. This pattern is called a log cabin as you strips of fabric to build each block, half the block gets light and half of the block gets dark fabrics. Most quilter's start out learning to make a log cabin, but I never did, so it was fun to do this one now. The logs are just 3/4 of an inch wide. This was also my first scrappy binding where I took bits of scraps sewed them together and then cut them on the bias to form a piece long enough to go around the quilt. This minature is 20 inches square and I am using it as a table topper.