Backings and Bindings Continue

 In the neverending queue of tops that need to be turned into quilts, I chose two small ones to work on. They are fairly young projects in my TBQ pile.  

I had already chosen the solid aqua--I think this is Kona Pool, but don't quote me. The binding is made from a fat quarter.  Always patting myself on the back when the stash provides, lol!

Leftover backing cutoffs provided the fabric for Winding Roads mini.  These patterns are by Heather Mulder Peterson from her booklet Mini Charms 2. I made the basket block last year from this booklet.  It is still gracing the wall but I will find a backing/binding for it too. It looks yellowish here but is white IRL.

Okay, off to get ready for work!

Design Wall Monday--Scrappy Small Quilts

 Design Wall Monday--see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I played with little quilts all weekend! On Saturday my husband was picked up by our son to play golf in Ojai, so I had hours at home to myself.  I started with the the newest mini quilt I showed last time, first choosing a backing fabric from several options. 

A vintage yellow gingham, a small flower red print, and a plaid fat quarter were my top stash options. The HSTs were made from a vintage green print  from stash, and a mini charm pack of Cheeky by Urban Chiks that I probably got at Sewtopia.

It was a close race, but the plaid Denyse Schmidt won out, as it echoed the plaids in the mini. 

After hand stitching closed the stitch-and-turn opening, the faux binding technique  was the next concern--could I quilt around the edge and make my idea of  putting faux binding strips on the backing work? (technique found on the Crafti Staci website, for coasters). 

I was pretty pleased that the stitching mostly stayed where I wanted it, to create the binding look!  A few lines of ditch-stitching down the center and the quilt was finished. 

All done!  

The next mini quilt was also made from leftovers. 

The pinwheels were made from fabrics in the Greenpiece quilt kits from  the Fat Quarter Shop in 2009, I think!  I had saved all the fabric leftovers from the monthly kits and easily cobbled together a backing for the pinwheels.   The Greenpiece quilt top was finally finished in 2021, but still needs  a backing and to be sent out for custom quilting! 

Small Quilts Under The Needle

I finished the binding on the red and green mini quilt.  It did not take very long to hand stitch the binding. This one I'm keeping :)

I don't think I'll ever tire of red and green quilts!  Having no specific larger quilt to piece at the moment, I rummaged in the Hoosier cabinet for more smalls to play with. I had made myself one of the stitch-and-turn mug mats/hot pads with the faux binding technique from Crafty Staci's website. 

I used the same fabric for the backing as the faux binding and think it reinforced the binding look. 

I previously made a doll quilt from leftover HST pieces and a mini charm pack, and decided to try the faux binding on this size as well. 

My thought is to cut a backing piece the size of the unfinished top and add faux binding strips to it. I'd complete the project by layering with batting, stitching and turning the quilt, then adding quilting.  It should be much easier to stitch and turn this larger patchwork than the mug mats!

If the process is not too painful, I'll try it with these colorful minis from the unfinished block box.

The never-empty scrap drawers keep my mind  twirling!

More Playing with Charms

There was one final pattern in the Mini Charmers 2 booklet, and I found the perfect precuts in my stash for the Reflections runner. 

I have a lot of cute charm packs that were mostly gifted from Sewtopia or other winnings at Guild, and it is SO HARD to stop hoarding them!  I thought the Violet Craft charms were nice and bright for this quilt and the Lucky Charms went with them well. 

Starting with precuts made the cutting production line go faster; there was some Charm cutting that I was sure I'd mess up, but didn't.  The white fabric was left over from the Basket quilt and there was just enough!

A little sewing and a lot of switcheroo pairing of the tiny parts. 

I did pretty good on the sewing, with only a couple of errors requiring unsewing.  I liked the way the top looked just like this, and waited until the morning to decide on the finish.

I did add the last detail with the stacked squares on the ends.  I'm very happy with the three Mini Charmers.  These should also quilt up easily.    What a fun detour that booklet was!  

Design Wall Monday--Independence Day

Design Wall Monday--lots to share today.  See more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

Something patriotic to start--a mini flag quilt made years ago.

Tiny HSTs that finish at 1" and lots of scrappy fun in the borders.  Machine quilted very simply.

Star Spangled Banner music sheet backing. I always remember that Freedom isn't free, it is the result of much sacrifice, generation after generation.

My employer gave us the afternoon off on Friday--paid!--plus today, so it was already a long weekend. I took three more vacation days for the week so only have to work on Friday, yay! Lots more stitching time planned and I have been playing in the scrap bins again. 

The Basket quilt I showed last time DID need the leaf appliques, after all. 

A bit more pattern added with the leaves.  They did not take long to stitch down.  

The leaves add even more sweet charm to this little quilt.  The Mini Charmers 2 booklet by Heather Mulder Peterson has two more  patterns and I want to make them all. I chose the Winding Road for the next scrappy play.

Mostly medium toned scraps with a few zingers to break it up. These all came from my 2.5" precut scrap drawer.

Heather used a a mini charm pack and solid gray for her quilt, but I found a printed plain for a little more texture for mine.  I could make dozens of these from the same scrap drawer! Two of of these butted together would make a nice long runner.

The final pattern is also made from Mini Charms and is called Reflections. 

There is a lot more cutting involved with that.  I will search around in my precut mini charm packs that I've acquired over the years and see if I can find one I like for this pattern.  So fun!

Log Cabin and Star Block Play

I had a small number of leftover blocks from the Log Cabin Loonies project recently sewn into a small top last month. A lot of star blocks remained from Barb's last swap (Fun with Barb)  a couple of years ago.  I laid them out together. Some of you may remember that the mailer I sent my swap blocks in had exploded en route to Barb, and a kind mailperson had forwarded them on to Barb, but too late to swap.  Barb very kindly sent my blocks back and HER swapped blocks.

My Log Cabin blocks finish at 7.5 inches, and if I have figured correctly--and skinny the seam allowance while sewing the 6" finished star blocks together--they should just come out even.  I really didn't want to scramble my brain trying to figure a spacer border between!  I like it set block to block anyway.  Grandson Hunter told me he liked my quilt and wanted to help sew it.  I told him this was too complicated, but I'll have him choose some big squares of other fabrics and we will sew them into a quilt. He was very excited about that. It would be a great summer activity.  

I made this mini quilt last weekend while Grant was golfing.  I think they were leftover charm pieces.  

Backing cut from a fat quarter and diamond quilting, with binding made from a long hoarded print. 

Cute on my mini quilt hanger.  So fun to play with small projects!

Scrappy Play Finishes

There hasn't been much machine time, but I finished up the bindings on all the scrappy play quilts.  I tried as much as possible to use leftover binding or pull from the precut strip drawers.  The cheddar print is a favorite scrap. I think I bought this fabric at the Temecula Quilt Co shop over 10 years ago!  It is a Jo Morton print.

Little tablemats/large coasters, I'd call them. 

Mini the cat wanted to be in the photo with the mini quilts. 

Sans Mini, I noticed somehow I managed to center the tumbling blocks quilt backing pretty well without trying.  Always a good thing!

I chose leftover backing fabric cutoffs for the longer tablerunner as the colors matched well with the backing and the front. Pardon my new slippers making an appearance!

I like Tea Time print colors with the green blocks.  Always a good thing to use up some of the saved backing cutoffs. 

I've been using this mini as a large coaster for quite a while.  I made this years ago.  I just love the teapot print. 

Puzzle piece quilting was really fun to do on such a small quilt.  Now that these littles are all finished, I'll be making the quilt sandwich for the '30's print quilt destined for my daughter's friend with cancer.  The backing has arrived from the Fat Quarter Shop and I have a package of batting on hand.  I'll ponder quilting designs as I get the layers ready.  

Scrappy Play All Day

Happy last day of 2021!  This year was about as patchwork as it comes, with all the horrid national events, lockdowns, weather extremes, COVID virus and deaths, and extreme upheaval of normal life.  It was balanced with the joys of family, friends, and crafts.  I can always count on sewing to take my mind off things, sharing/reading through blogging is also very restorative.

Not having any particular ambition for cutting a new project, and not planning to take down the Christmas decorations until New Year's Day, yesterday I pulled out my orphan blocks drawer for vacation day play, as I had taken the 1/2 day off. 

Notice an oops in that yellow green block?  I passed by that set of blocks initially and worked on a leftover cross block from a quilt I made my son a few years ago. 

A few leftover setting triangles and a partial fat eighth joined the QUAG party. 

Very simple borders and the sandwich was called done.  Next I pulled some HSTs I had made in the wrong color combo or size for a quilt.  The green is a hand-dyed Ricky Tims fabric I'd hoarded since 2006!

I turned some of them into hourglass blocks, but thought the mini was too mini.  Luckily I found scraps of both fabrics in the scrap dresser!  Benefit of being a hoarder, I guess :)  2" strips were added to round out a design.  Some smaller HSTs got the same treatment and I quilted it up with batting scrap and a chunk of backing from the scrap basket. 

I fixed the wrong side up piece on the little cross blocks and the sandwich is ready to quilt.  Some leftover large blocks from a Guild project will make a lovely table runner. Someone else made those blocks.

Fat quarter scraps, and rummage through the bin on the cutting table produced all the backings.  It was so fun to play with no deadline.  I'll hunt through the leftover binding drawer for some options to finish these up.

We have had a LOT of rain in SoCal, but it has been light and steady over multiple days.  I took this pic of my Poinsettia on a rare clear day last week.  Happy New Year to everyone! 

Design Wall Monday--Christmas Sewing

 Design Wall Monday--see more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog. 

I hadn't sewn much in the past several weeks, but wanted to make some Christmas items.  The Scandinavian folded stars have caught my eye.  I rummaged through a big tub of Christmas fabrics for some fun prints. 

These are not hard to make but do require cutting and prepping.  I used this tutorial for the cutting sizes and directions.  

Some came out better than others but I like them all.  I'll use some embroidery floss to make a hanging loop.  The red fabric in the lower left star is nearing vintage status...

..well at least legal drinking age!!🤣  I used to really like the sweet Cranston prints back in the day. 

I cut my strips 4x16" and the trimmings during the star point folding were often more than 2" tall.  I cut them all to 2"x4" pieces and made a mini mat and perhaps a future placemat. 

The mat is pretty small--I used a 7" strip for the backing and cut my binding 2" wide.  I think I'll give this to my friend and manicurist when I see her this week.

I'm way behind in my Christmas shopping but did get a few things off the list!