More Minis!

12-1/2" x 14-1/2" Kaleidoscope

So, yes, I finished three more today.  This surprise stash of mini quilt tops has been fun!  I'm using up a lot of batting scraps and these little quilts are a wonderful pick-me-up for a hot and humid day!  Wish I could remember the name of the pattern in the first one (thanks to Nancy Schaub who identified this as Kaleidoscope).  I made a larger scale quilt using this pattern which is no doubt lurking in the quilt closet pining for a bed to lay upon!

Lively pinwheels  11" x 13"

By far, the most fun pattern for little scraps!  I could have added another border to this one, but chose not to do so.  I like it the way it is.

"Hearts"  10-1/2" x 13"

And finally my favorite hearts pattern.  I've made many versions of this pattern and have lots of other minis that I have used as Valentine "cards" . . . including a "Blue Valentines" version.

Tomorrow I go to the library to pin up at least one more full-size quilt.  I might have time and energy to pin up two and if that's the case I will be all caught up with finished vintage tops (except for the Picasso).    In the meantime, I have four more minis to finish and they are so fast and easy, I will probably finish those before I start working on the full-size quilts.  Besides, my poor little Pfaff is probably overworked at this point.  I might need to give it a vacation and pull out the old Singer 99K.  Hate using a walking foot, though. 

Minis

I found a bag of mini quilt tops that I'd finished sometime before the 21st century started.  I'm telling you, there are things lurking in my work room that I don't even know what they are.  A couple of days ago I also found some really cute aprons that I made some time after the 21st century started, but can't remember exactly when.


There were eight mini quilt tops in the bag and this was the first to be finished today.  It's 13" x 13" and the little stars are 3" square.  In the photo upper right you can see the batting scraps; I basted some of these together for the quilt's batting.  In the upper left of the photo you can see my weird, home made pin cushion that looks like a diaphragm.  But, hey, it works!  Since it is so hot, these will be fun to finish in the cool work room.  More later!

and another finish!

Pioneer Braid which took more than 30 years to complete.

 And here is the Pioneer Braid . . . finished!  I'm not that happy with the values here, but I like the quilt anyway. The heavy wool blanket that I used for batting was easy to quilt but it sure is heavy!  Egads, this thing must weight eight or nine pounds. 

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Daffy says "This is now mine."

While I was cleaning up the quilt, cutting threads and pulling the basting out, Daffy decided to jump up and plop herself down in the middle of it!  Her paws are crossed, which in her language means "I own this."  Cats love quilts!

Today I am quilting Daughter of Ohio Star and it's going well.  Should finish that one by tomorrow.

Hope you're having a good day!

70's UFOs

Yesterday I sewed the binding on the large Ohio Star quilt, so that is finished.  Monday I'll be pinning up the daughter of the large Ohio Star quilt and that should be done next week -- quilted and bound and folded up and put in the pile of quilts finished in 2019.  Yay for me! 

Daughter of Ohio Star scheduled for pin-up Monday!

A couple of weeks ago I found more UFOs stuffed in the quilt closet.  I started these back in the late 70's early 80's; I'll be working on these in the next few weeks.  The first one is a native American design and I have no idea where I found this pattern, but it was long ago when there were few quilt books, so I think I probably saw the design on a blanket or a book and drafted the pattern myself.  In any case, it is quite the wonky piece of work!  Most of it is hand sewed but there is also some machine sewing.  At the time I started this, I wasn't well-acquainted with the concept of 1/4" seams.  Uh hmmm.

70's top inspired by Navaho design, I believe.

Needless to say, I have no more of the rust colored fabric, but I do have plenty of the gold, green, and black.  At this point I'm simply going to add a border and let it be.  You can see that center row is quite different.  I mean, really, you'd need a calculator to keep count of all the mistakes made in this one.  Nevertheless, I like it and I'm going to finish it.  Hopefully there won't be too many puckers in the finished quilt!!  Stay tuned for more on this one.

Pioneer Braid that I started in the early 80's.  That's my father's woolen blanket from WWII.

This is one I envisioned would be so cool, but it is a lot harder than I anticipated (which is why it has dawdled in the UFO pile for over 30 years).  Back in the 70's I made a small Pioneer Braid wall hanging and loved it so much I though I would make a bed-sized version.  I had this wonderful woolen blanket that my father had from WWII; I thought it would make a great batting.  It is VERY thick, so we will see how my machine reacts to the quilting chore.  I am working on this one now making a few more braids to fit the width of the blanket.  My plan is to take four fabrics from the stash and sew them directly to the back of the blanket and then sew the braids to the top one by one, overlapping the seams.  No border is planned for this one.  This one has fabrics from the 50's through the present but technically it isn't a "charm" quilt because there are a few repeats -- not many, but that still makes it NOT a charm quilt.  Wish me luck!!