60 Birthday Round Up

Birthday Bow Ties - 18" June Monthly Mini

I've been thinking about a chrome or cheddar bow tie little quilt for  a while and this week I needed some nervous sewing time (no comment on the current situations in America).

Birthday Bow Ties - 18" square - blocks are 3 1/2" 

How cute is this backing?

I am continuing to work on my Three Mile Island Quilt.  

This is my favorite block.  So 70s

Randy Danto recommended this book to me, and I loved it.  It is set in the 60s and female centric.  

We've been enjoying wonderful weather here in CT.  Low humidity and nice temperatures.

I had my final  60th Birthday celebration last weekend which included this fabulous cake!

and these gorgeous flowers!

Coco made a great model.   Go to Wendy's blog for  a link to all the merry mini makers.

Happy July Everyone! xo

No Tricks all Treats

I made two new Halloween quilts this month which I didn't need; not sorry.

Haunted Mansion Medallion - 28" x 31"

I came across the liberated house block in my sewing room and decided to make a little medallion quilt. 

This witch's laundry cracks me up.  I got some scraps of it from Norma my fellow Halloween enthusiast.

It was a good challenge to organize the strings with directional prints.  I did some fussy cutting for the corners.  I quilted it in a drop diamond pattern with alternating orange and purple thread.

The backing was also from Norma and I made a special label.

I used this book and these fabric markers.

I also made this little candle mat, which I suppose is my monthly mini for October.  It is a gift for Hanna and David for their apartment.

I used a little pack of 2" halloween fabrics to make light and dark half square triangles.  super simple 

The backing is made from weird scraps that were too good to throw out.  I quilted it and then did a pillow turn finish - no binding.

I received the nicest gift from Annie of Annie's Quilt Orts blog.   There was an unfortunate mailing delay that resulted in Annie's blocks coming after I did the swap so sent her all my blocks and returned hers. 

I know she felt a little bad, but it was no ones fault but my own.  If I had triple checked all the names and packages it could have been prevented.

A few weeks ago she sent me lovely doll quilt with six of the stars along with a sweet note.  What a clever setting!  Thank you so much Annie.  It was such a wonderful act of kindness.

Last weekend I made one of my quick pantry meals in my 30+ year old crockpot. 

There are several versions of these sweet and hot meatballs.   My moms original recipe called for chili sauce and currant jelly.  I can't seem to find that so I use strawberry jelly and it works great.

The longer you leave them, the more tender the meatballs will be.  It's great for game days, sew days, busy days and lazy days.

Happy early Halloween Everyone!

See you in November!

xo

Eggsotica!

 April Mini.

Wendy our monthly hostess helped me name it.  The backing is from a  pretty blue  FQ print.

I machine quilted it with invisafil thread in a alternating design of straight and squiggly lines.  I have used this many times andI like on modern and contemporary quilts.

Here is how I approached this little quilt.   I first made circles become egg shaped.

I made slightly different sizes because, you know, eggs; not all eggs are the same.

I dug through my blue batiks to find appropriate exotic egg colors.

I prepared them the same way I do circles.  Easy Peasy.

Backgrounds!  Oh boy.  That is was the toughest decision.  I tried many things.  You might like one of them better.  Point is, I need to try lots of the ideas before making a final decision.

I glued them in place then machine top stitched to the background.

I missed the anniversary of the  Chernobyl Disaster which is April 26th but I'm machine it now.

For some reason my blog has reformatted for no reason - sorry about that. ha ha.

I'll leave you with this beautiful undulatus cloud I spotted yesterday while walking coco.  Being in the Cloud Appreciation Society has really increased my appreciation for the beauty right over our heads.

Have a great week! 

xo

p.s.  after finishing the quilt vault, I found a drawer with about 20 more little quilts. 

Red Hot

 I'm late in posting my February Mini - Red Hot

 

I decided to try a monochromatic color scheme on a mini bars quilt.  I did match stitch quilting with 5 different shades of red.    It is interesting to see how it looks over the different shades of fabric.

backing fabric (needs a simple label).

Wendy, of the Constant Quilter is our amazing hostess.  Check out her blog here and join in the fun.

Big Win!  I won a gorgeous project bag from Kyle of Timeless Reflections blog.   It is so incredibly well made and I love the fabric.   Thank you Kyle for the pretty pattern too.

I used a quilt at hand to display and low and behold there is the same fabric in my scrap quilt.

Speaking of Wendy, I am so excited and thrilled to share with you that the New England Quilt Museum has mounted a one woman show of her amazing quilts!  I'm so excited to see so many of them in one place.

Quilts of Wendy Reed:  on view March 3 through May 22!

Here is a little sneak peek.

On a personal accomplishment note I finally put my Dickens' Village away.  I enjoyed it every morning for almost 3 months.

I miss it, but I already have ideas for this years set up.

Have a great week!

Take care and stay well.
xo