Small, Smaller, Smallest Blog Hop

Welcome to the blog hop celebrating small projects. I adore miniature quilts and working with tiny pieces. One of my favourite patterns is Omigosh by Sue Garman. I have been making a colour block version of this quilt for a few years.

For this special blog hop I decided to use only the double nine patch blocks from the Omigosh pattern. These blocks are made from 1" squares, which finish at .5" when sewn into the quilt.

Here it is laying on the floor in the kitchen...

Quilt statistics: there are 1,845 tiny 1" squares in this quilt and it measures 49.5" square.
I learned that it is hard to photograph a quilt with so much white in it and still be able to see the quilting. I quilted a diagonal grid using coloured threads in the double nine patch blocks and white thread through the white alternate squares. 
I eyeballed the double 9 patch stitching, but marked the line to stitch across the open white squares using a hera marker. It doesn't leave any residue on the quilt but just makes a slight indentation in the fabric to follow. I marked each line as I came to it... mark, quilt, mark, quilt, etc.

Here is the fun label that I made for the back corner using up a few more 1" squares. My quilty friends decided it should be called "Scrap Rescue 911".


Thank you to Carol for organizing this wonderful blog hop experience! And as a thank you to YOU the blog readers, I have made 2 small mug mats to giveaway. Leave a comment below and your name will go in the draw to win one of these tiny double 9 patch miniature quilts. Mr. Max is so sweetly displaying what you can win! Just look at how he has his paws crossed... OMG I love that furry guy (except when he is a quilt eater!)

There is the list of miniature quilt makers who have made special small projects to share with you today:

March 7

Selina Quilts

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Sunshine Quilting

Marjorie's Busy Corner

Elm Street Quilts

Kathy’s Quilts (that's me!)

Pamela Quilts

That Fabric Feeling

Words & Stitches

Small, Smaller, Smallest Blog Hop

Were you able to visit the blogs from Day 1 of the blog hop yesterday? SO many wonderful projects by such talented sewists! My day to post my little project is tomorrow and I am excited! 

Here is a sneak peak... 
I made my project from these bags of scrappy pieces. In them are 1" squares and strips, partially made blocks, many 4 patch blocks and double 9 patch blocks ... it's a miniature quilt maker's playground!

Tonight I am finishing up 2 miniature quilts for a giveaway draw. They are so darn cute... just wait til you see! Come back tomorrow for Day 3 for the big reveal of my project and see the draw prizes.

Today is Day 2 of the block hop and here are the blogs you can visit today to be inspired by bloggers making little treasures: 

March 6

MooseStashQuilting

Vroomans Quilts

Creatin' in the Sticks

Beaquilter

Quilt Doodle Designs

Den syende himmel

Quiltscapes

Quilt Taffy

Hazel’s Daughter

Design Wall Monday

Ringo Lake is back on the design wall today and some progress has been made. 16 blocks are now sewn together. My version of this Quiltville mystery doesn't have any sashing. The sashing blocks are going to become the borders. I really like the square in a square block that appears in the corners when there is no sashing separating the blocks.

Lots of block parts are made and ready to assemble into more blocks.

Making blocks is my favourite thing  but sewing rows together is not. So I am joining them in sets of 4. The top photo shows 4 groups of 4 blocks sewn together. 

It takes a lot of pins to match all those seams.

And just look at my adorable new pincushion that my friend Diane gave me. She got it at the Quilter's Hall of Fame! Using this lovely pin cushion makes using all these pins much more fun!

To see more design wall postings, hop over to Small Quilts.

And speaking of small quilts, the Small, Smaller, Smallest blog hop starts today. Here's the list of blogs to visit:

March 5

Kris Loves Fabric

Creative Blonde

Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

Lily Patch Quilts

Needled Mom

Quilt Fabrication

Sew Many Yarns

Meanderings Along Lizard Creek

Melva Loves Scraps

Slow Sunday Stitching

Happy Slow Stitching Sunday!
It has been a busy hand stitching week here and I have spent time working on 2 different projects. 

The hand stitched binding on my quilt for the Small, Smaller, Smallest blog hop is finished. The name of my  quilt is "Scrap Rescue 911". Now I just have to photograph the quilt and write a blog post about it. Can't wait to share it on Wednesday!

I also finished another embroidery block for the "i stitch club" mystery project by Gail Pan. It was a fun block to stitch and I'm already well into the 3rd block. So far we have received 6 block patterns, so I have some catching up to do this month. You can see my first block here. 


What are you working on today?
We love to see the progress you are making on your hand stitching project, so we hope you will link up your blog post below and share with us.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Scrappy Saturday

March is green month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.
Since I already had my 1" strips out working on my project for the Small, Smaller, Smallest blog hop happening this coming week, I kept right on going with the little green pieces. These blocks are 5" for the Omigosh quilt. I have all the double nine patch blocks finished (110) and have been working on the alternate churn dash variations.

Speaking of churn dash blocks, I finished sewing my 66 blocks for Barb's block swap and got them in the mail this week. I used 3 dark repro fabrics for my 6" blocks. They really look boring on the wall, but just wait until I add in the swap blocks I receive ... it will be magical! You can see my previous swap block quilts here.

And back to the Omigosh quilt... I just started making these  alternate blocks last March and guess how many I have made? Drum roll please... a grand total of 14! Not really a stellar level of production for one year, but I do think they look awesome and many more will be made this year.
To see what other quilters are making with their green scraps, hop over to the link up at SoScrappy. And the new block pattern for the Squared Away quiltalong is posted over at the Academic Quilter. Can't wait to dig into the scraps this week to make these fun blocks!

Small, Smaller, Smallest Blog Hop

Tiny visitor #1

Next week the Small Blog Hop is starting!  
All the featured projects will be small, although the guidelines are quite flexible ... anything smaller than a baby quilt. I'm have been working on finishing my project plus a little matching miniature quilt to giveaway.  While I was working on my project, I had two small visitors, which I am certain must mean that something wonderful is going to happen! (lady bugs bring good luck)

Tiny visitor #2

March 7th is the day I'll be posting my project for the blog hop and here's a little statistical preview - my project includes 1,845 squares that are cut at 1" and finish at .5" in the quilt. Believe me that is a lot of small pieces to corral!

I'm so looking forward to seeing what these bloggers are making to share with us. Some of the participating blogs are new to me and some are old friends. Hope you will join in the fun with us next week! Here's the fabulous blog line up:

March 5

Kris Loves Fabric

Creative Blonde

Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

Lily Patch Quilts

Needled Mom

Quilt Fabrication

Sew Many Yarns

Meanderings Along Lizard Creek

March 6

MooseStashQuilting

Vroomans Quilts

Creatin' in the Sticks

Beaquilter

Quilt Doodle Designs

Den syende himmel

Quiltscapes

Quilt Taffy

Hazel’s Daughter

March 7

Selina Quilts

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Sunshine Quilting

Marjorie's Busy Corner

Elm Street Quilts

*Kathy’s Quilts (that's me!)

Pamela Quilts

That Fabric Feeling

Words & Stitches

March 8

Sew Incredibly Crazy

What About Rheema?

Kwilty Pleasures

All Thingz Sewn

Ms P Designs USA

Ridge Top Quilt

Life in the Scrapatch

Seams To Be Sew

Just Let Me Quilt

March UFO

Small astericks

Asterisk blocks are probably one of my all time favourites to make. I made my first blocks back in 2011 as part of an alphabet quilt and have included them in many of my quilts since then. This particular quilt started at a class in 2014 put on by the past presidents of my local quilt guild. The original project was sewing variations of a wonky cross block, but I became more enamoured by the asterisk block and started making those instead. 

Large asterisks

Almost 4 years later, they are ready to become a finished quilt. Here are some of the blocks on the design wall. There are 12 large asterisk blocks and 3 X blocks, which are soon  going to become asterisks. I have enough fabric to make a few more blocks to fill out the rows. 
My UFO goal for March is to get these blocks into a quilt top. To see more UFO goals, hop over to One Monthly Goal.

Finished Quilt

It's always fun to announce a finished quilt. This is a relatively new UFO, but it was demanding to be finished and I had everything needed for the finishing including leftovers to piece a backing and binding, so it butted to the front of the UFO line. 
This pattern is called "Scrappy Friends" and was the New Years Day mystery quilt hosted by Quiltbug. The finished size is 45.5" x 65.5" which is a perfect size to donate to the comfort quilt program at my guild. I'm hoping someone will enjoy this quilt for years to come.

All the quilting was straight lines on the diagonal using the walking foot. The binding was finished while watching the olympics at quilt retreat.
Woohoo! Another project moves from the UFO closet to the done pile!


To see more finished UFOs, hop over to the One Monthly Goal link up.

Retreat Report #4

This is the last blog post showing the new projects that were started at retreat last week. Over a year ago I purchased the Wacky Web template for a project by Missouri Star Company. You can see the project tutorial here.
At retreat it turned out that there were 4 of us who had either the small or the large template to make this project! Susan made her version with each scrappy star being one colour. Isn't it looking wonderful!?!

I wanted to try the reverse idea, with my colours being where her background fabrics are. This is how my layout is looking. I do like it, but it does require a lot of planning and I'm not enjoying it enough to make a very large version of it. Truthfully I like Susan's idea better!

Retreat Report #3

Last week I attended my annual  quilt retreat where I started a few new projects: the 2018 Aurifil DOM, an "exploding block" table mat, and Carole's scrap mystery quilt along called Square Dance. You might remember that I started her previous mystery called Scrap Dance Tango at quilt retreat 2 years ago and I really enjoyed sewing that quilt (which is not quite finished yet!)

Carole promises that this mystery will not have any HST blocks! Does that persuade you to join in the fun? It's not too late since this is just the first sewing step.
The fabric I started with for this mystery is a jelly roll called "Addison" and a layer cake called "Chocoholic". I wanted to use up these collections instead of storing them in the cupboard forever. 
This is the perfect project to get them sewn into a quilt. I have other scraps and fat quarters that will be added but this is the starting point.
Here are the 9 patch blocks I made for step #1. 


I think I might be calling this one "chocolate covered cherries" which are actually on two of the layer cake fabrics! 

The next step will be posted on the 3rd Friday in March. You have lots of time to make your 9 patch blocks!
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Small Quilts.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly celebration of hand stitching! Why not join us as we make time to enjoy the benefits of relaxation with our favourite projects?
Last week I attended my annual quilt retreat and made sure to fit in a little slow stitching every day. I made a lot of progress in stitching the binding on my UFO of the month.


And while at retreat, I snuck around and snapped some photos of other slow stitchers working on their wonderful projects.


Jackie was embroidering her crayoned flowers.

Nancy was stitching a wool cat in a basket on a batik background.  It was so cute and I wish I had taken a photo of the finished block to show you all her special stitches.

Gail was knitting some yoga socks which she says are "easy" because there is no heel to turn and no toe to join.

Andrea was hand stitching this complicated bag project. Her hands were working very hard to get through all the layers to attach the edging.


Now it's your turn! What are your hands stitching today?
Link up your blog post below and share your accomplishments with us.

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Retreat Report #2

This is the next update of retreat projects - new start #2. At last year's retreat my friend Gail gave me a Featherweight sewing machine fat quarter. I made a little mat for my Featherweights to sit on. They are very old and need a soft surface to sit on 😉



It's just the fabric piece folded over a piece of thin batting, some machine quilting in the open spaces, and a machine stitched edge.


So this year I brought my Featherweight mat and my 1952 Singer 221 named Charity. She really enjoyed starting a new project and trying out the new sewing mat. Her wiring is a little bit frail and crispy, but I got everything working well.

The new project was the Exploding block from Missouri Star Company. The full size quilt uses layer cakes, but I just wanted to try out the block using a Primitive Gatherings snowman charm pack. 

The charm pack made 14 blocks and 12 were used to make this little table mat. It was fun for a quick and easy project and all the points are cut off so there is nothing to worry about! I think I'll hand quilt this cute little project.

Here is the machine back in her case to sleep overnight. See how the mat rolls up nicely to fit in the top of the case? 

Stop by tomorrow for retreat update #3 featuring hand stitched projects.

Retreat Report

Quilt Retreat 2018 is in the history books now. We have been retreating together as a group for over 10 years. All of the relaxing sewing time, the hilarious shenanigans, and the wonderful conversations with creative and wonderful woman have come to an end for another year. I will miss them so much since many of us only see each other once a year. 

Work space of an anonymous retreater!

It's probably a good thing that retreat is not longer than it is, because during olympic years we stay up way too late watching the coverage. And then we get up early and hit the sewing machines to work on our quilts. The thing that is missing is  s l e e p ! And a human can only operate for a limited amount of time on little sleep. 
In the next week I'll be showing updates for all the projects I worked on. Of course I started 4 new quilting projects while at retreat and here's the first one...

the Aurifil 2018 DOM. I completed their 2016 quilt in November and am happy with how that turned out - you can see it here. I really enjoy making complex blocks with many pieces and decided to start their 2018 project. Although I'm looking forward to making the January block, I had to skip to the February block because January's block requires a printed pattern which I didn't have at retreat. So I started with February's block which has 31 pieces. It is fun and easy to sew if you're organized and follow instructions well.


Here is the February block called Birch Ball by featured designer Scott Hansen. You can see many interesting versions of this block at the link up at Pat Sloan's blog. It looks like most people are going with the black and white idea for their sampler blocks.






When sewing the connecting corners, I always sew a second line to turn the cut off corners into HST blocks. I decided to save these each month and see what they might become. These are the leftovers from February's block.
Further project updates will be forthcoming after a brief nap!

Small, Smaller, Smallest Blog Hop

Carol is hosting a new blog hop in March featuring small projects no bigger than a baby quilt. I adore miniature quilts so of course I had to get in on that hop.
I have been making miniature quilts for more than 20 years and have amassed quite a collection. It might be true that I am a tiny bit obsessed with miniature quilts and in fact I taught miniature quilt making classes for quite a few years. This is a photo of a small pile of 50+ miniature quilts from my collection. I can tell just by looking at the binding which quilt is which. And I love them all! 





But of course for this special blog hop I have started a new project! I am planning to make a little quilt of 9 patch blocks made from 1" squares. The unfinished block is 2" but once it is sewn into the quilt it will finish at 1.5". I only need about 200 more of these little guys and I'll have myself the makings for a new quilt for the blog hop!

I hear you thinking you may have seen this on my blog before because I have been making little 9 patch blocks for my RSC version of Omigosh, but this is a whole new miniature adventure! My RSC Omigosh nine patch blocks are all one colour, but these blocks are totally and deliciously scrappy!

Click here to learn more about the Small, Smaller, Smallest blog hop which starts on March 5th.

Quilt Retreat

Nothing is on the design wall today because it's time for my annual winter quilt retreat! Once I get there, it's fantastic. However, preparing to get there is very stressful for me. I get myself in quite a state because ALL my projects want to come with me. But of course that is not possible. I know some quilters who are really chill, and only bring one or two projects to work on for 5 days. 5 whole days!

New olympic event - packing for quilt retreat

From the infinite list of my projects, I have to chose which ones I might want to work on this week. The list of projects going to retreat should include at less one item in each stage of development:
a couple of creative projects in the planning stages so you can consult with your friends, extra fabric that may be needed for projects that may be accidentally started while at retreat (usually need neutral yardage), projects to piece, one paper piecing challenge, at least one project that is pin basted and ready for machine quilting, some hand stitching activities including at least one embroidery and one hand quilting project, and there absolutely must be a quilt with a binding ready to hand stitch late in the evenings.


With my list in hand, I have been rummaging around in the UFO closets and sorting which projects qualify for retreat and which will stay home. And then I must ensure that I have all the tools, fabrics, patterns, threads, and any other supplies needed for each of the projects. 
It's exhausting.
Kevin reminded me in his latest blog post of this truth.
So true Kevin!

Retreat projects waiting to be loaded into the car

Once the torture of attending to all the details, making all the decisions, and organizing all the stuff is finally complete, then comes the hauling of said stuff into the car. Sure wish I knew a sherpa I could call! Here is the end result of all that effort. How many projects do you think I have there? Enough for 5 days?

And then the realization hits.... I should probably pack some clothes too!