Mini snapshots

Hi everyone!  It's the weekend--how happy are you?  I am extremely happy because it's going to be a good one.  And boy do we deserve a good weekend!

My finish today is another tiny one:

Mini snapshots!  I love the yellow-green color and all the little pictures.   (The true color shows best in the indoor picture at the bottom of the post.)  Remember this gigantic pile of 1-1/2 inch squares?

Well, when I was sorting them I kept finding fun little ones that were fussy cut or almost fussy cut and I kept putting them aside because I thought they would get "lost" in a bigger quilt.  I mixed most of them back in, but kept out these few because they were just so cute.

I was going for the "Polaroid" style squares, but I'm not sure how well that comes through.  There's not a lot of room for the frames, but at least the little squares stand out.  I think this little one is my favorite:

He looks askew, but he's not.  I just can't take decent pictures.  I'm also in love with this little flower:

Actually, I can't pick a favorite, because I also love that little bear's face, and the snowflake, and all the rest. This cheerful little piece is about 12 by 16,  just big enough to finish up and hang by my desk.  I could use a shot of happy color in there.  I also have a little secret square that I'm fusing to the back, because stitching it to the front would have eaten up all the words in the seam allowance:

Be a warrior!  How great is that?  Plus, it's a shout-out to all my Marquette friends--we will always be Warriors!

Everybody have a great weekend!  The weatherman claims we'll be sunny and 60 degrees.  Maybe we'll get to wash the car.  I think I remember what color it is supposed to be, but I'm not really sure. Also, I hear a rumor that there's a blessed event happening--we'll see!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finish it up Friday and Oh Scrap!

Purple reign

Hi everyone, and happy weekend to you! We are currently being blessed with great sunshine and I hope you are too.

Does it seem to anyone else that purple is suddenly everywhere? Everywhere I look, there's something purple. Clothes, jewelry, accessories, fabrics, shoes, flowers--you name it, I've been seeing it in purple. I even considered buying an eggplant before I came to my senses.

Turns out I have tons of purple fat quarters and purple scraps, so I made up another mini using mostly purples:

Outdoor photo!

When I was in school, I had an art teacher who nearly scared me away from purple forever. She had a real bee in her bonnet about mixing blue purples with red purples. I'm pretty sure I would have failed if this was one of her assignments. Amazing how something like that can affect us years later, isn't it?

I didn't have 42 different purples, which I really wanted, so I added in some pinks, but I think they look okay.  I also obsessed over the arrangement of the blocks. I must have rearranged them a dozen times. Anybody else ever do that?  This turned out a bit bigger than anticipated, about 24 by 28. Still a mini in my book.

Indoor picture!

 I don't know what's with me, but I'm really liking the minis. They're just the right size for me right now, and they don't take a million years to finish. They might end up as place mats, but they're fun.


I also made up some purple string blocks:

I'm always amazed at how great these turn out. Seems like little bitty pieces like that would turn into a mess, but they don't. I'm getting a pretty nice pile of string blocks:

Still no specific plan for these, but they're helping empty out the bins. I'm looking forward to the paper-removing party at the end, too. I still have the paper dolls to make with the purple, but I pulled out a few pieces to use for those dresses, so the bin should be very low by the end of this month.

Finally, here is a happy outdoor photo to take us all into the weekend:

Whoo-hoo!  This is the front flower bed, full of puschkinia flowers. I love these little things, even if they have jumped out of the bed and invaded the lawn. I should kill off the ones in the grass, but I just can't bring myself to--they're so pretty after a crummy winter! There's a tulip coming up there, too, and those stick-like things are the perennial geranium, which is also greening up.

Everybody have a great weekend! We will be working outside and then helping our son and daughter-in-law with some house hunting.  I'd forgotten how exhausting that can be!

Linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Angela at soscrappyhttp://superscrappy.blogspot.com, and also Finish it up Friday. Happy sewing!

Mini Friday

Hi folks! First, thanks so much for all of the wonderful comments and emails about my blog anniversary. I'm happy to still be here too! There's still time to enter the giveaway on the last post if you're interested, too.

This has been a very busy week for me. Lots and lots to do, much of it very tedious. It's that time of the year. I still managed to sew, though! Priorities, you know.

I managed to make up a couple of minis this week. I know I should be working on the bigger quilts, but I really needed some instant gratification! Here is the first little mini:

It has been raining like crazy here all week, so I just managed to dash outside between the raindrops and take this picture. This was the only semi-dry spot. The fence was way too wet and the bench was soaked too. I don't mind the rain, except that it makes taking pictures more difficult. You don't have to shovel the rain, after all.

This little quilt is made from some of the leftover fabric from the abandoned Loyal Union sampler quilt, and it only measures about 16 by 20. After I quilt it up, I plan to add some buttons in the center of those squares. The pattern came from this book:

This is a great book if you're looking for a small project. I think the biggest one in here is 40 by 40. There are a lot of smaller projects, too, many of which can be made with scraps. What's not to love?

The other mini was this little beauty:

Yes, that's a walrus. His name is Paul.

This is, of course, the great state of Wisconsin, only 9 inches square. This was paper pieced and I am amazed at how it came out! The pattern was really good and very detailed. Look, it even has the details of the Door County Peninsula and the shoreline of Lake Superior!  I got the pattern from the Patchwork and Pastry Craftsy store (available HERE) where Irene has patterns for all 50 states, plus a bunch of other very cute things.

Wouldn't this make a great quilt label? I also want to make it in red and white. It's the Badger State, after all.

Outside on a very wet boulder!

I made the background here blue for our two Great Lakes, Michigan and Superior, and our thousands of inland lakes (more than Minnesota!). The state itself is a green batik, representing all our trees, foliage, and forests, including the Chequamegon National Forest. This really is a beautiful place. If you haven't ever visited, come on along! Give me a call when you get here and we'll go fabric shopping!

Everybody have a great weekend. I'm definitely getting some fabric shopping in, plus we'll probably end up having dinner out once. I love it when that happens!

Linking to Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and also Finish it up Friday. And Lorna is hosting TGIFF this week, so let's meet up over there too!

Goofing off

Hello everyone! I am beyond happy to report that spring is arriving here in southeastern Wisconsin! All of a sudden we have temperatures in the 40s and rain in the forecast. It's like someone flipped a switch. And now we've even changed the clocks and sprung ahead, so it won't be long before we can burn the long underwear and break out some shorts. Which around here is usually when it hits about 50, so fingers crossed for this week!

I have been playing with fabric and making up some things even though I know I should be working on some half-finished projects that are still laying around here. (Remember the "frozen" quilt? Still in pieces!) One thing I made was another crumb block:

These are really, really hard for a traditionalist like me. A few people told me to start with a shape, so this one started with that blue triangle, not that you can tell. I am having a terrible time being comfortable with this method and I'd swear I heard my grandmother telling me to "straighten up that seam." I think one of my problems is that I associate the odd seaming and general "wonkiness" with sloppy work. But I have decided to go ahead and make some more of these and maybe--maybe--use them as centers for the sawtooth stars that Angela has going at soscrappy. Maybe.

Anyway, after that, I made a little bitty blue heart block to go with the mini red block:

Could use better pressing! These are both 4-1/2 inches right now. What am I going to do with them? Who knows?

During the big clean out of the the fabric closet, I found a bunch of stuff that I hadn't seen in a long time, including a whole bunch of blue, yellow, and green charm packs from various related Moda fabric lines. I decided to mix them all together and just stitch them into a simple quilt center just as they are, without additional cutting or fussing about it:

I arranged it sort of like a really chunky Boston Common pattern. The last two rows will be blue all around. I see now that I should probably separate out the light/medium blues and the medium/dark blues, just so it looks a bit better. I plan to stitch this all up and use it to practice quilting, then it will become a donation quilt. Some small person will love it.

And here's another one that was also hidden in the closet and is just getting stitched randomly:

I honestly have no idea where this came from!  I'm pretty sure someone gave up on it and gave it to me. It was in a project box with the Birds in the Air blocks all finished and trimmed, along with a bunch of extra fabric:

There were 36 of the Birds blocks, plus a bunch of greenish HSTs, some strips, and some yardage. I know for sure I did not make these. The fabric is grayed and is nothing I would have chosen at any point. Even when I was using a lot of Thimbleberries patterns I substituted brighter, clearer fabrics. Also, all of the blocks measure 4-1/2 inches but there are inconsistencies that would have made me crazy, like someone didn't bother to align the ruler and just plopped it on the block and trimmed. But they are ready to stitch, so who cares at this point? As long as the HSTs aren't next to each other, I think any problems will be hard to spot.

 

These are the selvages, so it is past time for this to be made up and go to a good home. Again, some tiny human will like it a lot, I'll bet. Any ideas from anyone out there what this was supposed to be?  I checked the website and there is nothing remotely similar and no pattern that I can find.

So, I've been goofing off and not focusing on my projects! But I think it's still working out okay. Hope you are having some fun this week too. And I hope it's warm where you are!

Linking to Linky Tuesday,  Fabric Tuesday, and Let's Bee Social.  Come join the party!