Wow, that was quick . . . .

I think I may have to make more of these little minis.  I cut out the pieces Saturday night.  A few hours on a Sunday afternoon (with feeding the dogs and blog-hopping in between) and .....

the top is finished! Notice I added an extra column.  Overall size is still only 11" x 16".

See how tiny the pieces ............

It took longer to press the nine-patches than it did to sew them.

Of course, quilting and binding still to go.

Lessons learned:  Starch the side biased triangle fabric before cutting. I've read or heard of this tip many times and just ignored or forgot about it. I thought about it after the triangles were cut.  Although starching the pieces after cutting helped, it would have been better before and MUCH worse if I hadn't at all.  Been there, done that.

Blessings, Cathi

Like I need to start another project . . . . .

I really need to start showing some finishes again!  I seem to be showing a lot of starts lately.  Or maybe I am starting a lot and not showing you.  It's all becoming a fog......

I wanted to make a small quilt to put on the wall in our newly remodeled bathroom.  At first I was going to make one larger wall hanging.  Actually two, The "Let it Snow" quilt during the holidays and the piece I was going to make from the mistakes from the "Let It Snow" that is at the bottom of the same post.  It was going to take up the entire area.  I think I want a couple of different things on the wall like I did when we remodeled the kids bath.

So I picked one of Cheri's free quilt patterns.  WHAT .... you didn't know that Cheri had free quilt patterns on her website?  They are not in *.pdf form and they are not every month.  They are once in a while in a post.

I picked the one from August.

It's really tiny.  Only 11" x 16".

I spent a little bit of time in-between the dye pots today picking out some fabric.

Did I mention how much nicer it is having the stash back in the house?

Here is my final scrappy pile selection.

It's almost a little crazy.  From each of the fabrics that are NOT green or creme, I need a piece 1-1/2" x 4".  I'll probably spend more time putting these back in the right container that I will cutting and sewing them.

It's supposed to rain here all day on Monday.  Lord knows we need it.  I may have to play hooky from working at least part of the day to work on this quilt.

Blessings, Cathi

Can they be saved ? . . . . .

I went antiquing last week with a friend of mine.  I bought some Christmas things.   I also bought some more wooden spools.  When we got back to her house, she said she had a few things for me.  One was another wooden spool (you can never have enough!) but also two quilts.  She had them stored in a metal storage building with a bunch of boxes, her son's batting helmet, lawn equipment, etc.

This one is in horrible shape.  Click on the picture and see what I mean.  I didn't really look at them very well.  Imagine my surprise when I hung them up to take pictures and saw this.

And this ......

Can you see it?  It was a signature quilt.  The first one says "Julia Bigham -  May 9th 1865".  The second one says "Margret A Pifer - May 14th, 1865.  And the third one says "Susanna Greenwood - May 9th 1865".  It is hard to tell in the photos.  I had to stretch the block a little to get it smooth enough to read it.  Trust me.  Can you believe these were sitting in a storage building?  I'm going to find out where she got these from.

Here is the back of the first one.  The maker hand quilted an overall fan pattern and had a blue plaid for the backing fabric.  There was no binding left.

The second quilt is in better shape.

Those blocks that look red and white are really red and batting.  From what little bits are left in the blocks, it looks like it was the same fabric if not close to the other blocks that are red and green.  I don't know why the green fabric would have been so completely destroyed in some of the blocks and not the others.  Maybe the way the quilt was laying on the bed where the sun shone on it?  Who knows.  And the original color may not have been green.  I may have to investigate some "where the sun don't shine"!  I can't find any labels or markings from this quilt but it looks like it may have been from the same period.

This one had a muslin backing, 1/4" shadow quilting in the blocks and a kind of chevron/cross-hatching but only one direction kind of quilting pattern.

Now, to decide what to do with them.  At the very least, measure carefully and recreate a pattern of both of them.  Can't let a good quilt go to waste!

Blessings, Cathi

Forgot about this little guy . . . . . .

If you have been keeping up, the Computer Geek has moved out of the house leaving an empty room!  Yaaay for me.  I have decided to do a little rearranging in his room to hold some of my fabric stash.  I've had to go search through plastic bins in a storage building for the last two years.  It's gotten kind of old now.

Thought I would show this little quilt that I made about 8 years ago for his room.  It was my first attempt at stippling.  The stippling is much too close but I was excited that I had finished it.  

I tried not to go in his room while he lived there except maybe twice a year for a good dusting.  Hence I forgot about the quilt being in there. It's time for a fresh, clean sweep in the room before I hang this back up.

Blessings, Cathi

Quilts and front-loading washers . . . . .

Here's my thoughts on the front-loading washers:

I'm not real crazy about them. Not today anyway.

I needed to wash this quilt.

I use it in the evening when the a/c seems a little colder.  Sometimes the boys lay their heads on my lap.  Sometimes Nelson feels the need to try and climb on my lap (remember he's almost 100 lbs.)

After washing it today in the front-loading washer, I went to take it out and it was still heavy with water.  I tried the "drain/spin" cycle but it didn't help.  I had to carry it out on the deck and throw it over the railing for it to drip dry. Ran it through the "drain/spin" again and it was ready for the dryer.

So my question to all of you, do you have the same trouble?  This isn't the first time it has happened.  It doesn't happen every time.  Is there any trick to avoiding this?

Blessings, Cathi