Mini Paws

For many years I've admired mini quilts that I saw hanging in quilt shops, but I've never decided to tackle one.  Back several years ago I finally bought a pattern for a mini quilt.  It is a paper foundation pattern called Cabin Paws.  Now I've always wanted to make a Bear Paw quilt, but this is a whole different adventure.

This pattern has satin my studio for over ten years.  Every time came cross it I'd loved looking at a it, but would set it aside of another time.  Finally I committed this pattern as a UFO as part of my quilt guild challenge.  Well its UFO number was picked in January.  I took a deep breath, opened the pattern, gathered my fabrics and started tackling this little gem.

Working with such tiny pieces I think could only be constructed using paper foundation.  Although the final mini quilt is not perfect I did learn a lot of technique and if I decide to tackle another I certainly will have a better griffon what works for me.

So here I introduce to you my mini Cabin Paws quilt measuring 17 1/2" by 17 1/2".

I love all the tiny blocks.  Not only does it include the Bear Paw, but it also is a log cabin.  I love both blocks.  Now I have to figure out where to hang it. By the way, I still have a full-size Bear Paw quilt I want to tackle some day.

I've been behind on my challenges, another UFO that was picked in March to work on.  This UFO has been set aside for at least ten years.  Time to wrap my head around it and get it done.  That's the whole reason why our guild runs a yearly UFO challenge.  Get it done!

Making a difference

Tomorrow is Earth Day.  I remember the first Earth Day in 1972 and since that day I make myself aware of my impact on my surroundings.  I want to live in a clean environment and eat healthy foods so I constantly think about recycling, reusing and repurposing.  Saying that, I feel plastic is public enemy #1.  You can hardly buy anything that doesn't include some sort of plastic.    I was glad to see on the Earth Day website that this year they are focusing on reducing plastics.

As I've posted on previous posts, I am pretty adamant not to use plastic shopping bags.  I have made several of my own totes for shopping and use them.  If for some reason I do not have a tote I leave the store with no bag at all carrying my purchase in my arms.  Traveling around our country and other countries they do not offer plastic shopping bags - they are banned.  I hope in the near future that my state of Michigan and other states follow suit and ban plastic bags.

With Earth Day in mind and being committed to help reduce our impact on Earth I've challenged our quilting guild to make a difference by making totes and reduce their use of plastic.  One of the quilters was given boxes of fabric samples from a furniture store that was going to the trash.  She came up with patterns for making totes and journal covers.  We will use these samples to make fashionable totes at our May meeting.   Also, we will be able to make journal covers with the lighter weight fabric samples.

Getting ready for the May meeting I made a tote and journal cover as samples for the ladies.  

The tote measures 16 1/2" across and 15" deep.  I did box the bottom 12" by 5".  Adding a button and a hair tie as the closure adds a little style.  I came up with the idea to use plastic from store display signs for the bottom.  My daughter-in-law works for a beverage company.  They constantly use corrugated plastic for signage.  When the promotion is done they throw the signs away.  She said that she would instead give the signs to me to cut for the bottom of totes.  I will be sharing these discards with all my quilting friends.  Here is the plastic bottom insert for this tote.   It cuts with scissors, although I did us a box knife with a ruler and rounded the corners with scissors.  The rounded corners will help keep the plastic insert from wearing through the tote.

My journal cover fits a 9 3/4" by 7 1/2" composition tablet purchased from any store with a school supply section.  At dollar stores you can even find them for $1.  These tablets slide in and out of the cover very easily.  I added a stringed page-marker with a little bee charm on the end and the button on the front works with a leather string as a closure.  

I love this bee journal cover.   I even found a way to fuse images printed from my copier to fabric.  Look at this adorable bee inside the cover.

I adore little bees and am concerned with their plight.  I use no chemicals in my gardens and plant many pollinating plants for my little busy bee friends. I even have a worm farm that I compost all the fruit and vegetables for my garden.   Here is a photo I took of a bee covered in pollen from my zucchini blossom.

The quilting ladies were encouraged to make their tote and journal their own.  Use embellishments or layouts their way.  I can't wait to see what these talented ladies come up with.

I feel good about this positive impact.  I'm repurposing upholstery fabric and plastic corrugated signs, keeping both from the landfills.  I've made more shopping totes to avoid plastic bags. Making my journal with the bee theme will keep these little guys plight in mind.   I even have encouraged my quilting friends to follow suit.  Not only making an impact, but doing it with style.

Spinning out of control

During the February AuSable Quilt Guild meeting we did the Jelly Roll Race Challenge.  As an alternative I offered a twist on this challenge called the Jelly Roll Spinner (I mentioned this pattern in the post from April 14 entitled "It's a Jelly Roll of Fun").  This is a fun pattern that I found from thelittlemushroomcap.com.  Being the eduction director to the guild I have to make the challenge before I present it to the ladies to make sure I can explain the process.  

This Jelly Roll Spinner I made back in January in navy and white fabrics.  I was instantly addicted.  I did revise the original pattern to be a lap-size quilt and use a full jelly roll of fabric.  My finished size is 52 1/2" by 62 1/2 .  This will be my personal keeper.

I am in the process of making several quilts for the Foster Kids program and will definitely use this Spinner pattern for some of them.  I have six or so in the works and will share once I'm finished with the group.  Back to my studio.

Who said buttons? I see yo-yos!

 It's fun and addicting when fellow quilters share their projects.  I've been guilty to start a new project from what the other ladies are up to.  This is one of those projects.

One lady came to the guild meeting showing her "Button Tree" wallhanging by Karen Montgomery.  Well the next thing you know several of us ladies just had to make one too.  The only thing is that it was a button tree, but I saw miniature yo-yos.  Yep, little yo-yos under an inch in width.  I think I'm a gluten for punishment, but sometimes I do like tiny detail work.

I went to work making almost 100 tiny yo-yos ranging from 1/4" to just under one inch.  Making all those yo-yos was a great project while watching television in the evening this past winter.  After assembling all the yo-yos to form the tree I decided to add a few red glass bead in the center of some of the yo-yos.  On the top  I sewed a red cloth star.  Here's my twist on the button tree.

The final size is 12" by 21".  I added my own hanger made from a tree branch with pinecones on the ends.  I'm still deciding if I'd rather have smaller pine cones on the ends of the branch.  They are just hot glued on so it will be easy to change if I decide to.  I do like the idea of pinecones since it is a pine tree.

The wall hanging was completed a few months ago, but I had to wait for the snow to go away so I could hunt for the perfect tree branch for hanging.

Showing the ladies my twist they thought I was a little crazy, but gave their approval.  In fact, a couple ladies now want to make a yo-yo tree wallhanging.

I'm months ahead for the debut for this wallhanging when Christmas arrives.

Now there is a button heart wallhanging from the same designer.  Some of the ladies decided they needed to make the heart too.  I'm on the fence.  Do I have room for a heart wallhanging?  Maybe.  I do own a bag of antique off-white buttons.  I bought them from an antique store over 20 years ago with no plans for those buttons, so maybe this could be a good project for them.  It definitely would be quicker than making yo-yos.  Hmmmm.  Still thinking about this one.  Maybe I'll see buttons after all.

Better late than never

Backtracking, as I was scrolling through my photos I came across an Easter project I made back in February.  I realized that I never took the time to post it.

I made matching table runners and bowl cozies from my Easter fabric stash for both of my daughter-in-laws and myself.  The fabric has ducks and rabbits with spring flowers.  Six cozy bowls and four table runners later they were ready for the upcoming holiday.

Finally ahead of the game I was off on vacation for a few weeks.  

Double the fun

My darling niece is having her first baby in the next month, but wait I said baby - I mean babies.  She is having identical twin girls.   Double the fun!

With a baby shower coming up it puts me on double duty this time, two quilts.  My niece asked for one to be pink and the other hot pink.  Off to the fabric stores to find some inspiration.  I found a cute unicorn fabric that included both pinks and added a little lime green, turquoise and purple.  Perfect!

My final decision was making the same quilt pattern just using pink in one and hot pink in the other.  Lucky enough I found the same fabric pattern in pink and hot pink.  With the spinner Jelly Roll quilts in mind  I was ready to sew.

My final quilts each measured 44 1/2" by 52 1/2".

And as usual from the left over fabrics I made matching cloth toy boxes to stuff with little goodies and the quilt as my shower gift.

I have more projects close to the finish line.  Chat again soon.

It's a Jelly Roll of fun

Being in charge of education for our local quilt guild this year, I challenged our ladies to construct something with a Jelly Roll, be it a quilt, tote, apron, rug, placemat etc.   Jelly Rolls are a great and easy way to construct a quilt.  The fabrics are all coordinated and also precut into 2 1/2" strips.  Takes a lot of guess work from the beginning and you can get started sewing your project right a way.  And taking it one step further,  guild members did the Jelly Roll Race.

I admit I've never done the Jelly Roll Race, but took charge in learning what to do to lead the group.  After watching a few Utubes the process was pretty simple.  I decided we weren't going to make a contest of this project and let everyone sew at their own comfortable pace.  No stress,  just have fun. Members were also encouraged to make their own Jelly Rolls from their stash fabrics if they didn't already own a Jelly Roll.

As I was researching the Jelly Roll Race I was curious how it all began.  The earliest date I could find was that Jenny Down from Missouri Star Quilt saw this quilt in a quilt shop in Iowa and she asked if she could copy the technique.  However, I also found that this quilt was also called the 1600 quilt, which is how many inches a Jelly Roll measured connected end to end.  

To give added incentive to participate I suggested for the ladies to make their Jelly Roll Race quilt as a donation to the local Foster Kids Program.  It's always more fun to make a quilt with someone in mind and quilters are pretty giving people.

Here is my first Jelly Roll Race quilt measuring 50" by 64 1/2".

It was made from my own stash fabric that I cut into 42 WOF strips.  And when I say my first Jelly Roll Race quilt this all began a journey to make several to donate to Foster kids.

For guild participants who already made this quilt before I found a cool twist on the pattern called the Spinner.  With a few variations from the pattern on my part, I used the whole jelly roll making the final measurement of this quilt is 50 1/2" by 62 1/2".  This is my favorite pattern.

I am still making more spinner quilts for the Foster Kid program.  We have until fall before they will be donated.  I will post when I have all my quilts ready to go.

Being mindful of our surroundings

Our days are getting longer, warmer and we welcome Spring.  Spring brings to mind spring cleaning, rebirth, recycle, repurpose and reduce.  

April also reminds me of Earth Day and to be mindful of my surroundings.  The first Earth Day was held in 1970 and has been held every year on April 22nd. The theme that seemed to stick with me is plant a tree, but according to the Earth Day website this year’s theme is Planet vs. Plastics, and calls to advocate for widespread awareness on the health risk of plastics, rapidly phase out all single use plastics, urgently push for a strong UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution, and demand an end to fast fashion. 

What can you do to have a positive impact?   

I've decided to challenge myself to repurpose, recycle, reuse, reduce.  Repurpose blue jeans, a wool coat, t-shirts, men’s shirts.  Make reusable food storage wraps, bowl covers, lunch bags. Even though I have done all of these in the past it hasn't became an everyday effort.  I am committing myself to be more responsible.

Visiting other states and countries they've banned all plastic bags.  You had to purchase a tote or sometimes they packaged your purchases in brown paper bags.  Hopefully everyone will lean towards this practice.

Personally, I’ve tried to avoid plastic bags at all costs.  I own many cloth shopping totes from various stores and most have seen their better days.  My favorite tote I bought over tens years ago from Trader Joes. 

This month I decided to sew new shopping totes from home decorating fabrics using that Trader Joes tote as a template.  Going through my stash fabric I found several yards of home decorating fabric that is perfect for shopping totes.  I also found some of this fabric in the clearance section of a fabric store.  All in all I made 7 new shopping totes.

I will be one stylish shopper no to mention the amount of plastic I won't be contributing to pollution.  Hopefully they will inspire others to get some fashionable shopping totes and avoid the plastic.

Time to get off my soap box and get back to finishing up my on-going projects.