Quilting in circles

Here's the second finish in my monthly mini quilt club with Canoe Ridge Creations. (It's July 1 and I woke up this morning wondering when the next pattern will pop into my inbox!)

I'm on the fence about my fabric choices for this one. They're all from the same collection so they obviously go together, but the pattern kinda gets lost in the busy prints and the almost-solid pink really stands out. Maybe another patterned fabric for the middle squares would have worked better. I dunno. What do you think? Looking at it now, part of my issue may be the pattern itself. The four identical blocks go against my natural inclination toward asymmetry.

The pattern is called Boxed In, which oddly made me think circle quilting was the perfect choice. Oh how I love how the quilting turned out!

I decided to put a few squares in the middle, echoing the four squares in the blocks. Then I just went round and round. Fun! And definitely a departure from my usual straight-line quilting. You can really see the concentric circles on the back, where I used a light green thread.

And the back is just a few pieced strips of leftover fabric.

Now to check again for this month's pattern!

Patriotic patchwork

This Saturday I whipped up this patriotic wall-hanging. Go, Canada! I picked up the kit a couple months ago and figured I should get it made for Canada Day, or really what incentive was there to get it done anytime soon?

It went together quickly and I had some fun with the quilting, starting with outlining the maple leaf shape, then adding random triangles and angular shapes.

As a bonus, I discovered while getting this photo that there is a wee bird's nest in the tree. Thankfully there was no angry momma bird to interrupt the photo shoot.

Off kilter

This mini quilt is just a fun little gift for no particular reason for a friend. I picked up the feather and bird print from Allison Cole's Birds of a Feather collection recently and for some reason it made me think of her. I had just enough grey and blue to make a Swoon block. (Excuse the photo - I realized only late at night when I went to post this that I took it with the little birdies upside-down and I had no idea it would be so disorienting to look at it if I flipped it around. Go figure. It's akin to the unexplainable phenomenon of me becoming incredibly unbalanced by a stopped escalator.)

I had some neat yardage with colourful chevrons for the backing, tossing in the HSTs salvaged from cutting out the block. (Breath a sigh of relief the perspective jives with reality as we know it in this photo.) I sewed a little sleeve in the top in case she wants to hang it up.

Simple straight-line quilting did the trick.

And in the corners two little birdies on the bottom and two feathers at the top.

And because she's having her first baby this fall, I whipped up another one of these cute wee blankets with the ric-rac trim. A proper baby blanket is on my crafty to-do list.

Addendum: Here's a better shot that won't induce vertigo.

Stuck on the mini

Boy I sure love making mini quilts. They're done quickly and it's a chance to play with different fabric combinations. Here are two mini tops I finished this week. This is the second month's pattern in the mini quilt club I joined. Called Boxed In, the designer said was inspired by geometric Navajo artwork. I pulled some lovely fabric from my stash that first appeared in a lap quilt, my first lap quilt actually. How far I have come!

Next up is another Swoon block. I picked up the cute bird and feather FQs recently and had just enough of the grey solid for the background. (I did carefully press this block with lots o' steam, honest! I don't know what happened to give it so many crinkles.)

I love how it turned out! This one is destined for a present, so I hope the recipient does too. I think I'll do simple diagonal line quilting, maybe after adding a thin border in blue.

Cuddle time

This sock monkey rag quilt was made for a friend who is expecting her second child this fall. I surprised her with one for her daughter about a year ago and she just went bananas for the monkeys. Apparently it is quite the struggle when the blanket needs to go in the washing machine.

Of course I was happy to make another. She ordered the fabric, which meant I got the enjoyment of getting a big package of fabric without the buyer's remorse. Nice! I soon got to work cutting all that flannel and the batting, then put off the not so fun part of snipping the seams for a while. This weekend it had a date with the scissors and then the washer and dryer. I wonder when I will be seeing the last of the flannel bits clinging to my laundry. As a bonus I made a wee travel-size blanket with the leftover squares.

On a roll

This weekend I finished my first mini quilt in the monthly club I joined. I got the pattern on Tuesday and whipped the block up that night and then this weekend I did the quilting and binding. Done in under a week!

I did simple straight-line quilting, starting with a cross in the middle and moving out from there. I think it works well with the simple log cabin blocks and I like how the points on the background fabric gives it a dimensional look.

Nothing fancy on the back, just yardage left over from a Wiksten Tova top I made, also Jay McCarroll to go with the front focal fabrics.

This morning the next instalment in the mini quilt club popped into my inbox. Pressure! I don't think I'll get this one done quite as fast. But it is fun to have a small project with a short deadline.

New season, new bunting

Finally I got around replacing my tiny trees bunting. While not in-your-face festive, they are teeny Christmas trees. So I made a string of bunting with the scraps of remaining Hawaiian fabric to hang on the mirror in my front hall. The only thing better than bunting is tiny bunting!

Hanging out the bunting has become a spring tradition. Only this year I decided to put them in the backyard instead of around my front porch. Now I have a cheery view every time I'm in the kitchen.

I love the look of the faded fabric next to the wooden fence. This bunting has spent a few seasons outdoors, and it shows. Some of the triangles are virtually white now, their colours washed out by the summer sun.