December Small Quilt of the Month

The December Quilt is Turkey Tracks, from Kathleen Tracy's book, Remembering Adelia.  It has a lot of triangles, which make it a bit more tedious for me to do, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  I suppose making a dozen small quilts this year has been good for my piecing, if nothing else!  I was determined to get this one done before Christmas, so I machine quilted it.  I think it is one of my favorites from this year.

Merry Christmas, everyone!  

May God bless your celebration of His Son's Birth!

November Small Quilt of the Month

November's small quilt is the Amish Nine Patch Quilt.  The pattern is from Kathleen Tracy's book, American Doll Quilts.



The binding was sewn to the front on November 30th, and the quilt was finish on December 1st.  I discovered that it is really difficult to get a good photo of these bright, clear colors.  I need to work on a few places where the pencil marks for the quilt design didn't completely wash out.

I'm pretty excited about December's quilt.  I picked out the fabrics yesterday.  I hope I can finish it and share it with you this year!

October's Small Quilt of the Month

My October Quilt has been finished since before Hurricane Sandy, but the sun never wanted to come out for me - at least not when I was home and could take a photograph of it to share!  I enjoyed hand quilting this one - it brought back pleasant memories of making hexagon flowers while vacationing on Oak Island last summer!
October's Quilt is from Kathleen Tracy's book:  The Civil War Sewing Circle and is called "Hexagon Flower Quilt."
I saved the cardstock paper hexagons - there could be another variation of this one in my future some day!  I'd love to do it in Civil War reproduction fabrics!

September Small Quilt of the Month

For September, Kathy Tracy's SmallQuiltTalk Yahoo! group made quilts based on a single quilt block called Dove in the Window.  Once again, I was able to make the quilt using fabrics from my stach.  I picked the fabric for the large squares first, and then picked fabrics that I thought would work with it.  My husband helped me decide on the borders after I had narrowed my choices down to a handful.  I was really happy with how it turned out, so I decided to hand quilt it - nothing fancy, just 1/4" from the seam lines, like I learned to do more than 20 years ago!  I finished the quilt on a rainy weekend, so getting a photo in good outdoor light was delayed even more!  

My October hexagon flower quilt top is done - just waiting to be basted, quilted and bound!  I hope that I can finish it within a few days of the end of the month - November will be busy enough without starting it already behind!

August Small Quilt of the Month

I finished the August Small Quilt of the Month on September 1st, but the rest of the Labor Day Weekend was rainy and dreary, so taking a photo was put off until today.  This one is called Charming Quilts Doll Quilt and the pattern is in Kathleen Tracy's book:  Remembering Adelia.  There are 72 different fabrics making the little rectangle coins.  I used a quilt stencil and a mechanical chalk pencil to mark the quilt, before machine quilting it.   

The September Small Quilt of the Month is a pattern that Kathy put together for her Yahoo! group, using the Dove in the Window design.  I cut out the pieces for the block today, but while I've selected the fabrics for the borders, I'm not cutting them out yet, until the center part is pieced.

Back from Vacation

It has been about a week since we've gotten back from our wonderful vacation at Caswell Beach on Oak Island in North Carolina.  It was a wonderfully relaxing time to catch up with some family that reside closer to there than here, to spend some quality time together, enjoy the ocean and just relax and rejuvinate.  On the drive there and back, I began working on my hexie flowers for the October Small Quilt of the Month.  I finished the final 2 on the road trip home.



We enjoyed amazing views and wonderful beach walks. The view from our rental condo's deck:



We could see two lighthouses from the beach, and there was no competition for space at the beach.


As a general rule, I don't post family pictures on the web, but here are my kids on one of our evening beach walks!


We got to do a little sight-seeing in the vicinity.  Here are a few photos of some things that I found interesting and related to my interests.  This was one of the displays in the Visitor's Center at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson.  They told the history of this Colonial town that ended up being the sight of a Civil War Fort.



I found dolls at the NC Maritime Museum in Southport!


And there was a 19th century sewing machine there, too!


We really loved Oak Island, especially the Caswell Beach area.  It is a very relaxing, refreshing and rejuvinating place to stay!

July Small Quilt a Month Challenge

I think this is a new record for me, and probably not one I will beat this year - my July quilt is actually pieced, quilted and bound and it is only July 8th!  Not too shabby, considering that the July quilt wasn't announced until 7/2!

This month's quilt is from Kathleen Tracy's first book, American Doll Quilts.  It is called Indigo Blue and White Doll Quilt.  I was nervous about this one - all these triangles - how many points could I get nice and sharp - and meeting nicely with it's neighbor?  Well, I am satisfied with how it turned out.  I was tempted to go onto the web to find true "indigo" reproduction fabrics and shirtings, but I stuck to my stash and used what I had - lots of blues, but the lights are mostly not shirtings, and the darks aren't all indigos!  It was fun to do a 2 color quilt.

June Small Quilt of the Month

The June Small Quilt a Month Challenge Quilt was a quick one!  I had fun using "leftovers" from a larger quilt that I've put together but still needs to be quilting.  Then I used other fabrics from a charm pack I'd ordered from Keepsake Quilting.  I love the patriotic and retro prints, and I have a special doll in mind for this quilt.  I hand quilted this one and it turned out nice and straight, but my grass makes it look a bit wavy here!

The pattern from this quilt comes from Kathleen Tracy's book:  The Civil War Sewing Circle.

May Small Quilt of the Month

Well, I am managing to almost keep up with the Small Quilt a Month Challenge - put the last stitches in the binding today for my May Quilt.  The pattern selected was "Civil War Stars" from Kathleen Tracy's book Civil War Sewing Circle.  I've had this Tom and Huch fabric medley for years and have been trying to figure out how to use it.  Instead of using 4 patches as the block centers, I fussy cut out the small vignettes of Tom & Huck.  There are a few things I'd do differently, but I am pleased with how it turned out.  I think the goal of making one quilt a month helps you "just do it" and maybe learn by trying instead of spending too much time over analyzing!  Please forgive the wrinkles - I need to do a better job "staging" my quilt photos!




I am looking forward to the June Quilt - it is going to be an easy one, and I'm going to try for something to match a larger quilt that I've pieced, but only begun to machine quilt.`

April Small Quilt A Month - Doll Nine Patch

I am actually keeping up with my Small Quilt a Month challenge!  Here is what I did this month.  April's quilt was designed by Kathleen Tracy and shared in the Small Quilt Talk Yahoo! group, rather than being based on one from one of her books.  This one was quick and simple.  I used a charm pack that I'd gotten a year or two ago from Keepsake Quilting for all but the borders, binding and backing.