My First Mini Swap

Earlier this summer I signed up for my first mini swap via Instagram -- a new adventure!!

I joined the Kaffe Mini Swap and was assigned a partner. 

I gathered up all the Kaffe fabric I own and shopped for a bit more.

When I returned from my last teaching trip, I went at it in earnest.

I'm currently experimenting with this Dresden Star block and decided to use it since it fits some of my partners preferences.  The block was shared with me by Karen from Little Red Quilt House in Medina, Ohio -- a customer brought her an a quilt from the early 1900's.  I'd never seen the block before but quickly decided it fits right into my current obsession with set-in piecing and hexie/60 degree designs.

 

A week of fiddling on the design wall led to these framed diamonds for the setting.

Since I used the large diamond in Marti Michell's Set H for the Dresden diamonds, I used the small diamond from the same set to fussy cut the centers.  The framing strips were a bit wider than necessary allowing me to trim each one for a perfect shape. 

Marti's templates are so adaptable!  The dashed lines made it easy to center the little diamond as I trimmed each piece. 

In the end, I decided to frame the block with the same print used in the framed diamonds -- this must have been the 10th or 11th option I audited and certainly it is the simplest.

I sliced the fabric and stitched it together to use for the backing -- I used the no-binding finish technique from Marti's Fusible Tape product.  You can read the step-by-step process HERE.

But when I got ready to layer it, I thought "this backing is really ugly".

I've used a six-piece backing on other hexagon pieces and so I set the mirrors up and took a look.

Much better!!

And because I started with Marti's templates, the Equilateral Triangle Ruler was the perfect size to cut the six triangles needed. 

The quilting went quickly -- I used continuous curve for the center design with a few of my signature leaves at the tips.  The "gods-eye" motif adapted nicely to the diamonds. 

To emphasize the hexagon shape of the block, I channeled quilted the outer border.  Having learned to think about the spacing of the lines BEFORE I stitch, I experimented before with a chalk pencil.

I used the edge of my walking foot to guide the first two lines on opposite edges of the border.

The third line was centered between the first two lines. 

The fourth line was centered between the left side line and the center line.

And the fifth line between the right side line and the center line.

Best part?  No marking needed!! 

I used a diamond from my auditioning reject pile to make a simple label. 

The pattern of the triangles coming together is funky compared to the mirror audition -- there was just enough fabric to do this -- fussy cutting six exact repeats was not an option.

It's still fun though!!

And here's the finished piece -- ready to pack up and mail off later this month!!

Next week, I'll share what I learned by participating in a mini swap.  It might help you decide if you'd like to try a mini swap in the future and it's always good for me to reflect on the results of a new experience like this.

 

Hope you are off to a good start on your fall quilting (or spring if you are down under).

 

Mary Huey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little destashing!!

I didn't do much stitching over the Labor Day weekend -- spent two days enjoying the 50 year reunion of my high school graduating class -- what a great time we had!!  And made a trip to the Pittsburgh, PA zoo with my family -- it took all six adults to manage the four youngsters?!?

 

I did get up to the studio Monday afternoon for a bit of putter stitching and pulled a few things out of my "destash" pile from the August tidy-up to offer to any interested stitchers today.  Maybe one of them will catch your fancy?

 

First up is a set of six bands of flying geese -- all the same two fabrics -- 5" wide by approx. 74" long.  They are hand pieced, clean (only found 1 small stain), and I estimate they date to the 1890's or very early 1900's. 

Here's a closer look at the fabrics.  They were donated to my charity group but we decided they were too nice to use for a rough and tumble quilt so we are selling them to benefit our supply fund for batting.  $25 plus shipping.

This is an assortment of odd buttons -- there are three sets that are "tied" together and the rest are all singles.   $3 plus shipping.

Two packages of 1" finished hexagons from Quilt Patis -- plastic with a hole punched in the center so they are reusable (and they have been used) -- 90 in each package.  $7.50 per package plus shipping.

Two packages of 1 1/2" finished 60 degree diamonds -- same as above -- never used.

60 in each package -- $7.50 per package plus shipping.

Just under 1/2 yard of fine cotton lawn -- 11" by 60" -- not sure if it's Liberty lawn but if not, it's Italian and the same quality -- bought it in the late 1980's.

$4 plus shipping.

3-plus yards of brown stripped Italian cotton lawn -- 36" wide -- I hope the ruler gives you a sense of the scale of it.  I bought it in the late 1980's.

$12 plus shipping. 

3 1/4 plus 2/3 yards (two pieces) of Italian cotton lawn purchased in the late 1980's -- 36" wide.

I've taken several pictures in different light situations and this is the closest to the true colors but the photo is brighter than the fabric.  The contrast of colors is more subtle.

$14 plus shipping 

 Hmong applique with embroidery embellishes purchased in the 1980's -- approx. 8 1/2" square.

Back is finished.  $5 plus shipping.

Hmong applique with embroidery embellishes purchased in the 1980's -- approx. 6" square.

Back is finished.  $4 plus shipping.

Hmong applique with embroidery embellishes purchased in the 1980's -- approx. 6 1/2" square.

Back is finished.  $4 plus shipping. 

I have already de-fuzzed it -- didn't see that until I posted the picture and too lazy to take another picture??

If you'd like any of these items, leave me a comment with your ZIP code.  I'll be in touch with you via a reply to your comment with a shipping cost and other details needed.

 

You know what they say about other quilter's treasures!?!

 

Have a good stitching day!!

 

Mary Huey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vacation Day!!

My oldest daughter and housemate has been on vacation this week and we decided to go visit a park in Summit County (Ohio) that we have been hearing about over the past year.  Bobwhite Quail (which were common in central Ohio were wiped out during some harsh winters in the late 70's) have been introduced to this park and are reported to be having some success getting established.

I'd been told not to expect to see the quail at this time of year (a bit late in the season) but the prairie is thriving and we enjoyed our first visit to Springfield Bog (east of Akron, Ohio).  The park is over 250 acres with 1.8 mile grass trail around the perimeter of the prairie which is about 4 years old.

If you never visited a prairie park, it changes as the seasons progress and during early September, golden rod reigns supreme.  They are an interesting family of plants and I've read there are 22 species in Ohio.  This is common goldenrod and was the most abundant.  It was the first time all summer I've seen such an abundance of honey bees any place. 

We both enjoy birding and goldfinches were everywhere but they competed unsuccessfully for our attention with the butterflies and insects.  This is another goldenrod, one of my favorites called stiff goldenrod.

I lost track of how many monarch butterflies we saw but it was well over 20 and this butterfly which is a monarch look-alike, the viceroy.  We saw at least six of them and at one point, two of them appeared to be playing leapfrog -- flying over and under one another in circles. 

The New England asters were beginning to bloom -- the red-violet ones seem to come first followed by purple ones in a week or so.

A smaller pale one was less common but quite pretty -- unfortunately, I didn't investigate the finer points of foliage, etc to be able to give it a name.  This is a link to a blogger who discusses wild Ohio asters in some depth -- you may not care, but now that I've found it, I want to be able to find it again!! Asters are an important source of nectar for butterflies and other insects during September and October.

 

The Canada thistle which tends to overwhelm fields left to go wild wasn't present, but this larger one was just beginning to bloom and what a beauty!!

I'm slowly learning more about prairie grasses but the only one we saw that I feel confident to identify publically is turkey foot -- standing taller than me, it stood out among the surrounding vegetation. 

 We spotted several clusters of pokeberry in fruit and I just love the color of the stems -- the nearly black berries have mostly been eaten off of this one.

 There were several stands of rattlesnake master -- those will increase as the prairie matures.  The flowers don't look much different than the prickly looking seed heads.

Besides an abundance of butterflies, there were more dragonflies than I could believe.  Everytime we put our binoculars up to look across the prairie at a flying bird, a half dozen dragonflies were in view hunting smaller flying insects over the blooming flowers.

 A small pond in the center of the prairie attracted dozens of these delicate blue damselflies -- some hovering over the water, others courting and breeding on the cattail stems.   It took some patience to grab this picture of two forming this heart as part of the mating ritual.

 Not far away was this conga line of four more.  Since I was straining my camera's telephoto ability to get these pictures, they are a bit fuzzy.

On the way home, we stopped for another walk at one of my favorite spots -- Tinkers Creek State Nature Preserve on Old Mill Rd. southwest of Aurora, Ohio.  It's a 750 acre complex of wetlands. 

My main objective was to see the bottle gentians in bloom and they did not disappoint.

We also had the extra thrill of finding several of these little frogs -- Northern Leopards -- they were common when I was young (and catching frogs regularly) but I rarely see them anymore.

It was such a pleasant day -- very refreshing to be out walking and noticing and wondering.

Tomorrow, it's back to quilting -- I'm making good progress on my daughter's applique quilt and perhaps I'll finish it this weekend -- only the final border to go before it's ready to bind!

 

Hope your weekend includes pleasant activities that will refresh you as we begin the month of September!!

 

Mary Huey

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion of August -- Tidy Up Month

Ahhh, September at last!!  

I can quit tidying up my studio (I gave it a pretty good month) and stitch guilt-free! 

There has been progress!  I can now walk up to the color palette without tripping over piles of fabric.  That's good!! 

And the "sacred stacks" that live across the top shelf have had a straighten up and a bit of culling to eliminate some of the visual clutter at that end of the room. 

Now I want to attack getting my show ribbons hung back up across the top of this wall -- they were up for a time, but my hanging technique turned out to be inadequate. 

This is one of the piles of fabric I thinned out of the shelves -- I'll sell off some and donate some -- I'll begin de-stashing on my Instagram feed tomorrow -- it's @hueymary if you want to do a bit of armchair shopping!!

Two weeks ago, I couldn't walk around this side of the room -- my box stash was piled at the end of the cutting table.

Today it's stacked neatly and tucked into a corner.  Don't you just hate to let go of a sturdy box that might be a storage space for something?!? 

Once the cutting table was somewhat clear . . . .

I caved into several small stitching projects.  Nothing big, just a little stress release. 

I did get the work wall clear of papers -- the bulletin board on the left will work out well!

And I designated this small foam core board for "storage" of projects I don't want to put away quite yet.  It will be like a fermenting space.

We had our annual house guest over the weekend, so the pile of quilts that lives on the guest bed was rolled up and moved into the studio -- must get it back out of there tomorrow.

The sewing machine table has stayed fairly clear -- the only thing wrong with that is it encourages stitching over tidying?!?

One major decision has emerged -- the "tub" storage system for my style groups of fabric needs to be modified.  I stack all the fabric neatly in them, sorted by colors -- this is the polka dot/plaid/funky brights tub -- when I work from one, I pull it all apart but don't put it back together because it's time consuming to do.  Next thing I know there are piles of fabric all over the floor that just need to be put away. 

Must think about this -- can I pack the fabric into them in such a way to avoid the searching chaos or do I replace them with more shelving?  Not sure.

 

In the meantime, I hope to continue to improve the studio's appearance by letting go of some of the excess and finishing up more UFO's. 

It's definitely much more pleasant to work in there when it's tidier.

 

Let's stitch!!!

 

Mary Huey