Monthly Small Quilt Challenges for 2020

Kick off this year with a bang by making one of my favorite small quilts for the January 2020 small groups, small quilt challenge. Civil War Stars. Yes, it's an oldie but still a good one. There are many who are new to my groups, my blog and my books who haven't made any of the quilts that were made in the earlier challenges. (We've been doing these challenges in groups since about 2008.) Since my next book won't be out until later this year, some asked to make quilts from a different, earlier book and the suggestion was The Civil War Sewing Circle.  If you have the book, follow along and make the quilt why don't you?  If you make it now it'll be ready to display on the Fourth of July. If you'd like to join in and need a book, I have a few copies available on my website.

Here are some of the other quilts from The Civil War Sewing Circle book that we might be making this year -

We'll be alternating projects every month. Odd-numbered months will be a quilt from the book and even months will be a small themed quilt that will be a free pattern or perhaps just a suggestion to be creative in some way without using a pattern. Stay tuned for the quilt for February. I'll bet it will be something like - "Use red or pink fabric to make a quilt . . . ."  Ha ha.  Okay, maybe I'll try to be a little more specific than that. 

Have a good weekend! If you haven't started the first block of my Mystery quilt yet, time's a wasting.

Mystery Quilt Sew Along 2020

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a good Christmas. The holidays were hectic, as usual, but very nice.

Good news - Today I started a new Mystery Quilt Sew Along for 2020 in my small quilt groups. Here are the first couple of blocks. You'll find the pattern in Files in the Facebook group or on the Mystery page on my website (see links below) -

Every month I'll post a free pattern for a block (or blocks) to make another part of the quilt. I'll be sewing along with all of you and, if you keep up, all the parts of the quilt should be finished by summer 2020. When the "Mystery" is finally revealed,  you can spend the rest of the year putting it together and finishing it up. Sew along with us! Just go to the Facebook group files or the Mystery Quilt page on my website to download the patterns. Join in the fun. Details and block directions can be found in the first step -  Welcome to the 2020 Mystery Quilt..

We'll still be working on making small quilt challenges this year as well. Some in the group have decided that they wanted to make quilts from one of my books - The Civil War Sewing Circle - and so we'll be using that book for our projects during the odd-numbered months. You will need the book for the patterns if you wish to join in these challenges. I'll post the name of that first quilt in the Files on January 2. During even-numbered months, we'll try making small quilts with a theme. Still working on how we'll do that.

Beginners are welcome to join the Mystery. Most of the blocks are fairly simple. This is a no-pressure, do-it-at-your-own-pace project. There will be plenty of time. Pick your own colors and fabrics from your stash or scraps. I am making mine scrappy using some of my favorite colors, like BLUE, red, black and tan but you are welcome to make your quilt any way you please.

This is our fourth annual Mystery. So far it's been great fun to see everyone's progress posted in my Facebook group. Here are some of the quilts from our previous Mysteries -

2017

2018  (uh oh, mine is still in progress . . . )

2019

Hope you are able to get some quilting done this year. Best wishes to all for a happy, healthy and productive new year!

Merry Making

"It's coming on Christmas. They're cutting down trees. They're putting up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace." - Joni Mitchell

We bought the tree and all the lights are on. We'll get it trimmed later tonight. A small portion of the house is decorated. I've brought out the Christmas dishes and the Christmas cds. I'm a little late. Seems like I should have been doing this weeks ago and here I'm just getting started.

I love Christmas. I love all the craziness, the shopping, the decorating, the cooking, the snow - if we're lucky.  If I choose to, I can make all of that stressful. But long ago I decided that what I need to focus on is actually enjoying and reflecting on the holiday, slowing down, taking time for myself and being with family and friends, doing the things I love the most around this time -  making things, baking a little, listening to music, not worrying about buying gazillions of presents or finding the perfect ones and just stressing out in general about the small stuff. If something doesn't get done, then it doesn't get done. 

Do you get the bug to make things right before Christmas? It's a good way to de-stress and get into the holiday spirit. Try a little simple stitching. This is a Gail Pan design from her book Christmas Patchwork Loves Embroidery. It's a sweet little book full of Christmas projects.

Here's my wool tree skirt for a mini tree. The pattern is on my website. I've got some other cute Christmas things there and in my Etsy shop .

How about a simple little present pincushion? Free pattern on my website.

Making things is good. Helps you slow down and enjoy the holiday a little bit.

Have you made any little trees yet? EVERYONE seems to be making these. There's a free paper-pieced pattern in Files in my Facebook group and I think it's also on my website. There's another one using flying geese.

"It's coming on Christmas, I'm cutting up trees . . . "

I often put things off until the last minute and then usually stay up late at night the week before Christmas, struggling to finish last minute things. Sometimes that's part of the fun. The house is quiet and I can relax and sew. These trees don't take long at all. 

                 
If you're new to my blog and haven't seen my little redwork stitcheries, try visiting my website (link above) or my Etsy shop for the pattern. They're also pretty quick. 

Merry Making!

Controlled Scrappy or Wild Scrappy?

Unlike some quilters, I hardly ever create a scrap quilt at random, grabbing pieces here and there and sewing them together without a plan. This scares me. I usually prefer to play around and carefully arrange the scrap pieces in a way that is pleasing to my eye, paying attention to color, contrast and value. I think it's a control thing. I'm always amazed when quilters tell me they don't plan their scrap quilts. I hesitate to just throw fabrics together and assume it will all work out because it usually doesn't for me. I always need to plan a bit. How do you make your scrappy quilts?

Treasure boxes from my book Small & Scrappy. This may look like a random scrap quilt made with lots and lots of small scraps but look closely and you can see I used a definite color theme of pink, blue and brown with a few small kicks of color. 

Same here. Scrappy blocks yet with a tan and blue theme.

Here's one of my least favorite scrap quilts, below. It's my Civil War Soldier's Cot quilt from my book The Civil War Sewing Circle. I challenged myself to create this one at random - no planning, pulling fabrics from who knows where, not caring if they went together while I made the blocks. It's definitely scrappy. The only thing I planned was to make it as I thought a woman from that era might have used up her scraps to quickly sew a quilt for a soldier who desperately needed bedding in the camps. To me, it's just meh - too much brown, green and gold, not my favorite colors. I like the pattern though and may even make another one someday, definitely with  more blue in it, LOL. 

I like my planned scrap quilts much better because I often try to at least use a certain color theme throughout. Still scrappy.

If you're a beginner at making scrap quilts, you may want to try a planned one at first. There's not always a need to throw caution to the wind. I know that can be scary. Make a plan and just try throwing in a few scraps of a few different colors here and there. It gets easier after you've made a few quilts. This is where small quilts come in. It's so much easier to try this in a small quilt before you spend time making make something large and end up not liking it. It just takes practice.

See what I mean about controlled scrappy?  At first, try using several different prints in the same color and mix them up in your blocks for a scrappy look. This is a good way to ease into the scrappy look if you're afraid of your colors going all over the place and the quilt becoming too wild. Then, perhaps, gradually introduce a random little piece of a different color in a block or two and step back. You'll know when it's too much for your taste.

Moderately scrappy - not crazy, wild scrappy. Just use different shades of the same colors in your backgrounds.

Here's a blog post I wrote awhile ago to help you choose and buy fabric to build a nice collection for making scrap quilts.

Have a good weekend!