On a roll now . . .

I'm so happy to report that I finished yet another top! This one was easy to finish - I completed the appliqué some time ago. I can't remember just when, and I'm too lazy to look up the post - sometime last summer I think. This is a little quilt - about 16" x 22" - designed by René Plains. It's from an old American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I took a half day class from René in 2001 at the same festival where I took the Jo Morton class. René is known for her traditional little quilt patterns, most of which include a cloth doll that "goes" with the quilt. I have quite a few of her patterns, and this is the second I've done. "Little Wren" is also a René Plains pattern - that's what I call the next to last quilt in this post.

The only part of this quilt that I had left to complete was the bottom border of squares and four patches.occurredcured to me as I looked at the piece that I didn't need to pull a bunch of fabrics from my stash to cut what I needed. I have a large plastic shoebox full of 2 1/2" pieces, and lots and lots of 1 1/2" strips that could easily have 1 1/2" squares cut from them. So I did some digging, chose quickly, and had it all finished before I had to start dinner. I probably would have chdifferenternet fabrics I if I'd pulled from the stash and put a lot more thought into it - but I think it's good in a way that I didn't. This makes the bottom border much more spontaneous, and it still fits well with the rest of the piece.

I love the design of this little quilt because it is such a great example of folk art. Where else would you see such a huge bouquet arranged in such a tiny little pot? That's a trademark of folk art - sizes that don't relate to each other - like a crow almost as big as a house perched on the roof. I was just learning about folk art when I took the class and, as in the Jo Morton project, I would have chosen much different fabrics today. I now prefer a much greater variety of fabrics for the appliqué. I like this design well enough that I just might do it again one of these days.

I took a look at the goals for November that I listed on my sidebar, and discovered I've hardly worked on a single one of them and the month is half over. I decided that's OK because I've still been working - it's just that other projects have been calling to me.

I've taken out another UFT to work on - an old Country Threads pattern called "Somebody's Home". I started this in a class at Country Dry Goods in Canby Oregon - another of my favorite quilt shops. I did the house using invisible machine appliqué - the freezer paper and glue stick method. I used DMC machine embroidery thread on the top and the narrowest blanket stitch my machine will do. I tricked the machine by using the double needle setting with a single needle - which makes a stitch only half as wide as the narrowest stitch. The stitches are virtually invisible - one must look really closely and know what one is looking for in order to see them. I'll finish it with hand appliqué just because I need a good carry along project rather than a "sit at the machine" project. I still need to appliqué a star in the night sky, then below the house are blocks with more stars, a pineapple (for hospitality) a spotted dog and a tree. Scrappy borders go all around the finished piece - flying geese on the left, squares and four patches on the bottom, half square triangle squares on the right and a mix of all three on the top. I think this will be lots of fun to finish, and it shouldn't take all that long. I'm hoping I can have the top done by Sunday night.

I'm really looking forward to next week. I working only Monday and Tuesday, then I have 5 days off in a row. We're having Thanksgiving dinner at the home of one of my Tangled Threads friends, then the kids are all coming here for dinner and games on Friday. I should make great progress on my November goals during that time, as well as quilting the two customer quilts waiting for my attention.