A February Mini, 2022

 One of my favorite games

as a kid was Pick Up Sticks.

The object was to pick up each stick

without wiggling another stick.

That led me to 

dig into my overflowing strip basket

and pick up  pink, brown and light strips and

 see what I could make with them.

My February Mini

Pick Up Sticks

33" x 30"

My February mini reminded me of that game.

Lots of narrow strips, side by side, with me

 trying to sew them together

without wiggling the strip next to it.  

To give me some sense of order and control,

I precut both light and dark strips,

then randomly picked up pieces,

sewing them into the alternating light and dark combinations.

The "sticks" created a zig and zag pattern when 

stitched together.

All those tossed strips 

that were pulled from my basket

were fun to stitch together for this month's mini.

I kept thinking as I was machine quilting in the ditch,

why can I sew perfectly straight in the light areas

and then wiggle so much in the dark areas.

Always a little bobble, just like playing 

"Pick Up Sticks".

In keeping with my January photos,

I realized I had another series.

Browns and pinks,

a classic combination.

 

Yes, I trumped through the snow again

to reach my barbed wire fence,

but for the sake of art, I did it in 6 degree weather!

Oh, what  mini makers will do.

Check out the other hearty makers on 

Wendy's blog, The Constant Quilter. 

*****

Our world feels much smaller today

And filled with sadness and apprehension

. 

Until Next Time-

Kyle

A Flannel Quilt Workout

 With the beginning of a new year

and the Winter Olympics currently going on,

maybe it was time to think

about "shaping up".

Well, I wasn't necessarily thinking about

it physically, but rather,

thinking about  "targeting" some of 

those long forgotten projects.

In my sewing room 

lingering right over my shoulders

in plain view

are these adorable practical picnic baskets.

And this one has been holding 

flannel fabric for a project for over a decade.

The original idea had long ago

"stalled out".

Now was the time to "reshape" 

these already cut 8 inch squares of 

Kansas Trouble flannels into something new.

But with flannels I didn't want to be too "aggressive"

and cut 

it all up into very small pieces.

So I happened to find a free pattern

by Kim Diehl available through Henry Glass Fabrics

called Heritage Stars.

It's similar to patterns we've seen before, and

I thought I could "workout" my fabric sizes with

Kim's ideas pretty easily.

With a little imagination

interpretation,

and  "endurance"

it was becoming a "winning" solution.

You can see that I "stretched" the idea

of the stars into the borders

and "maximized" the use of the flannels.

It will be perfect for our winter weather 

and it was  the perfect project to "tackle" and

"rehabilitate" those lingering flannels.

Until Next Time-

Kyle