Mini quilts finished!.....

I finished all of the little mini quilts yesterday.   

I put a layer of heavy interfacing in them behind the batting.  It gives them more body to hang nicely on the wall.  It is lighter weight than Timtex or Peltex and stiffer than fleece.

Then I place all of those layers on top of the backing, stitch around it with a straight stitch, trim, machine quilt and finish the edge with a satin stitch.

I am keeping this one for myself since I gifted the original one that I made last year.

I chose the blues and a couple turquoises to go in the colorwash kits.

The coleus is changing colors from being in the hot sun.  Today I will bring all of the pots into the garage and keep them there for a few days.  We're in for a hot spell again.

Errands and kits.......

Inevitably the day comes around that errands have to be taken care of.  I spent all morning running around and then cleaning out 2 boxes in the attic.  In the afternoon I worked on the colorwash kits that I am preparing to sell in August.  I have started out with the kit that has the fabrics like the colorwash I just completed.  I used 560 squares in that one.  I am trying for at least 200 pieces in the minimum size kit.  Since I used a lot of the fabrics more than once, a purchase of 2 kits would be a great starter package for someone with a limited stash.  Next I will work on the batik kits and after that, the soft florals like I used in this one and used in this tutorial.  I am using my die cutter so it speeds up the cutting a little (5 layers at a time) but I still have to press the creases out of each of the 5 fabrics and then cut a strip the width needed for the die, cut it into 4 squares and then stack the fabrics single thickness.  The trays above are 21 times pressing and cutting 5 fabrics so I'm up to 105 fabrics.  I'm pretty sure I'll not ever do this again because I have used up a lot of the really good fabrics. 

Almost done....

Here is the sequence from start to finish:

I should have taken one more photo between steps one and two. Hindsight is so great, isn't it?  I can see a few pieces that need to be changed now that I see them on the monitor.  I trimmed 3 of them last night and then called it a day.

Playing with tiny pieces.......

Someone on a blog asked how tiny of pieces do you keep.  Most of the pieces on the little mini quilts that I make are 1" square or less.  I only save batiks that small because they don't ravel as easily or as fast as regular quilting cottons.  Most everything in the bag of scraps is considered too small to sew so I just layer them overlapped slightly on fusible batting and then the quilting will hold them in place.  I expect them to ravel some as they age.  I'm not a fan of using tulle over the top to hold them down.  I prefer the textured look of the raw edges on my little pieces of art.

A beautiful day....

What a relief it was to have a day in the 80s instead of close to or over 100 degrees.  The humidity was low and I had the windows open all day.  I got a new bird feeder made of cedar and even though the squirrels have figured out they can eat from it, they leave it alone most of the time.

Over the last couple years I have been collecting some Australian fabrics.  I had to lay them out in colorwash fashion, couldn't help myself.  I could do a Trip Around the World with them.

I always check the run the other way with the dark in the center too to be sure there is a good flow.  I just had fun playing with them yesterday, nothing serious in mind yet.  I needed to work on some pillowcases for church sewing circle which is today so that is all the sewing I did yesterday.

Sewn together......

I finished sewing all of the cross seams yesterday and I'm happy with this newest colorwash.  I have to decide if the proportion is right or if I need to add a couple rows to the top.  I'll let it hang on the design wall for a couple days and work on some other projects.

The other color balloon flowers are blooming now.  They were pink in the original plants but now they are mostly white with the pink veins.  It was 101 degrees yesterday at 1 p.m. and the cold front came through around 6 and it was 74 when I went to bed.  We didn't get any rain with the front passing though.  I moved all of my pots back outside and watered them last night.  It won't be back above 90 until the end of the week if the weathermen are right.

This little aster is in one of my pots and it is one of the half price plants from the hardware store a couple weeks ago.  Some of them are white with just a bare tint of lavender and others are deeper toned like this one.  Quite a few haven't bloomed yet and the tag said 'mixed' so I'm wondering if there will be some other colors.

Progress report............

I have all of the seams sewn in one direction.  It is 40.5" wide.  There are 25 seams going the other way so that will shorten it by 12.5".  I may still add a couple rows to the top before it is finished.

My hydrangeas are starting to turn lime green.  They start out lime, turn white for a couple months and then go back to lime green again.  They dry nicely and make a colorful dried bouquet for the winter.

I have a lot of volunteer sunflowers in the back garden.  I'm sure they came from the birdseed.  This one was nice and perky in the morning and by 4 p.m was hanging its head down, wilting in the heat.

Right after I snapped these photos a hummingbird came to visit the bloom.  I wasn't quick enough to get the camera focused though before it flew away.

There are always lots of volunteer asters too.  They aren't big and bushy like the original plant.  I can't believe some of them are blooming already.  They usually bloom in the middle of August.