I’ve been making some smaller quilts–call them art quilts if you like–just for fun. I love the process of designing, and sometimes I just want to make a bunch of smaller things for the practice.

I’ve had these African wax fabrics for quite a while, intending to use them–you know the story!

So when a friend was over to play recently, we cut some BIG circles (using Daisy Aschehoug’s templates) and I decided to use some of these special fabrics.

There were a LOT of experiments!

The eventual conclusion was that the 4 circles I had made would need to be 4 separate quilts! Here are the first two tops.

Circle 1

Circle 2

They’re only about 45″ square, so I may try hand quilting them.

My favorite sewing machine is in for repair, so I was looking around for a project that doesn’t require any special stitching/feet/fooling around. I found this foundation paper pieced pattern I had cut from a magazine long ago.

This is enlarged 150% from the original, and I used David Sirota’s method of making just one foundation and then using glue rather than sewing through the paper. If you need instruction, go to his website.

The blocks finished about 12 x 16 inches, so I added 3″ borders when I had made all the blocks I cared to make. And incidentally, all the plants and pots were made from scraps. The background was yardage, but left over from another project.

Then I searched the stash and consulted the oracle (oops, I mean husband) and selected red fabric for the sashing and border.

These little quilts I’ve been fooling with are small enough that I may quilt them myself. However, I remain less ambitious in that area than some of my friends, so the bigger ones will still go OUT to be quilted!

What do YOU do when your favorite machine is not available?

Ha! You opened this because of the chocolate, didn’t you?

A few months ago I posted about some minor modifications I use to make hanging sleeves more easily. Most of my quilts are bed or throw size, so I don’t include the sleeve in the top binding as would be done for a wall hanging.  I attach a hanging sleeve only if a quilt is going to a show or if I’m taking pictures of it.

This baby quilt, 50″ x 50″, is about as small as my usual quilts get

I make up hanging sleeves from leftover backing fabric and have the finished tubes ready to be cut to the needed length so there’s no time crunch when I want to hang a quilt. If the quilt is going to a show I sew the sleeve on, often with rather large stitches because it’s temporary.

However, if the sleeve is going to be on the quilt only long enough for me to take photos, I’ve found that straight pins work just fine to attach the sleeve! I put the pins fairly close together along the top of the sleeve and space them out a bit more along the bottom edge. On both edges I bury the tips of the pins–you know why!

This seems to be working, so I’ll probably pin the sleeve on for future photos.

This bar is from Tony’s Chocolonely, a Dutch brand of fair trade chocolate

And now, I discovered a quilt block design in a chocolate bar last week. Obviously this company understands that chocolate and quilting go hand-in-hand!

As mentioned previously, I’ve been participating in Tara Faughnan’s Block Studies class. The blocks were mostly nothing special, though her video instruction was excellent for people who might not know how to make them. And seeing what others made with the combination of Tara’s blocks and her color palettes has been wonderful!

So I combined blocks made from several studies that were part of the class, plus a few I just made up for fun, and made a quilt top.

I’ll square it up and then we’ll see. To be continued. And if you’re thinking of taking a class with Tara, I do recommend her.