Acorns of all shapes and sizes

Late summer is always a fun creative time for me. My dear friend, M, has a birthday in August and I always have the best time making things for her. She and I both share a love for autumn so this year I thought I'd use the icon of all things fall-ish, the acorn, as inspiration.

Acorns of all shapes and sizes :o)

It all started when I happened across the super cute acorn patchwork pillow pattern by Bridgette of The Family Hearth. This is a great pattern for using up scraps of low volume fabric! I love the bold, graphic design! I made my pillow with a simple envelope style back.

Acorn patchwork pillow - pattern by Bridgette from The Family Hearth

For the quilting I used masking tape to mark simple diagonal lines in order to stitch an "X" through each square.  It's always so fun to quilt small projects because they fit in my Janome sewing machine without any tight pushing or pulling to get the quilting done.

After the pillow was finished I did a bit of searching for some acorn accessories to go with it. On Pinterest I found the pattern for patchwork acorn potholders made with fabric on the front and a dish towel backing.

Patchwork acorn potholders

These patchwork acorn potholders by Therm-o-Web are so easy to make, and again, scraps are the name of the game! I really like how the fabric squares end up on point in the potholders. I lined them with Insul-Bright to make them more heat resistant in addition to the dish towel backs.

Finally, I just wanted one more small item to tuck into the package and decided on the little crochet acorn. This pattern comes from Kristi of the blog Engsidrun. I was able to use scraps from some of my favorite yarn for these sweet little acorn.

Crochet acorn

I am fully aware that I probably got a bit carried away with theme gifts, but I had such fun that maybe I got away with it? Hope you enjoy the first days of fall! I know I will :o)

Final Finish for 2015

Great grandmother's patchwork quilt - not the typical quilt you see me working on for the Faith Circle of do. Good Stitches.

Great Grandmother's Patchwork ~ a Faith Circle quilt

Early in 2015 it was my turn to choose the design for the month of March. I got it in my mind that I'd like to go with sweet and easy, but with a twist. Instead of all the blocks being the same I asked my circle mates to sew a mix of 9, 16, and 36 patch blocks. Here are the instructions I gave them:

This month I'm going to turn us temporarily away from our usual modern quilts and head, instead, in a "passed down through the generations" look. I'm calling it Great-Grandmother's Quilt. I've no idea how this will look actually made up, but we are going to give it a whirl and find out :o) ...please use fabrics with a tan/grayish undertone. 

Beautiful old-timey quilt blocks

One of the circle members reflected that her blocks reminded her of the house dresses her Grandma used to wear - Perfect!! As you can see they did a great job on these blocks - a great way to practice that ever-important 1/4" quilt seam.

For this quilt I used the quilt-as-you-go method of assembly. This was a first for me and I'm going to write about it in a separate blog post soon so stay tuned.

For the quilt back and binding I used a couple of Thimbleberries prints that have lived in my stash for a while. This was the perfect project to put them to use. In addition, I had one extra block left from the front that I included...my motto: leave no blocks unused.

Thimbleberries quilt fabric on the back

I am so happy to have this one finished and on it's way to Restore Innocence - an organization providing aid to the victims of human trafficking. I hope that as it is used it will bring comfort and perhaps a sense of endurance and grit passed down from those who came before us.

I'd also like to share two quilts made by my local quilt group, Winchester Modern Quilters. These quilts are also on their way to Restore Innocence. They were created from Quilto (Bingo) squares we used in one of our meetings. One of our members then took the squares and created these two cheerful quilts.

Bingo square quilts - Winchester Modern Quilters

Hoping, as we transition to 2016, you enjoy a year of making meaningful gifts for those you love and hold dear. Happy New Year!