Teeny Tiny Things

I decided on a plan for the next Mug Rug Revival Swap. My partner wants something holiday themed, which is awesome because I do not like holiday fabric for myself because I do not decorate, but I have had a few patterns floating around in my brain. So far I have strips with a bunch of little 1.5" squares and it doesn't really look like much, but it will!


I also finished 19.5/20 of the 3" half hexie pinwheels I am making (I say half because one is done, just backwards and one is done now but wasn't done in the picture) for the EPP 30s repro quilt. I had not conceptualized how big the quilt would come out with just 20 blocks. The answer is too dang small.


It was smaller than a baby quilt, which is no good since I want this to be for me! So I decided to make a whole lot more half hexies before sewing pinwheels together so that it would still be random if my color ratios were off. Originally I had 4 each of red, yellow, blue, purple, & aqua/green. I collected a few (15) more fat quarters during the Quilt Across Texas shop hop in September. Between that, what I had in my stash (Uhhhm, how do I have that much 30s repro if I never use any?!), and adding in a four not 30s repro prints that match the color scheme, I now have 7 more fabrics in each of the 5 color ways. I have already cut these into strips and am toting them along everywhere with me. Maybe someday this quilt will be done.


I also managed to finish the trivet I am making my boyfriend. It is a teeny tiny version[ish] of the quilt I made him ages ago. Here is the quilt, for reference.

Here is the finished trivet. The quilting on the trivet is the antithesis of what I did in the quilt. The quilt had tidy diagonal lines spaced 2" apart while the trivet, well, not so much. I started with diagonal lines, but it just didn't look right with the light linen background so I went with a stipple.

Here is a close up of some of the quilting. I know my FMQ still has a lot of improving to do, but I am slowly getting there. Since it is for my boyfriend, I tried to add a little heart. It doesn't look too heart-like, but that just means it will be more camouflaged.


The trivet has two layers of Insul-Bright, and the backing is grippy shelf liner so it will not slide around. I had sewn shelf liner before and it wasn't too difficult. This particular brand of shelf liner is insanely grippy, I suppose, because it was impossible to sew with my machine. What I did to overcome the obstacle was machine stitching the binding to the front through the front and two layers of batting. Then I turned the binding and stitched it to the back, but caught the shelf liner in these stitches to hold it in place. Viola; Grippy and heat resistant!


I also had some time to try a new recipe this weekend. It is for bacon jam empanadas with a really delicious cornmeal crust. They are basically the best thing ever. I'm hoping to write a tutorial for this soon. :)