Tiny Tumblers From the Scrap Basket

Do you ever feel the need to just cut and sew with minimal decision making effort that could (possibly) muck up the sheer enjoyment of it all? I gazed around my tiny little quilt room after I came home, looking at my lists and the incomplete projects thinking 'meh', feeling kind of restless and just wanting to play.

Tiny Tumblers quilt top

Plus, I think I needed a jump start. You know how it is. Somehow summer snuck away when my back was turned and the cozy, warm fall colors were calling my name louder than any of the UFQ's cluttering up the counters.

Diane's pattern

I dug out the tiny tumbler pattern that I've been promising myself would be made sometime in the Summer (yeah right, still wondering which Summer that was?). The template is so small there was no need to dig through the stash and waste precious moments of indecision there. Which is what I wanted anyway.  The scrap basket is much more fun when you're feeling the urge to just blow something out. lol

On the design wall before sewing it together

I ended up making the smaller of the Tiny Tumbler patterns, but of course I had to make it a smidge bigger so it would properly fit the table where it will eventually be displayed. I played around with the setting of the tumblers for a few minutes and then thought 'why bother?' I personally love the look of thrown together scrappiness, which is good because somehow a couple rows got mixed up when I was sewing them. I am so prescient sometimes it scares me.*wink

Hand Quilting Done on The Little Bow-Ties

I was able to complete the hand quilting for my little bow-ties table runner today, which is perfect for linking up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching!  Such a great hand quilting project for the month of August here in Eastern Washington.

All the hand quilting is done!

I will definitely keep the 'small project--hot weather' idea in mind for the next years Summer weather.  According to everything I've been reading, you can't have too many small quilts anyway!  It's been a nice break from my big quilts as well, but now I need to get serious and start the hand quilting on one of my full-size quilts.

I used up the last piece of 80/20 Warm & Natural batting I had leftover from projects years and years ago.  When I dug through my batting scraps, this particular piece was the perfect size for my table runner--long and narrow, so no piecing required.  Oh yeah.  Let me tell you, this is the LAST project I will ever attempt to hand quilt with this kind of batting!  Sooo not a good idea to use this batting in conjunction with hand quilting!  I knew it and ignored all the warning bells going off in my mind, just determined to consider all the frugal reasons for using it.  Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn.  Why do I ever wonder where my kids get their very hard heads?

On another note, my mom and I were able to go to the Buggy Barn Quilt show this weekend, which is a wonderful, wonderful outdoor quilt show over in Reardan, Washington.  When I get a few extra minutes tomorrow or the next day, I will try to load up the few pictures I took and post them for all to see.  Happy Slow Stitching to all the linky participants!