Quilt Reveal: October Holiday House

It's not October yet, but here October Holiday House is way ahead of the pack, ready for the new year.

I told you the story of when I bought the kit a couple of weeks ago.

 I started making the kit at the end of October 2021. I have been trying to make one small quilt a month. Using the kit which has marinated long enough was a good option.

I put this quilt away to get ready for the October birthday gathering, and kept it away for the week we met with the customers.

I brought it out to work on, but it had to be set aside again for the Portrait Representation Quilt. I did work on it a little bit that week, but this week I was able to give it full time attention to finish it.

The kit included everything you needed to make the top and the binding. I had a couple of fat quarters that had accidentally been sent to me in the mail instead of what I had ordered. I was allowed to keep them and they both came in handy for this quilt.

 

I cut out the October from one of them and did not have to make individual letters. I also used that fabric for the label. I really liked using tulle as a design element.

The pumpkins and the spider came from the other fat quarter. The kit came with buttons, but they have shanks on the back and I didn't want to use them that way. That fabric is also used for the backing.

It was a fun mini to make and helped warm up my free motion confidence to work on the Representation Portrait Quilt.

My Turn for 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop

Today is my day to post for the 12 Days of Christmas in July Blog Hop! Welcome to my blog!

After I told Sarah I would show you my Christmas quilts, I remembered that I have already posted my Christmas quilts in December so I will direct you to look at that post. In this post, I am showing you some quilts which were not shown on that post. 

 

In 2018, I made small gifts for every member of my family, so if you are looking for small gift ideas, you might want to browse them. 

 

All of these quilts were made a long time ago, before I had a digital camera, and were given away, so I can't take better photos. The blue ones were baby quilts and the star is a small wall quilt.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you enjoyed this visit and will come back to visit again.

 

Special thanks goes to Sarah Craig at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for hosting this blog hop.  For twelve days, it is all about Christmas. Please be sure to visit the other people on this hop.

 

Wednesday, July 14th

Joy of Days Filled With Joy

Thursday, July 15th

Moira of The Quilted Snail

Friday, July 16th

Jamie of L'Fair Quilts

Saturday, July 17th

Bonnie of In Stitches With Bonnie

Sunday, July 18th

Joanne of Everyone Deserves a Quilt

Monday, July 19th

Kate of Katie Mae Quilts

Shasta of High Road Quilter (that's me)

Tuesday, July 20th

Vicki of Vicki's Crafts and Quilting

Wednesday, July 21st

Leanne of The Devoted Quilter

Thursday, July 22nd

Kathy of Kathy's Kwilts and More

Sandra of Musings of a Menopausal Melon

Friday, July 23rd

Carole of From My Carolina Home

Saturday, July 24th

Joanne of Everyone Deserves a Quilt (Part 2)

Sunday, July 25th

Karrin of Karrin's Crazy World

 

Advent Calendar

 

I posted my end of the year report earlier this morning, and am amending it to report that I finished another mini quilt before the end of the year. This is an advent calendar with 24 pockets. I like all the designs for the days.

I bought the kit at the Connecting Threads sale. I bound it by machine with a decorative stitch.

I am not used to binding on the front so it did wind up wobbly, but I wasn't aiming for perfection when making it. It is a quick and simple quilt to make. 

I want to thank Wendy Caton Reed for encouraging us to make a small quilt every month. Her posts showcase lots of inspiring small quilts and other projects. She is very talented.  I learn a lot from visiting her blog.

Merry Christmas!

 Here are my quilts that can be used as holiday quilts.

 

And in case you think all holiday quilts are red, here are a few more.

Christmas Trees Quilt in Snow by Shasta Matova

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This post is part of a series of post that sorts and presents my quilts  with different themes. Thank you for visiting.

 

Linked with:

Peacock Party

Quilt Reveal: Blue Ornaments

 As usual, in December, the photo quality is much diminished.  Today, I want to introduce you to Blue Ornaments, my mini quilt of the month for the month of December. 

This little quilt provided a little distraction from the Quote Quilt until I realized I am going to add fusible to the backing, and not the front of the quilt. This means, I can keep adding more stuff to the Quote Quilt while I prepare the backing and fusible. I'll show you my additions to the Quote Quilt in another post.

In the meantime, this little quilt is a wholecloth quilt made with three circles from a fabric I recently got from Joanns. I think it is pretty enough to stand on its own as ornaments. I quilted the sandwich lightly, added the ornaments with a decorative stitch, and then quilted it a bit more with a Decobob thread I got as a sample.

The backing is the same fabric as the binding. I took photos of it outside in the snow, but they were all upside down. I didn't want to confuse you more than needed in a topsy turvy year, so this photo will have to do until I can get a better photoshoot. By that time, I might have added some bows to the strings.

Snow!

It is warmer today.

And it snowed last night.about 3-5 inches.

So it is a much better picture taking day.

Quilt Reveal: Vintage Holiday

As you know, I have been working on the Vintage Holiday mini quilt. I missed the deadline for Project Quilting, and decided to take my time and hand stitch the binding. It looks much neater when I hand stitch because I don't have a lot of practice machine sewing the binding.

 I finished putting the binding on Vintage Holiday last night, and was very proud of myself for getting it done before the end of the month. After all, it is only the 30th and there are 31 days in January. It was even done way before midnight so I was more than a day ahead. It turns out everyone else was finished before me. They apparently don't know that when something is due on the end of the month, that means it should be finished at exactly 11:59 p.m. I couldn't post last night because I didn't want to show nighttime pictures of my quilt. My pics look bad enough during the winter day. Anyway, here is my grand reveal.

So here it is the end of the month

and time to share 

 my monthly mini challenge

organized by Wendy, the Constant Quilter.

Vintage Holiday was started January 21 and finished January 30. It uses solid red fabric and two white prints. The binding is a slightly textured red print. The pattern comes from Christmas Quilts and More magazine. I used an embroidery stitch to stitch down the red background and fused the applique down.  I sandwiched the quilt, and stitched all the applique pieces down with free motion quilting. I also outlined each of the applique pieces to make them stand out.  I realized that there was a blank space on the right side, and instead of making another sled, I decided to add a dog.  So now, this quilt fits in the dog quilt category as well as the red and white, the winter, the small quilts, and the holiday categories.

The red background is quilted with windy swirls and the white background has downward sloping lines to resemble a hill. I had a great time quilting it.

I woke up one morning, realizing that the dot under the O in Season's was supposed to be the dot for the I.  I was disappointed in myself for not following the instructions or at least thinking it through, because if I had switched those two O's, they would look more like a snowman. When I looked at the pattern, it looks like I did follow the instructions. In the unlikely event I ever make this quilt again, I will move the word Seasons so that the i is properly dotted. (It is unlikely because I don't like to repeat what I make, not because I didn't enjoy making it.)

I added a lace trim just over the  top because the lace wouldn't show over the white so there was no point in it. I also added a lace garland over a tree as a special treat for those who took the time to look closely at the quilt. In these pictures, the lace on the tree looks too white. I might have to find a way to tea stain it.

I added a corner triangle on the back for a label. The backing uses the same white as the trees.  I even went outside in the frigid temperatures to get you this and the picture at the top of the post.

Linked with:
Friday Foto Fun

Red Snowflake - Seven Day Mystery Quilt Reveal

As a part of Finish Fest, I have finished the Seven Day Mystery Quilt, which currently has the creative name Red Snowflake.

I enjoyed every part of making this quilt, even parts that might have been frustrating in the past.  The fabric selection was quick and easy - pick a fabric and a background.  Making the blocks was enjoyable.  Maximum of four easy blocks, with easy directions.  Putting them together was easy and fun, solving a mystery made it more interesting.  The straight line quilting with all its turns was still fun, because I was highlighting the snowflake and looking forward to the free  motion afterwards.  The free motion quilting also moved along easily. I used a generic darning foot and it worked wonderfully. I think I will be using more generic feet with this machine.  The brand name ones are crazy expensive.

Thank you Rose of Threadbare Creations, for this great mystery and pattern.

Presenting it is the hardest part. Besides the fact that it is dark and rainy outside, Blogger didn't want to accept my photos.

Future historians aren't going to know how to take this quilt. Of course they will be looking over and analyzing my work. Some of them will say, "no Shasta didn't make this; she tends to add things to simple modern quilts to make them less modern." Others will say, "yes she did make it.  See this lump? This was made before she learned how to make proper bindings."

This quilt is versatile. It fits right at home with my other modern quilts.

It fits with the Christmas quilts. 

And it fits with the red and white quilts.  I remember saying of my last small quilt finish that it was the biggest small quilt I had made. I don't remember which one that was so I can't compare, but I think this one is bigger. It crowds out the other quilts so there is no danger of it having a permanent place on the bulletin board.

I looked it up. It was the Irish chain.  I'm sure it would look good with that too!

It looks good with the Valentine's Day quilt.

Linked to:

 Scraphappy Saturday. Even though it is red and white, it looks pink from a distance, and has a pink backing.

2010 Recap

Even though I wasn't working two jobs, like I did last year, the first half of the year kept me very busy at work, to a point where my mother was helping me with lunches and cleaning.  In the summer, we hosted a Japanese student. Then things slowed down and I was able to finish some quilts. I also reviewed several books for some companies who were willing to send me complimentary copies of their books in exchange for the review. I also did a great deal of genealogy research.

This year I decided to show not just the finishes, but quilty things I have worked on. It makes the recap look better because there is more stuff on it, and it also gives you a better idea of what I have been doing in 2010. Here they are, in no particular order.

The snowflake coasters were my latest little project. I am keeping these for myself. I also turned a couple into ornaments for the tree.

I made these tissue holders as holiday gifts.

This vase was a project that was abandoned before this year, but finished in October 2010.

Four of five quilts I made for the Quilts for Kids charity. The fifth one looked like the red black and white one, with panda bears on it, and was done in 2009. This charity took a great deal of my time in 2010, but apparently I did have enough time to have other finishes as well.

This is the very first oil painting I made. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to paint with my family. I have it sitting on the book, so you can see the inspiration on the right. The color of the water was actually mostly from the turpentine that we were using to clean our brushes.

The pirate map is an unfinished project for 2010. Our Japanese guest helped with some of the motifs.


The little flag wall hanging was started and finished in 2010. It was simple to make, but I am particularly proud of it because of the quote quilted on it.



This is a sample block I made for a big idea I had. The idea will work, once I get started on it. I tried to finish this block into a project, but it didn't work well. I am hoping that like the vase, I will manage to finish it at a later date.



Since joining Kathleen Tracy's small quilt yahoo group, I have been tempted many times with these little quilts. They are really fun to make. In this one, I limited myself to one small scrap box, to give myself the challenge that people in olden days would have had.  I particularly liked using scraps for this one, and remembering where each one came from.

The African Circles quilt was my first project I started and finished in 2010. It was my goal to finish everything I started this year. It hasn't completely come true, but I have made great strides. And I gave myself permission to simply play - like with the red and white kaleidoscope block and the blue and white blocks below. They were never part of a project, and a great start to an orphan block quilt.

One of these blocks started out as a beginning of Kate's round robin. I still want to do the round robin, but the block, and the additional ones I made are now part of the orphan block collection. I will probably make a small quilt out of these.  I think it is amazing at how the same basic shape can look so completely different based on how it is put together.

The Cheddar Cheese and Crackers was started early in the year, and is a work in progress. It is a pattern by Lori from Humble Quilts. It is being hand quilted. The cheddar fabric isn't playing nicely and isn't laying flat, so it has me worried, but hopefully I will be able to quilt it into submission. It has taught me that I am not capable of hand quilting a big project though!

This is my last finish for 2010. I like this one the best of all the quilts I worked on this year.

The Simply Squares quilt was an impulse quilt made from newly purchased fabric. The top is made.  I was going to try to finish this one for 2010 as well, but I think my quilts look quite impressive for the year, so I won't stress myself out trying to finish it this year.