Life size and Tiny Waldorf Baby Dolls

Here are two dolls that I made in the past week. They are the largest and smallest Waldorf-type dolls that I’ve ever made. They are both baby dolls.

The tiny baby is 5 inches tall. You can read more about tiny babies in my February 6 post. The doll pictured above is the second tiny baby I’ve made. I got some mohair doll hair yarn and knit a wig for her. (More about that in my next post).

I remember saying a year ago that I’d never make a life size Waldorf doll. But when I found a great pattern in a book that was already on my shelf, I figured it would be fun to try. The pattern “Olga and Ollie” can be found in Sewing Dolls by Karin Neuschutz.

My doll is the size of an average newborn,. She is 20 1/2 inches long with a head circumference of 14 1/2 inches. I used glass doll beads to weight her and she weighs in about 3 lbs.

I did alter the pattern in the book so that purchased baby clothes will fit her. Here’s what I changed.

• I lengthened the torso of of the doll pattern one inch so that a purchased one piece snap play-suit will fit perfectly.

• I lengthened her foot by an inch so that she can fit into newborn size socks and shoes

• I lengthened her arms 3/4 inch

• I trimmed a bit off the width of both the thigh and the upper arm. The pattern made a doll that was just a bit too chubby for a newborn.

As you can guess, half the fun of having life size baby is being able to dress her! She is just about a perfect NB size. Though maybe her legs could be 1/2 inch shorter!

Despite saying I’d never make a doll this large, I had so much fun doing it! Here’s another photo of this doll and a picture of the first newborn size doll I made a couple weeks ago.

Checking out the snowdrops

The first life size Waldorf baby doll I made

"Snowflake" Quilt

The sky was dark with an impending storm as I sewed the last two rows of the “Snowflake” quilt together. I hurried and ran outside and hung it up on the not-quite-tall-enough-fence to get a photo before the weather hit. It seemed appropriate to be photographing this quilt on a February day when the sun wasn’t shining!

This quilt pattern called “Snowflake” was designed by Nicole Dakwiewicz and is available for purchase on her website, MODERNHANDCRAFT.com. You really do need the pattern to make this quilt. More than once I got lost in the design, even with the pattern right in front of me! But don’t worry, that was just me—the pattern is well written.

Nicole has instructions for 3 variations: One-color (plus white) , Three-color (plus white), and Scrappy.

I picked the One-color version but planned to use a stack of blue and green fabrics. But I didn’t want to have a background of squares like the scrappy version. I struggled with how to use my collection of fabrics, but eventually choose to improv-piece the background, using pieces cutto similar sizes as pieces found in and around the white snowflake. It took me a lot more time, but I really like it. This is a very popular quilt pattern, but the background makes this quilt uniquely mine,

As you might image, there are a lot of quirky seams in this quilt. In each large block I pressed some seams to one side, spun some of them like a four-patch block, and opened some of the seams flat (as in garment sewing), trying to get a the flatest block possible. But in the final quilt assembly, I ended up with a number seams that just couldn’t be nested. If I made this quilt again, I would press all the seams open. I almost never do that with quilts, but I think that will give the best results in this pattern.

I found a great blue fabric with a large linear design for the quilt back. Still thinking about how to quilt it!

Snow in the Quilting Forecast

There hasn’t been much snow here this winter …. yet!! But there is definitely something snowy coming along on the sewing machine!

I found a great pattern that is perfect for some beautiful stashed fabric which was a gift: the spiraling dots on a varigated background in the central half square triangle above.

I should have more to show you next week!

Tiny Waldorf Baby Doll and Carrier

A friend wanted a tiny Waldorf type doll for her daughter so I decided to draft a pattern for one. This tiny baby doll is just 5 inches tall. That’s about as little as I can imagine making a doll! It’s definitely a great way to use up odd bits left from making bigger Waldorf type dolls!

The carrier is based on a pattern in the book, Making Waldorf Dolls, by Maricristin Sealey. I downsized the smallest size carrier to fit this little doll. I used leftover quilt binding to finish the raw edges on the carrier. I sewed the binding on before I cut out notches to create the sides of the carrier. The book has all the details about how to make the carrier.

Here are some more photos. I made her two dresses and one sleep sack. And a very tiny pink peg doll so this doll will have a tiny baby of her very own!

Because the hand stitching is a bit lumpy around her shoulders think I’d try to sew her arms in by machine the next time. I also a little length to the legs in my pattern.

Overall, I’m pleased with my experiment.

Gnome and Rainbow Strip Quilt

This is a fun quilt I made for a child who loves forest animals, happy gnomes and rainbows.

It’s an fast and easy quilt to make. It could easily be a weekend project.

I cut 2 1/2 inch strips WOF (width of fabric) from my stash Kona ® Cotton fabric. I added prints where I needed additional colors. I actually think that makes the quilt much for interesting.

The gnome fabric is a Spoonflower print “Gnome Sweet Gnome” by Lisa Kubenez. I fussy cut the strips to get as many as I could from the yard of fabric (5 strips) which meant trimming off bits of the design. But I cut the center strip slightly wider to include the full motif. I wanted to see the entire design at least once in the quilt.

The quilting is primarily straight walking foot quilting across the strips. I added decorative quilting in the top and bottom strips of the quilt and in the red patches I used to lengthen the gnome fabric to match the length of the other strips.

The quilt has gone to it’s new home and is already a much beloved item!

Birds and Prairie Style Blocks Quilt Completed

Here’s the finished Charlie Harper © “Bird Architects” with the Prairie Style Blocks quilt. I’m really pleased with how it all came together.

I was initially baffled about how I was going to quilt the symmetrical prairie style blocks and the large fussy cut bird blocks. I ended stitching in the ditch between the large blocks and around the bars and central diamond in the prairie blocks. Then I switched to a pale yellow thread and stitched long lines like sunbeams across the quilt catching all the bird blocks and bits of the prairie blocks.

I did those long stretches of walking foot stitches along stripes of painters tape stuck to the quilt. I’ve used in in previous quilts for diagonal stitching and it works beautifully. Just be careful to stitch alongside the tape, not through it!

Two tips if you want to give stitching along painters tape a try.

1. Don’t try to apply more than 2 strips at a time. The strips tend to lift off the quilt and stick to each other when you are quilting.

2. Apply the tape, stitch the quilt, and promptly remove the tape. It’s a stitch-and-go technique. Even when used for painting, the tape isn’t supposed to stay on the wall for long periods.

Painters tape on the quilt, providing guideline for stitching on the diagonal.

I was amused when my birdy field-line English Springer Spaniel took a liking to this quilt!

My Springer napping on the quilt while I was basting it

The back of the quilt…with my field Springer photo-bombing the shot!

(The Charlie Harper © “Bird Architects” fabric I used is apparently no longer available by the yard on The Charlie Harper Art Studio website but some may be found “in the wild” with an internet search).

The Pairie Style Blocks are “Cross 7” from the Electric Quilt 8 Block Library.

Tips on Sewing a Prairie Style Quilt Block

In my last post, I discussed using a Prairie Style Block as an alternate block in a quilt. Here are some tips and suggestions based on piecing the block I chose for this quilt.

I’m using the “Cross 7” Block from the Electric Quilt 8 block library. It’s one of the simpler blocks in their collection of Prairie Style blocks. I like how airy this block is, and that it has an economy block (a square in a square) at the center of the block.

My block will be 10 inches square when finished. Here are some tips for sewing prairie style blocks.

• Pick a larger size block for your project. There are tiny pieces in prairie style blocks and anything less than 9 inches square will be very difficult to sew. If you really want to sew a smaller block, paper piecing will probably work best.

• Cut very carefully. Double check all your measurements on your quilting ruler. Put the upper line for the desired measurement just a hair inside the raw edge of the fabric, not just off the edge of the fabric. Make sure you have a secure grip so that the ruler doesn’t slide as you cut the fabric.

• I suggest setting up a “fence” on the base of your sewing machine. This really helps keep the seams in the block 1/4 inch. You can see a “fence” in use in this prior post.
  

• Press all your seams as you go. I often finger press quilt blocks when I am assembling them. These blocks require all the precision you can muster. Press, (not iron), your blocks at each step!

• Sew the square-in-a-square block to the cross arms with the square-in-a-square block on top. This way you can see the point of the square and can see to sew exactly through the stitching at the point, creating a perfect point in your block. (See the back of the block in the photo at top).

• Have fun! It’s not the end of the world if your blocks aren’t all perfect!
  

Using a Prairie Block as an Alternate Block in a Quilt

I was recently given some Charlie Harper “Bird Architects” fabric. The drawings of the birds are beautiful but it took some creative fussy cutting to get blocks for a quilt. My cuts ended up being 8 !/2 x 10 1/2 inches. That’s not a typical quilt block size or shape. What to do?

I finally decided to add a 2 1/2 inch strip of fabric to the fussy cut blocks. That gave me a block that was 10 1/2 inches which will finish at 10 inches square. My decision was what to use as an alternate block in the quilt.

I considered nine patch blocks, both squares and more modern using some rectangles in place of all square pieces. The rectangles might have been interesting, but not the traditional nine patch block. I thought about a rail fence block but decided that would be too dense for these airy drawings.

Finally I pulled up Electric Quilt 8 and started looking through the programs Block Library. Not only do they have a treasure trove of blocks, but cutting instructions can be printed out in any size you need.

In the category Contemporary Pieced blocks there is a sub-category, Prairie Style Blocks. The Prairie Style blocks had both the architectural interest and the airiness that echoed the bird fabric. I chose the block “Cross 7.”

My Prairie blocks are in 4 colorways that coordinate with the fussy cut bird blocks. I still working on the quilt, but I’m really pleased with my choice of the prairie style block as my alternate block for this project.

Rainbow Peg Family

I have a young friend who has chronic medical condition. She says that each day she isn’t in the hospital is a Rainbow Day. I made this set of 3 peg dolls for her.

The dolls definitely aren’t perfect. I used opaque paint but because my arcs aren’t smooth, I rather wish I had used watercolors for the rainbow. Some color blending would have obscured some of my wobbly lines. I haven’t figured out how to paint perfect margins. Painter’s tape is the logical solution, but these dolls are so small I’m not sure how that would work. I should it a try and see what happens!

The peg dolls all wearing knit gnome hats. The free pattern for them is on my Knit Gnome Hats for Peg Dolls post from May 2, 2019. The Rainbow baby is only 1 inch tall. I cast on 9 stitches, divided on 3 double pointed needles to knit that hat.

They are standing in a Grimm’s Blue Grotto Cave Arch! This wooden puzzle toy makes a great play place for all sorts of peg dolls.

Notice: This blog is not monetized: I do not use affiliate links. When there are links in a post, they are to give credit to another creative person, because I like or have used a product, or to help the reader easily find supplies for a project.

Button Down Peg Dolls!

Well, I never. Peg dolls apparently have a mind of their own. This was going to be a family of 4 Christmas gnomes. I was going to give them wool felt hats and a zig-zaggy wool felt collar.

I started off painting them with muted colors, rather than the traditional red and green. I got their clothes painted, including a row of buttons on each, and painted their hair. After sealing them with beeswax polish I added their faces using watercolor felt pens.

I was getting ready to cut out the wool felt for their hats and collars but they all said “Stop! We’re the Button Down Family and we quite like the way we are now! Please don’t add anything more”.

I stepped back and took a look at them. I had to agree, they definitely weren’t Christmas Gnomes. They may be simple, but they are just perfect as they are!

The row of beautiful painted houses in the background were made by Melanie Shanks.

Notice: This blog is not monetized: I do not use affiliate links. When there are links in a post, they are to give credit to another creative person, because I like or have used a product, or to help the reader easily find supplies for a project.

Waldorf Birthday Ring/Seasonal Decoration

I recently purchased Waldorf Birthday Ring from TheWoodenWagon.com. I’ve been admiring birthday rings for while. I’m using mine as a seasonal decoration. I purchased a fox, a dog, a squirrel, a rabbit, 2 mushrooms, a pine tree and a Matryoshka doll for my Christmas ring.

The four tiered pine tree in the center is a spinning top resting in a log which also came from The Wooden Wagon online shop. I set the ring on a quilted log cabin table runner made for me by a friend.

If you purchase a ring and wish to use candles, make sure to also buy the brass (or other metal) inserts. The holes for the peg figures are too large to hold the beeswax candles. (The candles aren’t lit in my pictures because I have 3 intermittently bouncy dogs).

As I understand it, when this is used as a birthday ring, the number of candles in the ring match the age of the child. The candles are lit one by one, with the family telling the birthday child about the events of each year of their life I love that.

My family would have lit the first candle and told me again how my mother, who was in labor with me, had to make jello for my older brother’s after-school snack before she could go the hospital! My brother was just here with me for a visit. I asked him if he remembered what flavor the jello had been. Alas, that detail has dissolved into the fabric of time!

I’m so enjoying my ring. I’m looking forward to adding to my collection of birthday ring ornaments! So far, 2 sheep and a couple tulips are awaiting Spring!

Notice: This blog is not monetized: I do not use affiliate links. When there are links in a post, they are to give credit to another creative person, because I like or have used a product, or to help the reader easily find supplies for a project.

Bird’s Eye View of my Waldorf Birthday Ring. A couple of acorn peg dolls are standing on the ring in this photo!

Christmas Peg Doll Gnomes and a Pine Cone Wreath

The Peg Gnomes have on their Christmas togs and have decorated their Gnome Home with a pine cone wreath which they made.

I had a scrap of sherpa fleece that I was about to toss in the trash. But taking one last look I realized it would make fabulous fur trim for peg doll Christmas outfits. So now I have a even smaller scrap but am definitely keeping it!

The pegs are painted with a opaque non-toxic paint. They have a ruff of sherpa fleece around their necks made out of a 1/4 inch strip of sherpa fleece that is stitched closed in the back. The hat from the gnome hat pattern in Margaret Bloom’s book Making Peg Dolls with an added trim of sherpa fleece stitched onto the edge of the hat before the back was sewn together.

I saw these tiny pine cones on the sidewalk when I was walking my dogs this fall. Every day I picked up a few more until I had a little jelly jar full. The gnomes saw what I had and asked if they could use it to make a wreath. (Just what I’d planned to do)!

The gnomes cut out a base of cardboard in the shape of a ring, but as it turns out, just cutting out a circle would have been better. The pine cones are glued on using craft glue. The wreath looked a bit bare until they added the center pine cone. They trimmed the cardboard away around the pine cones around the outer edge and used a brown maker on the bits that could be seen to make the base “disappear”. Then the gnomes added the 1/4 inch red ribbon and a piece of green thread so the wreath could be hung up.

The gnomes are pretty proud of their handiwork. I think it looks great on their pottery home!

Christmas Gnomes

Showcase: Postage Stamp Christmas Quilt

This is such a fun quilt. It’s a postage stamp quilt, comprised of lots of little squares of Christmas fabrics. It was pieced by a member of The Proper Bostonian Quilters Guild . The top was donated to be used as a charity quilt. I picked it up at the last meeting and brought it home to finish it

I added the narrow inner red border and the wider blue border with the jingle bell. It is quilted in the ditch every other row. I thought about quilting every row, but this is going to be wheelchair quilt and I wanted it to stay light and drape well.

The border has two rows of quilting using the Bernina #4 lingerie stitch with an increased stitch length of 2.5 which creates a gentle wave. It adds great texture. The person who gets this quilt will be able to recognize the quilt by just touching the border.

The photo above was taken before the quilt was washed. I like it even better now after it has been washed and dried. It’s such a cheerful quilt!

After being washed. Note the texture from the stitching in the outer border.

Showcase: Local Crafters, ceramics

I wandered into one venue at the recent Roslindale Open Studios and met Michele Clark, a local potter. She had a beautiful group of ceramic bird houses. I took one look a her amazing birdhouses and instantly thought “gnome home for a peg dolls!” I had hard time choosing just one birdhouse from her wonderful collection, but the thatch like roof on this house cinched the deal. It turned I had picked her favorite birdhouse!

MIchele was a good sport when I told her I was re-purposing her birdhouse as a gnome home!

MIchele can be reached on Instagram at @mclarkpottery. You can see more of her wonderful ceramic birdhouses on her IG site.

Showcase: Local Crafters

A few weeks ago, Roslindale Village, a neighborhood in the CIty of Boston, MA, had their annual Open Studios weekend.

Makers cluster in a renovated substation, the old Roslindale High School, now senior apartments, the Irish Social Club, local shops, their own homes and studios. It’s fun to walk around and see what everyone is doing. I’ve lived around here a long time now, so I know some of the makers just from being part of the community which makes it even more fun.

Some of work I purchased are photographs, prints or fine art which I can’t showcase online without permission, so I thought I’d share some of the craft items I purchased over the next week two.

The photo above was the display for wool roving which was dyed with natural dyes by Quiet Seasons Fibers. The colors are gorgeous and the wool is lovely to the touch. I bought the yellow and melon color wool roving bundles shown at the front of the photo. I’m planning to get out my drop spindle and try spinning some yarn again. I’ve never been very successful but even less than perfectly spun yarn can make a nice addition to the hair of the Waldorf type dolls I occasionally make.

I also purchased some small skeins of commercially spun wool that Virginia had dyed with her natural dyes. I bought them specifically to use as doll hair. Here’s what I chose and with a notation of was used to dye the colors.

Left to right:

Brown with an olive green tint: Fustic (from a tree in the mulberry family) and log wood

Burnt umber: Marigold and madder (an herb)

Sienna: Onion skins

Gold: Marigold

Light brown: Walnuts

Isn’t all this wool beautiful?

Virginia has some of her naturally dyed, handspun yarn available for sale in her Quiet Season Fibers Etsy shop. Check out her beautiful yarn!

"Triple Barnstar" Quilt Completed

Done!
Here’s my “Triple Barnstar” quilt designed by Amy Gibson. The pattern is a star, in a star, in a star!

I did walking foot echo stitching around the stars, with sitch-in-the-ditch along the grid lines between the blocks. I never really pay close enough attention to really keep all the stitching in the ditch between the blocks. I much prefer stitching 1/8 to 1/4 inch away from seams where a little wobble isn’t as obvious!

Walking Foot Stitching and Stitch-in-the-Ditch (sort of!)

In open large triangles there are flowers without leaves and in the blocks without any piecing I did free motion flowers with 2 leaves. There is also a big of meandering and loops in the very large triangles near the center of the quilt.

So, this big project is finally done. And just in time—I heard something about possible snow in the coming week! It’s a perfect autumn quilt.

How To Quilt a Free Motion Flower Design

I’ve just finished quilting the “Triple Barnstar” queen size quilt. I used my walking foot and did a lot of linear quilting, But this quilt has a number of large 9 inch blocks and large triangle blocks. Those blocks were still empty when I finished the linear echo stitching around the 3 stars in this quilt.

It’s a bit unconventional to mix walking foot quilting with free motion quilting but it was the right answer for this quilt. (In fact, I often mix these two methods of quilting).

I picked up the aster-like floral design from my background fabric and modified it to get a large daisy flower. You can see that little blue flower in the right hand upper corner of the photo below.

Here is how I stitched out my flower.

Set up your machine for free motion quilting. Drop the feed dogs on your machine and attach the darning foot. Make sure you are using a sewing machine needle meant to be used for quilting. It helps to have a low friction mat (I use a the regular Supreme Slider), on the table of your machine under the quilt, and pair of quilting gloves or clean gardening gloves with gripper dots to help move the quilt as you stitch. (The bright yellow gloves that you can see in one of the photos below are Dritz Fons and Porter Quilting Gloves. I also really like Machingers Quilting Gloves).

Start in the center of the block. Using the up-down needle needle function on your machine, pull the the bobbin thread from the back of the quilt. Put the needle in the down position.

Bobbin thread has been pulled up from the back of the quilt. Needle is down, reading to start quilting

Grab the tails of the two threads and stitch a circle, ending a couple stitches over your start point. I clipped the two threads now. If you are quilting a quilt for a show or as an heirloom, you should use a sewing needle to bury the thread ends in the middle of the quilt sandwich.

Stitch loops around the circle, creating the flower petals. Stitch at an even speed, slower than you normally would sew. It helps to turn down the stitching speed on your machine if you have that option. The slower speed helps to keep your stitch length regular and helps to prevent pulling on the back creating eyelash stitches. They eyelash stitches look like eyelashes. You’ll know them immediately if you see them. Eyelash stitches should be removed and resewn because the stitches aren’t anchored.

Sewing loops off the central circle to make lower petals

Once you have petal stitched all the way around the central circle, stitch a line between two to the petals to create a stem for a leaf.

Starting to stitch a stem for a leaf

Once the stem is the length you want, stop stitching. This will allow you to get a point on the end of your leaf. Then stitch a curve that will be half the leaf back to the stem stitching.

First half of the leaf

Now stitch the the other side of the leaf by sewing a loop on the other side of the stem, ending at the tip of the leaf. Then travel stitch back down the center of the leaf, on top of your initial line of stitches. And the end of the leaf, I usually stop travel stitching and stitch a couple of millimeters away from the first stem stitches to create a more realistic looking stem.

Travel stitching back along the stitches in the center of the leaf

I only made a wider stem on side of this flower. After you reach the center of the flower, travel stitch around the circle and out between two other petals to make another leaf if you want to do that. I initially quilted two flower with 4 leaves each, but then decided I preferred the 2 leaf design better.

Free motion quilting uses “motor memory”—your muscles working with your brain. It takes practice. Some designs, like these flowers come easily to me. Some I really struggle with. I have a friend who loves stitching a paisley pattern. Please don’t ask me to do a paisley design! I’ve learned to stitch what feels right to me, not what someone else can do. And it’s totally fine to create your own designs. In fact, with free motion quilting, I think that stitching designs that come naturally to you is the best way to go.

Notice: This blog is not monetized: I do not use affiliate links. When there are links in a post, they are to give credit to another creative person, because I like or have used a product, or to help the reader easily find supplies for a project.

Halloween Crafts: A Show and Tell

I’m making slow progress on quilting my queen sized autumn quilt. The days when it has been dark and stormy, when I want to quilt, my noise-sensitive springer spaniel can’t settle down due to the wind so sewing is pretty much out of the question. We’ve had some spectacular fall days too, so I’ve been lured outside planting Hope in the form of daffodil, tulip and Siberian iris bulbs, and cutting back my perennials so that I have a nice level surface to to toss my shoveled snow on when that day comes!

So I’ve decided to show you some of the Halloween crafts I’ve been working on. The bats, shown above, are from a great tutorial from Modern Textiles in Minnesota. You can find the free Bat Tutorial here. I had fun looking through my seldom-used stash of black fabrics for the undersides of the bat wings. I decided to hang my bats differently than the recommendation in the tutorial. I used black carpet thread and rang the thread from the under belly of the bat, right through the body. That way the thread could be easily removed if the child preferred to have the bat as a soft toy rather than hanging it up. The bats have flown off and totally delighted 3 children who range from Kindergarten age to Middle School.

With some scraps from the felt I used for the body of the bats, I made a Jack ‘o Lantern face to put on an orange baby dress for my Bamboletta Big Baby for her Halloween costume. I used a scrap of orange fleece and some ribbon to make her bonnet and the cute booties came from Carter’s. (I found the orange baby dress and green sweater at Primary.com last summer and the lime green leggings came from a thrift store). So Big Baby now has a cute DYI Halloween costume. I can take the felt face off the dress and the green sweater and leggings will be great for St Patrick’s Day too.

Big Baby’s Halloween Pumpkin Costume

So, not quilting much. but still having fun being creative!

Notice: This blog is not monetized: I do not use affiliate links. When there are links in a post, they are to give credit to another creative person, because I like or have used a product, or to help the reader easily find supplies for a project.

About Basting Quilts

I just layered and pin basted a queen sized quilt. That gave me lots of time to think about all the different ways I’ve basted quilts over the years.

When I started quilting in the 1970s, all my basting was done with needle and thread, using long basting stitches. It was a slow method, but certainly did the job well. My layers stayed together until my hand quilting was done, and I pulled out all the basting threads.

When I started machine quilting, the clerk in the sewing machine store, suggested using a spray on temporary adhesive. I would spray on the adhesive and then pin the layers together. I was never brave enough to rely just on the adhesive without the pins. I found it worked well, but the fabric layers weren’t always a flat as they might have been, especially near the edges of the quilt.

Using an aerosolized flammable adhesive no longer appeals to me for environmental and health reasons. Why spray chemicals on a quilt someone is going to sleep under? Even if it is supposed to be temporary.

These days I put my backing down on the floor, wrong side up, and tape in about 6 to 8 places with painters tape. That gets the bottom layer smooth and flat and keeps it from shifting (at least most of the time). Then I put my batting on top of the backing, smoothing it out until it too lies nice and flat. Then I put on the the pieced top. and smooth that down.

I use 1 inch curved quilting safety pins to baste the quilt. I put in a pin about every 3 inches. The blocks in the quilt I am working on now has 9 inch blocks. Each block has about 5 safety pins in it. I’ve seen other quilters pin their quilts in much smaller intervals, but I’ve never found I needed to put in more than every 3 inches or so.

Once I have the entire quilt pinned, I flip it over to see what the back side looks like. This is my opportunity to smooth out any bumps or ripples. I sometimes find them along the edges of the quilt. This time it all looked great.

As I quilt, I undo the pins and toss them, still open, into the plastic container I used to store them. That way they are all ready for my next project.

If you access to a church hall or a function room with folding banquet tables, two tables pushed together make a great elevated surface for pin basting a quilt. My back doesn’t appreciate it when I lean in to pin the center of the quilt when it’s on a table. So, for now, pin basting on the floor is still my preference.

Here’s my quilt with the borders added to it.

Pin Basting the “Triple Barnstar” Quilt

Pumpkin and Bat Peg Dolls for Halloween

Here are some Halloween pegs. I decided to make a pumpkin patch and a couple of bat friends! Nothing gory here!

I thought about making scarecrows with pumpkin heads but decided that was a bit too creepy for my taste. Then I thought about pumpkins on fence posts or stone pillars. When I sat down to make them, I decided they should just be pumpkins in their own bit of pumpkin patch! I used standard size pegs, 2 3/8 inches tall. I painted pumpkin leaves and curly cues and a bit of dirt at the base and then painted the head as a pumpkin. The stem is narrow piece of felt, folded in half and stitched. The peg end of the stem is cut into 4 tiny strips which are glued to the head.

The bats are tiny “bee” pegs at 1 3/8 inches. I adapted the bats from the design on Margaret Bloom’s October 18, 2014 blog post “A Little Batty: A Tutorial” . Click on the link for instructions for making bat pegs. Bee pegs are tiny so I chose not to put ears on my bats. I decided to run a piece of black perle cotton through the middle of the wings before I glued the wings to the peg. This lets the bat fly or hang from a hook.

Flying bat peg

Bat Pegs

What Halloween pegs are you planning to make this year?

Safety note: The pumpkin pegs are not for children under age three due to small parts. I would suggest not giving the bat pegs to a child under age 5 years due to their tiny size.