Sleepy Baby.. now with 3 teeth!

Little JellyBean is getting her 3rd tooth, and she's super tired because of it. But, problem is, little Bean only wants to cuddle her mommy. And that means Mommy can't get the last of her sewing done. Mommy needs to send out 3 swaps, so they'll be done tomorrow night, no matter what - Daddy is taking over the cuddling business instead of playing on his XBox. Mommy wants to have a little fun too!

Then I just need to put the final touches on a few other quilts, and I've got 2 of my personal swaps done! Yay! Go me!

Then, of course, I've signed up for the STUD mini - 2 of them actually: Woodland and Anything Goes (Halloween). And in my 6"-12" group we're signing up for Hawaiian style quilts or Hawaiian Themed. Since I've never made a Hawaiian quilt before, I figure a tiny mini would be an excellent way to try it out. And I've got a TON of hibiscus fabric which will be perfect for a Hawaiian themed quilt. I know just what I'm going to do for that one - and I've started getting out the fabric for it.

Till tomorrow when I get to show off the final versions of a few minis!

Ornament Swap

Ya'll need to go and sign up for this quick swap!

I mean quick - it took me under an hour to make all of my ornaments for this swap - and it'll look just adorable. :) I really hope we get 20 participants, it'll make an AWESOME lap quilt. Right now there are only 4 participants - so hurry up - you don't even have to paper piece!!

A few more things to show off..

And here are a few more things to show off to everyone!





These two trains were made by my father 26 years ago for me to play with. My husband and I were cleaning out my mom's attic (at her request) and we came across these trains. We got them down for JellyBean who's 9 months, and she loves playing with them. It would warm my fathers heart to know that she's playing with them. My Dad never got to meet JellyBean, he died in 2007, and it means the absolute world to me to know that my daughter loves something her Grandfather made with love. You can see JellyBean's hand in the bottom picture. She actually hasn't left the trains alone since we brought them down out of Mom's attic and washed them off. I think they've held up well for their age ;-)

And a Private Swap Quilt:
This is for the lovely Spiced Coffee on Flikr. She's my California! She picked "In the Garden" as her theme, and since I'm not a gardener (bugs need habitats too!!) I picked two things I just love in gardens - butterflies and flowers.

Here it is shown just after it was hand quilted, and before it was bound. The large flowers are raw edge appliqued, and the smaller flowers are backed with interfacing and sewn to the mini by tiny buttons. It's now winging it's way to California where Spiced Coffee will give it a lovely home.



A close up of the tiny flowers. They're about 1 1/4 inches each.


The back of Butterfly Garden. I couldn't really find any good "garden" fabric for the back, so I went with one that had flowers and butterflies and lily pads.

Practicing Machine Quilting (And Hand!)

By blog hopping by chance, I found this awesome site that helps show you how to do free motion quilting. And she's got some You Tube videos too: Free Motion Quilting

I've got an older machine, my trusty White, and it's been giving me some hiccups. I'm trying with it, but sometimes it's just sticking - and I've oiled it. So I'm going to practice with some of these new techniques that I've learned and hope my machine stitching gets better. But no matter what, I still love hand-quilting little projects. They're just so much fun and relaxing.

Speaking of hand quilting - I'm making more progress on "First Snowfall" It's almost totally done now, just a few (10 or so) more curly-q's.

Progress Photos:
The front of First Snowfall:


If you look close you can see the disappearing ink pen for my guide.

And here's the back:


I used the same white on white fabric on the back as I did on the front for the triangles and the borders. I'm really loving this quilt - but I'm not sure what I want to do with it when it's done. This was originally going to go to the Holiday Quilt Swap - but it's too small by 2 inches for the minimum size so that's out!

I'm working on the final one that will be going to my Holiday Quilt Swap Partner - that one is Penguins! And I'll have a photo of the 3/4 finished top soon - probably in a day or so.

And this is the floor after JellyBean reaches into one of her toy boxes.. Not that I mind in the least bit.

New Mini's!

First up, a possible mini for the Holiday Mini Quilt Swap. It still needs another 3 inch border or so (or a combination of borders to equal 3 inches) before it becomes 16x16.. but I'm starting to like this one.



I do have 3 others in the works, they all have pieces cut out but not sewn together yet. What do you all think? Would you like to receive this as a swap quiltie? I'm planning on hand-quilting it.

And here's the start of the quilting (again by hand) on the mini quilt top "First Snowfall"


Here's a different view. I'm quilting a swirly snowflake in it.


...and....
Quilted New Jersey:


I drew the pattern for NJ freehand on paper, and then decided that I wanted to applique it on, so I used my trusty machine and machine appliqued it. But since New Jersey's nickname is the "Garden State" and I had a few 4.5 or 5 inch squares of strawberry fabric, and some floral fabric left, I chose to make it a true, "Garden State"

And the label for the quilt (not yet attached) is in the shape of NJ too. I'll post that once it's attached to the quiltie.

Yay!

Yay! Some people want to swap with me! :) I'm in talks with a few people, and so far it looks like I have:
1 - Canada - Newfoundland (confirmed Trade, due in Feb 2010)
1 - MO (confirmed Trade, no date set yet)
1 - Portugal (confirmed trade - December)
1 - Wales (confirmed Trade - Nov-Dec)
1 - Singapore (confirmed Trade - no date set yet/Dec 09?)
1 - North Carolina (confirmed Trade, due in Feb 2010)
1 - IN (confirmed Trade, due in Dec 2009)


I've got some ideas for everyone's mini so far and I can probably have one done a week as long as I get some sewing time in every night.

I finished the handquilting on my giveaway quilt, and that's going in the mail the end of this week, just need to bind it and then it's 100% done. :) Yay! She'll be getting that soon. It took me a little longer than expected but it's 99% done now!

Wanna Swap?

I posted this on my Flikr profile, and I thought maybe I'd get some more exposure if I post here too.

One of my goals is to swap a mini quilt (15x15 - 20x20 inch or under) with someone from every state in the USA and as many countries as possible - so if you're interested in swapping with me, please just leave a comment here or email me: cashew22206 AT yahoo DOT com. I'm in NJ, USA and obviously willing to ship internationally. And, if your state or country is already mentioned, just message me anyway - I'd love to swap with whoever wants to swap with me. And if you're a newbie to quilting, I still wanna swap!

Totals So Far:
States = 1/50 (California!)
Countries = 0

And here's a general thing of what I like and don't like.
As for colors I like, I like it all. I'm not overly fond of pepto-bismal pink and vomit green, but other than that I'll love it (Oh, I'm not really a fan of Amy Butler fabrics, but they are growing on me). I'm a big fan of trying my own things, and putting my own twists on traditional blocks. Every time I go to work with triangles, my points are off by a bit, no matter how many times I measure, or re-measure and press. I can't seem to get them right. I'm trying though. I'm not a fan of clowns at all. When I was little I was dropped by one, and ever since then I've been freaked out with them. I hyperventilate when I'm in the same room as one and have to leave.

Phew - I can show off!

On Flikr there's a swap group called Swap Till U Drop (STUD) and I participated in my first swap with them for September. I picked the theme Anything Goes and got my partner, quiltinlady21. We were partnered up on the 1st, and I mailed out my quilt on Monday the 14th! Quiltinlady21 mailed hers out to me on Friday the 11th, and I got mine on Saturday.

Here's what I got:
The absolutely gorgeous front:


And the back:



And this is the one that I sent out. I called it Autumn Moon. It was inspired by a free stained glass pattern I found online. It was the first time that I'd tried a machine applique and hand-quilting on something this small! I'm super duper proud of it (It was so hard to let it go, but I know it's in a great new home)


Close up of the machine applique and hand quilting:


And the back. I wanted the label to be creative, so I free hand drew the same pattern on the front for the label.



And this one is going to be going to my Stitchers Angel. The theme is Roses, and I had some scraps of rose fabrics left, so I decided to make a mini quilt. It's teeny tiny - only 6" square. Super fun to make, I hope she likes it.


And, I won a coin purse from this giveaway!
Giveaway - Ends 9 Sept


I'm now patiently waiting for it to arrive in the mail. Well, maybe not so patiently, but I am waiting. :)

Phew.. Real Life!

Wow, does real life keep you busy! JellyBean started to walk! Yes, no one or two steps - but 8 for the first few times. I can't believe she's going to be 9 months old on the 15th! Wow has the time flown. My little girl has started to grow up :(. I wanna keep her little!!

And as for my projects, I've gotten a lot done but since I've been taking so many pictures of the baby, the battery died. its charging right now, so in an hour or so there will be pictures!