And more

Thanksgiving has been here and passed.. and I'm still no where near more ready for Christmas. Mom and I went out shopping on Black Friday, and did most of the shopping then (I was in Kohl's three times!!!) and got most of my gifts. Now they're all hidden all over the house (so Bean doesn't find them, or the hubby) and I have to get them wrapped. Now all I need is more time! :)

Here's more of what I've been working on (instead of wrapping!!)

For Dee, only a little sneak peak: Yours is in the mail on Monday. I finished part 2! :)


This was the mini quilt that I sent to Maya for the Four Seasons Holiday Quilt Swap. She did receive it (so now I can post it!), but was away for Thanksgiving so it took her a little bit to respond.



This is the beautiful Mini I received in the swap from the extremely talented Sara:



Would you believe she said this was her first time doing embroidery?? It's too perfect, and already hanging up on our walls.

This was one I was late on, it was for STUD October to Kathy: (She did receive it in November, I just got around to uploading it.



And...
I conquered Triangles!!
I'm still nervous about making them, but I'm no longer scared.

Show N Tell

Here are the other things that I've been working on lately.

This mini is going to a lovely lady in a personal swap:



It actually has been bound already, just need to label it.

Here's a close up of the hand quilting:


And this real mini quilt will be going in the package as well:


For Scale:


For Aunt Pitty Pat's Christmas Swap:
I'm in 2 groups, so I need to make 24 9-Patch blocks.
Here are 12 for Group 2.


This shows a truer color:


4 Seasons Holiday Quilt Swap:
This is it unbound, I just need to upload one of it that was bound.


Idea for the Inspired by the Fall swap:


I didn't sew anything for it yet - just playing with some placement.

Some of what I've been working on

Showing off some of the mini quilts I was alluding to yesterday.

For Dena: She should be getting this one any day now:
For the My Favorite Quilters 6" and under swap:



And the back:


For Jess:
The October (I was a little late finishing) STUD quilt:




And the back of it: (Hand Quilted)


For Kathy J:
October STUD Anything Goes - we both chose to do Halloween:
Hand Quilted:


For Ruthie:
6"-12" Swap Group - Theme - Hawaiian. This is a bit larger than the 12", its 16" and all hand quilted. In the center I quilted a dolphin, then there is a star, a swirl, seaweed and a shell. I chose bright colors because to me Hawaii was all about brightness and fun.

I'm so proud of this one I pieced another top and will eventually quilt the other one or me.



True brightness:


Stitching close-ups (some are in black and white so you can see the contrast):












And the Back of the quilt:

Complete - 4 Seasons Quilt Swap

I am so very proud of this quilt that I just put the finishing stitches on yesterday!

I'm not showing it yet until my partner receives it - she should soon, at least in about 5 days or so. :)

My partner wanted a winter theme, she didn't want Christmas since she's not Christian, so I went with blues and whites. I also quilted it for the first time using Warm & Natural batting and that was a dream!! I think it's my new favorite batting. I did both hand and machine quilting on it and I'm super pleased. It's not really perfect, but it's been made with tons of love.

First Snowfall is DONE! And a WIP

I just have to add the label to it and then I can show everyone! Next time I get it in my head to hand quilt with metallic thread, just smack me. It was so tough to get the quilting right with it. After one swirl, I realized I needed to double the thread (I know Quilt Police.. I know) but I was constantly breaking the thread and the only way I could get it to work and not break was to double it up. But in the end I think the doubled up metallic silver thread really looks awesome, and it looks like swirly snowflakes quilted in..

Hehe.. you have to wait until tomorrow to see the final photos.

And now, I've got no idea what to do with it, or where to put it. Terry and I moved into our house at the end of June, so our walls are still pretty bare.. and I'd like to keep it up for all of winter I think.

And just for fun.. here's Terry and me:


This is the WIP I was mentioning before:


This is going to probably also be hand quilted - the blocks are 12.5 inches each. Terry wanted me to make it for our wedding - 3 years ago! Oops.. I never finished it. I'm unsure of what design to quilt in it, I was thinking in each of the larger blocks something that is representative of us.. maybe in one block an outline of the USA, and one of the UK.. maybe an airplane, I'm just not sure. The quilt is about 120x120 without an extra border, and maybe I won't add one. I'm unsure about that. What would you do?

Butterfly Garden - Is Flying

Butterfly Garden is flying to its new home in California. I got the binding on it, and I'm pretty proud of my binding and corners on this one. And the label I made into the shape of a butterfly.

I've got a few new things coming up for ya'll to see tomorrow..

But.. adios Butterfly Garden!






And.. one more corner of hand stitching to go, then I'm able to bind First Snowfall. Only 3 more swirls to go!




And for the back - you can see the metallic thread here better:

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.