QBE Block - 1

So yea, I signed up for the Quilt Block Exchange on Flikr, and I'm making 4 blocks for the month of January.

I've got 2 cut and ready to sew (that's on for tomorrow) and 1 done, and one I have no idea what to do with.

Wendy - Brights and White <- DONE! Mary - 12.5" blocks for the center of preemie quilts <- cut and ready to go Raesha - 12.5" blue and white <-cut and ready to go Jennifer - 10.5" red/aqua and white. <- my problem child block! Here's Wendy's Block:

And, I've uploaded some of my digital designs onto Spoonflower. I'm going to upload 5 or 6 more tomorrow, then order my swatches and then put them up for sale. What do ya'll think of them? Good? Bad? Terrible? Let me know! They were all done in Paint Shop Pro/PhotoShop/Poser or Daz3D.

These are what I've uploaded so far:

All righty then...

And here it is, already Wednesday, and I haven't posted since Sunday. I know. Bad blogger!

But.. I do have things to show for my lack of posting.

First - Teresa received her fall mini quilt and she likes it! YAY!

Second - I made my mini for the 6-12" mini swap on Flikr, and mailed it out all in 2 days. This one wasn't my original quilt that I had in mind, but due to me being silly with the rotary cutter and cutting fabric without checking to see if a miniature block was under said fabric, we had block amputation. And then I had to make a new one because I had run out of one fabric and I want things uniform.

This is the sneak peek I posted:


But this is the whole quilt:


And Tina got it today! YAY! I only mailed it on Monday. It's times like these I'm proud of the USPS.

I got invited by Kimmie to join in a new Quilting Bee. This makes my 4th Bee. :) I'm so excited to have been invited - there are awesome quilters here.
Kimmie has the month of January - and her theme was Black, White and a little bit of Red. Then she posted some inspiration on her Flikr account and I had such a similar fabric to one of the photos for inspiration. And FYI the black fabric with the white swirls was the one that I had that was similar. So naturally I got to sewing and made her block.

I popped it into the mail yesterday.

And for another mini doll quilt swap for Carla. She doesn't like pink at all.. so I think this'll do her some good. No pink at all.


It's just the top right now, but tonight I'm planning on backing and quilting it. Then into the mail it goes on Saturday.

And.. hold on for this one..

I learned how to paper piece.
I went from this:


To:


This is the signature block I sent along with my Birdie Charm pack for the Charming Robin. The next time I see it, there will be 11 names on it, and the charm pack will be almost gone, if not completely gone. :)

My First Quilting Bee - Fabrics are Ready to go!

Yahoo!

I decided what fabrics I was sending out for the My First Quilting Bee. I'm almost done hand quilting JellyBean's Beatrix Potter quilt, and she just needs another quilt. Since we moved in late June I just got around to clearing out one of my filing cabinet drawers, and lo and behold I found the *perfect* fabric for her new quilt.

I got this fabric when I was pregnant with Bean in 2008, and it's been sitting waiting to be made into something awesome.

I've decided to ask for improv blocks, or for the participants of the bee to do whatever they feel like with the fabric. Just be inspired by it.



And naturally I had to make 2 sample blocks. I do have 4 made, but can't find 2 of them!

Here are my sample improv blocks. They measure 12.5 inches, so they'll finish at 12.

Started on my 2010 Coffee Quilt-A-Long

Yep. I did it. I cut into the coffee fabric that I've been hoarding for quite a few years.

There's this Flikr group, 2010 Tea/Coffee Quilt - A - Long that I joined because I needed to do something with the 10+ yards of coffee themed fabric that I've had for a minimum of 4 years and just keep adding to. I'm totally addicted to coffee, so I figured that this would give me a chance to actually make a quilt for me. I've only kept 1 large quilt out of all the tons I've made for me. I've only kept 2 mini quilts for myself too - so I figure I deserve one.

These are my blocks so far:










And this one that I hate:


I'll probably put that one on the back, just because it has my favorite fabric on it.

I know I'm only supposed to get 1 block a month done, but I'd like to have 24 blocks done by June, then quilt this baby up by September.

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.

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?

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.

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. :)