in my mailbox

I've gotten some great mail recently. A few days ago the newest issue of quilty came in the mail. That's my math facts quilt on the front cover! Didn't they make it look good? I'm tickled that it was included in the magazine and then the fact that it made the cover? Woo-hoo! I'm pleased that my name made the front cover, too. Sweet!

Speaking of sweet....a friend sent me some cookies last week. It was a "thinking-of-you-hope-everything-is-going-ok" kind of a thing. Almost made me cry. It really makes me want to be a thoughtful friend like that, you know? They sure hit the spot after a long day of painting. Thanks so much, darlin'.

And last but not least! My Gruber's retreat friends and I did a swap this fall. Rene made me this fabulous mini quilt. She put so much thought into it and I just love it! She even quilted "use your scraps" (that's the phrase I use to sign my books) into the background. I love that touch-so thoughtful! She sent me a super awesome seam ripper and some thread, too. Thanks so much, Rene, for an awesome swap package!

I'm so thankful for my friends this week. I am blessed with some pretty amazing ones.

patchwork

 A few months ago, my friend Terri, Cindy and I swapped 4 1/2" squares from our scraps. This is what became of my squares.

I made them into a twin size quilt top....352 squares total in a 16 x 22 layout.

By golly, I love patchwork! I LOVE this quilt!!!!

 Perfectly scrappy.

I'm thinking of trying something new....quilting it up, right away! What a concept, right?

Today is the first day of summer vacation. It's actually been nice having the kids home. Hurray! It's handy to have a photographer home in the middle of the day to shoot photos while I hold the quilt. :) It's also nice to have my little ones here to share a picnic lunch on a perfectly beautiful sunny day. Gotta keep things positive!

spring break

My kids are on spring break this week. The fantastic thing is that it actually feels like spring! Usually we seem to get a snowstorm during this week, so we've really been enjoying the warmth! All the while, I'm still trying to get things done. About the time I find my groove, the week will be over.

Yesterday we had a play date with some friends. The play date involved sewing machines for the mamas, which is the best kind of play date! I made this log cabin block. I'm still trying to decide whether or not I should turn it into a pillow or go for a full sized baby quilt? I waffle back and forth.

Today I'm trying to tie up loose ends for the fab little quilt swap.

I have the mini quilt almost done. I just need to add the label. It measures 21" x 24". About. :)

I made a little wonky cross pin cushion to go in with it. I LOVE it! I'm not going to have any cohesive color scheme going on, but I think it's ok. (I can over think ANYthing!!! It drives me crazy!)

I also made a quilt block for a community quilt. The color scheme requested was yellow, gray and aqua/turquoise. I really like this color combo...I could have kept going! This one was made and mailed in the same day. New record!

So, lots of little patchwork stuff going on here. Just like I like it! I'm being highly ambitious and hoping to get two quilt tops made during the rest of the week. Are you laughing with me yet??? ;)

One more thing....over on the Stash Books blog they are giving away a copy of Sunday Morning Quilts! There is a fun little background story about the book, too. You may want to check it out!

Hope you are having a terrific Tuesday!

playing

I've had my cool colored solid scraps set aside for quite awhile now and I've been wanting to play with them in the worst way, but it seems like there is always something more pressing that needs to be done. I recently signed up for the Fab Little Quilt Swap and I'm using that as an excuse to finally dive in. Yay!! I'm trying my hand at improv piecing again and I'm feeling very rusty. It's been awhile! Swaps make me a little (ok, a lot) nervous and I feel like the pressure is on. But on the other hand, it will be a good challenge. The biggest challenge will probably be stopping at a mini quilt size. :) I'm not completely sure where this is headed, but it sure is fun to play!

I also wanted to say thanks so much for all your sweet comments about Hailey's pillow...I appreciate them very, very much!

Happy Monday to you!

goodies!

Doris and I arranged a personal swap. We started talking about it in June, we got around to swapping in November. We decided to swap a pillow cover and a mug rug made from scraps.

Here's what she made:

A cute applique pillow (her original design, no less!) that matches my daughter's bed perfectly! Even down to the top of the flower...the blue and pink of the flower helps tie in the blue, pink and red pillowcase that doesn't really match her bed but I can't help but using it anyway. The throw pillow ties the whole room together! We didn't talk specific colors at all, so how wonderful that it matches oh-so-perfectly. I'm tickled pink! (The cute puppy was made by my sweet friend Linda.)

And she made the sweetest mug rug! With my initials embroidered on it and everything. I love that it can be used for a mug rug or as a mini placemat, too. Thanks so much, Doris! I love what you sent!

This is what I sent to Doris. The pillow cover may look slightly familiar. (This was my second of 3 versions...so far!) The mug rug was made using a block pattern from this magazine. (thank you, Tara!) Actually, the block that is shown on the cover. It was fun to experiment with a new to me block. It was an intense little baby to piece. Phew! But fun, nonetheless.

Terri, my fellow Wisconsin sewing pal, sent me a package of Christmas goodies! She is on the ball! I got these a few weeks ago. Right after HER birthday, she's sending me presents. What a good friend!

She made this cute little mini quilt. Again, perfect for a mini placemat...it would be just the perfect size for a bowl of soup.

And she sent a bunch of other treats, too. So much cuteness! Thanks so much, Terri!

Ok, and just for a laugh....

I told my daughter to get dressed this morning. This is what she picked out.

HA! This gave me a good chuckle this morning.

I think she loves color as much as her mama does. :)

liberty scrap challenge

Annie's scraps arrived in my mailbox several weeks ago. She sent me these lovely liberty tana lawn scraps, and in turn, I will use them to make a mini quilt for her. I have had no previous experience with liberty fabrics...but I'm learning that these fabrics are delicate and amazing. And did I mention pretty? They blew me away.

She included this little card in the package...it's just as cute as can be. Look in the lower left. Those bikes! My absolute favorite fabric of the whole lot.

I finally got to cutting and piecing this week. The quilt top is done...now it needs some hand quilting. Not my forte, but I'm excited to see this mini come to life.

And here's a shot to give you an idea of the scale of the squares...teeny tiny....almost 1.5" finished.

I started making two quilts right off the bat, because I knew it was going to be hard to let this one go.

scrap challenge results and round 2

I finished Tammy's mini quilt yesterday. In the end, I used layout A, which got the most votes. I love how this little quilt came out. I sure hope Tammy likes it, too. Isn't it so fun to see what you can make from scraps? I NEVER tire of seeing the results. Never, ever!

To quilt it, I stitched next to the zig zags with my walking foot. It looked a little plain, so I added the swirly quilting to the white spaces. I like the swirls a lot!

I used more scraps for the back and some flea market fancy for the binding. I love the back as much as the front! Instead of adding a label, I just wrote right on the back. A little risky, but it turned out ok. It measures 14" x 19".

I also got my mini quilt from Shelly last week, the other half of the batik challenge. I challenged her to use white in a quilt. She didn't even have any in her stash! Yikes! (Sorry, Shelly. I couldn't resist one last jab. ;) )

She did some fancy pants quilting on it, which is so much fun!

And of course she made a pieced back, as she always does.

Thanks so much Shelly! I love this mini! It's going to go great in my craft room.

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I had so much fun with these scrap challenges that I'm going to open it up for round two. If there is anyone out there who would like me to make a mini for you from your scraps, leave me a comment letting me know what kind of scraps you would send me if you are chosen or how you would like to challenge me. Instead of using a random number generator, I'll pick based on the comments this time.

grid quilting mini tutorial

I love stippling, there's no doubt about it. But there is life beyond stippling. (There's even a flickr group to prove it. hee hee) I like grid quilting a lot. It's fun, especially on a small piece. I thought I would share a quick tutorial on how I do it...

First, I made a quilt sandwich, using spray adhesive to baste the layers together.


Place a piece of painters tape (or masking tape) on your quilt top on the diagonal. Just eyeball it...no measuring required. The tape shown here is 1" wide. You can use any tape width you would like. On a larger piece, like a baby quilt, 2" wide tape is ideal.



Sew on either side of the tape using a walking foot....



Remove the tape....



Move the tape to the outside of the quilting line. I added another line of tape to help speed up the process. Quilt on the outside of each line of tape. Repeat as many times as necessary. You can re-use the tape between 5-10 times.



Once you are done quilting in one direction, start the process for the other direction. Again, no measuring is required...just eyeball it. Repeat the process as many times as necessary.



And that's it. Easy, right?



I made this little piece for the placemat swap on flickr. (you can see all the wonderful goodies i received in the swap here. jennie is an awesome swap partner!)

I think I might have found a new obsession in maverick stars. They are so much fun!!!

socks!

At long last, I own a pair of hand knit socks.

They are even better than I had imagined.

They feel sooooooooooo good on my feet!

I swapped these with Mama Urchin in exchange for quilting.

I LOVE them!!!!

an experiment

Mama Urchin and I arranged a little swap a few months back. She is making me hand knit socks(!!!) and in return, I am quilting a baby quilt for her. She wanted it backed in chenille, and I wasn't sure how quilting that would work out. She wanted the crinkly quilt look with a chenille back. And in this experiment we achieved both. (This idea was inspired by Oh Fransson.)

Here's what I did....

I basted, and quilted as normal...(with batting + backing)

Then I sewed around the perimeter of the quilt (twice) with my walking foot to make sure all the edges were tacked down.

Then I threw it in the washer, unbound.
I threw the chenille in the same load, since it wasn't pre-washed.
And I held my breath.

All was fine after the wash cycle. Phew.
I popped everything into the dryer.


I laid out the quilt (again) with the chenille on the back this time.
I used my walking foot and sewed around the perimeter of the quilt.

And here it is...one crinkly quilt with chenille backing.
It's warm. And snuggly.
I'd definitely try this again.

edited to clarify:
the quilt layers are as such:

quilt top
batting
backing
chenille

the chenille is not connected anywhere else on the quilt-just the edges.
the quilt will be bound just like any normal quilt with traditional binding.

swap and a question

Jacquie and I did a swap a few weeks ago.

I sent her this quilt (top only)...

and she sent me this lovely pile of fabric.

What a fun way to slash my in progress list and add to my stash at the same time. I couldn't think of anything better! By the way, Jacquie is having a 100th post giveaway, so go check it out.
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Now, I have a question for all you quilters....

Have you ever quilted a quilt from back to front? I know there is a book about it that I perused a few years ago, but I am wondering if anyone has any experience with this type of quilting. After quilting this quilt, which was so incredibly easy because there were so few seams to quilt over, it got me thinking about trying the back to front technique for this pink quilt, which has an insane amount of seams. (I'm planning on stippling it.)

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions?
I'd love to hear them.

needlebook

A few weeks back, Katherine and I arranged a little swap. I saw the sweet little needlebooks she had made, and I couldn't get them out of my head. (Before I started blogging, I had never heard of a needlebook.) She was kind enough to offer to send me one of my choosing. I never knew a needlebook would make me giddy, but this one does.

Her attention to detail is amazing.
Thanks Katherine! I love it.

And as a side note, it works for a hand puppet in a pinch, according to my little 5 year old. :)

wanna swap?

I have a package of Quilt Patis that I don't have a use for any longer and I was wondering if anyone would like to swap for a bunch of good cotton fabric scraps? (US only please, to save on shipping costs.) Quilt Patis are reusable plastic templates used for making grandmother's flower garden quilts. There are 40 plastic templates in the package-1.5" on each side.

edit: they are taken.