WE CAN DO IT!

With a couple weeks off from sewing (due to eye), it's amazing how far behind you can get in your goals. I'm doing the Skill Builder Sampler, and so I checked in with them, only to find I'm 4 blocks behind! I did block 3 and 4 today. Still need to get to the next two to be caught up!

Here's Block 3, Churndash.

And this is Block 4, Pinwheels.

You can find a link to this group on my left sidebar -- We Can Do It!

AFRICAN VIOLET

Block Lotto blog is doing African Violets for August.  I love this pattern!  This is my first block.

A GOOD DAY AT THE LIBRARY

What a treat I found at my local library today.  I had stopped in to check out a couple books on cd to listen to while quilting, which I did get.  But, bonus, at the entry, in the bin with freebies, throw aways, and swap magazines, was a treasure trove of American Quilter magazines from 1991 to 1993, as well as a few other magazines and a couple pattern books, and the cute cabin quilt pattern in the front.  These weren't library cast offs; someone had placed them there, as often people do with magazines instead of recycling them.  Usually it's a hodgepodge of issues about travel, dogs and cats, etc.  One person's trash is an other's treasure!  I have lots of treasure to page though now.  Yippie!

LIBERATED CHECKER BOARDS

I haven't sewn in a couple weeks due to eye issues, so I decided to ease back into it, with blocks that are intentional wonky. These Liberated Checker Board blocks are for the July Block Lotto. It feels so good to be up in my loft working on patchwork again!

HEALING HEART

This is a healing heart block that I made for Pamela. We both are experiencing eye problems, and sewing is one of the things we hope to continue to do for a long time. So, after making the heart block, I added the needle, thread and spool.

PRIZE FROM MALAYSIA

Barbara Jack, over at The Sanguine Stitcher, had a blog give-away, and I won! This lovely bag and pin cushion are truly even more lovely in person. The cross-stitch on the cushion is just tiny, really tiny! And perfect! Amazing work.
Front:

Back:

She also included this post card from Kuala Lampur, in Malaysia, where she lives. On it she wrote a lovely note, and I feel like I have a new friend!

Quilters are so very generous. My DH said, "So you don't know this person, yet she sent this to you?" Well, yes, I know her in blog land, and there are some wonderful quilters out there!

Thanks again Barbara.

BLACK/WHITE/TOUCH OF RED BLOCKS

Here are the lovely blocks I received in the Black/White/Touch of Red swap. Aren't they fun? These are all 6" Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks. I have fabric selected for sashing, but they are not up next on my list.

DJSS QUILT FINISHED

I finished up my little quilt that I made using the little Dear Jane blocks that Marianne, my 2010 DJSS, sent me each month.

This was my first experience using big stitch quilting with perle cotton. I only quilted on the center of the sashing (1/2" wide strips) and around the outside of the quilt. It was easy to do and I love how it turned out. I used a thicker batting than I normally do, and I'm very happy with how each DJ block puffs up a bit.

Here's a close up of the quilt stitching.

Thanks again, Marianne, for being such a super secret sister.

IT'S THE BIG 6-0!!!

Happy Birthday to me, and yes, it's the big 6-0 today!!!

For several years I've been in a BD FQ swap, but this year, I'm in a birthday cupcake swap. I should be getting 49 in all. They are all ready to fuse onto the recipient's background, and sew into something yummy. How fun!

BIRTHDAY GIFT FROM A QUILTY FRIEND.

My dear friend, Carol, sent me this fun pillow case for my birthday. She made it from some of my very favorite quilting fabric from LoraLea. I'm not sure if I'm the one wearing the blue spools, or the one with the tomato pin cushion ta-tas, but either way, it's all good! She said it's to use for our quilting retreats. Can't wait!

She also included a basket block. We are both in a basket swap, and will need a couple extra's to fill in our quilts. I do love her broderie-perse idea!

OPAM WINNER? ME????

!

Indeed, in years of doing OPAM, I have never won. But now I have! Yeah!

What is OPAM you ask? Well it's on the side of my blog, where we keep track of finished projects, truly finished, not flimsies, etc., with the goal of finishing at least one a month. Just that encouragement is enough, as well as the kind words when we actually finish something. But each finish does go into a drawing for the month.

My terrific gift prize arrived from Australia today. Yes, the organizers, Kris from Tag Along Teddies, and Peg from Happy In Quilting, are from down under, but the challenge is blogland wide.

My prize came beautifully wrapped in the fabric you see in the background, and tied with the bow. I received a lovely pattern, Candy Girl, three skeins of floss, and a cotton picker. How nice! Thanks Kris and Peg, both for the gifties, and for the challenge

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

Proud to be an American; Land of the Free; Because of the Brave.

FAIRY QUILT GODMOTHER

Does this look like fun or insanity? It's my paper piecing pattern for my Fairy Quilt Godmother. Yes, many of those piecies are soooo tiny!

If you choose to make one, yours will be different. You take a quiz to generate your very own Fairy Quilt Godmother. Hop here to get yours.

My Friendship Swap group challenged us to make them and see how unique we all are. Carol has already posted hers. She's so speedy!

Well, I have my fabrics pulled, and my paper piecing ready.

DEAR JANE SECRET SISTER GIFT ARRIVES

This wonderful gift arrived yesterday from my DJSS. She sent a kit with all these wonderful fall fabrics, a bookmark, a really sweet "Pin Your Hopes on God" plaque -- not sure if you can read it, but the little item hanging from the pin says 'hopes' -- and a really nice handmade card.

It was surely a real day brightener!

SKILL BUILDER SAMPLER, BLOCK 2

The second Skillbuilder block involves a lot of skills. Sewn, aka, Leila, showed a really detailed, excellent, tutorial about lining up your seams for accurate piecing, etc. I am pretty competent with those skills, but she also included a lesson on value.

It's hard for me to not just go with gut instinct. I place colors how I like them. But in this block the goal was to use only darks and lights, no medium.

As you can see, this block is actually four 9-patches sewn together. When I sew 9-patches, I usually highlight the X formed or the cross, depending on how you use value. But Sewn challenged us to have the block in the middle of the 9-patch look like it is surrounded by a square. This was soooo against my natural bent.

Using only three colors (my choice) and two values (the goal), the hard part for me was to not have those outer rings look muddy -- blurred together -- especially when the outer square is light.

But I did succeed, in the end, I think. I knew there'd be lots to learn here, for newbies or experienced quilters. But it can be hard to break old habits, and see things differently!

16 STAMP BASKETS

Today I finished up 18 Stamp Baskets for a Friendship Group swap. 16 are shown here, and I made one of each color for myself that aren't shown.

Here's a close-up of one. I love to sew the rick-rack on by hand, just catching each outer curve with a blind stitch. Stays nice and flat that way, even when laundered. Plus that's the way Mrs. Ott taught us in home-ec back in high school, so that's how I do it, LOL!

I still need to make the fabric labels and baste them on. They aren't due until the middle of October, but I'm glad to check them off my list, because there's so much sewing I want to accomplish this summer, including two other swap which will take longer to do, both due in Sept.

4TH OF JULY SWAP GIFT THAT I SENT

This is the gift that I sent to Val in France. Although Val is French, she used to live in the USA, so I wasn't surprised when she joined the swap.

I enjoyed making this apron with its clean lines. It's so much more modern-looking to me than the gathered aprons of the past.

The apron is completely lined. It's from the pattern, Great American Aprons, that includes two other versions too. Of course I used USA fabrics.

This picture shows the pocket detail.

Here's the complete gift, including socks, pinwheels, recipe cards, buttons, and napkins with the apron.

I enjoyed selecting the USA 'things' to include, and in making the apron I got to use a Clover bias tape maker for the first time. This whole swap was very fun -- both the making/giving and the receiving.

BLACK/WHITE/REDS COMPLETED

Here are my 16 Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks all complete for the swap.

And here are my 14 Ohio Stars. There's two fewer swappers in that group.

Whew. All done 10 days early, LOL!

SKILL BUILDER SAMPLER, BLOCK 1, LOG CABIN

This is my first block, on Sewn's Skill Builder Sampler free on-line course. I'm pretty experienced with this type block, so I chose to make a harder version of this block than the one she posted. My strips are one-inch finished size. This is a ginormous 12" block. Well ginormous to me after working on tiny things for so long.

There's a link to this project on my sidebar -- Yes We Can!

4TH OF JULT SS SWAP ARRIVES

Yesterday my 4th of July Secret Sister Swap gift arrived. In this swap, we created one sewn item and whatever else would fit in a small priority mail box. Mary made this lovely wall hanging for me. Those tiny flag stripes (maybe 1/4") are pieced. What super work. She also included the flag panel fabric, the flag tile, and a post card of Shipshewana (one of my favorite places) 2011 events. She purchased the added items there during her recent visit to Shipshe. The wall hanging will be going up on the wall today. She even included a hanger!

The gift I sent is in the mail, and I'll post about it once it's received.

BOOKMARK HOSTESS GIFT

As a swap hostess, sometimes you receive little gifts tucked in with the blocks. Or not, it's all good. Hostess gifts are not expected nor required ever. I generally include a FQ, a spool of thread, pack of needles, etc., as a hostess gift.

I was blown away at the beauty of the hostess gift I received from Karen T. in the Black/White/Touch of Red Swap. She sent me this lovely bookmark. It is forged at a local (to her) shop. Amazing! Love it! Thanks again Karen, if you are reading, LOL!

PS: GFG count, 10 finished, 6 to go.

GARDEN GROWS

My garden is growing. Seven down, nine to go.

WHAT I"M WORKING ON

I'm working on my 'other' Black/White/Red swap blocks. You may remember my little red bird in the center of my Ohio Star blocks. I finished those a couple months ago, I think. Somehow, my Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks just got pushed out of my mind. They are due the end of this month. Yikes! But I'm the swap hostess, so no mail time needed, LOL. Good thing I'm fascinated by the Casey Anthony trial. It gives me plenty of tv time, ergo hand-sewing time.

Some gals have hand sewing lap pillows. I love using this June Tailer Quilter's Cut 'n Press. Holds everything up, I can use it as a pin cushion, I can lay pieces and completed blocks out flat, etc. When done stitching, I just move the whole thing off my lap and onto a table.

There are many ways to make hexagons, including paper templates, and Inklingo. This go around I'm using Simple Shapes, teflon reusable templates. They work very well!

Here's a close up of one finished block. My fabrics will vary through the 16 blocks I need.

DJ SS QUILT TOP

If you've been following my blog very long, you know that last year my Dear Jane Secret Sister, Marianne K., sent me a DJ quilt block every month as part of my gift. Yesterday, while unpacking some sewing things from Florida, I came upon them. They were just too special to leave as a BOB (bag of blocks) so I pulled fabric for sashing and setting squares, and got busy. The sashing is 1/2" finished size. The blocks finish at 4.5". I put the top together yesterday.

This morning I pulled potential backing fabric from stash and also a spool of perle cotton. I've been itching to try large stitch hand quilting with the perle cotton. This may just be the project.

This will be a lovely table topper or wall hanging. Either way it will be a lovely memento of the 2010 Dear Jane Secret Sister Swap, and of Marianne.

SIGGY FROM GERMANY

This beautiful star arrived from Germany this week. I love how Annette sewed a smaller block within the block. She also sent a lovely hand-written letter about herself. This is certainly a fun way to get to know other quilters around the globe. Mine will go out to her on Monday.