Swap Received over the Big Pond!!!

I am happy to announce my partner - Liz - received her package in the mail today.. package arrived safely in England :)  Now I can share the small item I made for her with all of you.  She has a blog called Liz of Dandelion DayDreams.   She had requested a mini quilt that had her blog name in it.  I enjoyed making the Silhouette Mini Table Topper quilt that last spring (picture above in my Blog Header...Dragon Fly)....and thought it would be fun to tie it into a quilt for her.

If you remember I also made her some placemats...Here's a picture of the placemats that I mailed..

I enjoyed this swap and am Happy to hear that she loved her gifts.

Till Next time... Hugs & Happy Quilting...

Play day with Fabric

I got to spend most of today in my sewing room, and I feel great as I got quite a bit done.   I finished my swap blocks... for We Bee Learning and for my Wonky Bee...

Here's Nita's We Bee Learning block.. It's called Converging Corners and it was fun to make. You'll definitely want to check out the example quilt...Inspiration in the making over at Film in the Fridge. Click Here for Link to Tutorial... I see one of these quilts in my near future...  This was fun to make, because there wasn't any REAL measuring to be done..fun and liberating.. *Giggle*

And The Wonky Blocks this month is for Lisa C, she had us make two blocks for her, they were quite easy to do and fun to make... a couple Wonky Stars...

I was proud of the fact that my points were all good until I realized I had to trim the block down to 2.5 inchs on the bottom of the star on the right... But it still looks great. Will be a fun Christmas quilt when she gets it all together!

 Then I got to working on my Month for the WONKY Bee... I decided on a block I found over at Oh Frannson,but I added a little twist to mine...I am sending everyone enough to make two blocks, but it's up to them if they want to make two or just one.  I understand with the holidays how it may be a bit busy.   AND I'm cheating so all the ladies that visit online can see what's coming.. I know I know... But I can't help it.  I was proud of myself for getting everything cut today...

And Last But by NO Means Least.. I have to share what I received in the mail yesterday from one of my online swaps.  My partner Karen aka the Quilting_Fairy on Flickr made me feel so extra special.  I was super excited to recieve this wonderful mini quilt.   The Quilting is amazing and it's going to look fabulous on my sewing room wall!  I am making a special spot for it!

I shall leave you with that amazing quilt to enjoy till next time.  

Hugs and have a great week!

Paper Piecing Adventure

I spent the day yesterday in my Sewing Cave for a much needed day of quilting therapy.... Seems like I have been super busy with Work and taking care of  Mr Fantastic since his Achilles Tendon surgery.... He's still on crutches, but has started physical therapy and working on improving his range of motion in the ankle, going to be a VERY SLOW process... *Sad face*

But yesterday was BLISS!!!  I started working on a little project for yet another swap..*giggle*  (I will SOON..very soon..share a project for myself, I Promise!!)  and I managed to finish it last night TOO.... This time I have jumped head first into a paper piecing project.   I've never paper pieced anything before in my life, so this has been a definite adventure!  My partner requested a Winter-Non Religious Christmas Theme...and told me it was okay to use other colors than traditional red, green and white...Here's a sneak peak at how it went...  I had to resew the first two blocks because when I trimmed I forgot to add  the seam allowance... That was a bummer...

And I had to remake a third one because I didn't leave enough fabric on the edge to finish the block... But all in all I enjoyed trying something new and might just try to paper piece again.  Here it is before I added the binding....  I had a hard time lining up a couple of the seams...so ONE piece of my Pie is a bit off...and I did a bit of free motion quilting withing the white sections, it turned out a bit wonky, but not too bad...

The binding was a bit of a challenge too, seeing as how this was the first time I didn't use 90 degree turns, but I think I figured it out okay.  This project was a very good Challenge for me and I learned alot about paper piecing, I just hope my partner can look past the few flaws and still enjoys it this Holiday Season..  

Here's the finished project ready to mail.   I made her a little bird pin cushion also using some

 Holiday fabrics from my stash.  

It was wonderful to spend some time in the sewing cave...Felt so very relaxed after..even with all the little mistakes I made and ran into... Now to share where you can find this pattern if you would like to give it a try...

Here's the inspiration picture...

And HERE's THE LINK to this Project...Joanna over at Shape Moth shared the PDF.

  CLICK HERE

*Just remember to add your seam allowance to the pattern!  I forgot on my first two triangles and had to remake two of them.. *wink*  Good practice though so I didn't mind..

Let me know if you make one... I'd love to see it.   My package is going out next week.   I am sure she will like it..as she posted on my sneak peak picture that she was in Love... *love it when a plan comes together*

Linking up to Finish It Friday with Amanda @  Crazy Mom Quilts

Till Next Time....

Modern She Made Swap Rd 2

I am excited to share my lastest swap gift that I finished for the Modern She Made Flickr Group Swap.   Our challenge in this swap is to do a quilting project with a modern flair to it and to also use the "Secret Ingredient"  (Iron Chef America reference..*wink*)   Our challenge was to use triangles in our gift somehow.  I generally use half square triangles  They are easy and quick.. Not to hard to do the points on them.. But to challenge myself this time.. I did 60 Degree triangles.... Quite a bit different than the norm for me.

I had a bit of ripping to do in the beginning, but then started to get the gist of it. *giggle*.

You can kinda see the grey background fabric above in this picture... I special ordered that fabric from SpoonFlower for my partner.. There's a story there and I hope that she truly appreciates all the thought process behind it for her.

Here's the finished Big Project for my Partner...  Four New placemats, She had posted that she could use new ones and I hope that she likes these.  They were fun to make...I will set up a tutorial here shortly   I found the Awesome Bright fabrics at an Etsy Shop called the Surley Sheep, Nice because you can by fat quarters or fat eighths..These were perfect for my partner.   This picture doesn't give them justice seeing as how I took the picture at night, but I really like them.. They were a bit hard to part with *wink*

I mentioned before that I found the Fabric at the SpoonFlower website.  These look fantastic in person all put together.  I was going to do more quilting in the gray, and I probably should have, but I just loved how the Gray stands out.  Those are Dandelions on the fabric and there's a story behind that fabric.  I have a small item I also made for my partner, but I will wait to share that until she receives her package.  She should have it by Next Week at the latest.

A little venting I need to do now..so bare with me *uggh* When I mailed this package off I was very upset with the post office person...He could have taken the time to tell me that I should repackage my gift, because it cost me $47.95 to mail it.  I was in shock and he had the sticker on the box before I could say anything.  I basically gave him an ear full, seeing has how all the other postal personell will ask you first and are usually pretty good about suggesting repackaging it and coming back.  So this is by far the MOST expensive swap gift I have had to send. *sigh*.

Wee Bee Swap Block

I am excited to share one of my November blocks that I have completed... This is for my Wee Bee Learning Group 2. I am working on Group one later today, but had to take a break and share.. I LOVE How Simple and FUN this block looks...

 It's From the Book "The Practical Guide to Patchwork" New Basics for the Modern QuiltMaker.   I was super excited to see I could download the book for my Kindle.. Cheaper than the hard copy and No extra space in my Sewing Room *giggle*... LOVE that more and more books are available online to download now.. I know it's not the same..but now I can take More books on the road when I travel :)

Back to the block.. *wink*  This is for Toni... She requested Grays and Yellow.  I bought the fabric online from an Esty shop called the surlysheep.  She's got great little fabrics available to add to your stash.  Love her little shop :)

Take care and have a great week... will share more blocks soon!