Catching up ....again....

Goodness! Has it been several weeks since my last post?!! This time of the year is always a busy time for me. The kiddos are back-to-school and have settled in with their newly routines. My Buddy is a senior and Sweetie Pie is in 6th grade this year. That means I will have two graduates in 9 months. I know the time will pass by soon enough.... so I am preparing myself mentally for it now. It seemed just yesterday that they were just starting Kindergarten....*sigh*


Anyway, not a whole lot of sewing being done here as my part-time job at a retail store is picking up. I'm putting in LOTS more hours there and expected that it probably will be that way until after the Holidays.


Over the summer, I signed up with the Doll Quilt Swap 7 swap. The mailing deadline was on Tuesday. Look what came in my mailbox earlier in the week....

IS IT ADORABLE OR WHAT!! :o)

... the back and goodies...

This cute little quilt is all done by hand!

All the buttonhole stitches, embroideries, and quilting were done by hand. I do a lot of handworks myself, so I know how long it must have taken. I appreciate all the time putting into it and love love this little quilt!

My partner also sent me a charming stationary set and the scraps from the quilt. Ahhh... she's been reading my blog... as she knows how much I love to make scrap quilts. You may see these in a quilt soon as I already have in mind what I want to do with them. :)

And who was my partner?

It's Jennifer at Jennifer Can Quilt!

Thank you, Jennifer!!! I do so love my little quilt and very appreciative of the time you've spent in making it. :D

Do you remember the little Zig Zag quilt top?

Here it is all done... "Tweet Tweet" is it's name.
It is on it's way to ???????? I will reveal who's my secret partner is once the quilt arrive at its destination.

I must admit that it was very difficult for me to let this one go. It's my favorite little quilt as it would be something that I would make for myself. The inspirations came from my partner's Flickr favorite photos. I found that my partner and I have very similiar likes, so this little quilt came to be.

Here is the back side. I used a the leftover zig zag blocks.

I also included a Cathedral Window pincushion and some FQs of my favorite fabrics at the moment.
I hope my partner will like what I've sent her.

It's a slow progress, but I've been working on my Aunt Millie's Garden blocks. I started the 3rd block, then found the fabrics for the 4th block when I was at the quilt shop one day. Of course, I had to start on that block. :) A peek...



Then, whenever I have a few moments, I sat down at my machine and just sewed 1-1/2" strips (mindless sewing) of Kaffe Fassett fabrics together to create this strata. Stay tuned to see what it will become....

Lastly, a cute pic of my baby girl.

Have a great weekend!

Zig Zag

Yesterday, I took a break from paper piecing the shop sample (see last post) to work on this little quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap 7. I've been "spying" on my secret partner's favorite list over on Flickr and found that our likes are very similiar to each other.

So off I went searching on the net for some inspirations, came across this zig zag tutorial, thought it's perfect, purchased some fabrics, and made this in a few hours.

What do you think? I didn't measured it, but I think it's about 12" x 15".

The tutorial is from AmandaJean at Crazy Mom Quilts. I think it's simply genius! don't you think so too? A zig zag quilt WITHOUT sewing any triangles. It's strip pieced and cut into squares. It's all in the layout of the blocks that formed the zigzag.

Of course, I have to make a doll-sized quilt, so I started out with smaller width of strips... 1-1/2". I see future quilts with this pattern but big, sleep under, wrap around, cozy kinda quilts. :0)

DQS7

I have been telling myself to NOT sign up for any swap 'cause of to many committments lately; HOWEVER..... in a moment of weakness.... yes, I joined the Doll Quilt Swap for my second time. ;-)

Shhhhh.... this is a secret swap.... partner is to be kept a secret. I have received info on my secret partner. Heehee... let the "stalking" begins!

Swaps received!

Hello,

Sorry for my MIA since last week. We had a lot of fun over Mother's Day weekend at the Colorado river (more on that later) and arrived home last Monday night as planned. However, it's busy busy and has been difficult for me to get back into routines here on the home front.... guessed my brain and body still on vacation modes. lol


There were two packages waiting for me when we arrived home. The first one came from Indiana. My Doll Quilt Swap partner, Solidia, made this wonderful quilt. I had listed this quilt as a favorite, and Solidia used it as an inspiration to make this little quilt for me. Isn't it awesome? I love it! It's so me... scrappy, bright, and happy quilt. Thank you, Solidia!

And look what else she sent.... dots and Dachshunds fabrics! How cute is that doxies in sweaters fabric?!! I envisioned it will be a bag some day.....Thank you, Solidia, I love my goodies and doll quilt!





This is what I made and sent to my secret partner, Karen. Click here to see her post.


It was extremely fun to be involved in this swap, and I would do it again in a heart beat.... though I'm a bit late with posting this time.... sorry.



The other package came from Tammy, my partner for the Annie Swap. Here is Annie all the way from Florida.....CUTE!! Thank you, Tammy, for the lovely scented candles also.

I ended up with two finished Annies... the one on the right went to Tammy....

...the one on the left went to my DQS partner's mom.

Yep, the Annies enjoyed being out in the sunshine and liked climbing tree.
Well, that's it for tonight.... lots more to come. Have a good night!

WOO HOO!!

I am done with both of my swap projects! I was a bit stressed on Wednesday that I might not make the deadlines.... well, I missed the Annie Swap by one day, but I did notified my partner that her Annie will be heading out first thing this morning. Here's a peek....

It was fun making Annie! So much fun that I finished two Annies! I will show both Annies once I know that my partner has received hers.

The other swap that's due today is the Doll Quilt Swap. Here's my completed quilt.... labeled, washed, and pressed!

The quilt measured approx. 17 1/2" X 17 1/2". The block pattern is called Hunter's Star or Indian Star. I couldn't find a pattern so I drafted the block at 3" and paper pieced the blocks. I learned how to draft this pattern on Simply Quilts from way back when the show was still on. If you want to know how to do this, do a search on HGTV..... Or drop me a comment, and I'll try to look it up for you.

For fun, I thought I give rounded corners a trial, and you know what... I really like it.

Right now, this is my favorite little quilt so far. Maybe that is because it has my favorite color combination, or maybe it's the stars, or maybe I've been wanting to do this pattern ever since I saw it on Simply Quilts. I want to make a full size quilt of this pattern for myself someday.

Anyway, I hope my partner will like this quilt. On the questionaire, she listed orange as not one of her favorite color, but I love orange! .... especially... orange and blue! I did tried my best to use very little orange, but somehow, a lot more snuck in than planned. ;>

Quick Post

Just want to make a quick post.... I'm still here and still busy! Things are picking up at work, so I've been putting in lots more hours there.

Last week, my brother and SIL, Susan, were in town for a couple of days. It was a quick visit, but we did lots of cooking (I learned a few new recipes...) and did some sewing. :>

If you've been following my blog, you may remember that Susan wanted to learn how to quilt and started blogging also. She wanted to learn how to make the Cathedral Window while she was here, so I taught her that. I'm hoping that Susan will start blogging again and show us her progresses on her quilt.

Like I said, it was a quick visit for all of us.... I totally forgot to bring out the camera for some snapshots. :(

While Susan worked on her project, I sewed the blocks together for the Doll Quilt Swap. Here's a peek of the finished top..... I have today off, so the plan is to turn off the phone.... don't want to get a call from work.... and finish up my swap obligations. The doll quilt is quilted.... the binding is on.... just need to stitch it down and add the label.

Another swap I'm in is the Annie Doll swap... see link on the right. I started the doll a couple of weeks ago, and she's been sitting there naked on my desk. lol Poor Annie! I think it's time I start on that dress for her.

Both of there swaps are due tomorrow! I have my works cut out for me!

Have a wonderful day!

DQS6 Progress

Well, April is flying by real fast... so I really need to get going with my Doll Quilt Swap commitment. Here are the blocks for this swap so far.... .... 3 1/2" unfinished.... I'm off to sew these together into a quilt top. :-)

Random Photos

I have selected the fabrics for the Doll Quilt Swap6. They are all Batiks .... don't know if I'll use everything here or maybe add more as I go along... we'll see how it go.



This next pic is a pattern from Trudi.... I won it when she had a giveaway a few weeks back.... isn't it cute? Thanks, Trudi!

This is our cat, Tabby. Do you remember her misfortune a while back? Click here for the story...

Well, here she is.... with hair fully grown back in... she's still sweet as ever...

and she LOVES our Yoshi Bear....

and Yoshi Bear loves his kitty friends.... don't they look so cute snuggling in their quilts?

The next two photos are from the Road to CA show back in January.

I just loved looking at this quilt... calm and soothing ... that's how I felt. The whole quilt was made from hand dyed fabrics.

These miniature quilts are to die for .... wow, woW, WOW!

and this last one is a table runner that I made before Christmas. It was intended as a gift, but one of the red fabric bled .... oh no, I was sure I had pre-washed all my red fabrics! You can't see where it bleed in the photo. It's not too bad but enough for me to be disappointed. So now it resides on my kitchen island.

DQS6

Yep, I've gone and done it! I've joined the next Doll Quilt Swap. This is my first time in this swap and looking forward to it.

I have an idea as to what I want to do... just waiting for my secret partner's info so I can start the "stalking" .... hee hee .... I hope she/he like brights because that is what I'm leaning toward. If not, that's OK too... just feel like doing a bright quilt right now.

The mailing deadline is May 1st. I can't wait to get the info so I can get started. :-)