Busy, busy, busy!

Ugh! I've been meaning to post but believe it or not couldn't get around to taking pictures of the things I wanted to post about! I hate it that it is dark so early again.

A couple of Saturday's ago we had our "almost" monthly quilty get together at the firehouse. We hadn't met since July and the attendance at that one was meager so its been quite a while since we all saw each other. A bunch of us worked on a tote bag featured on Moda Bake Shop with the Mill House Inn fabric line. Not everyone used Mill House Inn fabrics, a bunch used fabrics from their stash. It is always so cool to see the same project done in different fabrics/colors isn't it? Here is mine:

This fabric line is just awesome! While we were cutting our fabrics for this bag we decided to cut for the friendship bag tutorial on P.S. I quilt

It's hard to tell from the picture but this bag is only about 6" x 6". Not very practical but very cute!

I never showed my Halloween blocks from Jane's swap but I think I will wait - last night I bought sashing and I am REALLY going to try to have that done by Halloween. I might be quilting and/or binding it ON Halloween but hopefully it will be done! When I showed my blocks at the firehouse some of the girls were intrigued so we decided to do a similar swap amongst ourselves with Christmas blocks. It is a short turnaround - they are due on Oct. 24 so I bought fabric for that last night too and have my idea - now to make my 9 blocks.

I've been working on lots of other stuff too - swap stuff I can't show. I've become a little addicted to swaps on flickr. I never knew they existed until I did Doll Quilt Swap 7 - now I've found monthly mini quilt swaps, placemat swaps, teeny tiny quilt swaps! I'll have lots of pics of all of those as soon as I mail and my partners have received them - not to mention pics of the quilts I receive! Oh, and I did Aunt Pitty Pat's Bumps in the Night Halloween Annie Swap. I haven't received mine yet but my partner has gotten mine so I can show you. When she was sent she was holding a pumpkin in her lap but I forgot to take a final picture so the only one I have was taken before the pumpkin was added.



Last night I finished two Halloween pillows - I just LOVE these! I wish I could keep them out year round!!!!






Well, I hope that makes up for a few post-less weeks! I've got lots to finish this month and for now anyway I am on a roll. There is also a mini shop hop planned for this month. My birthday is tomorrow and a few (semi) local shops send 20% off coupons to use during your birthday month. Of course, I don't really NEED anything, but after they are nice enough to send you a birthday coupon it would be rude not to stop in and at least say hello, right?

Have a pieceful day!

More great stuff in the mail!

When I returned from our long weekend away guess what was in the mail? My quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 7! My partner was Michelle from http://rosebudquilting.blogspot.com/


Michelle looked through my blog and saw that I have made some rag dolls. She is a longarm quilter and had a rag doll quilting pattern so she bought some vintage fabric on ebay and made me this darling doll quilt. She also included some fabric and a chocolate bar in a beautiful rubber stamped/embossed holder. Here is a pic of the quilting detail:

I need to find a place in my house to hang this. My plan is to put a shelf next to, above or below it and display some of my dolls on the shelf - won't that be cute???!!

My weekend away and sick time have put me woefully behind on blogging. I have a bunch of things that I've been working on that haven't made it to my blog yet. I guess I better get busy taking some pictures and writing some posts! I also have a bunch of blogs I've starred in Google Reader meaning to go back and comment on and I never seem to get back to them. Hopefully I can catch up now that I am back into the normal routine.

Have a pieceful day!

Best mail day ever!!!!

Okay, maybe not ever - the day I got my bar results can't really be topped, but a pretty darn good mail day today - I received not one but two packages - the first was my blocks from Jane's Halloween Swap - they are awesome. I can't wait to put them together. DH and I are going away for a long weekend at the beach so I will have to wait till next week to play though - and you will have to wait till then for a picture because I am in the middle of packing and can't find a clean surface to lay all 24 of them out on to photograph!!!!

The second package was from my Stitcher's Angel!!!! She sent me this gorgeous mini quilt:

The note that came with it says the saying means "Have a good summer". This picture is not the greatest because it was taken inside at night but I wanted to get it on my blog right away! I love stitchery and do some myself but mine is no where near as good as this! I don't know if you can see it in the pic below but the stitches are sooo small and consistent in size! I am definitely going to be emailing my partner for some tips on stitching!!! Also in the package was a nice note on a notecard with a picture of some scenery from Norway and a delicious chocolate bar that did not make it long enough to be photographed - oops!

I am just so thrilled with my new little quilt. Even though it is a "summer" quilt I will hang it year round - now I just have to decide whether to hang it here at home or in my office where I can look at it all day! Thank you Angel!!!!

Have a pieceful day!

Gail Pan BOM

Gail Pan BOM
Originally uploaded by piecefulchaos

I am just about done with my Gail Pan free BOM. I was up to date before August's block was released and then when I was sewing the frames on I cut July's wrong so I have to re-do it! Funny thing I discovered though - when I print the blocks out at work they are a different size than on my home printer. They are pdf files so that shouldn't happen - or at least I thought it shouldn't.

Gail just posted the instructions to finish the quilt and I love the way she finished it - even nicer than I had imagined it would be. Hopefully this weekend I will get those last few blocks done and sashed (with no cutting mistakes!) and then I can get to finishing it - maybe even before Christmas - wouldn't that be special???

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day to all in the US! Its a long weekend for us so I'm using the time off to do a little quilting and a little cleaning.


I joined the Old Red Barn Quilt Along on flickr - this round they are doing Wonky Log Cabins and these have intrigued me for awhile so I thought I'd give them a try. In a moment of weakness the other night I ordered fabric (the kiwi line) instead of pulling from stash like I should have. Today I tried my first block -

There are some things I will do different on the next block but all in all it was a lot of fun. I can't believe how LIBERATING it was to make - no points to match, not cuts to make straight - its supposed to be wonky - what could be better than that? I'm not saying I will give up traditional piecing but this style definitely has its place. Quilt Dad the leader of the quilt along, will be posting 3 other variations of wonky log cabins in upcoming posts. I am going to wait and try each before I decide on one style for a quilt - or I will do a quilt with all 4 styles depending on how and what I like.

I also got a bunch of stuff ready for a post office run tomorrow - swaps, giveaways, etc. and we went to a picnic yesterday which included sitting out by the fire late into the night listening to two of the guests play guitar while we all badly sang the words to lots of old songs while drinking sweet tea vodka. Oh and there was a quick trip to the LQS yesterday to get some black and whites for the wonky cabins and some fabric for my Halloween Annie for Aunt Pitty Pat's swap - yes I signed up for yet another swap - I can't help it they are so much fun!

One last thing, if you haven't seen it yet head on over to The Painted Quilt - Kaaren is doing a First Friday Freebie stitchery pattern and this month's was just posted the other day. Also, Linen Closet Quilts is doing a Free BOM Challenge - the first one, an eagle, is gorgeous!

Have a pieceful day!

100th Post!!!

Hooray! This is my 100th post! As I promised last post I am doing a little giveaway in celebration. It has been wonderful getting to know other bloggers out there during these last 100 posts - exchanging comments, emails, reading others blogs, participating in swaps. Most of the commenters on my 99th post have posted on my blog many times before. The thought of picking only ONE person to send a giveaway prize to was tough. So I decided "what the heck...its my blog I can do whatever I want! So I am sending a little prize to each of people who have commented (as of now 8:51pm EST) on my last post. There are 8 of you. I think the only ones I need addresses for are Karen, Nancy and Thimbleanna - so ladies please email me your address. (The rest of the ladies I think I have your addresses but if not I will email you for it).

So here are some of the little prizes I've been working on - beaded scissor fobs:

I have a few more to make- DH and I had to make a run to the craft store today but they should be done by the time the post office opens again on Tuesday. I picked up a few little non-handmade goodies to go in the packages as well.

Thank you to everyone for a very enjoyable 100 posts. I look forward to the next 100!

Have a pieceful day!

Deadlines

Last night I got my Halloween Swap blocks finished and they are all ready to be mailed to Jane at lunchtime today. Not bad considering I did not join the swap until last Saturday afternoon, right? The thing is, I know (and those who know me well know too) that even if I had signed up for this swap back on June 1 when signups began, I still probably would have been doing the blocks very close to the deadline. It seems most of my real productivity only comes with a deadline - which is why I make more gifts than projects for myself. Not that there is anything wrong with making things for others - to the contrary - but I would love to be able to be more productive without the deadlines looming.

I know I am not alone because some of my friends are the same way - I won't mention names - you know who you are! So I want to know - are you like that too? has anyone been like that and conquered the deadline thing - if so, how did you do it? Sometimes I wonder if I should just stop fighting it and go with it - although I've tried the self-imposed deadline thing and didn't fool myself - deep down I knew there was no consequence if the deadline came and went.

So if you've read this far without any pretty pictures to look at you deserve some kind of reward - this is my 99th post. It took longer than I thought it would to get here but here I am. So leave a comment on this post and on my 100th post I will announce a winner and send them a little something - don't know what yet but I am setting a deadline for myself of this Saturday to have something made - so that's when my 100th post will be -this Saturday!

Have a pieceful day!