Yes, I am crazy!

It's official - I've lost my mind! I found Jane's blog sometime in June I think and her Halloween Swap had already started. I was SO disappointed because I love Halloween and would definitely have signed up for her swap. So this weekend when two spots became available due to some missing participants I begged Jane to let me in signed up. The blocks are due tomorrow! Obviously they will not be done by then but I told Jane I would do everything I could to get them to her by the end of the week. I hurried to the LQS on Saturday and purchased the fabric I needed and started sewing. Despite 2 parties to attend this weekend I made some good progress - here is my owl block:

Only 11 more of him to do! I also need to do twelve 12 1/2 inch 9 patch blocks for the swap - those are done already - I did them first on Saturday. The pieces for the other owls are fused and cut out - ready to be assembled and stitched.

***A note to other members of Jane's Halloween swap - I would love to do some private swaps for additional blocks if anyone is interested! Just leave me a comment or email me!

Meanwhile in other quilty news, I also managed to finish quilting my mini quilt for the doll quilt swap and attach the binding. Just need to hand sew the other side of the binding and attach a label and I can get that baby in the mail.


Have a pieceful day!

Secret Santa Christmas Swap

This weekend I got my partner for Chookyblue's Secret Santa Swap! I did this swap last year and it was so much fun!

My partner turns out to be someone whose blog I was already following on Google Reader but she is fairly new to me so I do have to go back and look at prior posts on her blog to get a really good idea of her likes and dislikes and then I will decide what to make for her!

Have a pieceful day!

A little repair work

Not much quilty going on here this week. I did trace a bunch of stitcheries for future stitching and started quilting my doll quilt. I also did a little repair work on a quilt I made for my oldest DD's best friend -

Seems her dog decided the quilt needed tasting. I forgot to take a picture after the repair - it was done in a hurry so Sue could take it with her on her vacation to South Carolina and give it to its owner in person - I hate the thought of shipping quilts and the possibility of them getting lost in the mail.

Lots of things scheduled for this weekend and unfortunately none of them are quilty.

Have a pieceful day!

What I did on my summer vacation

Over the last year I have been adding to my collection of DMC floss whenever it was on sale. I now should have ever color. While we were driving to the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania a few weeks ago I wound all the floss onto bobbins. I can't read or stitch while riding or I get car sick but I was able to do this!

A few months ago I discovered I can also stuff doll parts while riding in the car. Since DH and I commute an hour each way to work every day and he usually does the driving I am always anxious to find things I can tolerate doing in the car without my stomach doing flip flops. Does anyone else have this problem? What have you found you can do in the car?

Have a pieceful day!

Doll Quilt Swap

This is the quilt I am planning on sending my swap partner for Doll Quilt Swap 7. It is from the book Miniatures in Minutes. The book uses a paper piecing technicque different from any I've used before. You also piece on vellum so that you can see through the paper.

It took some adjusting to but I got the hang of it pretty quick. There are some other quilts in the book I would like to try. This quilt isn't actually in the book. The author Terrie Sandelin posts a project on her website once a month that uses the pattern sheets from the book in a new way. This was August's project.

Today hopefully I will get time to quilt this little quilt and maybe the bowtie quilt that I posted the other day also.

Have a pieceful day!

Bow tie doll quilt

This is a doll quilt top I made recently. I was thinking of it for the Doll Quilt Swap but I'm pretty sure I've decided on another one for that. So I will quilt this up and either keep it or donate it to the guild for the mini quilt auction at our upcoming quilt show. It went together pretty quickly so maybe I'll make another one and keep this or vice versa.

This was made from a charm pack (the darks - the lights are from stash). I used the same fabrics for the quilt I am using for the swap plus I used scraps from the charm pack for sashing for my Noah's Ark BOM (will show that in a day or two) - so that charm pack made its way into 3 mini quilts - not too bad, huh?!?

Have a pieceful day!

Pincushion fever returns

This weekend I decided to play around with making some pincushions. I have about a gazillion pincushion patterns that I want to make - these are two of them:

This one started as a test block for an idea I had for my quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 7. It didn't make the cut for the doll quilt so I bordered it and made it into a pincushion.

This one is a Leanne's House pattern that I got as a kit in a pincushion of the month club from Quilt Fabric Delights in Austrailia. There are 3 or 4 other designs that are part of the pattern too. I had a little problem with the ricrac on this one but hopefully I have the technique down for the next one.

I filled both with crushed walnut shells - first time I've used them and I really liked them.

Have a pieceful day!