A Redwork Mini & School has Started

Well I have finialy gotten around to posting a pic of the mini quilt that I made for the November round of Swap Til' You Drop. I just love it & I'm going to have to make one for my wall this summer. Posting will be few as school has started in again and I'm taking 3 courses this semester.

Snow People !!

I recived the most amazing package from Andrea yesterday. Look at all the wonderful presents she sent me!

Look at these wonderful gifts . The little quilt is so adorable and Isis has really taken a liking to it :) I had to chase her around the house to get it back LOL ! The yummy fudge Andrea sent didn't last very long :)

I finially got the little bogger to hold still by whipping out the camera LOL :) She happy now because I hung this adorable little quilt on her side of the bedroom. Thank you so much Andrea we love this wee little quilt :)

Update on Bea's Quilt

Well I have finally gotten around to showing ya'll the borders on Bea's mini quilt. I still have a ton left to do on it though, I need to find my little chalk pencil today so I can get to mapping out what needs to be done on it :) I hope Bea likes it . I'll be back soon with more progress pics:)

Shifting Gears

Ugh, it looks like I'm going to have to shift gears on the little quilt for Bea :( These little blocks are just taking way to long and I'm so crunched for time that I can spend at the sewing machine right now. I think what I am going to do is make a sampler, this way I can cut out a couple of blocks and take them to work to hand sew together. I already have a few ready to go for tonight at work and I'll show pic's in the morning when I get home. I have Grandmother's Flower Garden, a Fan block and a Lemoyne Star ready to go for tonight :) I should be able to get all three done tonight if my client stays asleep .

Swap Quilts :)

Here is the wonderful little mini quilt that I recived in the November Swap Til' You Drop. This one was made by Michelle and I just love it !!

Here is a close up of the other November mini quilt. I adore this one, how much better can you get than orange and black ??

Here they are up on the wall. I had to start on the next wall as I ran out of room on my first quilt wall. I really need to repaint my walls but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Maybe this summer if I don't have to take summer classes. I think I want to redo it in a nice pale blue :)

This is the mini quilt that I made for Michelle. She should be reciving it any day now. I had forgotten to take a pic of the other mini quilt that I made for this month's swap so I will have to wait to snag a picture when it gets posted to the group.

Another Wonderful Mini

This wonderful little mini was made for me by Sewwonderful on the Swap Til' You Drop flickr group. I love it, black & orange are my 2 favorite colours ! I will be showing the 2 that I made for this month soon, just a bit of binding to sew down before I can mail them out.
Yeah I've got the house to myself for a little while today. The kids are at school and the Hubby just went to go help a buddy of his brick a house. This is such a rare treat that I don't know what to do with myself LOL - I have a test today so I think I'll get that done fist thing and then sew the rest of the day - well at least untill noon then I have to sleep for a bit before I go to work tonight.

Wonderful Mini's

I wanted to show ya'll some of the amazing mini's from the october swap that our flicker swap group is producing :) I love the different little quilts that the amazing people create ! It should be interesting to see what is made for the November swap.

A wonderful Mail Day :)

I recived the Swap in a bag from Bea yesterday !! Look at how sweet she it, she sent the goodies in a potholder and an ovenmitt :) Oh I can't wait to start playing with them !! Thank you Bea :)

I also recived my Oct mini quilt from the flickr swap group. Oh it is just way to sweet and below you can see that I added it to my mini wall. This little quilt makes me smile every time I walk into my bedroom :) Thank you so much Sawyer'sNana!!!!

And finially here is a pic of my finished ALQS 2 swap quilt that I made for Tracy - she's recived it already :) Have a wonderful day everyone and thanks for dropping by to visit my blog :)

My Quilt Wall - Well Almost

Well this is my sad little quilt wall LOL - now do ya'll see why I envy the one from the post below. However I still have a couple more to add to it and of course there should be 3 more swap quilts to add to it by the end of this month. The green diamond crazy quilt was a mini that I bought off of EBay a few months ago - I had to have it, it was made by a 84 yr old woman. The basket mini is one that I made back in '98 and the 4 patch is one that I made in '99. When I fill up this wall I'll start on the one beside it.

Oh the Envy !!

I came across this photo while googling antique doll and mini quilts this morning. Oh I have the worst case of envy lol, I wish my mini wall looked like this :) As soon as I find the cord to the camera I'll post a photo of what my mini wall looks like. I finished the binding on my ALQS 2 quilt this morning so now all I have left is the label, I'll be posting a photo of that also.It came out so cute that as soon as I get the binding stitched down on my Chinese coins mini quilt I'll be making a twin of it for my wall :)

Fabrics and goodies

Well I skipped going to sleep this morning and put together the items for the swap bag mini challenge. However I still need to cut down some of the fabric pieces, I need to find a bigger baggie also. I think I need to go to the store and pick up a box of gallon sized baggies.Now however I do need to go to sleep because I'm about to nod off at the keyboard.

A New Respect

I have a totaly newfound respect for those quilters who are so talented that they can hand quilt ! I am having a heck of a time learning how to do this :( My poor Sunbonnet Sam quilt is suffering dearly from my attempts to learn how to hand quilt and my November mini is also suffering . Ugg I love how hand quilting looks but I may just give it up after these two projects are done. I can load my needle with the stitches to save my life , all I can manage to do is a stab stitch and it never looks nice on the back.

Well enough moaning and groaning I have some wonderful news my ALQS 2 quilt arrives today in the mail !! Oh it's so pretty, I had fallen in love with it when I had seen it on the group blog and I can't belive that it's mine :) :) It is from Debbie in Canada - here is a link to her blog

http://www.makinquilts.blogspot.com/

The photo is from the group blog, as soon as I get a minute I'll post some photo's of it and the wonderful extras that Debbie sent !

Swap Bag Partner Assigned

Partners for the Swap Bag Mini Quilt Swap were assigned yesterday and I think I have the most wonderful partner :) Her name is Bea and we have exchanged a couple of e-mail. Oh I am so happy, Bea is just the sweetest lady ! This is going to be so much fun, I don't think I could have been assigned a better partner !!! The photo above is a pic of the fabrics that Bea is sending to me to make her a mini with. It's out of my normal colour scheme but I have a few ideas floating around in my head. I'll pull out my sketch pad while my client is taking his nap and try to put on paper what is floating around in my head. I think that it will lean more towards the art quilt side than the traditional side though.

Mini Quilt Swap

Just a quick note to let you all know of a mini quilt swap that is starting up over on Tracy's blog From my Scrapbag. It looks like it will be a ton of fun the link to the blog is in my side bar. Hurry on over if you would like to join as signups end here shortly.

Fall Mini Unveil

My partner for the November Swap has recived her mini so now I can show you a pic of it. This pattern is called Hard Times and can be found at the OhSewHitty blog in my side bar.It was really fast and easy to do :)

Come Make a Mini With Me

Are ya'll ready to have some fun with me today ? Ok, step 1 - if your like me you have a bin of 2 inch strips ( if not you'll need to cut a bunch) Here I randomly pair 2 in strips from my Civil War collection and sewed them together.


Step 2 - press them open , pressing towards the darker of the two fabrics.



Step 3 - Sub cut you strip sets into 2 inch slices and pair them as these will be little four patches.




Step 4 - chain piece all your little 4 patch units :)






Step 5 - Press all your 4 patches open

Step 6 - Pick out 2 colours of fabric and cut 6 3 7/8 squares from Each fabric. Now sub cut these squares on the diagonal .

Step 7 - Pair 1 of Each fabric and sew together, press open and cut off the little bunny ears :)

Step 8 - Layout as seen above. Be careful of how you place the 1/2 squares otherwise it won't look right :)

Step 9 - Sew together in rows and you have a wonderful little mini quilt. Now you can add boders to this to make it a bit larger if you like but me I like it this way so tomorow I will be quilting it and adding the binding :) Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and please if you make one comment on this post with a link to the picture as I'd love to see yours !!

Brrrrrrr

I am so proud of myself :) i got a good bit of my short list done yesterday. I got this chinese coin quilt sandwhiched and quilted and I also made the backing for it. I used up a fair amount of scraps in the backing and also a orphan block :) I still have to stitch on the binding, which is srappy also, but I'll save that for another day. Also yesterday I finished the Redwork on the November swap quilt and I have picked out the fabric for the border, I'll sew that on a diffrent day. I got my room almost all the way clean and I'll finish that up today before I go to work. I still have a bunch of clothes that I need to sort through. I started hanging up a bunch of my mini quilts and as soon as I get them all hung I'll show ya'll a pic of my mini's wall.

I got most of the yucky stitching ripped out of Isis's quilt , only about 12 more inches to go. I'll finish the ripping tonight at work while my client is asleep. I got almost 90 charm squares cut, packaged and ready to go and I'll go by the post office today to mail them.

Man it's cold outside today. It was very cold last night, normally I sit outside and stitch all night while my client sleeps but last night I stayed in his house and cranked up the heater :) It's looking like tonight will be the same.

I have a idea :)

I have signed up for the November swap over on the flickr group Swap til' you drop. The November theme is 2 colour quilts. I think that I will do a Redwork mini for this one. I went through all of my patterns last night and I have found the perfect one :) It's from an Antique Redwork quilt. I still have to decide what I will be doing for the other November theme which is Anything Goes, I think I will wait until they hand out partners before I start on that one.

I mailed out my October quilt for the swap group on tuesday but it has to go all the way to Canada so it will still be a little while before I am able to show ya'll a photo of it. I can't wait to see what my partner made for me :)

Well I have all my squares cut for the Spare Change swap and now I'm just waiting on an e-mail to find out where I am supposed to send them.Today I have to cut 86 more 5 in squares for 2 private swaps that I am in. I think these 5 in charms will be wonderful for making mini's with. I need to go by Hobby Lobby the next time I'm in Lake Charles to pick up a little basket to keep them all in.

I will post progress pic's on my mini Redwork quilt tonight. Well a sneek peek anyway :o)

A Mini Finish - Teaser

I finshed my little Fall Swap quilt last night. I am very proud of myself, from start to finish this little mini was finished in one day :) This little quilt measures about 9 1/2 inches square . I just love the back of it - I wish that I had more of the orange acorn fabric but I only had this itty bitty piece left so I placed it onto the backing instead of cutting it up.I will show a full shot of it as soon as my partner recives it so for now all I can show is this little teaser photo.

It feels so good to finally finish something :) I'm having to change directions on my ALQS quilt as I was almost done with the buttonhole stitching on it and my poor little quilt has an accident. I had left an ink pen sitting by it and the darn pen leaked ink overnight so my pretty little quilt now has a huge yucky black stain :( I am going to put together a "just in case" top. I plan to try to get out the stain but in case I can't I need to have a back up plan.

Wanted to give ya'll a heads up Tonya of Lazy Gal is holding a stitch along and if it is going to turn out like the last 2 stitch alongs it will be really neat :) Please go have a look ---

http://lazygalhousehomepantry.blogspot.com/

Fall Scottie Dogs Mini Quilt

I had orignally planned this mini for a swap over on a flickr group that I am part of. However it turned out alot bigger than the guidelines called for. I love it though so I'll work up something else for the swap. I still have the buttonhole stiching to complete on this, I figure that I'll hand quilt this as I'm really wanting to practice my hand quilting. This will be a great winter project :)

The two bottom phot's show the colors alot better than the top photo. Here is a link to the flickr group if any of ya'll are interested in joining.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/877639@N22/