While You Wait~

...for me to get the binding on the next quilt. ;-) .....

I thought I'd show you my next set of swaps with the ladies on quilter's message board at HGTV. I've got 2 in the works. It is easier for me to keep track of 2 swaps at once, and when I did a poll to see which had the most interest, these rated about medium. So I thought they would be good ones for anyone who likes to sew over the holidays and doesn't have the rush and family committments that others do.

I'm reviving the red/white swap because I love red and white together! :-)) The last swap we did of red/white blocks was in 2007 and you saw the resulting quilt in one of my previous recent posts. Still don't have the binding on, but it is in the 'Q'! :-) This block is called 'Hen & Chicks'.

We are also going to do two different oriental lantern blocks~ using, of course, oriental fabrics! If you've strolled thru a quilt shop recently, I'm sure you have seen all the beautiful oriental prints! Since some of the ladies don't like to paper-piece, we picked 2 blocks. The first one is from about.com and the second one is from Marcia Hohn's Quilter'sCache website. ~~that is really an awesome place to search for free patterns! She has everything! :-) And she is really a sweet person too. I have had the pleasure of emailing her in the past.

You can click on the blocks to make them bigger. And if you'd like to join us, why not check out the message board? :-)

Until next time~

Happy stitchin'!!!

Quiltathon Weekend~

It's a quiltathon weekend~ and I haven't sewed a stitch! :-o

But... I did have a birthday and received lots of quilty-inspiration! :-) And just look at this FQ my mom sent~ isn't it funny?! I know exactly what I am going to do with it, but I can't tell you because I know my mom reads. (Hi Mom!) :-)) LOL

*You can click on it for a closer view. ;-)

And after last weekend's marathon quilting on the HQ, I am still sewing down bindings. ~oh! I guess I have sewed a stitch this weekend. ;-) Hopefully I'll have the next quilted and bound quilt to show soon.

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!!

...and Another One Quilted Up!

Before we moved, I taught a One Block Wonder class from Maxine Rosenthal's book at my guild. The class was a lot of fun~ and a lot of work! :-) This was one of my samples. I am happy to finally get it quilted! I used another all over pantograph called 'Tropical Expressions' by Pattern Man Designs. Being new to machine quilting, I found it a pretty easy panto and I love how the pattern looks on the dark areas! I knew anything I quilted would get lost in the busy-ness of the OBW, and that was ok. ;-) Now it is another project that needs binding... ;-) One of these days... LOL :-)

You can click on the photo's for a little closer view~~

Until next time~

Happy Stitchin'!

More Quilting~

Myra~ I go there to quilt. It is a midarm machine set up on a frame. This photo, from my first trip to the shop might give you an idea of how it looks. ;-) You stand and hold onto the handles and move down the length of the frame, quilting as you go. Or if you are doing a pantograph, you can stand behind the machine and follow a little laser light on your panto. They have handles on the front and back. :-)

The blocks in this quilt are from a swap I did in 2007. I designed my lay-out in EQ. It was fun to play with the Monkey Wrench blocks, come up with an alternate block and then put it all together. ~Even more fun to get it quilted! LOL :-) I used an all over butterfly pantograph. The back is red on white fabric, the light makes it look a little yellow. It's not. :-)

~~Yikes!~ blogger tipped my photo again. :-/ One of these days I will remember to resize them the right way! Sorry.

Until next time~

Take happy stitches!~ :-)

My Weekend~

Well, it didn't start out so good~ a leak in the roof into my sewing room was not what I was looking for when I went to find a binding fabric. :-( But it pretty much only soaked fabric and batting~ both washable so none the worse for wear. ;-)

And I rented the HQ-16 again and got to quilt! :-) Whoohoo! This is my autumn strings quilt~ I found an all over pantograph of different leaves in the shop and it quilted up very nicely. I used a varigated thread, so in some of the plainer area's you can see leaves. :-) Now on to binding. :-)

Tomorrow I'll show another quilted project~ hey, if I keep this up, I might just post every day! :-) LOL

Happy Stitchin'!

Happy Friday!

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my tote. :-) I am already using it to store my rulers and I just love it!

Myra~ you have the right idea's about swapping. I never used to count the number of blocks I swap, but for the Christmas swap we had 402. Everyone got back the same number they sent in, an assortment of other swappers blocks, and no one got any duplicates. That's my goal when I swap. ;-) We had 2 international swappers in this swap.. it is always fun to see the fabrics from other places too. :-) Hopefully I will get my top together in a few weeks. I need to think about how I want to set the blocks. ;-)

I have made lots of quilts from swapped blocks. In fact, I am 'going quiltin' this weekend and hope to quilt up a couple tops from previous swaps. :-) If I remember to take the camera along, I'll take some photo's again. The Christmas Rail Fence I showed after my last quilting trip, and the blue/yellow string quilt both came from swap blocks. As did the 30's quilt I've got in this post. I do have a few more tops to quilt from swapped blocks... all in time. ;-)) I do enjoy my swap blocks! :-)

Until next time, have a good weekend y'all!~

Swappin' Time!~

My Christmas Block Swap that I hosted on the hgtv quilter's forum was due on Saturday and they all made it in on time! Today I set up a few tables and got down to the business of swappin'! :-) Here are some photo's for y'all. Oh yes, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas here! LOL I have about 6 piles to re-count and get bagged up and then tomorrow I'll be off to the PO. :-)

You can click on the photo's for a little bigger view. ;-)

Happy Stitchin'!