Still Struggling

with this cold/flu/whatever but I will pull it together long enough to show my recent mail. First is my February Plain Jane Mini from Toni in Montana:

The second is my February Children's Literature Mini from Mari in Norway! She chose the lead character from one of her favorite childhood books and it is wonderful. She included a picture of the book and a wonderful felted flag of Norway pouch. Not sure yet what I will use it for but it will be used!

Last, but definitely not least, is my little quilt from Fanny for the Mini Quilt In a Bag Swap 2. For this swap we either purchased a charm pack or made up one from our stash and sent it to our partner. Our partner then had to use at least a small piece from each of those charms in a small quilt for you. I chose to make up a charm pack since I have no shortage of fabric and chose from my blue, yellow, white and green bins. Needless to say, Fanny outdid herself! I hope I can do justice to the charm pack she sent me!

I also received 2 packets of 4-patches from my partners in the 4-patch swap. I got mine sent out on Tuesday and will post pictures of all of mine once they are all here.

Quilt Retreat Part 2

Here is a look at what I did accomplish at the retreat. First is the rail fence top that I got put together. It used up a lot of my 1.5" strips and pieces. What is left is mostly longer strips so there might be another log cabin in my future.

I put together the 4-patch blocks I need to get sent to my swap partners. The fabric all came from one of my scrap drawers. I only used the scraps that were 2.75-3" wide and I managed enough for 30 blocks!




These next two blocks are going along with the center block for my Spring Fling Round Robin 3 quilt. Swap Mama Margaret will be collecting all the center blocks and sending them out to the first border maker and so asked for 2 12.5" blocks appropriate for Project Linus quilts in exchange for the postage.






I have become 'notorious' at these retreats for using small scraps so a couple of people gave me the triangles they cut off from their projects. I turned them into Broken Dishes blocks. I have some ideas for using these either in individual projects or with other Broken Dishes blocks I create from various projects. I am thinking the ones on the left might become a doll or baby quilt.



My last project is going to be a doll quilt/wall hanging. I had the little yellow and green HST in a box at home along with more of those two fabrics and the dark green and white on white so I threw them in with my other retreat projects. The little triangles in the border were the leftover triangles from making the flying geese units for the stars. I plan to add another white border yet but I ran out of the white on white so I had to wait to get home.

Tomorrow, pictures of the mail that was waiting for me when I got home and that has come since!

Quilt Retreat Part 1

It has been quite a while since I posted and I am sorry! I was just busy and not in my sewing room very much. I did get another top quilted on the long arm and the binding is on it but I have not finished the handsewing on any of those three bindings because I have been working on getting things ready for our accountant while watching TV instead of doing that hand sewing.

I also spent time getting projects ready to take to the quilt retreat which was this past weekend. I had just enough projects for this retreat but only because I was sick for most of the retreat! The first two nights I was in bed by 8:30 and though I got up at around 6-6:30 in the mornings I was back in bed by 8:30-9 AM! On Saturday I stayed in bed most of the day dozing and doing a little reading or just laying there.

On the up side I really liked my new SewEzi table. My one big project that I worked on was a rail fence top made of many, many 1.5" X 3.5" pieces. As you can see in the second picture, I discovered that when chain piecing smaller pieces they just naturally feed themselves down through the back carrying handle of the table which I though was great because you don't end up with a knotted pile of pieces after doing several hundred!

What I discovered when I ran out of bobbin thread though was even better! I checked on the floor to see if any unsewn pieces had fallen down and discovered this 'wreath' of pieces. And it happens every time when the pieces are fed through that little handle. They form a nice circle and so don't get tangled up at all!

Later today I hope to get pictures taken of the things I worked on and will continue with my retreat update soon.

I got 6 blocks done this morning for the Bush Fire Quilts. I will get them in the mail this week and then if I get more done I can send them next month. The response to this project is quite amazing!

I also started getting projects ready to take to the quilt retreat. I have three small quilts to do the quilting and binding on, along with at least three other smaller quilt projects. I hope I have enough to work on - it seems like so little compared to what I usually bring. I am going to try to find a couple other small things I can bring because I would hate to run out of things to sew!

This is one of the projects I will be bringing along. The other day I got this charm pack from my swap partner, Fanny, in the Mini Quilt In A Bag Swap 2 - Simply Charming. These are Howard Marcus Heritage from Moda. I have my plan and even got most of the cutting done.

I joined another group

I am sure you have all heard about the fires in Australia. Tia, a quilting friend over on flickr, has started a group to make quilts for those who have lost everything in the devastating fires. She is asking people to make 12.5" star blocks and send them to her. She will then put the blocks together into quilts and get them to those who need them. I am hoping to get a few made and in the mail this week. If you want to join, head on over to the group Bushfire Quilt Project.

Two quilted

My friend, Roxanne, let me try out her long arm machine. She got a Tin Lizzie this past fall and told me I was welcome to come over and try it out. I finally got backs ready for several tops I have done so today was the day. I got both of my log cabin quilts done. We had a few difficulties with the first one because of the seams but once we got that taken care of it went really well. I will work on getting the binding tomorrow probably and when they are done I will get pictures up.

Sneak peeks

These are my two minis for February. I finished the tops today and have the backs ready and the binding. Just need to sandwich and quilt and then bind and I will be done! WooHoo! I really need to get started thinking about what I am bringing to the retreat in less than two weeks!

Last night I went to a local quilt guild meeting to hand out flyers to our church's quilt show in March. I did the same thing at another guild last week and must say the people at this one were much friendlier. I might actually go back sometime! At the one last week, not one person came up to me and welcomed me and last night was the opposite.

Getting back into the swing of things

Here is a picture of my 'important' work from last week - building a 'big building'! I have no excuses now for getting nothing done!

Today I got my charm squares cut and mailed for round 2 of the Mini Quilt In A Bag Swap.I decided I couldn't justify buying a charm pack to send when I have so much fabric already. I haven't received my quilt from the last round yet but I should soon - it is on its way from Australia I believe.

This afternoon I hope to get the second quilt back finished so I can look at a good day to take one down to my friend's house to try out her new long arm machine.

Today I also bought one of those roll-around sewing machine case things - though technically it is for scrapbooking. I am going to use it for my plane trip to the quilt retreat in a couple of weeks and when I looked at the ones made for sewing machines they just looked so huge and I am just taking a Singer 301 so I took a chance and bought this one and it is a perfect size for my machine and I can pack my projects around it for a little padding for the trip. All the sharp things like rotary cutter and scissors will be in my checked bag. I finally broke down and order a portable sewing table for the retreat also. I had it sent to my sister's house since I will be there for a couple of days before the retreat and I didn't want to have to figure out how to get it on the plane! I bought and extra insert so I can use it for my two favorite machines. I hope it works out well!

Well, I had better get to that back or it will never get done!