Five Easy Pieces - Part I

My little blog has been neglected this week as I have set out to rearrange the sewing room to be more functional and to give me a better idea of what's actually in my stash.  I'll do a post on that later,  when I can actually document the finished {and hopefully clean} space.  With any luck, that will be the topic of tomorrow's post.

In the meantime, I have some finished quilt tops to show.  Most of these are things I took to Stash Bash, and made some progress on.  As I mentioned in this post, I didn't actually finish anything at Stash Bash, mostly because I was missing one little thing in order to complete it.

This guy is my crowning achievement for the last month.  The quilt that has been haunting me for four years  I got the fabric in the fall of 2010, and Amanda actually gave me the templates during quilt market in 2011 (it's just as easy to make two sets as one, right?), so it's been hanging over me at least that long.  I was totally intimidated by these rings.

I shouldn't have been.  They weren't as hard as I thought.  Funny how we let perceived difficulties intimidate us, isn't it?  This quilt is all about organization.  Keeping the pieces in order.  Putting it together in order, etc.  Even sewing the curves is easy - just pin the middle and go for it.

Nothing to be intimidated by there.  But I let the fear get to me for almost 4 years.  I feel pretty silly now.  But I'm glad to have a finished quilt top.  Can't wait to get this one quilted.

The pattern is Single Girl by Denyse Schmidt.  The rings are Spirit by Lila Tueller with some Simply Color by V and Co.  thrown in (it matched perfectly and gave it more variety.)  The background is Moda Bella White, which is my favorite white.  This used up the bolt, so it's time to buy a new one. It lasted almost a year, so that's a plus.  And just for the record, this is a 14 in 2014 finish progress report.

This post is long enough, so I'll share more of my Five Easy Pieces in a day or two.

Thanks for dropping by.

In the Mail

Today's post is all about mail.  Sending and receiving.  Mail - mail that is NOT bills, that is.  The kind of mail that is inherently good.  WH has even begun commenting on the fun little (and sometimes not so little) envelopes and boxes that come in the mail.  Today he greeted me with a big smile and "You got some more fabric in the mail today!"  Fun, fun, fun!

First, the outgoing mail.  I mailed the 27 A Blockwork Orange blocks to the swap mama.  I can't wait to get my 27 different blocks back!  How cool is that?  But, I do have to admit that I liked the blocks I made a lot...  I may have to make some more of them, since I didn't keep any.  I wonder if Elizabeth's pattern works in multiples of 9, or if 27 is optimum?  I'll have to check it out.

I also mailed BD#2's finished Sugar Rush quilt.  It is such a good feeling to finish a project and get it off to where it is supposed to go.  I hope she likes it as much as I do.

And I mailed these little guys, but I can't say where they went just yet.  Let's just say they are now winging their way all over the world.  Literally.

And in today's mail, I got my first two Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks for my GMFG quilt.  Aren't they pretty?

And I received the fabric for the blocks I am supposed to make for spontaneousthreads in the Christmas Fabric Bee.  She wants us to use the mod mosaic tutorial by Elizabeth Hartmann to create her blocks.  I've been wanting to try this, so it sounds like fun!

And a week or two ago, I received the fabric for the other two QBs in the CF Bee.  This one is for Fairly Merry.  Check out the pretty fabric for the center square.  The photo seriously doesn't do it justice.

And this package is for Singings - and has real silk in it.  Oh-so-elegant...  Just lovely!

And I thought it was amusing that when I put the three packages all together, they were in identical envelopes.  Funny, huh?  No wonder WH can tell when I get fabric in the mail!

And I've been neglecting telling everyone about the other cool mail I got.  BD#! sent me the most wonderful package the other day.  It was an assortment of Freebird by MoMo and Garden Party by Anna Maria Horner.  YUMMY!!!  And she also sent me a complete set of templates for my Single Girl quilt.  I really have to get going with that one.  I am so far behind....  It is awfully nice to have the templates cut though.  That much less work to do!

I also received my next-to-last set of charm squares in the Chronic Seamstress charm square swap.  So pretty.  The last ones were supposed to come from Louis in the UK and be Liberty fabrics, so I hope they come.  He said he mailed them way back in February.  I don't know of anyone who got squares from him, though.  Hope they're not lost!

 And I think I mentioned I got my order from Pink Chalk fabrics.  So fast.  And isn't it a great collection???  They were all on sale.  The Spirit charm squares were $4.48 and the other fabrics were all about the same per yard.  I could have bought more (oh yeah!) but I exercised a great deal of restraint and stuck with adding to my collections rather than embarking on something new.  In this lot is the Weekends by Erin McMorris, It's a Hoot by MoMo, and one piece of Central Park, because my LQS doesn't have any of the Lawn Zoo, for some reason.  To me, it's the piece de resistance of the entire collection.  Go figure.

Finally, I "won" this ugly fabric in the Save the Uglies giveaway.  I don't think there were many entrants, but I'm going to go ahead and try to make something beautiful out of this.  I actually think the dark brown is kinda nice, but the orange-ish fabric has Halloween words on it.  I decidedly do not want to make a Halloween quilt.  Do you think I can cut pieces small enough that the words are just random letters, and not words like "trick or treat" or "pumpkins"?  We'll see...

Catching Up - Times Three

Charms received from Laura

 This morning before work I had a few extra minutes and I decided to take a couple and go through the mail which was falling out of the basket onto the floor, which is a pretty good indication that it had been several weeks since I had done this oh-so-boring (usually) task.  If you have been following this blog, you will know that the last couple of months have been stressful at best, and I have been coming home, collapsing in a chair, and getting up the next morning to do it all over again.  The arrival of these yummy little packages of Flickr mail, along with some serious fabric therapy, extra kindness from WH, and some thoughtful packages from Beautiful Daughter #1 have kept me going.  Thanks to all of you.

When I wrote my catching up posts last weekend, I had the tickling thought in the back of my mind that there should be more of these fun little envelopes floating around my house, but I didn't take the time to go back and look.  Well, today when I went through the mail, I rediscovered some of these great little pick-me-ups that have brightened my days over the past few weeks.  All of these items had been opened, then left with the mail and shoved in the basket in an effort to tidy up.  We won't make any judgments about how effective my tiding up might have been.

So, there was this delightful package (photo above) from Laura which included some truly yummy fabric charms.

Charm Swap package from Judy

Then there was this package from Judy.  I love the flowers.  You can always use flower prints in a quilt.  Very nice.

Charm squares from Lynn

 Lynn sent this great package of really fun prints.  Such an interesting mix. These will be fun to add to my quilt.

Charm square package from Bev

Bev's package included some of my all-time favorites, including some Bliss prints.  These will make great additions to my quilt(s).

I also rediscovered two jelly rolls I bought on ebay a couple of weeks ago.  The lady had a great sale and shipping was FREE!  Who can resist that?  The Central Park is such a fun print.  If I can bear to cut into it, I'm thinking I will make this into a quilt for the Silent Auction at the Opera Ball in April.  Not quite sure what I'll do with the Lily & Will, but it would make a great boy quilt.

Earlier this week, I received my third postcard from the Fabric Postcard Swap.

Fabric postcard from Mary (13 insane penguins)

Isn't it Valentine-ey?  Mary (13 insane penguins) was brave enough to put a stamp on it and stick it in the mail.  It came through just fine, but I'm still not sure that I'd be brave enough to do that.  With my luck, a thread would get caught in one of those postal machines and rip it to shreds.

I mentioned above that BD#1 had been cheering me up with fun packages.  I received two great books in late January that I've been poring over in my spare moments.  I have even made a project from one of the books already.  Today, I received this

in the mail all the way from Australia.  BD#1 traded a layer cake she had for this one because she knew I liked it.  It is always so much fun to get international packages.  They seem so exotic somehow.  Anyway, I think that this will be the fabric for my Single Girl quilt.  I think it will be perfect.  I'm getting excited!

So now, I THINK I am all caught up.  Maybe.