Catching Up on Swappy Stuff

With all of the December activities around here - swooning, postering, boxing, wrapping, packing and traveling - there were a lot of things left undone.  One of them was posting all the wonderful swappy stuff I received in December.

First are the four wonderful packages I received in the Trim the Tree swap.  The Trim the Tree swap is the very first swap I ever participated in on Flickr, and I look forward to it every year.  Not as many participants this year as in years past, and a slightly different format, I think meant to reduce stress on the swap mama, but just as fun as ever.  It's always so exciting to see what people come up with, and this year was no different.  Such a fun assortment of Christmas decorations.  Since I didn't put up a Christmas tree this year (as you can see from the photo - this is only a pseudo tree, put up at the last minute because I couldn't stand the lack of Christmasy atmosphere here!) these will wait until next year when I (hopefully) will decorate more.  We're staying home next year.

This adorable jingle bell snowman was from Shelly.  Isn't he cute?  So much so that I examined him carefully to see how she did it.

A giant jingle bell and a child's Christmas sock seem to figure prominently here.  I love it!  I wouldn't be surprised to see a few more of these next year.

Next is are the ornament(s) Synnove sent.  I love the little basket - it reminds me of a May basket, and will be adorable on the tree - maybe filled with Christmas treats?  The crochet heart is fun also, and might just make an appearance at Valentine's Day as well.  But honestly, I am truly jazzed by the fabric Synnove sent.  I haven't seen this one before, so it will be great fun to add to the stash.  Hope I remember it's there and use it next year.

Muriel sent this adorable Christmas pennant.  Won't this be fabulous on the tree?

Muriel also sent a little Sinterklaas, the Dutch Santa.  She explained that the Dutch celebrate this holiday on December 5.  He is super tiny, maybe 1/2 inch altogether, with another inch for the strings hanging down, but oh-so-cute!

The cute little Christmas house is from Nikki.  It is made from 30's fabric.  I love the little cowboy on the door.  Really sweet.

I also received some bee blocks.  This one is from Kat in Australia in the Sew Fun Bee.  I had asked these ladies to help me finish the blocks for my Granny Square quilt, and they really stepped up.  I have enough blocks now, I think, so all I have to do is make a quilt.  {grin}  I love the orange and aqua combination she used.  It has been a favorite since Arielle chose it for her wedding.

This block is from Cara.  I love this one.  It reminds me of a summer day.  Nice!

This package came while we were gone for Christmas.  Oddly, it required ID to retrieve it from the post office, and WH said he didn't know anyone in Indonesia so I had to go pick it up myself, which isn't always easy when you work the same hours as the post office is open.  Luckily, we had a couple of medical appointments yesterday, so I was able to get by the post office on my way to work.

Inside was this beautiful block from Henny.  I almost never sew with batiks, so this will be a unique addition to my quilt.

Henny also made me this fun little pouch. I have been wanting a pencil pouch to fit in my scripture tote, since my markers and ruler seem to escape fairly often.  This is perfect!  So thoughtful!

Here is the package I received from Kristel in the Modern Scrappy Bits Swap.  This package came all the way from Alberta, so it has a selection of things we don't have in the States, I think.

She chose an amazing selection of fabric scraps for me.  Some I have seen, but most are new to me.  I am really going to enjoy these.

And she stalked me so well that she even included one of her favorite needles after she read my rant about needles a few weeks ago.  It's a Bohin needle, which I've never seen before.  Can't wait to try it.

She also included some wool for crewel embroidery.  I used to do a lot of crewel work, but haven't done any in years, so this will be fun!

Finally, I received a fun package from Heather for the December Swap in the Sew Fun Bee.  Since there were only 11 of us, we decided to swap fun little gifts in December.  I don't know where Heather found the time to create all this - she had a baby on December 3, I think.

I love the way this little pouch coordinates so well with the one I received from Kristel.  I am planning to use them to organize the various small projects I have going on.  Zip lock bags are useful, but sooooo boring.

And I have been coveting one of these cathedral windows pinnies forever.  I love cathedral windows, but haven't tried to make one for myself yet.  Maybe now I won't have to?

Thanks everyone for brightening my holidays and making all these special goodies just for me.

Making Progress...

It's funny how when life gets in the way it takes you awhile to get caught up!  A few weeks ago, I had planned a whole weekend of sewing to do a couple of swaps and even some bee blocks.  I even thought I could maybe get to  THE LIST.  Then we looked at the weather report, and there, rounding the tip of Florida was Tropical Storm Issac.  And The Weather Channel said it was heading straight for us.  WH went into total preparedness panic mode and my whole weekend was shot.  Thankfully, it didn't really come here - we had a little wind and rain, but nothing really significant - and my prayers go out to those who did get inundated by the rains and damaging winds from Hurricane Issac when it came ashore in Louisiana and Mississippi.

And somehow the next couple of weekends just weren't any more productive.

But this past weekend, I actually sat down at the sewing machine and got a few things done.  But not before I missed the deadline for a swap.  I really hate it when I do that.

I participated in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap and the theme was "summer".  I had decided on a beach theme because my partner said she liked it.  I had an idea for a paper-pieced beach scene, but my attempts were not successful, so I finally decided to do an applique project instead.  I've been doing applique since my teens and I spent a lot of time doing applique and embroidery for my kids' taekwondo school when I was a SAHM.  This beachy effort was much more successful.

Then I decided to get a head start on my mug rug that's due on the 15th in the Rugs with Friends Swap.  I've used this little pumpkin before, although this time I drew my own rendition of it because my silly printer wouldn't work.  I thought it looked a little blah, so I added some hand quilting at the last minute.

I liked it better then.

I even remembered to add labels.  But not to take pictures of them.

Then I started getting caught up on bee blocks.

 First I made the August block for Dena.  I've made this one before, so it was familiar.  Except for the green.  Dena said to use whatever color we wanted for the background and I thought the green was kinda fun.  I mis-read the tute and my block ended up at 11-1/2" so I had to take it apart and do it right.  And then I heard that she wanted them 11-1/2", but I figure it's easier to cut off 1/2" all the way around than add it.  Right?

Then I made Heather's string blocks.  I like to make string blocks.  And I have a ton of fabric "strings" so no cutting - just digging through the sack of strings I culled from the scrap basket.  I even had the white cut already.  Easy peasy.

And finally I sat down and did Hilary's paper-pieced kaleidoscope block that she designed herself.  I've decided I don't like paper piecing much, but I do like the results.  It is very precise if you do it right.  I was glad to get this one together.  It is currently winging its way to Australia.

So, that was my weekend.  I did make progress, and I'm pretty much caught up on swappy stuff, at least for now.  It feels great!

"QUILT" Block

I worked on bee blocks this weekend.  I'm trying to get a head start because I'll be out of town next week, and won't have access to a sewing machine.  I wonder if I will go through withdrawal.  Lately, I've been feeling that it is kind of an addiction.

This block is for Nicky in the Sew & Bee Happy bee.  She is doing a quilt using quilting words.  My word was "QUILT".  It was funny, I was looking at my list the other night and I had written "Quilt Block" and I wondered what quilt block I was thinking about.  When I looked and saw that my word was Quilt, it made me laugh at myself.

Anyway, Nicky has a mini-tutorial on her blog, but I didn't really follow it.  She did say that it was like putting together a log cabin block, so I just kind of ran with that idea.  I have to say, my seam ripper and I are much better acquainted now.  Since I didn't know what I was doing, it was hard to do it right the first time.

"L" was naturally the easiest letter.  I cut each strip 1-1/2 inches and sewed an orange on each side of the aqua.  This was also the basis for "I" and "T".

For "I", I just inserted a narrow piece of orange in between the two sections.  The orange piece was about an inch wide, so it finished 1/2".

For "T", I sliced it apart and inserted a piece about 1" for the cross-piece.  I tried a 1-1/2" piece, but it was just too wide and didn't look right, so my seam ripper and I went at it again.

"U" wasn't difficult, but again, it was trial and error to get the look I wanted.  I finally sliced off the corner and added a piece of orange at the bottom before I added the right side so it would have a pegged look.  Here is where the log cabin idea came in - and no seam ripper this time.  Yay!

"Q" was the trickiest of the letters, and I made several attempts at it before I was satisfied.  As it is, it's still a little wonky, but none of the other letters are too precise either, so I think it works.  In fact I kind of like it this way.  Getting the tab at the bottom gave me fits, but I finally worked it out.

I finished up by adding a 1-1/2" border all the way around.  The finished block measures 21-1/2" by about 6" wide.  Nicky suggested the blocks be 6" x 12" but that just wasn't in proportion for such a linear block - to get it 12" long the letters would have only been about 2" wide.

I can see a lot of uses for this block.  Wouldn't it be a cute banner for your sewing room?  How about a mini quilt, maybe decorated up a little?

Oh, I think I'll be doing this again.

Building Blocks

This weekend I managed to finish up a few things that were on the "to do" list.  First, I made this block for Kat, who is this month's queen in the Sew and Bee Happy.  She is doing a reverse rainbow quilt and asked everyone to do a different color block.  I had aqua/teal, and I thought this color scheme would be easy given that I just finished up my Teal We Meet Again quilt.  I was right, but not in the way I imagined.  Most of the scraps in my scrap basket were too small, so I ended up raiding the stash and cutting 4" squares.  I really was surprised at how much aqua and teal fabric I had - I think I could have made 2 blocks and never repeated a fabric.  This was a simple wonky star block with a fun twist, and I enjoyed making it.

I have now received all of my blocks for the 3x6 bee, which I started before the Teal We Meet Again block swap.  I've been thinking that 2 teal and red quilts might be too much, so for this round I tweaked my block request by adding yellow.

I really like the aqua and yellow combination.  I hope it will look great with the aqua and red and brighten up the quilt a little.

And finally, January was my month in the Fall Bee and I asked that everyone help me with my GMFG quilt I started in the First Time Bee.  I think I have figured out that I need 80 hexi flowers to make this quilt, and so far, I think I have 20, so I need all the help I can get.  This is the perfect project for a virtual bee, because I really want a scrappy quilt, and so the more folks who contribute from their stash, the better.  Hexis are so fun to make while you are watching TV or just need a few minutes to relax.  It's also a very portable project, so you can take it with  you if you have a few minutes.  Wish I had known about hexis when I was spending endless hours sitting in karate studios and waiting for piano lessons to finish.  Oh well.

Anyway, I received my first 3 blocks from my bee friends and I finished 3, so I'm making progress.  I finished another during the Super Bowl this evening and  have 3 more started, with 10 more expected from my bee friends, so I'm closing on 35.  I am participating in 2 more bees this year, so if I decided to do GMFG blocks, maybe I'll collect enough by the end of the year to make my quilt.  I'm really excited about these blocks.  Aren't they fun?  I'm actually getting enough blocks that I'm beginning to wonder what color to use for the filler rows.  Suggestions gladly accepted - the only colors I don't want to use are white, black and gray.  I'm actually thinking about yellow, maybe a cute yellow polka dot.  Would that be too busy?

Meanwhile, it's back to work tomorrow, so I'd best run along.  Have a great week.

Another Block Party

Monday was MLK day, and for us bankers, that means a day off.  I sometimes joke that I went into banking for 2 reasons - Weekends and Holidays off.

I spent this holiday making quilt blocks. 

 These two blocks were the January BOM from the Free Craftsy class.  The hostess is Amy Gibbons, and the instructions are easy to follow.  The blocks are very easy and fun, and I even learned a little trick about lining up the sections so that they (mostly) match. 

Then I made 10 Bento Blocks.  Have you ever gotten a bunch of blocks put together and realized that the center block was the wrong size - and therefore the entire block is out of whack?  Well, that's what happened to me. Between the computer and the cutting table the center block gained half an inch.  Consequently, the whole durn block was the wrong size.

Being only somewhat OCD, I took all the finished blocks apart and put them back together.  It wasn't until this morning on the way to work that I realized that since they're going to be sliced anyhow, I could have just cut 1/4" off each side and the blocks would have been fine. More importantly, I would have saved about 4 hours.  Oh well...

I also made a replacement block for one of my swap-mates in the 3x6 bee.  I lost her block

and never have been able to find it.  I was worried that although this block matched her color scheme, she had asked for 30s repro squares and this one really didn't fit that model.  I think the replacement block does better.  Nicey Jane seems retro to me.  Maybe someday I'll run across the lost block and turn it into a pillow or something.

Then I made this ticker tape block for Kritta22 in the Sew Fun Bee.  I've been dying to try this technique ever since I saw this block and this one.  The ticker tape was fun, but I found it a little tricky to get the pieces the right size.  I finally ended up cutting with scissors, which I very seldom do.  Instead of straight stitching, I zig-zagged the pieces onto the background.  I hate the idea of the block raveling apart.  Still, that raw edge look is so popular....  I'm not sure if the circles at the top are dark enough, but I was afraid the fabric would come apart from all the stitching.  It actually started to bow up in the center of the circles.  Anyway, I hope she likes it.

This Garden Gate block was super easy and fun.  It was requested by Alisha in the Fall Bee.

And finally, I completed this Stargazing block for Cindy in the Sew and Bee Happy Bee.  The directions said that you could make it super scrappy by having each point of the star a different fabric, but frankly, I just couldn't wrap my mind around all that scrappiness.  It gave me a headache the first time I attempted the block, and I ended up going to bed early.  Once I decided that I just wasn't clever enough to do it that way, I had a lot of fun with it.

Of course, there was lots more that I wanted to do on the weekend that I didn't get to, but all-in-all, I am satisfied with my progress.  This weekend, I plan to sandwich a couple of quilt tops and maybe even try to quilt them, if Penny Pfaff will cooperate. 

And after 20 years, my Pfaff 1475 finally has a name.  Wonder if it will stick.  Somehow, at this moment, it just seems to fit her.