More Swappy Stuff

Well, it's clear from the photo above that I really need to keep my REAL camera in the sewing room because these iphone shots are just not awesome, but since I've already given this little pillow cover away, it's all I have.  I finished the tree just before I headed for bed the other night, and overall, I'm pleased with how it turned out.  I made it for my swap partner in the ECMQG Christmas Swap.  Such wonderful items were swapped at the meeting yesterday.  It was so fun to see everyone's creativity, and all the squeals of delight.  Unfortunately, my partner wasn't able to attend, but she sent a surrogate, so I hope she liked it.

And while I really liked this little tree, I only have enough of this wool felt for one more.  I looked at the local hobby shop and wool felt is scarce as hen's teeth.  And boy!  Is there a difference in quality.  Whew!  I can't believe we used to take this stuff for granted.   Anyway, I don't have enough of this to make this ornament for all my partners in the Trim the Tree swap, and no time to order more from my online source.  See what I get for waiting until the last minute!

So, I decided to go a different direction for the TTT swap.  These ready-to-fill ornaments fascinate me.  There are so many things you can do with them.  Last year I bought round ones and filled them with scrapbook paper rings.  My friend filled them with sand and attached a tag from where she lives.  This year, I found these cute Christmas-light shaped ornaments and decided to fill them with various sized pom poms.  It was a fun and easy craft and I had a lot of fun making them.  I attached a little plaid bow, and voila!  One Christmas ornament.  I think I will make a few of these for my tree.

So, I'm making progress on completing these swap items.  Two more (or is it three?) to go...  Or did I say that yesterday?  Anyway, I AM making progress.  Really!

Shhhh... It's a Secret

Knowing how much I like hexagons and tote bags, a few weeks ago Leona gave me this Charming Hexagons tote bag pattern by A Quilting Life.  Sometime later, Krista invited me to the Secret Tote Bag Swap on Lia's blog.  The two seemed destined to go together.  While Krista was doing her chemo last week, we picked the charm pack/fabric via text message (isn't modern technology wonderful?) and I cut the hexagons with my new {to me} AccuQuilt.  I'm not sure whether I'd use the AccuQuilt for simple squares, strips and rectangles, but for shapes like the hexagon, it is wonderful - accurate every time is awesome for machine piecing hexagons.

Since the topic at the ECMQG meeting on Saturday was hexagons, it was perfect.  I used the method Marcy demonstrated at the meeting to do all the Y-seams and it came together very quickly.

Marcy had some scraps up for grabs, and they came in pretty handy, too.  Anything you recognize here, Marcy?  I quilted down each row, and then came back to quilt each crossing line individually.  Honestly, it went more quickly than I expected.

The only thing I didn't like about the pattern was that it had no pockets.  I think pockets are an absolute must for tote bags.  Luckily, since I've  - ahem - made a number of tote bags lately, it was a simple matter to add a couple of pockets to the interior of the bag.  My favorite divided pocket on one side....

And a zipper pocket on the other side.  (Um, Marcy, do you recognize anything else?)  I really love scraps!

So, one more project ready to mail. But don't tell...

Shhhh....  It's a secret!

13 in 2013 - March Goal {and a Recap}

I am feeling pretty good that I managed one completed quilt so far this year (not counting Swoon) - the first from my list of 13 finishes in 2013.  But apparently I'm too late to enter it in the contest for A Lovely Year of Finishes on Flickr.  Oops.  Oh, well.  The finished quilt should be reward enough, shouldn't it.

My Jelly Roll Race is my goal for March.  It is about half quilted, so it should be a do-able goal for the month.  Now that I am a victim of the economy and not working I have a lot more time to finish projects.

I'm also working on my Madrona Road Challenge quilt.  I recently joined the Emerald Coast Modern Quilt Guild (see this post) and apparently they didn't get their fabric in time to do the national challenge, so our deadline is this Saturday.  I didn't get the fabric Michael Miller distributed, but I had already purchased a FQ bundle from my favorite little fabric shoppe (yup!  Westwood Acres) and so I decided to join in.  The pattern is "Heximetry" from Ali Winston (a2w) and Ali originally made it as a baby gift for my sweet little grandson Britton.  It's a really fun pattern to make and even the Y-seams aren't that tricky.  I added a scrappy border to make it just a little larger, and it's coming along nicely.  My Madrona Road yardage got here just in time, so quilting on this little guy is
underway.

 And I've got one more row to add to my GMFG, and then the half-flowers for the sides, and I think it will be done.  I'm debating sending it out and having it quilted.  What do you think?

And finally, here's a peek at what I was doing on Saturday.  My Little Apples quilt went on a road trip to the Emerald Coast Quilt Show.  He wasn't made as a show quilt, so I didn't have any expectations, but it was fun to see him hanging there with such beautiful masterpieces.  Sadly, I got there after most of the festivities were over, and they canceled my demos because most everyone had gone home, but it was a nice quilt show.  I enjoyed looking at all the lovely quilts and checking out the various vendors (and I was very proud that I didn't buy anything - it probably helped that I had just gone to A&E before I left for Destin.)

So that's what's been going on in this neck of the woods.

What's on your list?

So Interconnected - A Story

 It's amazing what a small world the online quilting community really is.  Today, I want to tell you a story....

On Tuesday, when my sweet daughter posted on her blog about the quilt I made her for Christmas,  I got lots of wonderful comments on my own blog posts about the quilt.  It warmed my heart!  

One of those readers read my post about my Waterfall pillow and noticed that I said that while I was at the drugstore, this gorgeous fabric fell into my cart.  Ha!  Ha!

Not many people, I believe, buy gorgeous modern quilt fabric at the drug store.  Our local quilt shop just happens to be A&E Pharmacy.

It's really not much to look at on the outside, but inside is a wonderful selection of lovely modern quilt fabrics, notions, patterns, and a friendly, helpful staff.  If you're ever in Pensacola, this is the place for quilters to come to shop.

This is where I go when I need fabric (of course) or helpful advice.  A&E is where I pulled about 40 bolts to find the coordinating fabrics to finish the swoon blocks featured in the quilt above!  (Oh, I'll bet they loved me when it was time to put those away!!)

Anyway, back to my story...  After reading that comment, Cindy emailed me and said, "Funny, I buy fabric at a drug store too...." and we got to chatting online, quickly realized we both lived in the same town, and she invited me to the Emerald Coast Modern Quilt Guild meeting on Saturday.  I've been meaning to go for months.  I really have.  But it's an hour away, and it just seems so far, and... and... and... (can you hear me whining???)

So, thanks to her kind invitation and suggestion that we convoy over to Crestview, I decided the time was right.  I had such a good time!  The ladies there were so friendly and welcoming.  I felt right at home.

And so talented!  I was so inspired by the beautiful things everyone brought for show and tell.

Kim even brought her Madrona Road Challenge quilt.  Gorgeous, isn't it???  In a stroke of irony, Kim used BD#1's Pointed in the Right Direction pillow tutorial as the focal point in her quilt.  Isn't it fabulous (the quilt, not the picture - it really doesn't do it justice, and I only took one shot ={  )?  Everyone was so complementary of my talented daughter, I felt like I was basking in reflected glory all day!

I even got to wear my cool name tag that lovethesky40 made for me.

And, I was invited to put my Little Apples Quilt in the 2013 Emerald Coast Quilt Show.  I've never entered a quilt in a show before.  This one is far from perfect, and I don't expect it to win anything at all, but Marcy, this year's ECMQG president, said they were looking for examples of modern quilting that had an "I can do that" feel, and this one fills that requirement for sure.  It is a charm square and jelly roll combination, suitable for the beginning quilter.  Of course, I was flattered.

One of the cool things about the ECMQG is that the meeting is combined with a sew day, so there is lots of opportunity to learn and bond and work.  We had a demonstration/lesson on paper piecing by the awesome Kira, using the amazing Wonky Alphabet pattern designed by founding ECMQG member Kelly who blogs at kelbysews.  Kelly was one of my first swap partners.  I still have trouble wrapping my mind around thinking inside out and backwards when paper piecing, but her tips were extremely helpful, and I did end up with a usable (I hope) set of letters for a little Valentine gift.

I also got to meet "the other Kelly" who was the first president of the ECMQG, and who was my partner for Pillow Talk 8 (I think it was 8...)

I even spent a couple of hours quilting my Fairy Tale Friends quilt, which has been sandwiched almost 6 weeks, and sitting there since... um... July???  It's about 50% done now, I think, so I'm excited to have made some progress.  I hope to finish it this week, and start on the next one.



In reflecting on this little set of circumstances, I was struck by how interconnected we all are.  It's kind of amazing really....

All in all, it was it was a fabulous day.  I can't wait to go back.