Quilt guild nametags...

I'm fairly new to the world of quilt guilds but at my local guild everyone wears a nametag (preferably made by each person). After you've been a member for 6 months, if you forget to wear your nametag or haven't made one yet, one gets to pay up!! I decided it was time I made mine...grabbed what I saw from the top of my scrap bag and a few pieces of rick rack...ran out of time to sew on the button before I raced off to quilt guild!!! But, here it is...my first ever "mini" quilt...aka nametag!! I love the "Y" from my leftover zipper!! (wondered what I could use that for!!!)

EXCHANGE of the purple quilt blocks...

Hello....yes, you!

Do you or someone you know love the color purple??

Are you interested in a purple 6-in square purple quilt block exchange? I received a letter from a friend with 2 fabulous purple squares (see above) and a letter to go along with an exchange. The idea...send 2 squares to the person at the top of the list, bump them off the list, add yours to the bottom, then give or mail the same letter with the new list to 4 of your friends with 2 squares of purple fabric! If your friends and theirs participate you will end up with 72 6-inch squares of all kinds of different purple fabric squares to start a quilt.

If you are interested, please email me so I can send you your first 2 squares and the letter!

projects that are getting closer....

Oooh la la....I love to see a project take "shape"!!! :) This past weekend a friend and I were able to help keep our favorite quilt shop in town open while the gals were off to quilt market! What a fun experience...and now I know just how hard our friends work to help customers find the "perfect" fabric to go with a project!!

We also had some good quality sewing time and my goal was to keep working on my UFO's so I can get more FINISHED! 4 days in the quilt shop...and only took home 1 yard of fabric...SHOCKING!! I'm still surprised...but know "I'll be back" (spoken in an Arnold S-kind of voice!)

Sticking to my goal was great as I was able to get CLOSER to finishing some very fun projects...

Pumpkins...Buggy Barn style! I love this pattern.

And very very close to finishing my "Big Bang". For this quilt top I've used "Wordplay". I love this fabric and can't wait to measure, cut, and sew the 4 pieces together!

Every morning on my way into the quilt shop I walked past this frog. He sits watching a fountain along the street in our downtown area. Quiet contemplation - a pose I adore and often find myself in...

Hope your week is swell! :)

Hip to Be Square complete!

It's always nice to finally finish a project - completely! I seem to have many started projects and several quilt tops ready for the quilting part...and this completed project is only my 2nd quilt completed.

I learned a lot about binding by machine. I know I need more practice but this was much easier than I thought...someday I'll try it by hand but this time I was on a deadline since I will be donating this to Girls' Council for an auction this weekend.

Here's the front:

And I pieced the backing with some leftovers...

I love this pattern. Might just have to make another sometime...it goes together pretty quickly!

Hip to be square quilt top in "Spa"

Hip to be square quilt top is complete and ready for quilting. I've been working on this project quickly as it will be donated at an auction to support Girl's Council. Can't wait to get this one quilted...next week!!

Local quilt fair = fabulous finds!!!

Well...last weekend was our local quilt fair/festival. This was the 2nd year I've gone. I did not enter a quilt as I did not finish in time...will make a plan for something to be complete for next year!

I do love quilt fairs though...lots of ideas floating around all over and vendors!!!! all in one place!

I found these lovely books....

I must say I love all of them. The book "A Boy's Story" is a fabulous book from out of Australia. It has the cutest designs for stitchers (which I'm very new to)...fun cartoons. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in making a great boy's quilt.

Collaborative quilting....WOW...what a find...it was in the used book section...I love everything about this book...so inspiring and such bright fun colors!!!

And Buggy Barn...they were the featured quilters. Pam and Janet were great!

I love their stuff and seeing them demo how their quilt patterns work makes me want to make one even more! The patterns don't seem very difficult, at all! My favorite pattern: Scaredy Cats.

Can't wait to make one!

Nutella on toast...have you ever had this?!! Mmmm.....it's dangerous stuff...I want more! Time for some dinner...

X's and O's...

I've been working on a quilt for my niece for a while now...simple really but the fun part was making my own fabric for it. Finally getting it to the quilting stage..yeah! I'm calling it X's and O's. Took me a long time to think about how I wanted to quilt it. A few of the fabric blocks I made have x's and O's on them...so far quilting the x's is easy!! :)

Now for the O's...

I think I could have used more safety pins! Next time...