October was Bailey's month for Let's Bee Together swap.
She wanted a Mod Mosaic block based on Oh, Fransson tutorial. She sent some wonderful fabrics and the sashing strips precut. I can see where it would take practice to make these blocks. It is not an easy technique but fun! Great way to use up scraps.
Keep dreaming...Colleen
Half of the blocks that will be in the Star Trek quilt for my Dad.
It is my next project. They were from a 1995 swap. Can you name what they all are?
Isn't it amazing how sometimes you have a piece quilted, are attaching the binding, and it just doesn't look quite right? But, the moment you get the binding finished it all of a sudden looks perfect! That's how it was with my sweet little finish. A potholder for someone secret in the Triad Modern Quilt Guild. We will give them to our secret partner on Tuesday at the meeting. Part of that exchange is telling of the journey. That's why I love swaps of smaller items. They are a great way to stretch your skills, practice ones you have just learned, and try something new.
This potholder took me on a little journey. I pulled out one of my Aneela Hoey's Sherbet Pips charm packs and carefully choose some squares to cut up. One of the things my partner said she liked was red and white so I focused on those prints. I added the red and gray prints too. I added some small hst to the corners of two of the squares. I love these prints!
I have this old metal strainer I throw keeper scraps in when I'm sewing. I just turned it over and cut around it. I then had to decide what to put on the back. This red and white print from Bonnie & Camille's Bliss-another favorite collection- was perfect!
I then used some more of the Free Spirit Dogwood Gray I used to frame the 9 patch on the front as binding. I also added a little hanging tab with a scrap of Sherbet Pips. It folds under nicely so you don't see it unless you need it. I really think it turned out cute! It has two layers of thermal batting which was the only real requirement.
We had 15 people sign up for this first swap experience.
He was found as a tiny kitten by my sister's neighbors almost two years ago.
His name is Cary because the neighbors backyard cat (they have a front yard one too) used to carry Cary around .
He came to live at my mom and dad's and became one of my dad's babies.
He also became the bain of their other cat Jasmine's (Jazzy-girl) life.
After all she is the queen.
Cary was coming into his own.
He had even recently beat up the neighbors cat instead of being beat up himself. He was no longer quite so Scaredy Cary. He even started to pose like Jasmine.
Well some one ran over Cary Friday and killed him.
He was so sweet, going through those terrible wild twos and chasing squirrels every where. I think the worse thing is that the person did not even stop and call my parents to tell them. Just hit him and left. My parents live in a nice neighborhood and this happened a couple houses down. How could someone do that? Thanks for letting me share Cary with you. Im tearing up as I write this. I want to leave you with a cute little video of Cary-kitty.
New Cary kitty meeting the family.
Keep dreaming...Colleen
My own kitty angel-Opus whose grave Cary was buried near.
So I'm still dealing with the aftereffects of the crud. And trying to get caught up on swaps. I had such a great schedule for the the last week and a half that is totally blown. I was supposed to start on Christmas presents in November. Oh well. So first up is the Sewingly Yours BOM. If you do your block and bring it to one of the meetings on the first Tuesday of the month you get your next block kit free. The initial cost is $10.68. If you miss you have to pay again. So here is the second block. They are in batiks.
Can you tell I had to pice the center block. Note to self plan for each piece of fabric before cutting.
And here is the first two blocks together.
I like learning different techniques for making the blocks.
I also was able to finish my DS Quilts Doll quilt. I machine quilted it on my Babylock Sofia.
I'm still learning how to use it correctly. It is really sensitive to needle and thread. I'm still learning. I did a lot of straight line and out line quilting. I like the graphic quality.
I bound it with a dark blue and tiny roses print. The hairclips can be found in the quilting notions setting. They are great for holding the binding even on larger quilts.
And here is the completed Ds Quilts Doll quilt! I really like it! And now to send it on its way to its new owner.
Keep dreaming...Colleen
DS Quilts loveliness.
Doll quilt and Let's Bee Together August blocks.
So I've been battling the crud since last Friday and it has had me wiped for the last week. I managed yesterday to put up some decorations and do some needed shopping. I am feeling a whole lot better today, but all my sewing has been derailed. I am now behind on some of my swaps, so I got back in the saddle this afternoon.
I have had the center of the top done for a month. I had planned to complete it last weekend. I kind of battled with this quilt. I felt pushed by the comments of others to change what I had planned to do. When I had finished the above I hated it and put it aside for a while. A couple of weeks ago I came up with a solution. So today I got out the wax paper and pencil and paper pieced my favorite stars.
I really like it now!
I will back it with another DS Quilts print, machine quilt it (any ideas?) and bind it in the tiny dark blue and red print. I hope to finish it tomorrow.
BTW I will mail another swap package tomorrow I managed to finish last Sunday. This is for a partner very far away and I included some goodies.
