Swap Season

I signed up for a couple of fabric swaps. The first one is Karen's red & white swap. I delivered 125 red charm squares to her when we met for lunch yesterday! I didn't take pictures. How non-bloggy of me!

The second swap is Wendy's polka dot swap. I just cut 80 charms and packed them up to mail.


I wanted to list the names of the prints, but only two of them had selvedges. The purple one is Freckles by Free Spirit and I'm guessing it is at least 10 years old. The candy dot print is "bijoux dot" from Alexander Henry, 2006. I love selvedges with dates, so you can tell if they are ripe!

Hearts for Heather

A young member of our quilt guild got married in May, so naturally, we made her a quilt! I asked members to make a 6" heart block, with a red or pink heart on a cream or white background. I pieced the top and back on Monday, quilted it on Tuesday (after running to the LQS for batting!), and bound it on Wednesday, so we could present it to Heather at the meeting on Wednesday night.


To quilt it, I stitched in the ditch then did my loopy swirl in the background of each block. The cornerstones have a quilted heart.

There is a lovely assortment of techniques on display.
Click on the photos to enlarge.

Here we have hand applique, crazy quilting and lace, string piecing, and an embroidered bee (this quilter keeps bees!).


Machine applique, linked hearts, fancy stitches in metallic thread, and log cabin piecing.

More machine applique and text(!), hand applique, another pieced heart with reverse applique, and a Bible verse.

Hand applique on a pieced background, machine applique with variegated thread, clever piecing and reverse applique, and a napping heart.

I was lucky to find the perfect print in my stash for the backing to pull together the pinks and reds and that bit of blue.

Rose decided the husband needed a bow tie! One quilter made an extra block, so I signed that one.

The lovebird motif on the label is from the book Doodle Stitching: The Motif Collection by Aimee Ray. (It is half-price right now on Amazon!) I thought I would embroider it, but I wasn't in the mood for such tiny work. I think it is cute in ink, too.

I meant to show you this photo as a sneak peek on Wednesday. Is it weird that I'm looking at the grass thinking that the mower blades need to be sharpened?

This mock orange shrub is right next to the deck, where I photographed the quilt. The scent is heavenly! I can even smell it from here at the desk as I type!

I'm off to enjoy a rare sunny day with no thunderstorms in the forecast!

Barbara McKie

Our quilt guild was treated to a trunk show by award-winning artist, Barbara McKie. I was sitting in the 3rd row, so my photos include the backs of quilters' heads! Please visit Barbara's website gallery to see more of her amazing work.

Barbara uses her own photos from her garden and her travels as inspiration for her work. She often manipulates photos in photoshop before printing them to fabric.

The piece below has dahlias appliqued onto a gorgeous shibori background that she painted.

Her work includes a good deal of whimsy, like her Plantimal series. Orchids with eyes!

Please go to her gallery to see more, including "I'm Watching You" which won 1st place digital quilts in Houston last November.

Weekend Wildlife

I hope this deer is healthier than she looks. There is plenty for her to eat in my backyard!

We've been pruning the bushes around the house, getting ready for the painters to come. While I was at it, I started pruning the weedy vines (foreground) that like to grow up the pine tree. As I pulled on a branch, I spotted these babies! One of them had his mouth open, ready for a treat, which prompted me to scream as if I was being attacked by the local bear!

Then we spotted this creature on our roof!

We sent him out through his bedroom window to prune a pine tree branch. He likes it out there! What have I done?!

Hexies To Go

I packed up a traveling Hexie kit to take to baseball and softball games and the beach. The gorgeous pouch is from Gabrielle and is the perfect size! In it goes the needle case from Sylvia. Aren't swaps so much fun?!

I drafted my own hexagon papers that are 1/2" on a side and 7/8" tall. They go in an old Altoids tin with some precut fabric. Throw in little scissors, a spool of thread and my reading glasses and I'm good to go!

I'm not happy with how much the cream thread shows on the dark rings. Can you see it or is it just me? I might need to un-sew those and try a matching thread or medium gray. What would you do?

Last year's traveling hexie project was this table runner. I'm hoping this summer's Grandmother's Flowers will become a mini quilt with traditional green paths.

(I searched for a photo of the runner and then remembered it is my new banner!)

Playing Catch-up

There hasn't been much sewing going on these days other than the Block Lotto blocks. This time of year, there is a lot of running around to games, concerts and ceremonies. It's all good, but it doesn't leave much time to sew.

My Girl Scout troop is working on a sampler quilt. It is slow going during meetings, so I have started to invite one girl at a time to come over to sew. It took Catherine almost 2 hours to cut and sew her HST units. They still need to be trimmed and assembled. She is graduating from high school soon and it was her first time sewing on a machine. I think she liked it!

Pete's current garage band, Attractive Dan, competed in a Battle of the Bands and earned 3rd place! Not bad for 2 sophomores and 2 freshmen. He's hoping this group will stay together for a while. (He has played in a different band every year since 7th grade that only played one show each.) They are writing their own songs and have already played 3 shows.

It is so hard to get a good shot of Pete on the drum set with my point and shoot camera, no matter how I try to manipulate the exposure. It's just darker back there on the stage. I'm still trying to decide if we should buy a digital SLR before the big vacation this summer.

The rhododendron in the front yard is incredible! People are saying that the massive amount of rain we had this Spring has been good for the flowering shrubs. We haven't had this many blooms on this one in years.

I saw two bunnies in the back yard before Pete mowed the lawn. I like the way the photo is a little fuzzy from zooming in.

We have a busy few days ahead.
Memorial concert tonight: Julia singing alto in the choir, Pete on timpani in the orchestra.
Girl Scout Bridging and Gold Award ceremony tomorrow.
Jazz concert Saturday night: Julia on trumpet and vocals, Pete on drums.
Add a baseball game on Saturday and a softball game on Sunday.

It's all good!

June Block Lotto

I was eligible for the Block Lotto sneak peek and got right to work on the June blocks.

The goal was a simple block in a tight color palette of green, blue and purple. When I went to pull fabrics, I grabbed a light, medium and dark of each color.


Then I cut the pieces and sorted them out so each block would have 1 light, 1 medium and 1 dark AND 1 green, 1 blue and 1 purple. The sewing went very quickly! I think these simple blocks can make a very effective, stash-busting charity quilt.


Here's the dark green from the year 2000! It is definitely time to use this one up.

Want to know more about the Block Lotto? Click the button!