Bits and Pieces

As I was pulling photos for today, I realized I hadn't shown you my mini challenge from the Ninigret Quilters show. We were provided with a fat eighth of the brown print with polka dots. Since I had taken a class with Vanessa Christenson, I was eager to play with her ombre fabrics. I used Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Circles to prepare the applique. After a few days of hand work, I went to town with some tiny machine quilting. I used up a full bobbin of 50 wt Aurifil on this 12" square! I added the yellow ric rac under the binding since that was the only color from the print that hadn't been used yet. 

Now on to the random projects...

I'm putting together an English Paper Piecing kit for a friend who had surgery last week. When She's ready for visitors, I'll give her the kit and a lesson.

 

When I was browsing for EPP stuff, I stumbled upon this hexagon starburst block on Stitchery Dickory Dock.  I couldn't resist giving it a try and I absolutely loved the first one (on left). I do not need another EPP project with two others waiting to be finished, but I can't help myself!

I printed and cut enough paper pieces for 22 blocks. They are all laid out on the piano bench until I dig out my tiny baggies. I'm not planning ahead with fabrics. I'll pull scraps for one block at a time and we'll see what happens!

Last weekend I taught a fabric box class for my co-workers and/or their families. It's a small office, but it's a very crafty group! We had a fun morning and everyone did a great job with their boxes.

This ticker tape birthday card was really fun to make! With crazy mom quilts celebrating her 9th Blogversary, Ticker Tape was fresh in my mind. I tacked down the pieces with glue stick and then stitched around in a square spiral.

Why do scrap projects make such a big mess?! Here you can see the stitches on the inside. I kind of like the wonky lines and texture of the perforations. Now I just need to write a message and sign the card.

I've been teaching private lessons to my friend's mom, Sandy. She is making her first quilt from her granddaughter's t-shirts. Yesterday, we laid out all the blocks and she learned how to piece the rows. It was a fun puzzle to put together, and I think we were successful in distributing the colors and sizes.

 

Last one. I quilted an outreach quilt from Ninigret that will be delivered on the 14th. Now I have 6 labels to make and attach before then. I'll print them on my ink jet printer, so it will be a quick job.

 

I need to stop playing with fabric for a few hours and get busy on some computer work. My procrastination became this blog post!

Swap Top is Done!

 The top of Swap Soup is done! Well, I'm actually thinking about adding one more border to bring it up to twin size and to control the bias edges on those string blocks. Boy, do they stretch!

I listed the swaps and WIPs that are included in this quilt yesterday. Yes, I added the polka dot blocks, too! Those borders were a bit too long. What to do? Chop the ends off! Did I lose the points? Yes. Do I care? Nope!

 My husband and son really like this quilt. My mother knew I did a lot of swapping, but had no idea how many other quilters were involved. The whole family enjoyed reading the names and cities on the siggy blocks.

I'm hoping to get this puppy quilted next weekend at an all day sew-in. It's actually a craft weekend at a local hotel, but I can only make it on Sunday. I'll bring this and my unfinished scrapbook of Italy vacation photos. Think I can get both done in one day?

Lots o' Dots

Here's a fun new project that I'm calling Lots o' Dots!

I participated in Wendy's polka dot swap, and my batch of dots arrived on Saturday. Almost immediately, I started sorting, stacking, and playing. I decided to match up two prints and sew them into HSTs. I started sewing on Sunday, and just after I started trimming, the power went out, and didn't come back on until 6 hours later! (We were pathetic, with no sewing machines and computers!)


After trimming, I paired up the pairs to create a 4-patch block. It's a little busy with the blocks all up next to each other, so I might border each block with some solid sashing. Or maybe set them on point with solid setting triangles to make the whole thing much bigger. But that will have to wait a while. I have another priority this week.


Here are some of my favorites...

I'm linking to Sew Modern Monday. Polka dots are modern, right?

Explosion of Dots!

My Dot Swap fabric arrived from Wendy this weekend. How fun is this assortment?!


I decided to pair up 2 coordinating squares for HSTs. Beyond that, I have no idea how I will lay them out. I might add in some solids to tone it down.

Thanks for coordinating the swap, Wendy!

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!