February Sneak Peeks

I've decided to share a few sneak peeks with you near the end of every month. I've decided I am going to try to finish 2 UFO's a month as well as try to finish each new project (not allowing them to become Unfinished Objects) and maybe, just maybe, I'll be caught up by the end of the year! (yes that means I have 22 UFO's, shhh don't tell my husband though!)

The first 2 are WIP's which I'll share more about when I finish them. They both still need binding but I am going to finish them before the end of February 28th!

Octagon Quilt

Crazy 9 Lattice Quilt - I need help deciding which binding to use, I just can't decide. I have enough of most of the fabrics used other than the large modern leaf print and the colorful dotty print. If you have time please take a look and leave a comment telling me which you would use for binding.

The last sneak is the Breast Cancer Awareness quilt that Dana of Old Red Barn Co pieced together. I offered to quilt and bind it for her as she has quite a few to put together. I'll finish the hand stitching on this binding today.

Hoop Up Progress Update

I sent off another finished piece this week. Isewcute sent us some pink fabric to handstitch on. She is making a quilt for her little girl and her theme is "Baby Loves..."

I drew a little garden fairy and stitched her and there was enough fabric for a bonus piece so I traced a little kitty out of my daughters Strawberry Shortcake coloring book and stitched it.

You should all check out isewcute's flckr page as she does some amazing work. Her resin necklaces are great and the piece she designed for my theme "Found in an Oriental Garden" is so amazing. You can find it here.

DQS8 - Check!

Today, I finished the mini quilt I was working on for my DQS8 partner. It's labeled, packaged, and waiting to be mailed. I'm sorry, I can't tell you where it is going!

It turned out quite nice. I decided to go with minimal quilting as the stitching on the raw edge whirligigs was enough accent as it was. I just quilted some branches with leaves, a little stitching around the borders, and a vine on the outer border.

I used an awesome tutorial by Aneela of comfortstitching for the raw edge and machine embroidery technique as I had never done either.

 

Here is a photo of the back. I used dark brown thread for stitching around the feature on the print fabric and white for all the other quilting.

This is one of the most enjoyable projects I've worked on in quite a while! It's really hard to part with this one but I think my partner will like it!

You can click on any of the photos to view them larger. WIP post for this project can be found here.

Editted: This mini quilt arrived to it's new owner Marguerite of Adventures in Quilting and Sailing. Read her post about it here.

Pillow Talk - It's a wrap!

I've been working hard at my swap projects but have been enjoying stretching my design skills and some hand applique which I've only done on one other piece.

I'm participating in the Pillow Talk swap over at flckr. You should check it out there is some amazing sewing and designing going on there.

Pillow Talk is a blind swap, so I know who I'm sending the pillow to but nobody know's who sending one to them. At the beginning we posted some inspiration mosaics, and boy were some inspiring mosaics added to the pool. You can take a look at my mosaic here.

I set out to use some linen and the colour red. I didn't want to do any raw edge applique because a pillow just gets used too much. My partner's mosaic seemed to show that she would like some type of applique rather than just piecing, so this is what I came up with.

I wasn't sure when I was appliqueing if I was liking it, but as I was quilting it I started to fall in love with it. I think I put about 30 hours into this one; so, I'm sure hoping my partner loves it! Once again, quilting makes all the difference.

The back was fun too. I used a large Paula Prass Woodland Delights print and wow, it sure makes a statement. I inserted a hidden zipper too. (It's an envelop for a 20 inch pillow form)

 

I'm sending this out in tomorrow's mail, as it has a long way to go!

The Maple Leaf Bee

February is my month for shipping out fabric and receiving blocks back. This is my first time and I'm really enjoying it. The blocks being made for me are really great and it is so much fun to anticipate and check the flckr group pool every day to see if anyone else has posted there.

This week has been a bit quiet there, but I have been receiving blocks in the mail all week. Such fun mail! Nice to open these packages rather than just bills all the time! Here is a cute video on how I've been feeling when I open my mail this week! Just click on the title Merci, Krista!

In late January I sent out 4 green packages, 4 pink packages, and 4 pink and green packages to my fellow bee people, who are all from Canada, along with instructions to use the large print for an outer border and a small Kona charcoal strip for a narrow inner border on the 15.5 inch block. For the centre I suggested using the Oh, Fransson "Map of the States" tutorial.

 

 

While waiting for more blocks to appear on the pool, I have been using the scraps that were sent back to make a few extra blocks, since I will need about 20 for a nice sized quilt. (My blocks, 2 above and 1 below)

Here is a group photo of the 3  I made and together with the blocks that were sent back to me this past week.

Such fun! Thanks to all the amazing Canadian women in this awesome group!

Busy Bee

It's been a while since I popped in here. I haven't been idle though! Things are always busy around here. With 4 teenagers, a husband, and 2 mini schnauzers we never have a shortage of work. Just feeding them, making sure they have clean laundry, and get driven where they need to go is more than a full time job!

I've finished 3 hand embroideries for flckr friends in the Hoop Up, Stitch & Send Swap and I've transferred and hooped up 2 more.

I drew this one up and stitched it for Marilyn's "Sweet Dreams" theme. I was inspired by artwork by Emily Martin of Inside a Black Apple, I'm really pleased with it.

I stitched up the next 2 for Quiltdad's Whimsical Woodland theme. One for the swap, and 1 bonus piece for doing such an awesome job organizing the swap. The colours on the next 2 aren't my usual palette but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

I drew this one up after viewing a quilted masterpiece by Judy Coates Perez on flckr. John sent the brown, pink , and blue flosses for his pieces. I am hoping the unexpected foliage colours add whimsy.

This bonus piece was inspired by the artwork of Valori Wells. I drew this up for John and stitched it up mostly using his colors.

I've also longarmed a few quilts for others and have 1 to do this week too!

This one was pieced by my friend Val and I quilted Feathers With a Twist on it. It turned out great.

And last but not least, I've finished piecing three options front and back for DQS8 (Doll Quilt Swap). I plan on quilting these end of this week. I posted previously about these here.