Crazy mini and my quilty muse

I'm planning a wall hanging from the blocks I received from my crazy quilt swap. I decided on a 3x3 arrangement and since I ended up with 10 blocks I decided to make one a little mini. This block came from Randi and compared to the others I received the embellishments read a little pink so I decided to make it my mini. I spent Saturday afternoon embellishing away and finished it off in the early evening.


Close ups of the details



Yesterday I was cruising around my bloglines and happened to see this adorable mini Colene had made for her partner in the doll quilt swap on the about.com forum. I thought it was so cute I whipped out my red and blue scraps and made one of my own. (Of course mine is not quilted yet-I'm not that speedy!) This one measures about 16 inches square.

It was such a fun little quilt to make-thanks Colene for being my quilty muse!


I'm hoping to tackle something truly tiny soon-I've been working on some teeny little 3 inch log cabin blocks that have something like 21 bars each but I've been so busy with other things that they've been set aside for awhile-maybe it's time to dig them back out.

Booty Dilemma

Ok folks-can I probe your brains, delve into your psyche, and snag some opinions?

I got my partner info for the miniature booty swap and I'm debating fabric choices. I'm planning on a floral appliqué block surrounded by some kind of border. I don't usually pick borders until the center is finished-it seems to work out better if I wait and see what the top needs when the center is done.

I have my purple and green combo-there would also be a smidge of yellow in there-I forgot to put it in the photo. I don't have a focus type fabric for this one but I'm sure I can find something at the quilt store if I need to or I can do a fun pieced border with the purples and greens.



Then I have these lovely tulip FQ's and some coordinating fabrics. I adore these fabrics but I know orange and yellow don't do it for everyone.

So (this is where the probing comes in) if it was your quilt which color combo would you prefer? Purple and green? Orange and yellow? Both? Neither? (Oh please, please, please don't say neither-I don't want to dive back into my stash and look for more fabric.)

Birthday Beauties

I've been pleasantly productive today. It's a rainy, dreary day here and DD has been content to play on her own and watch some movies so I've been putzing around doing little odds and ends of quilting. I attached the binding to my postage stamp quilt and have it sitting on the couch to hand sew the back. I also marked the quilting design on the tiny 9 patch and got it sandwiched and pin basted so it's ready for quilting and did some embellishing on my crazy quilt blocks.

Last year I participate in the first round of the Birthday Block swap that Kate hosted. I was in two groups-in one group my theme was Halloween-I requested stars in any size divisible by 3 with black backgrounds. Here's a pic of the blocks I received.


The second group I was in I requested a chocolate covered cherries theme-I asked for chocolate browns, burgundies, and soft pink stars on cream backgrounds and this is what I received....

I was a little worried with the cherries group because when the blocks started coming in they were all so different I wasn't sure they'd go together in the end but once they were all laid out I loved them. I'll probably make a few more to tie them together. The Halloween blocks will be a quilt for the couch-I'm pondering settings for it- I was thinking maybe staggering the rows so they aren't lined up all matchy matchy.

Land of the Littles

I was so good yesterday and worked on lots of things I needed to do-really yucky stuff like cleaning the kitchen and some fun stuff like cutting out pieces for the next round of the the birthday block swap. See my little tub of cut out blocks-I actually have patterns picked, fabrics selected, and even some of my fabric cut for about half of the blocks and I even made one this weekend-not because it was the first one due but because I just had to try out the pattern. You won't have to wait too long to see it-I think it's one of my August blocks.


This morning I got up and was really in the mood to make a little quilt so I dug out my tub of 2.5 inch squares and this is the result.

It's about 16x18 inches. Since my tub of 2.5 inch squares is overflowing it was nice to use up a few of them-although 42 squares doesn't make much of a dent. I just randomly picked out a bunch of squares I liked and then played with the layout until I found one I liked. It took awhile to find a border fabric-I finally picked this one-18 of the 42 squares had some green in it so I thought the green border tied it all together nicely.

I found a piece of muslin for backing and after a short hunt through my pile of leftover batting pieces I got it sandwiched and did a little hand quilting on it. It's just the right size for hand quilting in the summer-it's far too warm to do anything that actually covers my lap.

My little postage stamp top only took an hour to make-I made it while I was watching Diagnosis Murder. (Yes, I know, it's a show for old people and it's cheesy as all get out but I can't help it I love that show.)

Since I was still in the mood to make something else I dug out my brown and pink strips and put this together while I watched a 2 hour Matlock movie. See about note for Diagnosis Murder-all I can say is my grandpa watched me a lot when I was a kid and I have the TV viewing taste of an 80 year old man.

This one is about 15 inches square-the 9 patches and solid blocks are 3 inches finished.

I'm still brainstorming ideas for my quilts for the Miniature Booty Swap-I think I've found the pattern that I want to use but I'm not off the fence yet.

churning them out

Check it out folks-3 posts in one day and 2 of them are actually productive. These are Kathi's rows for her row robin that I've been promising pictures of. I think these are just so lovely and elegant.




I made the row of double shoo fly blocks on the bottom. When Kathi posted her theme I thought shoo fly blocks would be so pretty in the soft, subtle taupes. When I got to her quilt all the rows were 12 inches. I decided 4-12 inch shoo fly blocks would be too blah and 8-6 inch blocks would look out of proportion with the other rows but 16-8 inch blocks doubled up would be just right. I'm really happy with how it turned out (and really hate to send Kathi's quilt onto the next person-doesn't it look like it wants to live with me?!)

Crazy for crazy quilts!

I got my blocks back from the crazy quilt swap I participated in and just had to take pictures to share-aren't they gorgeous!

Here's all my blocks together-I'm going to have so much fun playing with these.

Nell made this one...

Randi made this one...
Terri made this one...
Lisa Jo made this one...
Lou made this one...
Faye made this one...
Kathi made this one...
Linda made this one...
Lucy made this one...

I'll do some further embellishing on these and then they'll get trimmed down to about 8 1/2 inches and turned into a miniature quilt. Lol-see-I've got miniature quilts on the brain!

Look at me go!

I was all set today to show you my progress on my mini quilt for the ALQS swap I'm in but in a fit of productive energy last night I finished it! Ok, ok, I still have to write on the label so 99.9% done.

Here's the top...


Close up on the quilting...

A look at the little hanging tabs on the back.

This is the first mini quilt I've ever made and I found the process to be quite enjoyable. Good thing too since I've already signed up for the next round of the Miniature Booty Swap. We should be getting out partner info for that swap soon.

I learned a couple things from this swap-one is that it's nerve wracking trying to make a quilt for someone else! I really hope my partner likes this.

I think the next one I make I'll choose a block where there's not so many seams meeting in the corners. The points where 4 star blocks come together were definitely bulky even using a smaller seam allowance and it was definitely a challenge trying to get those points to match up.

DD is going to Grandma's this weekend so that means some lovely quilting time for me so hopefully I'll be showing you pictures of my row for the Row Robin I'm in either tonight or tomorrow.

I also signed up for the Birthday Block Swap Round 2 so hopefully I can work on a couple of those blocks with weekend. Not really because I need to but just because they're so darn fun. This is one of my favorite swaps. Last year I was in two groups-one theme was Halloween stars and the other was Chocolate covered cherries. I got gorgeous blocks from each of those. This year I'm in one group but it's a big one so I'll get as many blocks as I did from the last swap where I was in 2 groups. Instead of picking a theme I picked the Brasstown Stars block done with batiks on black backgrounds. I can't wait till September when I get my blocks!