Japanese minis

A couple months ago I made a Japanese mini for a swap with the Swap 'till you Drop group on Flickr. This was the first time I had made anything Asian-inspired, so I googled Japanese quilts and came up with so many ideas that I ended up making 3 minis! Circles are used a lot in Japanese quilting so it was a great opportunity to use my circle ruler and Bernina circle stitching tool. I completely forgot to take a picture of what I sent my partner, but I actually liked it so much that I made a slightly larger version of it for myself:

My inspiration for it was a kimono that my husband bought me on one of his business trips to Japan:

Sea turtles are also pervasive in Japanese quilting. I had a batik scrap with a sea turtle on it, so put that with a few other batik scraps and, voila!, another mini was born.

In swapping news, I received a package from Nikki for the Seams to Me swap over on Itching 2 B Stitching. This girl spoiled me! She made me the Taxi Tote from Anna Maria Horner's new book, but she didn't stop there. The bag was filled with TONS of homemade goodies.
She included headbands and bracelets for my daughter, a funky fiber eyeglass case (my favorite!), an embellished wrist band and a bag full of crazy quilting goodies. Now, I'm all for sending your swap partner a few little extras, but this was completely above and beyond what I could have hoped for. I can't imagine how much time and effort she put into all these goodies. I looked through it multiple times last night like a kid looking through their Christmas presents. Each item has so many interesting details and embellishments. Too much fun! Thanks, Nikki :)

Another big stack for Q4K

Here are 5 more quilts that will be donated to Quilts 4 Kids. These quilts are so satisfying to make. When I get to work on them, the colors and fabrics always brighten my day! And I love looking at a big stack waiting to be donated.

Here they are individually:

Nutty for nine patches

What did I do yesterday?

Oh, not much. I just whipped up 75 mini nine patch blocks for a swap:

A few months ago I made 100 green nine patches, and this time around the colors were red, orange and yellow. Guess what the bonus is. All of the red, orange and yellow fabric in these blocks is from my scrap bin! Not a single yard of fabric was cut into for these little babies (each one finishes at 3.5"). In keeping with the thrifty theme, I didn't even let the leftover bits go to waste so I made myself some scrappy blocks too:

I was thinking of making some kind of gift for the swap hostess with them, but I'm not sure yet.