Needleturn applique

These blocks are my first attempt at needleturn applique. And they will most likely be my last. This has not been my favorite technique that I've ever tried. But I'm glad that I did try it. The about.com block lottos have gotten me to try techniques I wouldn't try on my own. Last month I did English paper piecing and now I'm addicted! I'll be starting an EPP mystery project on Valentine's Day. I'm so excited. But I digress.....Here are my appliqued blocks. The color is horrible in this picture. The blocks had to have red hearts with purple corners. I am proud of them, but it is obvious that they are a beginner's work!

A charity project

Tonight I made 2 star blocks to donate to the Bushfire Quilt Project that has been started on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/groups/977757@N25/). The pattern is called Maverick Star and is from www.quiltville.com. I hope the quilt that they go into offers a bit of comfort to someone who has been devastated by the fires in Australia. One of my most recent swap partners is from Victoria and to hear her take on the events in her country is heart breaking. Fortunately, she and her family are alright. These 2 blocks took me less than 1/2 hour to make and were done entirely with scraps. I think we all have the resources to make a couple of these. Please follow the link above if you're interested.

Success!

Here is a mini quilt I made for the Teeny Tiny Square Quilt Swap that I found in blogland at http://scraphappyquilts.blogspot.com/. The only rule was to use squares that were between 1 and 1.5 inches before piecing. I obsessed FOREVER about the quilt design before finally setting on this combination of 4 and 16 patches. It is machine pieced and quilted and finishes at 17" x 17". There is a dime on the lower right hand square of the center 16 patch to give you an idea of the square size. It's not perfect, but a lot of effort went into it and I'm proud of the final product. At the beginning of next week I'll send it to it's new home in Australia. Hopefully I get a positive response from my secret partner for this swap. Here is the reverse side.... I used an extra 4 patch as a tag.

I will miss this little mini delight.

Stash Talk

Just yesterday I decided that my stash was becoming out of control, so I decided that it was time to organize! How timely because today's Sew, Mama, Sew blog post is all about people's stash habits. My quilting cottons are mainly stored in 2 large plastic storage drawers. Here's a before picture of the top drawer. Anything that didn't fit in the drawers got piled on top (or to the sides, or around the bottoms, or....wherever):

It was starting to get difficult to find things, so I decided to sort and fold it. Here's the bottom drawer now:

Wow! Check me out! Here's a little questionnaire from Sew, Mama, Sew that got me thinking 'bout my stash:

What do you usually sew? Quilts and Home Dec items

When you shop for fabric, what size cuts do you usually buy? whatever is there or about 1 yard

Do you buy on impulse or do you go out looking for something you need? both

Are you a pre-washer? Not for myself. I will most likely pre-wash for a swap

Do you iron it? Yes

How do you sort it? I have novelties, holiday, stripes/plaids/dots, asian, batiks and then different colors

Do you have any special folding techniques? With selvage on the side and raw edge facing me, I wrap the fabric around my 5" wide acrylic ruler and then fold to get a square roughly 7" in length

How do you store your fabric? Under my cutting table in plastic storage drawers

What tips do you have for building up a well-rounded stash? Participate in swaps! Or join a FQ of the month club, which sends you a certain amount of FQ's each month. Both of these definitely get me out of my comfort zone.

When do you say enough is enough? It hasn't happened yet

What are some of your favorite stash-busting projects? Scrappy strip quilts

What’s your definition of the perfect stash? One that makes you smile and gives you butterflies every time you look at it!

Thanks to Sew, Mama, Sew for getting me in touch with my stash.

Mystery Quilt sew along progress

Have you noticed the graphic on my side bar about the Make-this-up-as-I-go-along mystery quilt? Here's how it's turning out.....Now I'm just waiting for the 2 borders that will complete it :)

I guess it's pretty obvious that I like batiks, huh?

Project wrap up...

On Feb 26, I'll be going to Italy! So, that means I have 20 days to finish up some projects and prepare a project to take along with me. I'm thinking that I'd like to English paper piece some fans and then applique them to the background fabric (an idea someone gave me on the about.com forum). In the meantime, I have to finish an entire Amy Butler weekender bag, a mini quilt, mail 2 swaps, paper piece a block and complete the LQS BOM. There seems to be plenty of free time in the upcoming weekends, so I should be able to do it as long as I plan my time accordingly. Here's a picture of the HGTV BOM for Feb:

I'm also in the process of folding and organizing my stash. I can't wait to post of picture of that! It's turning out beautifully.

Lots done today

Today I started sewing almost as soon as I woke up and only stopped to go to BJ's and to straighten the house. I finished up the 2nd charity quilt top from yesterday, and I also finished a top that I had here at the house. All in all that makes 3 Quilts 4 Kids tops that are ready to be quilted and bound. In other projects, I completed the batik block for the LQS BOM, and began a baby quilt to give as a gift. A small task that I'm actually excited about is the label that I printed out, transfered to a piece of fabric and then appliqued to the back of my Double Delight quilt. It's such a nice touch. Funny how something so small can have such a big impact on me.

Here is the January batik BOM and a little shot of my DD label next to it :)

Today, for the first time, I tried my hand at needle turn applique. I made a heart in snowball block for about.com's February block lotto.

I don't think it turned out horribly, but I also don't think that I will be turning out tons of these blocks either. We are not allowed to do any raw edge applique methods such as using double sided interfacing and blanket or satin stitching the edge (that would have been my preferred method). So, I tried something new. Last month I tried English paper piecing for the first time and I ended up being one of the lotto winners! Maybe something good will happen from trying these blocks too :0)

A very productive day it was!