English paper piecing mystery

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tonight I am starting an English paper piecing mystery that I found on quiltcampus.net (see button on side bar if interested). My first attempt at EPP was last month when I did bow tie blocks for the about.com monthly block lotto. Even though I'm in love with my 2 Bernina sewing machines, I enjoyed the hand piecing, and it made me think that an EPP project would be perfect to take along to Italy with me in a couple of weeks. So in my Internet searching for patterns, I found a whole section of quiltcampus.net devoted to EPP, and in mystery form to boot! So here are my fabric choices. Again, the photo does not do the colors justice. The solids pick up the colors in the main fabric nicely. One little snafu: I don't have enough of the background fabric (the print batik on the right). Hmmm...gotta do a little Internet shopping I think :)

More charity quilts

Here's a big stack of quilts that will be donated to Quilts 4 Kids. The group takes donated fabric and cuts it into kits so that quilts can be made for hospitalized children. My sons' preschool teacher used to do work for them and that's how I discovered this group. Their main headquarters location is only 10 minutes from me, and they have chapters all over the states. I like having a local connection to a nationwide group. Isn't this a great looking stack of quilts? It is such a great feeling of accomplishment to look at these quilts. And I could stare at the bright colors all day!!

Pictures of the individual quilts are on my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/abxkris/. Four of the quilts are a simple 4-patch, but I love the other pattern. We learned it in a special Q4K workshop last month. The borders are made with scraps from trimming the block centers. Isn't it a great pattern?

On another note, I'm making progress on my Amy Butler weekender bag. Making something like this for a swap is a bit daunting because it's a huge investment of time and money, so I'm really hoping that my partner likes it!!

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?