Finally done!

On New Year's Eve I started Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt called Double Delight. It's been 3 months, but it's finally done! For some reason I did not want to post it until it was completely finished....

The finished dimensions are smaller than the original pattern. The first step involved making 180 units and then there was a step that required making 360 units or something obscene like that! I decided to start out by making half the units called for and then seeing how the mystery turned out. I'm glad I did because once we had the final block constructed, I realized that I was happy with the smaller size and only had to make 4 more blocks to complete the quilt. Here is some of the quilting detail:

I used the embroidery module for the setting triangle motifs and I did the stippling myself. That's a lot of stippling. On the back I decided to use some of the extra units to avoid piecing 2 widths of fabric together:

The colors are also different than Bonnie's recommendations mostly because I was trying to work from stash. Next month Bonnie is speaking to our quilt guild and I am bringing this quilt for show and tell. Guess I better fix all my little mistakes before then!

A new endeavor

Today my youngest son was at his friend's house for the morning, so I took advantage of having the house to myself and decided to learn how to use the embroidery module that I got for my anniversary 2 months ago. What a great morning. I can't say that the Bernina manual is very user friendly, but I figured out the basics and was able to get some quilting done on a new quilt for my niece. I am calling it "Ava's-spring-out-and-about-quilt". OK, so I'm not the best at naming my quilts. Here is the quilting that I got done before I ran out of thread:
A little closer.....
The goal is to finish the quilt by Saturday, which is the next time I am visiting my sister's house.

I've been getting a lot of things done lately. Mostly I am trying to wrap up swaps before gardening/swimming season starts and I don't have as much time inside. I'll be continuing with my mini quilt swaps, but reducing the number of block and fabric swaps I take on. In other projects, I am furiously quilting my Double Delight quilt so that I can share it at guild next month when Bonnie Hunter will be our guest speaker. How exciting will that be??!?

Happy sewing :)

Wrapping up some swaps

From the look of my blog you would think that I haven't been too busy with projects. In reality, I've been very busy, but haven't been able to post my finished projects because I was waiting for my swap partners to get the first look at them. Here is what I've been up to....

This mini was made for missmikol from my HGTV mini swap. Check out the beauty I received from her:

She really outdid herself on the machine quilting. Each section has its own motif.

The following mini was made for quiltinkimmie from the flickr group STUD (swap till you drop!). This was my first month swapping with this group so I felt a little pressure, but I really enjoyed making this one, which was for the Anything Goes category.

I also signed up for the Japanese category and finished tacking down the binding on that last night, so I can get that mailed off to my partner tomorrow. Then comes time to work on the April STUD minis. In addition to Anything Goes, the April theme is Spring Flowers.

There was another surprise on my doorstep last night. It was my Amy Butler weekender bag from Shari for the We The People Swap 4. I can't tell you what a phenomenal job she did on this bag. There is not a stitch out of place. Beautiful work!!

So that takes care of a lot of 'old business'. Today I'm making my monthly trip to the quilt shop that's 45 minutes from me. I have tons of projects just waiting for that perfect fabric to complete them. I'm so excited to have the afternoon to myself surrounded by fabric! Happy sewing everyone :)

Sewing Sunday

Today was a great day to ignore the housework and enjoy some sewing projects. First thing this morning, I decided to finally assemble some crazy quilting blocks for lesson 1 of an online CQ class I'm taking through joggles.com. Here is what I came up with:

I'm not going to go crazy perfecting the fabric choices and placement at this stage because the whole point of taking this class (for me) is to learn the techniques. If these blocks end up looking like a big mish mosh of CQ techniques by the end of the class, then I will have accomplished my goal. So, for now, this is what I'm working with. Lessons 2 and 3 are ready and waiting for me. I'm looking forward to embellishing these blocks.

Today I also attended another Quilts 4 Kids workshop where I learned this pattern:

It wasn't my favorite top to piece together, but I love learning new patterns and the people that attend the workshops are a lot of fun to be with. I do like how the final product turned out though.

In swapping business, I received my Teeny Tiny Squares Mini Quilt from Maria in Denmark! Maria said that this was her first mini and I think she did a great job. Each square finished at 3/4" and they were pieced together perfectly! Many thanks to Maria for the great goodies too. I am hiding the chocolate from my husband because he almost completely devoured one of the bags!

Let me share !

Today I received my first mini quilt from Kathy2859, my swap partner for March from the Flickr group called STUD (swap til you drop!). We are swapping Japanese-themed minis, and boy did she send me a beauty. Feast your eyes on it....

She also sent me some great swap goodies:
When my husband saw the goodies he said, "I hope you've been sending goodies out with your swaps!" I replied that of course I do, but I think his reaction was cute :). So, now I have swap anxiety!! What if my mini doesn't cut the mustard?? I can't post it here because I want Kathy2859 to be the first to see it, but I'm really hoping that she enjoys it. I feel very lucky to have received her work.

Quilts off to Italy....

On 2/27, I left for Italy for three days. Even though it was short, it was a perfect weekend getaway. I made 2 gifts for our hosts: a table topper for Daniela and Leo, and a lap quilt for their daughter, Fiona.

The best compliment I received was when Fiona, their 2-year-old, asked to hold the quilts that I made, and she proceeded to wrap herself up in BOTH! So what if one was actually a table topper!!?? It was too cute and it was the perfect show of appreciation! I almost shed a tear when she opened up her quilt and said in a precious little voice, "Che bello." (How beautiful).

Amy Butler Swap....includes pictures!

DISCLAIMER: If you are my partner for the Amy Butler weekender bag swap and don't want to see your bag, stop reading! If you do want to see it, then continue on....but don't tell me if you don't like it because I'll be crushed!

This bag was the most heavy duty sewing I have ever done, and that's considering that I do make a lot of home decor items with heavy fabrics. Not only is the fabric thick, but there are layers of Peltex, interfacing and cording, and that's just on one side of the seam! Try putting together 2 panels that are interfaced, Peltex'ed, and have cording in addition to 2 layers of fabric. I'll tell you what you get: A whole lotta broken needles and cursing. The actual make up of the bag was pretty easy: 2 main panels, a bottom panel, top panel with a zipper, handles, pockets and a lining all put together in your typical way, but the number of layers was BRUTAL! I am thrilled that I finished it. If this project hadn't been for a swap I would have put it to the side for a long time and probably forgotten about it. That's what I like about swaps. They take me out of my comfort zone. Anyway, here it is:

In other project news, I competed step 1 of my English paper piecing mystery, and received step 2 this morning. Here's what I have so far:

On my list of things to do: figure out how to take better pictures. This project is much better looking in person. The palette of fabrics is off to the right.

I'm off to my LQS now to pick up this month's quilt block. Looking forward to getting out of the house and let DH take care of the home front for a bit. :)