Havin a Party

Well, it's all delivered so now I can show you the finished quilt plus a few more sneak peeks.   I had a ball making this:

And the original drawing with the end result:

Now, I'm out of stuff to show you so I better get to work. Later...............

Sneak Peeks 1 & 2

During DQS7 (my first doll swap), I made a special quilt for "Chickenfoot", the head Mama of the group.  I'm sure you've seen it.  (If not, it's in my photostream in the mini section.)  Well, anyway, I thought it would be fun to continue the process like in some sort of sequel.  At first I was going to have her playing in the snow with the 8 swap mamas, but in the process of the swap, I got a better idea which you'll see next week some time.  I'm not spoiling the surprise just in case she reads my blog!!  I did mail the quilt today so I'm sure she'll get it soon.

In the meantime, I'm going to reveal one sneak peek a day.  So here are the first two:

This was so fun to make, but really involved. Believe it or not, I had to free motion my pieces on because I couldn't manage the applique foot with the tiny pieces. I hope I remember this for DQS9.

  

Angel Quilt

For some reason my finished quilt never made it to my last post.  Go here to see her:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35289170@N06/

Sorry about that!!!  

Angel Quilt

As many of you know, I have deemed myself the official "angel quilt maker" for the latest doll swap.  I actually got permission for this job, because I really have a passion for the smaller quilts and besides, like my husband says, "What else do I have to do all day anyway?"  Well, in the process of thinking about what to make for some of these, I thought...why not an angel quilt for an angel quilt????  (How's that for a sentence??)  So I got to work!!

First the drawing:

Then I got out my trusty "steam a seam" (and I really wish I had stock in that company, I use so much of the stuff) and started working:  Note the perfect background fabric with the tiny dots... what a perfect find that was.

 Then, before I started putting the whole thing together, I sewed her face.  After all, what's an angel without a sweet face?  I also hand stitched her halo because I didn't think I could do a good job with the sewing machine being that it was so skinny.

Pastel Pinwheels

Lately, I've been seeing so many cute quilts using pinwheels, that I just had to get my feet wet too.  AND.....no time like the present with the little quilts I've been making for the doll swap (not that I need anymore, mind you.......but, I did volunteer to be the "official Angel provider" for this go-round, so one or two more won't hurt, just in case.)  I was told that usually 7-8 are needed.  (A good excuse to play some more if nothing else!!  LOL)  Believe it or not, I had never made pinwheels before so all the tutorials I found were good.....but because of the size I needed, had to be altered.  Of course, this was no problem after "285" with the 3/4 inch squares.....but I didn't go that nuts!   

All those little triangles reminded me of Easter eggs for some reason (probably because I have no patience and don't leave the dumb eggs in the little cups long enough to get the really dark colors.  LOL)  Oh well...that's another post.  

I used up all my linen with this project.  I've decided, at least for now, that Kona cotton and Kona bleached muslin are more my style.....and cheaper too!   Maybe in the future though, I'll try some blended linen/cotton.  That might be a bit easier to handle.  Linen tends to be slippery and doesn't want to stay where you put it.  At least mine was like that.

Now....does that look like me? Hardly! WAY too traditional and with pastel colors to boot? EIKES! Truth be told is that my knee is still on the blink and my solids were here and everything else is in the basement. What could I do? I think it's time to see the doctor, huh?

Colours on Linen

Linen is a new fabric to my game, but so many quilters use it all the time, and I was curious.  I ventured to Joanns a few weeks back and luckily found it on sale for $9 a yard and figured it was the perfect opportunity to "test the waters" so to speak.  I did wash it to tighten the weave though which I rarely do with my quilting fabrics.  I'm still on the fence!  It's okay, I suppose, but perhaps if I had bought something besides white, I would have noticed a bigger difference.  What do you think?

Color Play

Remember all those solids I bought a few weeks ago?  Well, I've been playing......and it's SO FUN!  I'm onto my 2nd one already, but have only shown this one so I wanted to post it here so you can see it too.  All I've been doing lately is sewing.  My right knee has been on the "blink" for some reason and it's just so much easier to keep myself entertained being creative rather than shopping or walking around.  Advil helps too!! (Of course, not going scrap hunting in the basement, isn't working too well!  LOL)  

I think this one is going on my dining room wall and the "285" one will be moved to the living center. I hope I don't run out of wall space before I run out of ideas. LOL Seems the more I sew, the more ideas I get!

"Just Hangin' Out"

Oh....I'm having so much fun lately, you wouldn't believe it!  (And it's not me who's been hanging out as you will see soon.)  As some of you know, one of my big loves is applique.  You can really create anything with it, if you can draw or are a good copier.  I bought a huge roll of blank newsprint about 20 years ago when I was breeding and showing dogs, and really never used it until last year.  I have no idea why I kept it all these years, since I'm really not a hoarder, but I'm so glad I did.  It's 24 inches wide, sort of see-thru-ish, and makes for wonderful drawings.  You might remember the princess quilts????  Well, on that same note, and with that same cute face, I thought a girl/tree/birds might be nice so I went to town. 

Of course, then you need the execution......ooops, wrong word, I guess, when we're speaking of trees and hanging around.  LOL  Just kidding, but I had to throw that in there for a little joke!  It's early in the morning, so bear with me.  

First, I quilted my background.  I'm not sure if that was a good idea or not, because I did have some trouble with it laying flat.  I think my steam iron wanted to make it all nice and fluffy like it would have come out of the dryer.  Not a good idea for the beginning of something!!!  Thank heaven it was only in the middle section and I figured I could "fix" it with a double binding.

Looking pretty sparse here:

But, it got better as I continued to work on it.  I added tuffs of grass, birdies, and leaves, and real ladybug buttons.   Plus if you look real hard, you'll see her buttons on her dress and the bows in her hair.

And here she is....all done! The whole thing ended up being 14 inches by 24 inches. I hope you like her as much as I do.