The mailman has been here

I'm so blessed!  Saturday or was it Friday.......in any event...... I got some great mail!  First I received this awesome stuff that my friend Annie made herself with her computer and printer!  It will have to be something really special for me to cut into this stuff.  I LOVE it!



Thank you so much, my friend!  If you have nothing to do, you can print me off some more with that gorgeous penmanship,  lol  I have a Birthday coming up in case you didn't remember!  lol

Then, I got my quilt from the Little Quilt - Sew, Vote, Swap group.  I got the one that Cindy Sharp made and it is so gorgeous......although bigger than I expected at 24 x28 inches.



I also received a package in error that should have been sent somewhere else, but that's another story in itself and I won't go there!  It was funny though and really threw me for a loop for awhile.  Good thing I had the senders e-mail address from a different situation.  Crazy!  I will say that the package is off now on it's way to the proper owner and hopefully things will turn out okay!

Then, I again joined the Scrappy Mug Rug swap (my 2nd favorite swap).  I have a partner who has very specialized tastes so this might be a challenge.  The theme is spring and while I would normally make something with white (my signature, or so I've been told), I thought I'd make something for her/his tastes for the first one:



If you want to read about the challenge I had with this one, click on the picture and go to the Flickr site and read what I wrote under the photo.  I will make more mug rugs for this swap.  I rarely make one of anything for swaps, (as you all know by now.  lol) I love making little stuff!!

So, other than my clean, very short cut Toby, I have nothing else to show you today.  Toby is blowing his puppy coat which results in matting something terrible so I thought a shorter coat might be wise for awhile.  Actually, he is looking more and more like a Bichon instead of the Havanese he really is.  Think that's because I was "in" Bichon Frises for 30 years and only know how to groom that breed??  Duh?



Have a good week, my friends!  Until later.................

Thank heavens!

Earlier today I tried posting, but Flickr was broke!  I was perplexed to be sure!  How could that happen? What would I do without Flickr?  It's kind of like not having your phone.....(although I must admit that I am not one of the many who always has a phone at my side and that VERY often it's plugged in the wall getting charged when I go out), I do see my hubby though.  He wouldn't be caught dead without his iphone!  (Bugs me to death, too!!!  Always checking this and that!  Eeekkkkks!!)  I am getting away from myself though.  I just want to show you something.......

I finally finished the quilt for my swap partner for the Fab Little Quilt Swap.  Remember when I started with these:

Well, I sewed them together and got this:

Then I sandwiched it to quilt it and this is what the back looked like before I embellished it:

I had plans and certain criteria that I knew I would take to make it all it could be and I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  Here's the inside part after I finished it:



And a close-up to see the stitching.  Can you see where I embroidered FLIQS 2012 on the tree trunk?



And the whole thing:



Now I need to get to work.  I haven't sewn a thing in 3 days and I feel like a real slacker!  What oh what will I show you next time?????

E-gads!!

Flickr's broke!  At least it's broke to me.  I just tried to get into it to transfer some pictures so that you could see some stuff and NADA!  Nothing!  Connection is broke......or so it says!  Now what?  Heavenly days, what am I going to do without Flickr?  You too?  Maybe later!  Keep your fingers crossed!

Just a few things......

Since I haven't finished the quilt for my partner yet for the Fab Little Quilt Swap, I thought I'd show you something else.  (Actually a few "something elses"  lol)  Remember when I was in the Potholder Pass and made these:

Well, look at at the cool ones I got in return:

They kinda look like I could have made them for myself, huh?  They are SOOOO my taste?  Well, Sue (beachgirlsews) had me for a partner and we've been paired up before, so she is pretty used to what I like and she nailed it on the head with those beauties.  Think they will ever touch a hot pot?  NOT!!  Waaaay too pretty!

Then, we finally voted in the Little Quilt - Sew, Vote, Swap group (I always have to double check the name of that one, I get so confused with all these groups.  Duh!!) so I'm able to show you what I made.  I got the idea from someone's pinterest board.......(e-gads those boards come in handy sometimes).......they were paintings (and I looked them up to give proper credit by Lisa DeJohn,) that I thought would look perfect in fabric.  Here is one of the drawings and the beginning:

And here they are, ready for shipping to a partner yet to be revealed.  (That's the swap where we vote and what you get is a surprise depending on how your quilt fares in the voting....long process and I really can't explain the whole thing now.....)  Anyway, I made a pair of quilts and called them, "Flowers - a pair".  (Another one of my clever names, dontcha know???)



Each was 8 inches by 13 inches on a background of a very dark blue....."midnight" I think in the Kona line.

Then, I have something else in mind I want to try soon, so I searched the web and finally found what I needed and they are sooooo yummy:

Do you know what they are?  18 Hand Dyed fat quarters!!  Beautiful hand dyed fabrics that are sooo gorgeous, you wouldn't believe it!  I want to play and I hope things turn out like I have in my head.  BUT,  before I can do that, I have to finish the swap quilt for my partner and I'm telling you, this one is taking an age.  I sure hope she likes it when it's done.  You'll see soon..........probably next time!!  Until then, have a great week!!!  Spring is on it's way!!

Time to get serious.....

While I have been having a ball doing all sorts of things that I've had in my brain for weeks now, I'm thinkin' it's about time to get serious and start my partner's doll quilt for the Fab Little Quilt Swap.  So many ideas have been swirling about her wants and desires so I need to start before I forget some of them.  My hope is to make it whimsical and fun but still funky and wild.  (Actually all those are all just about the same anyway, huh?)  Duh!  I have this vision in my head and I'm hoping it works!  Lots of detail so your eye doesn't know where to look first.  First though, I had to get out all the patterned fabric again............much to Toby's delight, I might add:



That little guy (8 lbs at most) jumps on and off the bed like a gazelle so as soon as I brought out the bins and plopped them on the bed, he was right there to help.  Red seems to be his favorite color!  Can you tell?  You'd be surprised at how he loves to dig through those fabrics......I'd have a real mess if I wasn't right there to supervise!  I'm sure he'd take off with a hunk for sure.

So after I picked a bunch of various colors, and sewed them together in mindless sewing (because I still have my cold), this is what I ended up with:



They'll eventually get cut down to about 2 inches square and hopefully be used as a border (at least that's the plan right now.)  Of course though, I needed a middle piece so yesterday, I worked on that.  I wanted to piece the whole thing (remember me talking about that??)  Problem is that I'm not patient enough, so did it 50/50.  Piecing and fusing:



I KNOW it doesn't look like much right now.........but I did that on purpose!  I have plans.......so just wait!  I'm so hoping that it will look amazing when it's finished.   It's all in the details, dontcha know???   SO......you know what I'll be doing for the next few days..........stay tuned.........!!!