Swoon Block 7

We're in the homestretch now!  Swoon block 7 is complete.  A litte different colorwise for this block...

I love the yellow polka dot...

I didn't love mis-cutting the yellow polka dot so there wasn't - absolutely, couldn't-fudge-it - enough of it to finish the block. I was bummed. Until I pawed through my stash and found a very similar piece...Seriously, you almost can't tell the difference and when you look at the whole block, you really can't tell.  It's times like these when you do not feel guilty about your big stash.  I was so relieved!

On a different note, at our last Philly Modern Quilt Guild meeting, we swapped aprons.  It was my very first attempt at making an apron!  I cheated a little by using a Verona apron panel, but it was just so cute when I saw it in the quilt shop....

I decided to back it with the orange polka dot.  Sweet!  The gal that picked my apron said it matched her dishes.  How serendipitous!  (I think she liked it! o:) )

The apron I chose, made by fellow guild member Tricia, was from (another) fellow-guild member Jessica Levitt's book Modern Mix.  I wanted to make this apron ever since I got the book, but I just love this one that Tricia made. 

 [sorry for the side photos]

I still might make this apron - it looks fun to do.  I'm on a kick and I think all the girls in my family are getting aprons for Christmas o:) I was thrilled with it and, believe it or not - it is my very first apron!  I'm afraid to wear it, I might get it dirty - LOL!

I love my apron and believe it or not - it is my very first one! I'm afraid to wear it though, I might get it dirty - LOL!

Modern Siggy Block Swap

My bloggy friend, Karin, of Cascade Quilts blog, is hosting a modern siggy block swap.

She started a Flickr group that has all the details.  If you are interested in checking it out or signing up, go here!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Since I can't be at Quilt Market (but I am vicariously living it through the tweets, blog posts and Facebook updates of those who are there!), I will participate in the wonderful Blogger's Quilt Festival that Amy from Amy's Creative Side puts on twice a year.

I thought back on quilts I've made recently and chose my Central Park Postage Stamp quilt to feature.  I think this might have been the most fun I ever had making a quilt.  Seriously.  I don't know what it was - the fabric itself, how the quilt was coming out, the process or what...but making  this quilt was a blast!

The impetus for this quilt was seeing my friend Becky's version during a guild sewing day.  I had followed Rachel Griffith's (P.S. I Quilt) Postage-Stamp-Quilt-a-Long on her blog but didn't jump in until I saw Becky's quilt.  It wasn't long before I went out and bought my own jelly rolls of Kate Spain's Central Park (one of my all-time-favorite lines - see my Central Park:  A Love Story post from last year) and Moda Bella Snow.  It took some figuring how to take Rachel's instructions for a scrappy quilt and make my quilt with one print per row like Becky's - I loved the way the color cascaded down the quilt.  Hubby and I spent a long time with the rows spread out on the living room floor rearranging them to make sure they were in exactly right order (and then decided after it was sewn together, one of the rows was probably in the wrong place.  But, I don't care, it's all subjective.  And it was sewn together and things have to be really, really bad for me to unpick - LOL!) 

I finished the quilt top in two weeks and quilted it with the Daisy Swirl pantograph...

I was thrilled when I took the quilt out of the dryer and was able to snuggle in it's crinkly, quilty goodness!

It's almost summer right?  I think it's time to pull this quilt out storage for the season!

Check out Amy's blog for all of the other Blogger's Quilt Festival entries!

A New Bee in Town

It's a new bee based on the Sunday Morning Quilts  book from Amanda Jean Nyberg  and Cheryl Arkison.  I was reading my bloggy friend Charlotte's blog, Grammie Q's, the other day and she proposed starting a new bee utilizing this book, which is a new favorite of mine.  I got my copy of Sunday Morning Quilts a month or so ago and have looked through it about a dozen or more times since. 

 

After making a few of the slab blocks, Charlotte was inspired to start a new bee using the blocks.  I was the first to say "I'm in!" Charlotte was thinking about doing a different color "slab" every month.

If any one is so inspired, please check out Charlotte's blog post on the subject and comment to let her know if you are interested!

This is going to be fun!

Mother's Day Tea

Happy Mother's Day!

We just returned from a wonderful Mother's Day dinner at a favorite BYOB with my husband and kids.  Wonderful pasta, wine and company.  And I got to sew all day.  A perfect Mother's Day!

Yesterday, I took my Mom to a Mother's Day Tea sponsored by Olde City Quilts in NJ.  The tea was held at Cafe Gallery in Burlington, NJ. 

The tea was held on the patio of the restaurant and the weather was perfect

My Mom....

We had such a lovely time.  This was our table.  Olde City Quilts provided lovely fabric coasters and favors of mints in the little boxes, a floral fat quarter with a Pigma pen tucked inside (to make sure we have a way to label our quilts) and a 20% discount to the quilt shop!

Owner Judy displayed this lovely tea cup quilt and gave an inspiring talk about her Mother and her own quilting history (starting at age 15!). 

To top it off - I won the door prize!!  It included 3 lovely fat quarters, a pack of fabric sheets for making labels for your quilts (which shop owner Judy implored us to always do) and a book on Memory quilts and projects. 

Happy Mother's Day, Mom - I hope we have many, many more to celebrate together!

Dresden Plate Top done!

I finally finished my first Dresden Plate quilt (there will be more!), started with Bunny Hill's Dresden Plate quilt-a-long.  It was not without a few mishaps though.

This photo does not show contrast very well, but here it is...

The fabrics in this quilt are all from an older Flower Sugar line by Lecien that I originally purchased a couple of years ago.  First issue was when I realized I ran out of background fabrics for the plates, I went scrambling for more.  While I did find it, my friend just informed me (while looking at the finished quilt), that the fabrics are not identical.  I don't know whether it was the first or second purchase that has WAY more dots....see....

Didn't notice that - probably still wouldn't have noticed until she pointed it out to me.  She suggested I could take the quilt apart and re-sew them in a checkerboard to make it look like I meant to do that.  Ummm, nope.

So, I'm putting my rows together and I could not eek out enough of the red sashing fabric for the last row.  I was four strips short.  I looked on-line for more.  No luck.  This is a problem with a capital "P"!!  I put a scrap in my purse and just hoped I would find something similar enough to work on my quilt shop/show travels someday and folded up the quilt and the remaining blocks and put it away.  Then, on a whim, I checked on eBay to see if maybe, just maybe, I could find some (I know I looked on eBay before).  I could not believe it, but the Unique Fabric Palette had some!  If I could, I would have kissed that shop owner!

So, the Dresden Plate quilt saga is just about finished.  I just hope I have enough of the red fabric left over for the binding  o:)

Fun with Hexagons

I finally jumped on the Hexagon bandwagon!  I've been wanting to do these for so long and I finally took the plunge.  Here are my first three completed flowers....

I have a fabric plan.  I have no idea how many flowers I'm going to need, I'm just going to keep going until the quilt looks big enough (or until I get bored).  So, I started off by cutting a strip from each of my leftover Hope Valley fabrics.  Once they are done, I'm going to cut strips from each of the Flea Market Fancy prints.  Then, I'll cut into the Central Park leftovers. I think those three lines will look good together and then I'll find other fabrics that look good with them.

And here is my very special Hexagon box hubbie gave me just for this project....

The cigar box is the perfect size to keep all the bits and pieces...

 Turn your head to the side and you can see the papers I am using.  I got these 1" paper templates from Paper Pieces.  They stock just about any size hexagon templates you want (not to mention a ton of other shapes)

 I had bought one of those fancy hexagon rulers to cut out my fabric, but lo and behold, it doesn't cut the size needed for 1" hexagons.  Figures.  So, what to do, what to do.  What I wasn't going to do was cut them by hand and I didn't want to use squares.  So, after some trial and error with the strip size I needed, I found that a 2-1/2" strip of fabric would give me a generous sized piece of fabric to work with.

I folded the strip wrong sides together and used my 60 degree ruler.  I lined up the 2-1/2" mark on the bottom of the strip like so....

 Then just two cuts with the rotary cutter - one up and one down and I had my shape! 

And the crease makes it easy to line up the paper template.

I punched a hole in each of the templates so I could anchor them to the fabric for basting.

These hexies are Too.  Much.  Fun!!!