CMQG - Mug Rug Swaps Received!

Last week I received mug rugs from my three partners for the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild swap. I can't quite post the pictures of the ones I sent out yet (since I've arranged to deliver one in person at our guild meeting next week). But here are the lovelies that I received!

top two: from Terri (one is for my daughter!!) Bottom Left: from Elaine Bottom Right: from Sarah

 Here's a close up of the two from Terri! I love the colors and style of both of them - and I'd never before seen binding like the white one (zoom in it's pretty cool). I did then the next day see someone post about that sort of binding on a blog pretty awesome! One of them is for my daughter although if you ask Allie which is hers she'd say both of them! :) Thanks Terri!!

This one is from Elaine who I'd hoped to have as one of my partners too! (next time I'm sure!). She surprised me with this awesome star which is made using AMH fabrics and grey (my fav!) Some of the fabrics are a cotton sateen which is amazing in texture! Not to mention that it was inspired by a blog post by AMH and... when Elaine posted it to flickr none other than AMH herself left a comment on it! Can you believe it?! Awesome!

This mug rug is from Sarah, and she really hit the mark! I love this pattern and the of course I adore those fabrics (did I ever mention my love for Anna Maria Horner fabrics?) She used fabrics from Anna's Bohemian and Chocolate Lollipop lines of fabric (both out of print). I'd never even seen any bohemian in real life before - never! It's not even on my list of wants because it's so out of print!

Such a great surprise then was this little stack of 6 fat eighths!! I believe all but the brown multi dots are from Anna's Bohemian line of fabric (the brown multi is from Chocolate Lollipop). Oh my! :) Did I mention that I love Anna Maria Horner? I do. :) These are pretty amazing and I'm going to have to take a deep breath sometime and cut into them! (not pictured here: two awesome AMH fabric covered magnets that will be shown on my bulletin board soon!)

Thanks ladies for such an awesome swap! I had a lot of fun creating for my partners and obviously I got some awesome mug rugs in return!! I can't wait till our next guild meeting so I can see what everyone else made!

DQS11 Hopeful...

Inspiration mosaic for DQS11

We won't find out if we're in or not until the 8th. The revision of the rules states that the doll quilt must be pieced and include at least 6 blocks (so not an art quilt). The quilts are to be 9" square - 18" square or anywhere between. This is exactly what I love - tiny piecing! I really hope I get in. This swap is chosen by lottery... so there are no guarantees. I'd love to get started though! Cross your fingers for me!!

For my potential partner, here's a breakdown of my current loves.
I like saturated colors of the likes of AMH, Tula Pink, and Echino (although really anything in that color style). I love grey. Light grey, dark grey and everything in between. I like tiny (this swap should be perfect!) I'd love the thought of a moderately simple block repeated in tiny tiny... or bold. Feel free to play with free piecing methods (the triangles and the curves there) as well as gees bend inspired (i love the thought of corduroy added in like the quilts of gees bend often had) I love words or text in any way - pieced, free motion quilted, or even embroidered. The quilt will likely live on my studio wall. :) Have fun and do what you love!

Scrappy Tiny Fun...

Those squares are 1.5" to start, they're not all sewn together yet... but fused to interfacing.

I've been commissioned (hehe don't I feel special) by my aunt to make her some fancy pretty not-wrinkly fitted table covers (not table cloths) for her art show booth. It's time to bite the bullet and start working on them! I hope to be making some major progress on them soon (despite the fact that my family will be in this week... which = not much sewing time but lots of other kinds of fun time!).

This being considered I don't want to start up any major quilting projects until the table covers are finished. So to keep myself from making a million tiny (not so useable) things, I've made a plan to make my little intermissions of quilting time add up. I'm going to work on a quilt I'm calling "Scrappy, Tiny, Fun" (real creative right?). Here's what I'm thinking:

Goals:

• Stay focused on Aunt Kathy's table covers (don't start anything big where I'll want to only work on the new project and not the one which requires my time!)
• try a new color scheme
• try new blocks/be creative
• use orphan quilt blocks (those test blocks from my bee... etc)
• use scraps
• make less mug rug / randomness (these small projects that I do all the time and usually give away since I just love finishing something!)
• to have fun!
• make a quilt I love that incorporates my love of tiny piecing (without becoming to overwhelmed by the tiny stuff).

This entire block is less than 5" x 7" ... average cross is about 1.5" finished

Colors:

• no pink 
• no purple
• (anything else goes... the above can be used very very sparingly)
• mostly saturated and/or solid colors.

 Anyone want to join me? Feel free to do so if you'd like (please let me know - I'd love to be inspired by the sort of blocks you pick out!). This quilt can be whatever you like (duh). I'm choosing to list out many different blocks/block styles that I'd love to try. I've already got about 11 block ideas sketched out in my notebook... I'll just cross them off etc once I finish each one. I may make a mosaic of the different styles.

Adding in a few orphan blocks... I forgot a couple of them though.

Once I have the blocks all completed (give or take) I'll just sew them together into groupings etc. I have a general idea of how I'd like it to look. A modern wacky sampler if you will... with a pieced quote going through the whole thing. Will I be able to pull it off? Who knows. lol...

FQS Bella Parade

The link here has all the fabric names tagged.

Shruti from 13 Woodhouse Road is hosting something called the Fat Quarter Swap Bella Parade on her blog and flickr. Aside from the fact that there will be a lot of cool fabric giveaways, I think this is going to be especially awesome because Shruti has asked many of us to put together some fabric choices to go with each Bella Solids color that they'll have on parade. Here's mine above. I was assigned Bella Solids Yellow (24). Above are my choices of fabrics to go with it. I love it! I kinda want to go order all those fabrics now and make a pretty quilt! Too bad I can't find them all at one online shop or I might just do it (that Ty Pennington fabric there is out of stock most places...darn!). Follow those links above to join the fun!

PS - I never knew how much fun it is to put fabrics together even just on the computer. I think some fabric selling website should sell a FQ bundle of my choices. they're totally cool!

Sooo soon!!!

You all better watch ABC on the evening of July 11th!!! Oh I'm still a bit nauseated by it... but I think this is going to help a lot of people. And I love how the shows have been so far! :)
More info here.

Maybe after that I can start sharing real family pictures again! I feel like my blog pictures look like I'm a single parent! :)

Can someone help me?

I can't figure out why Blogger is no longer sending me individual email notification of comments. I'm only recieving a few of them... I don't see a rhyme or reason to it either. Any tips? I went through my settings and re-clicked all those things to have the emails sent.... It's getting frustrating.

Why Haven't I Posted This Yet?

Haha. I just wrote half a post about a quilt that I'd already shared but thought I hadn't. Funny how that happens sometimes!

Instead here are some pretty pictures that are lurking on my computer but don't qualify for their own blog posts. 

(Above) Curtains from my old sewing room are now in Allie's bedroom. They look cuter than ever with little yellow fabric scrap ties. I love them. (Ikea rocks). PS When hanging the curtain rods I used a drill for the first time in forever (my BIL's) and I must say I like the power. 

I love this picture. The look on Roseann's face is sweet. The girls looks so happy and chilled out. 

Strawberry Buttercream. Need I say more? YUM!

Haha. Funnest thing ever? Colored frostings in squirt bottles for decorating during a party!

Awesomest kindergartner (holy wow is she getting old!) party game? Relay races with floaties on. No real reason for it. No prize for the winning team. No worries about who "won" (the girls actually tended to wait for the slower runner at the end before turning back to run to the finish line!). Fun. 

Happy birthday sweet Rosemarie!! :)