Doll Quilt Swap 13 Sent!

I'm so excited to share my quilt for DQS13! 

First up is the quilt that I made. I was super excited and nervous when I received my partner assignment. I've known and respected Elizabeth for years. We were in a bee together for two years (I still don't know how I got into that gig!), and we've generally known each other around the blog / flickr world forever. I really love Elizabeth's style and her quilts are fabulous. We have a lot of things in common, our fabric choices are similar, and she loves paper pieced stars too. (she's pretty much the modern paper piecing guru with her BOM!).

I was first inspired by this quilt that I found in Elizabeth's flickr faves / pinterest. I've adored this quilt too so I decided to try my hand at doing a sampler of sorts - but with the twist of the low volume background that it seemed Elizabeth likes (texty fabrics too). 

It proved to be a lot harder to really do it justice given the size constraints. In the end I used some improvisational piecing to put it all together. And major sad face here, I managed to lose my hand sewing kit on a trip back home - inside the kit was a finished (not photographed) attempt at the "Camelot" blocks. If you know me you know I don't particularly enjoy hand piecing.... I didn't have it in me to sew another 30+ 1" pieces together. :(

Fake piped binding and prairie point signature.

I bound it using the fake piped binding look... which was a bit annoying. The last time I did this sort of binding was years ago and I remembered loving it... I think I've grown a lot in precision since then. This wasn't as precise as I would have liked it to turn out. I do love that jolt of pink though. And I'm proud of myself for remembering to include my little signature, the three prairie points. They always make me smile. 

Some little extras, a boxy pouch and some AMH ribbon.

In the end I hope that Elizabeth likes it. I decided I don't really care for the scrappy low volume look for backgrounds, it feels so busy to me. I can't get over it. It was too late to change it though. I do love the look of the text prints if they were used individually as a background. 

Doll Quilt Swap 13 Received!

Fractured Quilt Doll Quilt Swap 13 Received from Silort

I'm so excited about the quilt I received this time around for the Doll Quilt Swap! This is by far my favorite swap, and I'm one of the head swap mamas for it... which meant I split up the bebe's for the other mama's to pair up.... I tried not to remember or even to think about what group I was in... (since partners are paired up within that group. Sneaky Jen, worked with another mama to pair me up so I wouldn't have a clue! It's a good thing too, because I had my eye on this beauty throughout the whole swap!

Doll Quilt Swap 13 Label, Received from Silort

I recieved this fabulous quilt made by Silvana / Silort. Silvana was inspired to try one right off my inspiration mosaic! The pattern for this little one is based off of Charlotte's Pervalong / Fractured quiltalong. Silvana did a great job executing this - the colors are perfect and bold and fun! I love the quilting, which really carries your eye across the piece. 

I'm so excited to get this hung up on my wall! It is perfection!! I'm so lucky to have received such a beauty!! Thanks Silvana!!

WIP Wednesday

Doll Quilt Swap 13 Progress!

Unfortunately it hasn't been as productive of a week as I'd like. We had some issues with our furnace last weekend which left me hiding under quilts rather than piecing them! Thankfully that's all fixed now, so I see some real progress soon! 

This week I've made a little more progress on my weekender - I just have two more outer pieces to piece/quilt. I'm ready to get this one together!

Florida star - minus the HST's on the corners. Pattern found here (and reduced 50%)

I've also made some progress on my Doll Quilt Swap quilt. I've pieced another block and a half. I'm really having fun with the paper piecing. I'm thinking maybe one more intricate paper pieced block, or maybe a mini swoon block? We'll see. I'm really sad that my EPP block is missing (along with my hand sewing kit eek!). So that one may not be included unless it turns up soon!

I did start and finish my Modern Quilt Guild Madrona Road challenge quilt. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and It'll look nice on my sewing room wall. :) You can read the whole story here.

The biggest thing being checked off my list this week  - prepping for my first week of my new linky party! 

I'm starting a linky party titled "Sew Thinky Thursday." My goal is to get the blogging community thinking and talking. Each Thursday I'll post a conversation topic related to sewing. These are all things that I'd love to chat forever about, but it would likely bore my husband to death if I did. So instead I'll chat with you guys! Here's how it'll work:

I'll post the question a week in advance, and you can then blog your response anytime throughout that week. Stop by my blog every Thursday to join the linky and to read the responses of everyone else. 

This week's question (linking up tomorrow!) is: 

When did you start sewing? Tell us a bit about your sewing history. When did you realize you were really hooked? 

So go ahead and think about it - and stop by to link up tomorrow!

Finally the sad list of things I haven't worked on at all this week:

1. Michelle's Quilt - no progress, but the batting arrived this morning. So quilting soon! (still waiting for the thread!)
2. {Modern} Robin - no progress. 
3. Bubble Quilt - no progress.
4. Sabrina's Quilt - no progress.
5. Harry Potter Patronus/Dementor Mini - no progress.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday. 

Doll Quilt Swap 13 - Sign-ups starting!

We're preparing for another awesome round of the Doll Quilt Swap on flickr. This will be the 13th round - and I'm one of the head mama's for this swap now. I'm pretty excited to have a bigger part in a swap that's so special to me! 

Doll Quilt Swap 9

The swap is open to all active flickr members (posting sewing related pics a couple times a month). If that's you, feel free to go sign up! 

Doll Quilt Swap 10, made for Kaelin / theplaidscottie

This will be my fifth round with DQS. I'll always have a special place in my heart for it since DQS9 was my very first swap (I know that's not supposed to happen since you're required to have participated in a swap before... but I got in!). I have grown and learned a lot throughout those five swap rounds. I've made a lot of really great friends too.

Doll Quilt Swap 11, made for Maria / MollyJolly

I have to say that this swap keeps getting better and better. I always try to push myself to learn something new on my DQS quilts. I also love getting to know my partners after they've received their quilts. 

Doll Quilt Swap 12, made for Mona / QuiltCyclist

Some really great friendships have been formed here - I first "met" Shruti in Doll Quilt Swap - she sent me this fabulous quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 10! We've been friends ever since (maybe one day we'll meet in real life - when my life becomes glamorous enough to take trips to India for a visit! I can dream right?). Though I will be lucky enough to meet my DQS12 partner, Mona this year at QuiltCon! 

Are you ready for a fabulous swap? Please go sign-up now! Don't wait too long, sign-ups won't be open too long! :)