My homework is almost complete

Here's the last of the spring quilt market quilts.  This one was particularly fun to make because the vine was hand appliqued.  It was so nice to have hand work to do!  I still need to make something like 50 ornaments that will be sewn on after its quilted but have until May 16 to get them done.

Here's closeups of a couple of the blocks.  Of course, Santa will get his eyes and the snowman will get his pipe and eye and buttons once the quilt has been quilted.

It's been fun working with Lynette's new Christmas fabric line!  The fabric will be available here soon.

I've been swamped!

I know it's been a while since I updated.  I've thought about stopping to post but have been trying to keep focused.  I just finished 2 of the 3 samples for Lynette Anderson using her new fabric lines.  The first is a Christmas quilt. 

It was interesting to make because the sleigh was appliqued to a pieced background which was appliqued to the brown pieced background.  This is a free pattern which will be available at Lecien fabric around mid-May. 

The second quilt is made with Lynette's new Halloween line.  This is her first Halloween line and if it's an indication of what she can do with a Halloween theme, I expect we will see lots more spooky fabric.  This quilt is primarily paper pieced.  It had been a while since I'd paper pieced but I quickly remembered the technique and also remembered why I enjoy paper piecing.  It's an easy way to get precise shapes. 

Notice the pumpkins are pieced and then appliqued to the background.  I need to add more black ribbon to create a bow for each pumpkin which will look like a tendril.  Just not sure exactly how I want to approach that -- if I sew on the machine the ribbon will get all smushy (and I don't like smush!) but if I want until it's quilted, the ribbon will have to be tacked (lots of work) and will get smushed as the quilt travels throughout the world.  I'll sleep on it.

I just noticed this photo is just a photo of the inner portion of the quilt.  I'll take a photo this week and show you the border.  It was all foundation pieced.....but was fun to do. 

Instead of starting on the 3rd quilt (it's another Christmas one), I am going to shampoo the carpet.  Hubby is out of town so it's a great time to shampoo and then hibernate in bed.

New projects

Finally.....time to work on my Baltimore album quilt.  I had most of the templates prepared so started working on the second half of the first border.

The doorbell rang and the UPS man brought me a package all the way from Japan.  Fabric from Lynette Anderson Designs was shipped Monday and sent overnight to me.  Overnight all the way from Japan!  How do they do that?!  The box contained the most yummy Christmas and Halloween fabric. 

The Christmas fabric will make this

and the Halloween fabric will make this

Both need to be finished quickly so they can be quilted and ready for spring quilt market in May.  How fun is that? 

Back from Dallas Quilt Show

Much of my free time recently has been spent getting ready for the big quilt show in Dallas.  Booths at large shows are expensive so we wanted to be sure we had enough to offer to make it worthwhile.  We'd been told to expect from 8,000-10,000 visitors.  I don't know what the official head count was but know we saw a lot of people.

The first question was will this

fit in this?

Fortunately it all fit so off we headed.  It was raining....no pouring.....so the trip took longer than expected.  We finally arrived mid-afternoon and the next big question became how will we make this look presentable?

I think we did it.

We learned from this experience and will take those lessons with us next time we vend.   For now, I'm content to be home and sleeping in my own bed.

Jean was right!

Saturday my friend Jean commented that I hadn't updated my blog in a while.  Oh my goodness!  She was right.  It's been over 3 weeks.   Glad there's no a bad blogger award because I'm afraid the trophy would be mine to keep for a while.

It's been a very busy 3 weeks.  My friends who own Sew Graceful Quilting took a much deserved vacation and left me to mind the store for a week.  It was fun to play with fabric and wool all day and visit with people who stopped by for a fix. 

Monday I gave the program at Calico Cutups in Bella Vista.  That was a lot of fun---the only bad part was putting away all the quilts I took out of cupboards. 

We are vending at the Cassville Quilt show this Saturday and Sunday so have been busy making samples for that.  I have one more block to finish for Sweet and Simple and it'll be done.  I'll post a photo next time. 

I also finished this cute little rabbit wall hanging.  The rabbits now have eyes and it's quilted.

This candle mat works up quickly and who doesn't love sheep??!

This isn't a real good photo but this is a wool heart with a pocket.  You could put anything in the pocket.

I also finished this pillow.  Again, it works up quickly.....are you sensing a "quickly" theme here?

I will try to be a better blogger  :-)

Sweet and Simple

I've been busy working on Sweet and Simple.  It's being offered as a block of the month at Sew Graceful Quilting in both cotton and wool.  I am making the cotton version.  All but one block is created and ready to be blanket stitched on the machine.  The last block is the one with the most personalization and since I have no children (the pattern block has 3 kids) I need to decide what to use instead. 

Here's the quilt as it "supposed" to look

And here's some of my blocks

The barnyard animals are kind of quirky - the little pig looks more like a mutant rhino, but I thought I'd make it just like the pattern.  He'd be darling with a curly tail. 

I can't sit and sew all day long like I used to so plan to sew a little and work on the Friends of Baltimore border as a sewing reward.  Now I'm off to pull a variety of threads so I have no sewing excuse!

More wool finishes

Here's pictures of some wool pieces I recently completed.  First, a piece by Renee Plains of Liberty Star.  I really like doing her pieces - quick and easy with very clear instructions and nice graphics. 

I changed the finishing on this Americana Sampler.  

This piece is actually finished now.  This photo shows it in progress - I added the acorns and quilted it.   

All of these pieces were quick and easy to sew.   Best of all, I could quilt them all on my sewing machine. 

I'm working on putting together a block of the month and will have photos of that soon.  After that, I'll FINALLY get to work on Friends of Baltimore.  Be still my heart!