Friday, March 30, 2012

Swap block quilts

The other day I shared my red & cream swap block quilt with you. Today was the day we all brought what we had done to The Quilt Asylum to share. All of the quilts were different and all were wonderful! It was so much fun to see what everyone had done. We all used different colors to set our squares. Like navy blue...

 Bettepat used a beautiful gold floral to border her blocks (this would be so pretty in my family room!)
 This was Trae's first block swap ever. We all loved her quirky quilt!
 And she used her leftover blocks to create some very cute, very contemporary baby quilts. I really think I will borrow her idea to make some lap quilts for folks I have been praying for.


 Sarah put aqua blue with her blocks and did kind of a bargello layout.
 And Bonnie's is all set in white. She used all but one of her blocks! We all thought it had a nautical feel.
Our next swap is lime green and gray blocks, bigger than these (9 1/2 inches). I can't wait to get started!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Swap block quilt

Remember when I was making red and cream swap blocks? And then I had a huge pile of blocks and I was trying to figure out what to do with them? Well, it's done! It's kind of a random, crazy sampler quilt. What do you think?


I ended up putting some of the 6 1/2 inch blocks into groups of four and making 12 1/2 inch blocks. Then I used some more of the small blocks as cornerstones. It's a really huge quilt (for me anyways.) It's about 72 inches by 90 inches.

Here's a close up shot so you can see the quilting. My friend Diann did this one too... see the cherries??? I love them! I have lots of cherries in my house (not real ones, mind you!)
 

That's my sixth quilt finish for 2012. Wow. Two a month! I wonder if I can keep up this pace. I doubt it!

Hubby had a great idea (as he was holding his arms in the air for some length of time while I took pictures). He said "next house when we have the fence built we're going to have clips built into it for your quilts." Isn't that fabulous? Maybe I could just buy some clips & hot glue them to this fence! Hmmm... the wheels are turning...


Monday, March 26, 2012

New Floors!

The new floors went in in one day! It was a long day, but by the time we went to bed, it was done! Whew! (ok, I make it sound like I did the work myself, so exhausted! I didn't. We paid to have them done and I was trapped in a little corner of my kitchen all day while they worked. No complaints!)

Look at the beautiful wood laminate floor in my sewing space! It makes my room look so big before I brought all the furniture back in. 
The wood laminate goes through most of the lower level of the house, the family room, living room, dining room and hallways in addition to my sewing room. It looks amazing! Once it was done, the reloading began. All of my pretty fabrics made it back onto their shelves...
I think I need to fill in some of that empty space! My other bookcase has a whole empty shelf....

My tables and storage units are back in (oops, I guess I took this before my machine returned to it's spot! It's there now)
That same day, we had new ceramic tile installed in the master bathroom. It had carpet before, and if you know anything about the humidity in Texas, you know that's not a good idea. The tile looks so beautiful!
Of course new tile required a new rug. And a new rug required new matching towels! You know how that goes. Now that the floors look so beautiful some other things are looking a little ratty. Like the family room furniture for example.....

Back to work I go. I should have a new quilt to share with you tomorrow. Enjoy your springtime Monday!




Monday, March 19, 2012

oh hi! yes, I'm still here!

Last week Ally went to visit her siblings in Arizona for spring break! I have to be honest, I was a little envious of them all having time together but it was so good for them to have some sibling time without the parents! Look how happy they all are!

 So, you would have thought I would have gotten lots of sewing done while she was away, right? Hmm. Not so much. Mostly I worked on cleaning and emptying out my sewing room. We are getting new floors this week! I can't wait to have wood laminate floors in my workspace. Here is what it looks like now...
 Kind of depressing... all that time I spent sorting my fabric and making it look all pretty on those shelves... and now they are empty! Sigh. Hopefully by Friday I will be putting it all back together again!

I did finish up the binding on one special quilt. I made this quilt for my hubby to hang behind the desk in his home office. It was supposed to be a surprise for his birthday in ummm June. Oops. I guess I accidentally gave it to him early! He was thrilled with it and wanted to hang it right away, but I told him it had to wait until after I take it to Bring n Brag in April!
 The pattern is City Bank from Cherri House's City Quilts book. I did make it a little smaller than her quilt, one row and one column smaller, so it fits nicely in the wall space. I'm really happy with the way it turned out!
So, no creativity happening at my house this week. Unless you count cleaning baseboards? I don't. But if it's something you enjoy, come on over! I would welcome your help and your company!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Dallas Quilt Show

 Today I went with a group of my quilting buddies to the Dallas Quilt show downtown. It was so inspiring! So many beautiful quilts. First off, I have to show you our guild's raffle quilt which won an honorable mention! I had Joellen & Carol pose near it since they were part of the small group that created it. Isn't it gorgeous?
There was such an interesting mix of quilts. I loved this quilt that had a southwestern feel to it. You can't really tell in my picture, but it had tons of sparkly rhinestones on it... so sparkly!


I loved the bright colors in this quilt...

I've been really intrigued by these shadow quilts lately. I think I may have to make one sometime soon! Here are a couple that I saw today...



This one was so awesome! I scanned it with my phone app and it worked! You got a message when you scanned it. I wonder if it will work here from the photo? I will have to give that a try later.

 This quilt had a ton of work in it  & I loved all the color!


And I couldn't believe this one when I saw it. A tetris quilt! I snapped a picture of it with my phone and texted it to hubby right away. I knew it would make him smile! When Leigh Anne was born (almost 22 years ago!) she was such a content baby. I would put her in her baby swing and play tetris for long stretches of time. Hubby used to pick on me for this!

 This quilt was in the junior division... it's a ticker tape quilt! The colors were just so soft & pretty I had to snap a picture.

There were so many more quilts, I could never show you all of them here!

Also, there were awesome vendors. I didn't spend a lot of money, but I did test drive a couple of Janome machines. I also bought an embroidery/quilt pattern that you will see soon as I begin work on it.

It was a great day! I love to go to the quilt show.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Crumb quilt finished

Why do I always finish up my quilts on the windiest days? It's really gusty out there today! No way could I get pictures with my quilt up on the fence like I usually do. But here are a couple that I took on the patio. This is what I did with my crumb blocks:
 I put four blocks together for each row.... I really love the way this turned out! And on the back:
I love a scrappy quilt back. I had two blocks left so I worked them into the back. My friend Diann quilted it for me in big orange curlicues.... it's awesome! Another snuggle quilt for the couch, or wherever. That's four completed quilts for me so far this year.... I'm on a roll! And enjoying every minute.

This is my first blogpost on my awesome new Macbook! It makes me smile... I'm so lucky!

Monday, March 5, 2012

More ticker tape blocks

Blocks 15 and 16 are done! Sorry about the photo quality, I took them with my phone and I am blogging on my Ipad. You see, my laptop is away from me for a couple of days. Don't worry, nothing is wrong with it. Actually it's good news! I got a brand new Macbook pro over the weekend and the nice folks at the Apple store are moving all my data onto it! Also, something I highly recommend, I signed up for their One on One service so I can take free workshops and get one on one training on all my Apple devices for a whole year. I fully intend to learn everything I can from them. A new adventure! I hope your weekend was as exciting as mine!'

Friday, March 2, 2012

Mugrugs

Our next swap at The Quilt Asylum is mugrugs. It's not until April, but I've been playing around with some possibilities already.

For the first one, I used up a bunch of selvage edges I had been saving. Don't mind the wonky photography. The mugrug really isn't that crooked! 

Then I made one with some Wonderland scraps I have had floating around my sewing room forever. And some embroidery in the center (from the last Anni Downs book). I really like this one and think maybe it will be my swap? But you never know really. 
 I love making mugrugs because they are tiny and quick! I can play around with different ideas without using up a lot of fabric or time. And there are some awesome mugrugs pinned on Pinterest! People are so creative. Have you ever made a mugrug?