Block Swap Adventures

Over two years ago when I really started blogging and quilting heavy I came across Block Swap Adventures. I have made many wonderful blocks. Visited with some great people and one grouch. I have collected 27 blocks in the wonky star pattern. I love each one of them. Some I received from some very cool far away places. Sticking to my plan of finishing some stuff I broke out all of the blocks and made them into two small quilts. They are so fun!!

I am not sure yet what I am going to be doing with them. I was thinking about donating them but I might just keep these for the house. I am going to be shopping tomorrow for fun fabric to add one more border. I want to find some very bright colorful fabric. Then use black for the binding. So then I can add these to the very tall pile of finished tops. 

TTFN

Quilt Top Finishes

In the quilt group I started a few years back, PQA, our project that we worked on as a group was a block swap. This was the block I picked out. I found it on Quilters Cache. The name is Arrowhead Puzzle. I love orange and red so I came up with this layout.

I received 24 blocks. I made another 18 blocks to make it big enough to fit my Queen sized bed.

I added a small border of red, medium border of orange, and a bigger border of black. I have lots of black left so I will make some shams after it is quilted. 

Because I am working on some older projects and I had orange on the brain I brought this bad boy out. I started working on it about 7 years ago or so. I used my serger because it was out ans serged the whole center. 

I did not remember how far I had gotten. Well after I laid it out all I had to add was the borders. WHY did I stop? LOL!

Here it is with the borders!

Another quilt we were working on in PQA was this wall hanging. I decided not to add the outer border with 

embroidered words. I just like this simple brown border. I love this quilt. It is so cute and fun. Now that I am done I wish I had done the background in black. Oh well!! 

Let's Bee Together

One of the things I dropped out of was Let's Bee Together, well to be fair it did not start back up again. It was a fun group with a few hiccups. I was a part of it for both years it ran. For 2012 December was my year. I sent out late but I am ok with how long it is getting stuff back. December is a hard month to get extra stuff done. I sent out 4-4 1/2 inch square pieces of paper and strips of fabric in matching colors. I asked everybody to sew the strips onto the paper from corner to corner. Here are the blocks I have received so far.

From Christina:

From Linda:

From Erin:

From Ann:

From Charlene:

From Carolyn:

From Bailey:

All I am missing now is blocks from Sara, Robyn, Toni dropped out so I did not send anything to her, and Melinda. I can't wait to see this quilt finished. I will need to make a bunch more blocks. I will put this on a back burner for a while. I want to finish a few other things first. I hope everybody's day is a good one!!  

Fun Stuff Before Christmas

I made a few gifts for my nieces and nephew. Towels with appliqued names. They turned out so cute!

MY 12 Days of Christmas swap was so fun. Here are a few pictures of the different stages of my table runner that my partner set up for me. I forgot to take a finished picture after it was quilted and washed, but I love it!!

Here are the corner pieces:

Here are the center blocks:

Here it is all sewn together with the border:

At the beginning of December my church group went to Hope House and dropped off our quilts that we had been working on for so long. Here is a picture of all the quilts in the main hall. We needed to take 68 quilts but when the final number was counted there was 126 quilts. Wow wonderful ladies!! 

I've Been Gone a Long Time...

It has been over a month since I posted last. So many things have happened. My daughter came home from college and will be home until April 22nd. We have been having a lot of fun hanging out. We had a great Christmas and New Years Eve Party. I found out that I am going to be an aunt again. The little boy I watch during the day is going to be a big brother. We are all so excited. It has been fun watching my daughter-in-law grow with my first grandchild. We found out she is going to have a little girl!! I have picked up a small job making Stoma Covers. Here is a link to a website that sells them but these are not the ones I make. Then I decided that I was not going to take on very many more new projects plus I dropped a few things. I want to focus on finishing things this year. For the last two years I have been a part of a lot of fun things but so many of my beginning projects got pushed to the back. So for this post I am just going to hit a few highlights then come back and post all the goodies. I have been busy sewing but I have a lot more I want to do. So let's begin...

In PQA, my little quilt group, we had a 12 days of Christmas swap. My partner and friend did a wonderful thing. Each of the 12 days was a step to a Christmas Tablerunner. I LOVED making it!! Here is step one.

I finished my December hexies but missed the boat for getting on the list for January. 

December was my month for Let's Bee Together. I got my packages out late. I have been receiving my blocks back and they sure are fun.

One of the tops I finished this month was a Quilt Along I was doing with PQA. Here is the finished center block. I can't wait to show you the top.

For 2012 in PQA we swapped blocks. Each member picked a block and each month we swapped partners. Here are my blocks with a few extras. I finished this quilt top also. I love it. It will be going on my bed when it is quilted. 

In 2011 the females in my family got together and watched all the Twilight movies that were out before going to the theater and watching part one of Breaking Dawn. While we here all together we tie dyed shirts, sweatshirts and I did 2 yards of Kona White. My sister-in-law loves all things "Flower Power". So I took that material and made a quilt for her. I love it and best of all she loves it. She uses it ALL the time. I never took a picture so over Christmas I got one. That peace sign in the middle it one piece of fabric. It sure was fun trying to get that cut out and having it look ok. 

Way back in oh I don't know 2007 or so I started to dabble in quilting but never got serious. I had a pattern for a Trip Around the World quilt. I did not know any different and I had my serger out so I used that. When I got this out of the closet I only had to add the borders. Why did I put this away? Ha Ha!! This is another finished top for me. I love this one too. 

So that is just a few of the things I have been up to. I have not stopped reading every body's blogs and can't wait to get back into blogging myself. 

What have I been up to...

This is Jayden, he is my nephew. He is eating his 1st birthday cupcake.

 It is almost the end of the year and I feel changes coming on. I have had a very full year and I feel the need to lessen my schedule. With this little guy that I am taking care of turning into a walking toddler I need more free time to be able to take care of him the way he deserves. I can't be stressed out over to many things all month long. So as I go through these next few weeks of streamlining my quilting time I have decided to take a blogging break even though I might drop by here once or twice. I will be back after the first of the new year with a new routine. I can't wait. I am excited. 

I have been trying to get a few things taken care of in my life. Swaps being the biggest. The number of swaps that I am a part of will be one of the things I cut out of my life. I have loved every minute of my swaps that I have been a part of over the last two years. The one swap that I am going to stay with is The Inchy Hexagon Swap. I do not have near enough flowers for my quilt yet, LOL!! Here are the flowers for my November partner. She asked for purple/red color flowers. I hope these work for her. 

The next swap I am in is Block Swap Adventure. I have loved this swap. I have had many wonderful partners and one very rude woman that I am learning to forget. I have made many different blocks that I might not have tried on my own. This is one of the swaps I am dropping out of. I know that it is only one block a month but it is one day a month that I am focused on making something for someone else. 

This block was so fun. It is for my November partner. It is so bright!

These blocks are from the same swap from my partner for November. She did not know which one to send to me so she sent me all three. I love them!!!

The next swap is Let's Bee Together. It works different then most groups. There are 12 swappers. We each take a month and send out fabric to the other 11 people. They make blocks for you and send them back that same month. I have had a great time in this group but this is another group I am not signing up with again. I have my blocks from last year that I have done nothing with and my month for this year is this month. Again I know that it is only one block a month but then with the month that I send out packages to everybody it is all the planning and cutting. I know! I sound like I am whining! 

This block is for our leader. She is great for all that she has done. I can't wait to see the quilt that this block goes into. 

Holiday Lane Pillow Blog Hop

Welcome to my day. I am so excited  to show off what I have made. I know that we were supposed to make a pillow but I decided to make mine into a table topper for my daughter in college. I used felt for the snow. Then for some of the decorations I used buttons. I just love buttons on these kinds of things. Can you see the small little bunny? I thought I needed to add a little whimsy. There are two pictures to help you get a close up look. 

Thank you to all the people who make these hops so great. Don't forget to go see the other people who are on the list for today. Thank you for stopping by!!

Monday November 26

Living Life One Day at a Time

Polka Dot Classic

Sophie Junction

I'm Keeping Busy

Sunshine Quilting

The Treehouse

Petit Design Co

Nunu's Quilt World

Ellison Lane Quilts

From This to That

Mary on Lake Pulaski

Luann's Loose Threads

Till We Quilt Again
13 Woodhouse Road

Getting A Few Things Done!

I am trying to catch up. It is a bit tough since I have been overtaken by my RA. It does not like this weather, the cold and rainy. Plus after working so hard on those quilts and other projects I guess I was flying and so now I am crashing.

These flowers are for my October partner in the The Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap. 

These two following blocks is for Block Swap Adventures. 

October partner:

 One of my November:

So I finally got around to drawing names for the give away for Leafs me happy blog hop. The winner of the random drawing is Heleen Groot. Go check out her blog! Then the winner of the followers drawing is April. Go check out her blog! Ladies send me your snail mail addresses and I will mail off your packages after Thanksgiving. I will be busy with family starting this Saturday until next Sunday.