We Bee Quilters House Block Swap

If you have not joined your local guild yet you should.  It is a great way to have fun and fellowship with like minded people.  And of course you make lots of friends.  Guilds have little groups called Bee's.  I'm in the "We Bee Quilters" bee and we have done a block swap for the last two years.  I didn't have time to do it last year cause I was doing the quilt show boutique and of course that took up lots of my time.

Anyway, our block swap theme this year is house blocks.  Now mind you my block is a school house and at first the blocks were suppose to be all houses.  Then people started asking questions about doing barns, churches and shops.  Well I decided a neighborhood needs a school so that is why I choose a school house.  Mind you we need more houses than businesses so most of the swapper's will be making houses.  I have ordered my backing fabric already and am excited to get all the blocks this coming Wednesday!  I have a picture in my mind of what my quilt is going to look like.  I am so excited about being able to join in.

So here are my 21 blocks all finished.  Of course I left this till the last possible moment and wanted to had lots of details such as the hand applique flag, the school name, the bell and smoke coming out of the chimney.  But I got it done and that is all that matters right!

Here are all the swapped blocks I received this past Wednesday.  I am so happy with them.  There is only one that is not the correct size so either I will not use it or I'll try and make it bigger and make three more blocks to complete my house quilt.  

and my backing fabric arrived! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

All I've made for Christmas

I haven't done much of anything in the way of making Christmas decorations this year but these cute little guy's.  This is a Gingermelon pattern from Etsy.
Her patterns are the cutest and I've purchased many of these.  Most of the time I've reduced the pattern sizes so they can be used as 3D ATC cards.  :)  Yeah crazy right!  But these I left the original size and sent them out as gifts to some awesome artists I trade ATC's with.
I think they turned out great.  I didn't use felt but I purchase wool fabric from here at RubyMountainDyeWorks on Etsy and I found the natural wool fabric in cream at JoAnn's.  I spend the extra money cause I wanted these to be special little gifts.  I hope they love them as much as I did making them.

Merry Christmas!

Two UFO's Quilted and binding on....

I've been working on these for some time, maybe two years.  The first quilt is a pattern kit I purchased on Connecting Threads website and the pattern is called Chubby Chicks.  This one I had to do the satin stitch on my sewing machine.  I'm am not the best at the satin stitch!  The second quilt is one I designed after I purchased and embroidery file from BunnyCup  Embroidery site called Here Birdy (Still available on their site).  So I named this one Here Birdy Birdy after the design.  The fabric is a Moda line that is a mock homespun.  I had purchased a huge charm pack (100 charms) oh between 10 and 15 years ago. Then about two years ago decided to finally use it on this quilt. Of course this fabric is no longer carried and I needed a backing fabric.  Well to my surprise the quilt shop in Spring that carries all Moda fabric (some are very old lines of fabric) had two of the fabrics from this line on the bolt.  Yaaaaaaaaaa for me.  I purchased enough of one for the backing and another yard of the other for the binding.  I just lucked out with this and trust me I looked and looked for fabrics that I thought would go well with this line and couldn't find anything I liked.  So checking out your local quilt shops can bring surprises!
I did the FMQ on both of these and while they are not professional looking they are done!  Now if I ever get those grandchildren I've been hoping for all will be grand in my little world.

Chubby Chicks

Here Birdy Birdy

From an Artist to a Pattern designer!

Like you, I too have many talented friends, trust me when I say way more talent than I could dream of having.  So...... there are a couple of these friends that their drawings when I see them I see a future quilt block or mug rug or something awesome in fabric. And of course these are their works of art so I can't just turn it into something for me can I?   I look at their drawings and wish I could have come up with that!

Anyway, one of those friends KD Sams is one of the friends I just spoke about that when they create their paintings my eyes always see it in fabric.  Her drawings are quirky and I can see bright colors of candy fabric floating around in my head after viewing her art.  So finally I told her this, and to my surprise she liked that I thought her art would translate well into a quilt block.  Now mind you she's an artist, not a seamstress but I told her that if she could use the heat and bond lite she could create the block and pattern without ever having to use a sewing machine.  Then she would have her art in fabric form to take pictures of for that perfect pattern.  Well to get her excited about the process I made one of her girls into a little quilt.  Mind you I did rush it so it's not perfect but I think now she see's what I see.

I created a quilt block and the pattern for her girl "Maddie" to show her just how easy it is  (and to get her motivated to create this quilt I have in my head, hehehe).  I sent the pattern to her so she can see the process, (and improve on it I'm sure).  I hope that she posts it for sale, I think she will be surprised by the response she will get from quilters.  I'm hoping for 11 more of her quirky girls to make a quilt with.  I think she could do a block of the month and people would be anxiously waiting for the next block!

I'm going to send her this Maddie quilt block once I get the binding on it and a hanger for the back but I will be making one for me too <<<<grinning.  I think I'll use needle turned applique on the one for me because I'm not so good at the raw edge applique.  My satin stitches look like Shat.  :)

Here is KD Sams first pattern from her original art.  What do you think of her?  I'm going to put the binding on today after some weaving tool orders I have to complete.  :)
I hope she is excited as I am about her work!

A Texas Snowman Mug Rug

My new mug rug design, he's a Texas snow man. Now if you've never made a snow man in Texas then this information will come in handy.
To make a snowman in Texas you have to have at least 1/2 inch of snow fall on the ground. You must have a wagon so you can collect all the snow from all your neighbors yard. Once you have collected all the snow from your neighbors yards you must rush home and have the entire family help you quickly build your snowman while your mom complains about all the trash, dirt and grass in the snow you collected. And your dad is upset cause you insisted on using his cowboy hat! You must take a picture right away because he will be completely melted in 30 minutes to an hour... but what the heck, you had fun and you got your Christmas card picture!!!

This mug rug is for a mug rug swap I'm in... I hope who ever gets this one loves it as much as I do!
You can find this pattern HERE.