Fabric Basket Swap

I finished up my basket for my fabric basket swap.  I used a tutorial on Leslie's Art and Sewing.  It was pretty easy to follow. I made a sample with some polka dot purple fabric first and then made the blue one I was planning on giving.

I loved the polka dot one so much better.  So the polka dot basket is going to my swap partner.  Hope she likes it. I then made a polka dot matching folder for the postcard quilt patterns from Villarose patterns.  My friend Jessica carries all the patterns since her "quilty mom" is the author of the patterns.  Jessica even has some patterns of her own under the label Homegrown. I still have to run by the store and get some velcro for the tab.  As you can see from the picture it is flying in the wind.  I also threw in some mini-charm packs  and a spool of some pretty green Mettler thread. I really had a good time with this swap.  I would do another basket swap any day.  Hmmm.  Good idea for an Austin Modern Quilt Guild swap.

Villarose Patterns and Mini-Charm Packs

Pattern Card Holder 

Blue Basket

Block Swap

I was on vacation for a week so this weekend I was catching up on chores.  I did manage to get my block done for my Block Swap.  She wanted mauve and green.

As usual I went to Quilt Pro to find a design and then resized to 12" and printed out my cutting instructions.  I find Quilt Pro very handy when my swap partner does not specify what block they want.

I had a lovely Mother's Day.  I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my oldest son and my middle son sent me a gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop.  I do admit I sent him a hint.  They had 20% off gift certificates.  My husband got me a Craftsy class and an autographed copy of Tula Pink's "City Sampler".  Can't wait to get that baby in the mail.  I do have the book on my Kindle and it really comes in handy in the block making process.  You can use you finger to flip pages back and forth and you don't have to flatten the book out to get it to stay on the page you want.  It does have a disadvantage in that you can't flip through the book very easily to see the blocks that are coming up.  Now I will have the advantage of both.

Flea Market Fancy Quilt

I finally got out my Russian Rubix pattern and all the pieces I had started cutting for my very special quilt using my remaining stash of the original Flea Market Fancy.  I cut my strips into squares and started trimming my hexie's.  I had started this quilt with fabric I did not love it so I stopped in the middle and started this.  Getting out the project was prompted by my offer on my City Samplers QAL to give my FMF scraps from this project to the first person who put up a picture.  I hope to have my hexie's trimmed up by the weekend.  I still have to cut up my triangles and sashing pieces.

Russian Rubix Quilt with FMF

I had bought mostly pink fabrics.  As you can see below I put the yellow posy in with my scraps.  I had enough fabric for the baby size quilt without it. I even threw in some salvages.  Got to love those salvages.

FMF Scraps

Quilt Labels and a Give-Away

I just spent most of the afternoon and evening churning out four quilt labels that I needed to get done.  As usual, it was hit or miss with my Singer embroidery machine and the chosen design.  Urghh.  Done at last.  Here is one ready to be finished.

I finished my two blocks for my Block Swap Adventure this morning.  My partner wanted scrappy and I didn't know if that meant scrappy modern or scrappy traditional so I made one of each.  

I finished up blocks 5 and 6 for my City Sampler QAL last night.  The pieces were not so teeny so they went together smoother.  Had to give that project a rest today to get the rest of my stuff done.  

Block #5

Block #6

I am feeling motivated to share some of my swag from Quiltcon.  Please leave a comment and I will select at random on Friday the 26th.  It is a 6" charm pack by Free Spirit called Essentials.  Mostly dark blenders.  

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:1   Powered by RANDOM.ORG

I have a winner.  Number 1.  Gina I am sending you an email.  Please send me your address so I can send you your charm pack.

City Sampler Blocks 1-4

Well I got two more blocks done for the Tula Pink City Sampler QAL.  Maybe using solid black for some of my pieces was not too great an idea.  You can really tell on those 1" rectangles that finish at 1/2".  I will keep plugging on and try to perfect my quarter inch seams.  And perfect quarter inch seams are a must in order to get the block pieces to fit together correctly.

Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Blocks QAL

I checked out Google Reader and low and behold Tula Pink's "City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks" is out and Sew Sweetness had already posted the QAL.  I am so in.  I immediately downloaded the book to my Kindle.  It is nice to have it next to my sewing machine on it's stand so I can just follow along with the directions with a swipe of my finger.  I may have to order a print copy too.  Just not quite the same.

This morning I woke up early and could not get back to sleep.  I had decided to use my yellow, black and white stash to make a sampler quilt.  This seemed like a good fit.  I started cutting and piecing.
I am looking forward to continuing with more blocks this weekend after I pin baste and quilt my granddaughter's quilt.  We are leaving for Missouri to see her and her parents in a week so I have to get cracking.

Here are blocks #1 and #2.

A Lovely Spring Day

Last Monday was a beautiful day here in Austin.  I wanted to check my garden at Mayfield Preserve to see if the irises had bloomed and I needed to take pictures of a couple of quilts.  Out the door with my Nikon I went.

First up was my Very Berry Quilt which I finished quilting.  I quilted just inside and outside the squares.  Used my Quilter's Dream batting for this one since it is the first quilt I made for myself.  I used some Amy Butler Love for the backing.  The hot pink is a little much but it makes me very happy.

I finally finished up a quilt for another of my husband's uncles.  This was one of the first quilts I ever made.  A friend had told me about Keepsake fabric so I went on line and picked up a guy color bundle.  I used "Turning Twenty" again as my pattern.  It has been three years in the making.  Bad me.  I need to put a label on it and send it off.

I also took some pictures of the purple iris and daisies in my garden.

There are five ponds in the lawn area and the central pond had these beautiful yellow iris growing en masse.

So all in all a very satisfying day.

I have two more quilts pin basted and one ready to pin baste.  I am going to get as much done as I can today and tomorrow.

We had our sew-in day for the Austin Modern Quilt Guild yesterday.  I got my fabric cut for "There's a Square in There" by Kate Conklin.  I used my last eight fat quarters of Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt.  I have been saving it for this special project.  Finally got into cutting it. Sigh.  I also worked on getting my strips ready for my "Scrapper's Delight" project from "Sunday Morning Quilts" by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison.  That should be a fun project.  A very productive day.