Valentine's Day Block Swap

I'm a member of Quilting Board, an online message board for quilters, and I'm participating in a couple of swaps, one of which is targeted for Valentine's Day.  For this swap, you can swap sets of 6 blocks that represent the holiday, and the block size has to be a multiple of 3" plus seam allowance.  I decided to do 3 sets of 6 1/2" blocks.  Two sets are machine-appliqued hearts of my favorite red and pink fabrics.  The third set is foundation-pieced hearts from patterns that I found on Ula Lenz's blog.  She has some really nice foundation-piecing patterns, much more elaborate than others that I found online.  I found her blog accidently, and it was a great find!

The appliqued hearts:

The paper-pieced hearts:

A close-up of 2 of my favorite blocks:

These blocks were mailed out today, and I made it just under the wire!  I can't wait to see what blocks I get in return!

Check out Quilting Board, it's great community of quilters!

Queen of the Sewing Room!

While I was working on the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt, my cat, Ms. Lola, decided to remind me who is Queen of the Sewing Room!

Luckily, my sewing machine is very sturdy since it is becoming one of Lola's favorite spots.  But Lola's my constant companion when I'm in the sewing room, so she deserves the title.

Wonky House, take 2!

I'm still playing with the fabric selection for this block.  This time, I tried a lighter background and added a different window for the lower portion of the window. 

Shhh ... don't tell anyone that this block is a lot of fun!

I love how changing the fabrics changes the look of the block altogether!

Take 3 on its way ...

Wonky House Swap Pattern!

I finally figured out my block for the Wonky House Swap.  Whoo hoo! Thanks to the ladies of the Wonky House Block Swap who put together galleries of different wonky house blocks, I took parts of different blocks that I liked and came up with this:

The block is foundation pieced, and since I drafted it on the computer, I can print the pattern on vellum, which makes the piecing much easier.  (See my post on why I print patterns on vellum).  Since the pattern was fairly simple, I decided to make windows with sashing:

This was my prototype block so there will be some changes for the next one.  The background will be lighter since this background doesn't contrast with the tree enough.  And I will probably add another tree.  Whatever changes I make will be minor because I'm loving this block!  Can't wait for Christmas break when I can work on it!

Productive Quilty Week!

I got a lot done this week, well, as least quilting-wise.

First, I completed 2 more Japanese x and + blocks:

Then, I cut out the squares for the Cherrywood fabrics block that I need to make for the NYC Metro Mod Quilters before the next meeting:

With the left over pieces from the Cherrywood fabrics, I made this little X-mas quilt called, "Hoots' in the House":

A close-up of a block:

And finally, I started to work on the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville.  I completed steps 2, 3 and am working on steps 1 and 4.  Here are some blocks from it:

I'm still trying to figure out the third color family I'm going to use for this quilt.  My mind changes each day.  Sigh.

Of course to be this productive, I had to ignore tasks like Christmas shopping, preparing for the family get-together on that day, finishing up Christmas gifts, etc. but I just had to try out these things!  :)

Rainbow Waves

A while ago, I participated in the mini quilt challenge hosted by AmyLouWho.  I made the Wonky House in Queens little quilt as a wish that the construction on my house would be finished by the holidays.  (It looks like it will be!  Whoo hoo!)

One of the entries for this challenge caught my attention because it was 3-D.  The quilt came from the blog, thimble + bobbin.  I thought the design would be perfect to showcase some of the fabrics that I dyed, but there were no directions.  With some trial and error, I figured out the quilt. 

Here's Rainbow Waves, my version of thimble + bobbin's quilt:

Some close-ups:

The design of this quilt reminded me of the book, The Art of Manipulating Fabric, which I bought years ago and actually just opened yesterday.  There are some seriously cool effects with fabric in this book that would translate well to quilting.  During Christmas week, I'm going to try making a little quilt with some of these fabric manipulations.  Will post when I do!

Love the Japanese X and + block pattern!

I just joined a block swap based on the Japanese x and + block pattern.  The flickr block swap begins in January 2012 and I wanted to try out the pattern.  I love it!  Making these blocks is becoming addictive, maybe because I find the process of making it really relaxing.  When I first started making the blocks, I just happen to be watching Law and Order.  And every time I worked on the blocks, the show just happen to be on.  Now, when Law and Order is on, I feel the need to make these blocks.  I've become the Pavlov dog of quilting! LOL

Here are the first four blocks:

And the four blocks together:

I've been using fabrics from my stash and the fabric selection has been pretty painless since I spent the entire Thanksgiving weekend sorting and organizing my fabrics.  I'm loving how the blocks look together so I'll probably make a quilt as well as blocks to swap. 

Have a quilty weekend!