four way swap ~ part two

19.5" x 19.5"
free pieced
machine pieced and quilted





Four Way Swap is a doll quilt swap between laurajay, lucyellen06, calamity kim and myself. I discussed how our little group came about in the previous post.





Lucyellen06 finally opened her package. I'm glad she did.





The rules for this round were:
1. include birds
2. include neutrals
3. include recipient's color of choice (aqua for lucyellen06)
4. include liberated piecing (John easily figured out that this was the rule that I contributed - hee)





It took me awhile to decide what to make for Lucyellen06. I changed my mind several times. And as I was looking through my favorites for inspiration, I came across this quilt. I knew that the birds were paper pieced, but as I talked about earlier, simple paper pieced patterns are great for liberating/free piecing. So I thought that I would make a bird for each of us in the quilt using each quilter's "color of choice" from our rules. Lu picked aqua, Laurajay picked red and/or aqua, Kim pick blue/aqua and I picked red. And a central liberated star to represent our friendship.





It was a pleasure making this quilt for you lu!

I wonder what kim's will look like.....





stay tuned!

Things will be quiet around here for the next week. The kids and I are going out of town for the week. Billy will join us later. Wonder where we are going? The beach! Hate me yet?

four way swap ~ part one

19.25" x 17.5"
free pieced
machine pieced and quilted

Four Way Swap is a doll quilt swap between laurajay, lucyellen06, calamity kim and myself. It first started early this year with a swap between laurajay and I. Then after that swap, lucyellen06 joined in our next swap. After that swap, calamity kim joined the mix. I am honored to be included in a group of such talented quilters. These swaps have challenged me creatively, and I feel that my quilting has improved because of these swaps. And above all, I have met some dear friends.



I mailed off my packages for four way swap last week. Lucyellen06 received hers, but is torturing me by not opening it yet. (open it lu!) Laurajay recieved hers, and was a kind friend and opened hers this morning.



Each round of our swap has had "rules". We each contributed a rule. The rules for this round were:

1. include birds
2. include neutrals
3. include recipient's color of choice (red and/or aqua for laurajay)
4. include liberated piecing



I was a little stumped as to what to make laurajay for this swap. During Doll Quilt Swap 4, Millie Quilts made this cute quilt. Laurajay's son loves alphabets, and I thought that an alphabet quilt would be just the thing. After a quick chat with Millie Quilts, I got started. I used Tonya's letter tutorial to make the letters. Lucyellen06 had sent some beige fabric with letters on it last round - perfect for the binding. And I used some number fabric for the backing. And being the lazy person I am, I used a micron pen on the backing for the label and heat set it with a dry iron.



now if lu would only open her package....



On a sad note, Marguerite's rat died last night. We will miss her. She was very sweet and gentle.

Doll Quilt Swap 5 ~ done!

That's right folks! I've finished and mailed my doll quilt for doll quilt swap 5. In record time (for me).


25" x 15"
free pieced
machine pieced and quilted

I finished early for three reasons. Since the "doll quilt" is intended to be a "fall wallhanging", I thought I should get it mailed ASAP so my partner can enjoy it in the fall season. Secondly, I need to get started on my Christmas presents and birthday presents. And lastly, I'm going out of town next week for the whole week.

So....this quilt was a bit of a challenge to me. My partner and I have different quilting styles. Perfect points and corners versus my wonkiness. I was going to try to do something a little more traditional, but felt that I need to stay true to my wonky quilting self atleast a little bit. And as for fabric and colors, my partner and I are different too. So that is were the fall wallhanging idea came from. And with a little encouragement from my SewConnected group (thanks guys!) about my idea, I was off and running.



The letters for the word thankful were done using Tonya's letter tutorial as a starting point. The trees were inspired by this tree by Tanaya. And the colors were inspired by these wonderful photos - here and here and here.



I tried to keep the wonky to a minimum and my colors toned down a bit. The colors are still a tad bright, but I tried. I thought giving it a "wooden frame" might help calm it down a little.



It is on it's way to a great quilter, and it was a pleasure to make (if not a challenge!).

And I'm thankful it's done!

PS - this post is linkilicious isn't it?!

and the winner is...

nancy/nkuelbs! nancy email your address to me (krommama at gmail dot com) and i will get it in the mail this week.

thanks for playing everyone!

i'm off to finish my last doll quilt for the four way swap!

and for today's picture:


my very first picture posted on flickr!

I made this quilt for a friend of mine who was having her second child. And I have two things to share about it. First, I just saw this friend recently, and when I stopped at her house, her first child was snuggled up on the couch with it. I hope all the quilts I give are loved and used. I regret not using the baby quilts my mom made for my children. I always thought "this is too nice to use". Second thought about this quilt is that long after I gave it to my friend, we were chatting on the phone, and she said "I just noticed there were fish on this one piece of fabric". I love making quilts with lots of details, different fabrics - little surprises here and there. I love quilts that have a lot to discover.

mini quilt love

I have been participating on and off in the mini quilt swap on flickr. Each month has a new theme or technique, and the theme for September was owl and/or mushrooms. I'm not a huge owl or mushroom fan. I can appreciate the cuteness, but I don't go crazy for them. Houses? Now we're talking! But you knew that, right?

Look at this wonderful owl that Lucette sent to me! Look at all those stitches!




When I saw what the theme was, I knew that I wanted to try sonjaartisania's gnome and mushroom tutorial. Isn't her gnome cute?! Here is my free pieced version for Lucette.




I've made a free piecing discovery recently. Maybe this tip is already out there, but I'll say it again if it is. You can take any simple paper pieced pattern and free piece it. Instead of sewing it to paper, use the pattern as a map to sew the pieces in order. This way you can liberate almost any pattern. A little "duh", but this was a real eye opener for me. Plus, who wants to pick off all the paper when you are done sewing? Not me!

If I wanted to make more gnomes this way, I could have a whole village of them. Short, tall, fat, skinny, longer legs, facing different ways. Free piecing gives a lot of variations to one pattern. I don't know about you, but I get tired of making the same block over and over again. I think that is why I love free piecing so much. It gives quilting a little spice.




***Now for the giveaway***

The give away I mentioned yesterday is for this pumpkin panel that I bought recently. What was I thinking? I don't think I will ever use it. It is super cute, but truly I'm not into a lot of seasonal decorations nor do I have much wall space for it.


The giveaway is for the panel, not the fabric destroying dog in the picture. You don't want him anyway, right?


The Rules
1. This is only open to commenters in the US. Sorry to all of you who live outside of the US.
2. Second, leave a comment on this post letting me know you would like to win this panel.

The winner will be selected on Monday.

coming soon ~ blog giveaway!

no, silly, i'm not giving away my blog! i'm giving something away to you! i'll let you know what it is in the next day or two.

i've been busy working on my swap with laurajay, lucyellen06 and calamity kim. we are making doll quilts for each other. which means we each make quilts for the other three. so we will all have three quilts when it's all over. which is soon! i plan on mailing these out by the end of the month.


one done ~


sneaky peek


one almost done ~


sneaky peek


one half done ~


sneaky peek

i also signed up for doll quilt swap 5! what was i thinking! i have way to much to do!
*pant pant pant*

here are my previous four doll quilts for the swap. wonder what #5 will look like.

quick! before school starts in a few minutes....

I was featured on whip up! Jess from BunnyBum submitted my tutorial for a pencil pocket that I posted on flickr eons ago. Thanks Jess!

SewConnected Quilting Group

John from Quilt Dad started SewConnected Quilting Group, a virtual quilting group. He asked me and several others if we were interested in such a group. I've seen a few of these groups around the quilty side of the internet, and I'm honored to be asked to join. Thanks John!

So what is a virtual quilting group? It is a group of quilters who make quilt blocks for each other. Each month a member of the group sends out an idea to the other members for what type of block he or she would like. This first month, Rita sent out some fabric and embroidered patches to each of us with the instructions to make what ever we want.



So what is my standby that I love to make? Houses of course!



Hope you like it Rita!

while I was away....

I received two packages! yippee!

The first was a box of fabric from craftyturtle's mom. She had gone through her stash and passed on some to me. When I pulled the wrapping off the box, the kids were quite disappointed to know that it wasn't a big box of cheezits. Ha! I've known craftyturtle since high school, and her mom has "adopted" me as another daughter. Aren't moms great?



Here are a few of my favorites. Look! Another Snoopy/Peanuts print! yay!



I've been collecting Snoopy fabrics for Marguerite's quilt for Christmas.



Thanks Craftyturtle's mom! (name omitted to protect the innocent) : )

The other package that arrived was from SheltonDHW from Knitting after Hours. She had made a lovely sewing machine cover that didn't fit her machine. Oops for her - yay for me! I happened to be at the right place at the right time when she offered it up on flickr. It fits my machine well. It was a little tall, so I just tucked it under a bit. Perfect!



As you can see, my machine was in need of a cover.



On another note, we had a few new avian visitors to our backyard. Grey Catbirds. A new species for our list. The kids and I keep a running tab of all the birds we have seen in our backyard. I think the list is pretty impressive (maybe I'm wrong). Zach and I are pretty good at identifying birds, so when an unexpected guest arrives, we notice right away. I never got a job that utilizes my wildlife ecology degree, but it is sure handy teaching and discovering the world around us with our children.

it's too late for capital letters

ok, i couldn't wait to post pictures of my new fabric. we found two nice quilt shops in huntsville, al. i went a little overboard, but i'm justifying by knowing that i wont get to a quilt store in the next several months. do i really have to justify buying fabric? nah! i did need some more greens. polka dot estates ate up a lot of my greens.



i also need a few christmas fabrics for some up coming projects.



i'm always on the look out for good aquas, and this neutral will be perfect for the four way swap i'm working on with laurajay, lucyellen06 and calamity kim. those last two colorful pieces will stretch me. have you ever noticed that i almost always buy tone on tone/monochromatic fabrics? it's just the way i am.



and this last bit, just because. ever find a fabric that you want to buy the whole bolt and decorate everything in sight with it? that print on the far right just makes me swoon.



and that's the end of my shopping adventure. i also bought a aqua corduroy and a snoopy print for marguerite's christmas quilt.


on a side note, i'm so quick to post on flickr and slow to post on the blog. but i started thinking that some of you don't love flickr as much as i do, and you might never see the fabric i bought unless i share it here. so there you have it!

sweet home alabama

and georgia! We are home from our trip! The kids and I drove up to northern Georgia last Thursday to my mom's home in the mountains. We made it there just before complete darkness. I snapped this picture not far from my mom's home. It does not do the true sunset colors justice. We enjoyed seeing the Smoky Mountains again.



The next day mom drove with us over to Huntsville, Alabama to see my grandmother, Marguerite Ray. My daughter, Marguerite Rae, is named after her. My grandmother is a very special person to me. She was always near by while I was growing up. It is hard to see her grow old and frail. She turned 92 this year, and I'm not sure how many years we will have her. I'm glad that the kids and I get to see her every year. I wish it could be more often.



While we were in Huntsville, we had fun for the kids and fun for Mom and I. On Saturday, we went to a fabric store, two really nice quilt shops and a big park/playground. I bought lots of fabric which will have to be another post. On Sunday, we took the kids downtown and fed the ducks, geese and fish. Mom spent the afternoon with GG (my grandmother), while I took the kids to Sci-Quest, a hands on science museum for kids. The kids had a blast.



Monday we drove back to Mom's house in Hiawassee, Ga. And we drove all day yesterday to get home. Whew! It's good to go on vacation, and it is equally nice to come home.



more pictures on flickr!

***I received two packages while I was gone. I will post about them later this week!***