The Choice is Mine!

... For the Theme for the June Charm Swap on Block Central!

These are 6" Square Charms.

I have chosen a Black/White Theme ...

one black-on-white print charm
and
one white-on-black print charm

I hope everyone likes my choice. :-)

I have had a lot of fun with these quick and easy swaps. Members take turns choosing the color choice or theme and each of us send two different 6" squares directly to each swapper. This is great way to use up stash and gather fabric for a charm quilt. If you have what is needed in your stash the cost is only a .44 cent stamp to get two new charms. It is always fun to see what others will send and I have really received no duplicates of fabrics in all the months I have been playing.


With these black/white prints I have a plan to add some of the bright colored charms I have received in previous swaps and make a bright and bold quilt.

If you would like to join in the fun, sign-up here ...


http://blockcentral.net/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7411044763/m/645105973

New swappers are always welcome!!


On the home front, I have had a very nasty summer cold that just does not want to quit and I have gotten very little done this past week. Nor was I well enough to go to the quilt shop yesterday to use their long-arm as planned to quilt a couple of quilts. I do not even really feel like going on a quilt shop adventure today although my hubby would like to go on an excursion. Last weekend, before my cold became full-blown, we did have a lovely outing to a quilt shop on the way to the beach where he added to His Oriental Fabric Stash and then we journeyed on and indulged in a real treat ... a huge, yummy Fisherman's Platter at the best place on the northshore of Boston for fried fish. Mmmmmmmm!


Hope everyone enjoys a wonderful long Memorial Day Weekend!

More Baby Quilts in the Making and Delivery

Above is the newest quilt that the Q&N Quilty Aunties have in the works for the new grand-daughter on the way to one of our members. Wendy said her daughter had chosen a pink and brown circle pattern bedding set for this baby girl. So I went to EQ6 and drew up the layout for a pretty pink and white and brown variation of the Wedding Ring Block found here on the McCall's Quilting website ...

Wedding Ring Variation Block

Here is the fabric we are using for the inner and outer border around the scrappy piano key border. It is from one of the new Moda lines.

I love the colors for this one. I need to finish up the 30's Fabric Swapping and Sending so I can get on with making my block for this cute quilt.

Last Saturday I mailed all but the largest swap packages and they have already started to arrive at their new homes. It feels so good to have the bulk of this big swap done. Normally I mail all at once but I was running late due to postal issues and wanted to get as much of this packed and sent when I could get to the post office last Saturday. I plan to mail the remainder on this coming Saturday.

Here is a photo of the baby quilt that was delivered last week to our newest Quilty Nephew ...

 

 

  Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails Baby Boy Quilt.

May God Bless this baby and his family and may his new quilt cuddle him and protect him with our good wishes and keep him warm and may he know that he is loved!

To make your own cute quilt from this adorable free online applique baby quilt pattern click here ...

Sundrop Puppy Quilt ...

http://www.sundropdesigns.com/projects/pupquilt.html

Have I mentioned lately how much I love making baby quilts!

:-) Pat

End of Day One of the 30's Fabric Swap

Here is how my swappy day went ...

Right after setting up, my quilty inspector wandered through to check to make sure I was doing everything right. Fortunately I was, so she soon lost interest. Mina went over to settle on her favorite scrap piece of batting on her favorite box to shed her hair there. Nice kitty.

Butterfly was not even interested in inspecting, as I had just opened the window to let in some fresh spring air and she quickly grabbed that prime location and paid no attention to the swapping. Nice kitty, too.

By mid morning I was ready for a coffee break and this is what it looked like at that time ...

My system for making sure I do not give a swapper back her own fabric is to cover her pile with her "control sheet" when I am working on her package ... in this case, Sherry's. Since Sherry and her daughter Nikki are both in the swap, I try not to give either one of them the other's fabrics as I sure they share fabric at home. That way they get more variety.

It was soon time for lunch ... have to keep up my energy. This was my view when I came back ready to resume swapping ... A few more trips around the table and I discovered a fourth "duplicate." As you can see Cindy and Nikki found the same fabric. In this case I pull the duplicate set and swap them at the same time so that I do not double up on anyone who is swapping fewer sets. Then I swap the other person's fabric next, so I do not get confused later by an empty baggie. Having the photos of the fabric in the album cuts down greatly on duplicates, but a few are inevitable. Swappers who have sent many sets will end up with a few doubles, but usually they are making larger quilts so an extra pieces of the same one can be a good thing.

By later afternoon, all the fabrics tend to start to look the same, but I keep trekking. When it is time for a late afternoon break my feet are really getting tired and I need a nice tall glass of iced tea. The table looked much better after that and I was nearing the end of the packages.

Once the boxes and envelopes are empty, I always swap my own fabrics last ...

... and I like to cut enough of one fabric so everyone gets a square of this special swap fabric. This is the one for this swap. It is a new fabric from the Chloe Closet line from Moda ... I love yellow and the flowers are so cute in this one ...

It was time to think about dinner and I made a salad and cut up some potatoes and marinated some chicken and asked my sweet hubby to grill when he came in.

I did go back for awhile and start to go through each swappers stack to count and start making up the "layer cakes". I have done a preliminarily check for about 1/3rd of the swappers.

Tomorrow is another day of swapping 30's fabrics.

Time for sleep! I know I will be seeing pretty fabrics in my head all night!

Sweet dreams, my quilty pals ... :-) Pat

Layer Cake Swap - Ready,Set, Go!!

This is what my sewing area looked like early this morning. I am taking a break and smelling the coffee.

I have been hosting a "Spring Back to the 30's Fabric Swap" on the Quilt & Needle. I love scrappy quilts and this is a great way to share fabric with quilters all over the country ... and even Canada and the UK. It is a bit pricey with the cost of mailing things these days, but when I sew a quilt I can smooth the fabrics and think ... "oh, this lovely bit came from over the pond from my friend Milica" ... or ... "this pretty one is from Ms Cindy, the Misisipimenace" ... or ... "this one is unique, it came from a shop in Ontario where my friend Debbieann shops and she sent me the cutest kitty fabric to pay for her return postage" ... these fabrics are special. It is like attending the local quilting bee in the 30's where friends passed scraps around the circle while they sewed. This is just the high-tech, up to date quilting bee. The technology may be new but the "squishies" are warm and familiar. To follow the swapping, read this thread ...

http://www.thequiltandneedle.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1477&posts=185&start=1

For this we swapped homemade "Layer Cakes," sets of 10-inch squares, ten squares to a set. There was some drama with the postal system waiting for the last box to arrive this week, but now it is all good. The statistics for this swap are:

15 swappers

132 layer cakes

216 different fabrics

1320 individual 10" squares

Fun ... Fun ... Fun!

There will very likely be a few more squares cut by me to add more variety for the swappers with the largest number of sets ... and ... um ... so I get more fabric in the end. I like to wait to cut these last few until I see all the fabrics in the swap so as to try to not add duplicates. Right now there are only three duplicate fabrics.

For pictures of all the yummy fabrics in this swap, view or album, here ...

http://www.thequiltandneedle.com/forums/photos/photo-thumbnails.asp?albumid=96

More photos coming later ... time to finish my coffee and get back to swapping ... :-) Pat

My Mother's Day Wish For You

"This is my wish

I hope you know somebody loves you
May your dreams stay big"

... Rascal Flatts, My Wish

I just added this as my 100th song to my player!

It is my "Mother's Day" song.

When I hear this song it always is accompanied by a prayer for my children, my family, my friends, my world. I am a mother and I know how "it takes a village to raise a child." So my prayers go out to all children ... and we are all children, no matter how our hair may be graying.

For Mother's Day, it seems appropriate that the quilty projects I am posting are all blocks for some of the baby quilts that the Q&N Quilty Aunties and making to welcome those bundles of joy are blessings to the Q&N families this year.

For Sara's (doubly blessed) 2nd Grandson this year ...

For Nikki's Baby (and Sherry's Grand baby) ...

For Sally's Granddaughter ...

For Jami's Niece's long awaited Baby ...

These blocks always go out with "My Wish" for these children.

All pattern information for these blocks may be found on the Q&N forum threads in the Quilty Auntie Projects area ...

http://http//www.thequiltandneedle.com/forums/forums/forum-view.asp?fid=76

To all who "Mother" ... Happy Mother's Day!!

:-) Pat

The Soundtrack of My Life

This post is for Marissa,

(Isn't she beautiful? ... and talented? .. and strong ... and smart ... and amazing? )

Music touches me. It sustains my life. Your music takes my breath away and gives it back and through this, I breathe. Music plays in my heart and I listen.

Thank You from your biggest fan ... from The Mom