A Happy Mail Day

Lots of happy colors and blocks in the mail box today to brighten my day.

These swap blocks are for my

Happy Garden Block Quilt

I also received the last block for 

My Scrappy Heart Block Swap Quilt Started Here

It is a gray day with rain moving in this afternoon.

A good day to stay inside and sew.

May you have a happy quilty day, too!

Make Two Blocks ~ Feel Better in the Morning

These are Happy Blocks.

I have been having a bad eye day,

bad day healthwise all around really,

and have not gotten much done.

I needed a  pick-me-up.

So I sewed me some Happy Blocks. 

I first made this block to swap long ago

when every morning 

I grabbed a cup of coffee, turned on my computer and logged in 

to visit with my quilty friends at the once mighty, now defunct

Block Central Forum

... long  before I ever had a blog.

This is the earliest blog post that I can find about

Happy Blocks,
by that time the forum was already gone
but the friends got together elsewhere.

I made and sent and even won many Happy Blocks.

Very often they went into quilts I donated,

spreading their happiness to others.

Here is how to make a Happy Block:

Here are the cutting instructions for making this 8.5" square block.

I press all my pieces and the sew opposite sides.

Press.

Repeat.

Then I press my blocks ...

 I pressed seams open.

I used to press seams outward,

but I know this way they will fit with any other blocks.

Then  I trimmed up my blocks to make perfect 8.5" squares.

Fabrics are an older Fig Tree Quilts line called "Fresh Cottons"

These blocks are for a winner takes all swap in May

in a newly made swap group that includes many of my long time

Happy Block Swapping Friends.

Hoping I am the lucky winner

but I will be just as happy to send them to a friend.

These blocks are like potato chips.

Bet you can't make just one ... ;) 

Strip Piecing

Strip Sets for making my blocks for my

Scrappy Heart Swap Started Here

Right now I have to make about 10 blocks to send.

Since these will be in different quilts they will look scrappy

even thought I made the constructions easier 

by breaking the pattern down into strip sets.

Here are my pieces. 

I sewed 6 four strip units and 2 two strip units

and cut them into 2.5" strip sets. 

I carefully pressed to nest and chain sewed.

Here are the four block units I made.

Sewed into two units.

Finished block.

Here is the back of my pressed block.

There are a lot of seams in this block.

Even with careful measuring and sewing to make my seams all an accurate 1/4" 

and careful pressing to make sure no fabric was left in the seams,

this is just barely a 12.5" block.

I will be adjusting my needle in future blocks to allow a few more threads in the seams

to make the blocks a smidge larger.

I am not a fan of "scant" quarter inch seams but this block requires it.

The pattern calls for more white background fabric between the blocks

so a minimal size variation should not be an issue

but I like to get my blocks to be the correct even size.

I do love the block pattern though and am looking forward 

to making and sending and receiving the swap blocks.

Looking forward to making the quilt, too.

:-) 

Friendship x and + Swap

x and + Blocks

One day a week ago a post caught my eye at
Jane's Fabrics and Quilts.
Jane was telling about this lovely block swap she had found.

I followed the links to ...





This wonderful swap is being hosted by

Carla @ Lollyquiltz

and

Susan @ Patchwork Play

Click on either of the blogs above for all the details.

The tutorial for how to make these blocks may be found in this link:
Amy @ BadSkirt

These blocks are fun and easy to make!

As Jane says ... "just one click" ...

and may you be on your way to making a friendship quilt with your
"invisible friend" !

Susan and Carla have offered to help you make a new friend for this swap.

When I read about this swap and thought of all the lovely quilty "invisible friends" that I have made online over the last few years, one name stands out.

So I sent an email to

Dorian @ Ridge Top Quilts 

and said "Will you be my friend?

Happily she agreed!

Dorian and I have decided to make throw size quilts,
8 blocks x 9 blocks.
As the blocks measure 7.5" when finished,
our quilts will be 60" by 67.5" without added borders

We are going to make six blocks per month and send three for one year starting at the end of this month and next year for Christmas we will have pretty new quilts to snuggle under with a good book and a cuppa.

Rather than choose a special design seed palette, we have decided to make scrappy quilts using whatever scrap fabrics we have in our stash. 

After comparing scrap stashes, we have chosen to make our blocks using one gray fabric as a neutral somewhere in each block to give the eye a little rest and tie the blocks together. The other colors we have chosen as guidelines are

green, yellow, pink, blue, orange and purple

with the gray.

Here are the fabrics I pulled from my stash when I was looking for what to use to make my first month's blocks.  There are more than a few Kate Spain fabrics here as she is my favorite fabric designer. The rest are very random selections.  Most of them are less than a fat quarter pieces and some are only strips and will only appear once or twice in my blocks.

For more pictures and info on this swap visit the Flickr Group that Carla and Susan have set up for this swap.

Hope to see you finding a friend and joining in this swap!

~ <3 ~