I Cleaned up and Look What I Found!

It never ceases to amaze me what can be found in my sewing room!

I think I have everything organized and am pretty sure I know what I have that's in progress and needs to be worked on. Sometimes, I remember a project and look for it and can't find it, but I don't worry too much about it as it usually turns up. Like this mini quilt I pieced a few years ago to match the quilt on our bed. 

Red checkerboard mini quilt

I made a blue one for my night table and wanted to make a similar one for my husband's side of the bed and quickly pieced a few scraps into an adorable mini quilt, layered it with a backing and batting and set it aside for hand-quilting. I put it somewhere safe and promptly forgot about it! Today I was busy sorting through my projects for a little sewing get-away coming up later this month and ta-da! Hidden underneath another ongoing long-term project I found my little gem! It's coming with me and going to get finished!

Blue checkerboard mini quilt

Bonus points for me - the binding that was cut for this mini quilt has been lingering on top of my bookshelf and it's now with the mini-quilt, hoping for a finish this month! Have you ever lost something you thought you put in a safe place? How long was it before you found it again?

--Ann

 

WIP Wednesday - May 29

Today was rainy and wet! And we still haven't dried out from the rain we had last week! Oh, well, that means my sewing machine will get used and my garden will have to wait! I planted some of my seeds yesterday morning - before the afternoon showers started. I had some help from my grandsons - the 3 year old was very good at placing the pea seeds into the row and keeping some space between them. The 2 year old was quite funny - he would grab some seeds and then throw them into the garden, not caring where they went! I'm sure there will be pea plants everywhere!!

But back in the sewing room today, I had my friends here for our weekly sewing day. And I had a little show 'n' tell as I received a quilt in the mail from a swap on Flickr. The theme for this mini-quilt swap was flowers or birds and the quilt I received had such a lush bouquet of blooms! I loved every bit of this quilt and will be finding a place for it where I can look at it every day!

And I'm not very good with deadlines, as my quilt for this swap should have been in the mail days ago! I'm still stitching!!! But I can't show you the whole thing yet as it needs to be a surprise for my partner. So, you're going to get this little sneak peek! Don't you just love the colours?

As you can see, I'm doing a little hand-applique! At one time, everything I made was hand-quilted and I loved the relaxing rhythm of the stitching. But now, everything I make is machine quilted, either by myself or by my long-arm quilting friend, and I find I miss the hand-work.

--Ann

Linking up with
Quiltsy WIP and Whatnots
Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday #92
Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday

Seasons Mini Quilt Swap

Maple Leaf Seasons Mini Quilt

Summer leaf details

Here's the finish on the Season's Mini Quilt that I posted about earlier this month. The maple leaf block is one I've used many times, but this time I didn't piece the stem. Instead, I machine stitched the veins in the leaves and the stem with a variegated green thread and then did a close stippling on the sky blue background.

I'm still waiting patiently for the quilt my partner made for me and will post it here as soon as I get it!

--Ann 

WIP Wednesday

This is what's on my sewing table this week:

Dr. Seuss fabrics

 One of the most viewed items on my blog and in my Etsy shop has been my Dr. Seuss quilt. I made two late last fall and both were sold quickly. I love piecing these baby quilts as I think about the Dr. Seuss stories that I read to my kids when they were little. Some of my favourite times with them were reading stories and now I get to read to my grandkids!

Cutting up Thing One and Thing Two!

I've cut up enough fabric to make two more along with a couple other projects. This is what the finished baby quilt will look like:

2011 version of Dr. Seuss baby quilt

 After cutting up Dr. Seuss, I took a quick trip to the mail box at the end of the road and found all kinds of quilting goodies!  I've been waiting since the beginning of February for this special fabric to make my mini quilt for my swap partner. The theme for Feb/Mar swap of the MiniQT group on Flickr was movies. Sneak peeks are just beginning to be posted. The popcorn fabric was bought locally. Can you guess what movie my swap partner loves? I would love to show you the whole quilt, but that will have to wait until this mini-quilt makes it to its new owner!

Movie Themed Mini Quilt

What are you working on today? Do you participate in swaps? Challenges?

--Ann

Mini Quilt Exchange

Just finished another round of the Mini QT swap on Flickr. This round's theme was true-mini. Here's the one I made for JanBran:

Flowers are free-motion machine quilted.

A closer look.

And here's the one she sent me (and all the goodies):

Love the little embroidered blocks!

And here's the one I made for my Etsy shop, just because I liked making the first one so much:

Mini-Quilt for Sale

The next round is for Halloween themed mini's - I am sitting that round out as I've signed up for too many things and can't make the commitment. 

Have you ever done an online swap? What's your favourite type of swap?

--Ann

Teeny Tiny Star Medallion

I have so many projects on the go that it's a super feeling to complete something - especially something that's been on the to-do list for a long time! This quilt was bought as a kit from a local quilt shop called Traditional Pasttimes. It is my go-to place when I'm looking for the traditional country colours that I love to decorate with. My home is a 1970's bi-level, but is decorated as if it were the log cabin that I've always wanted to have and this little quilt is quite at home here.

It will probably be moved a few times before it finds it's place here, but for now, it's front and center on the coffee table in the living room. To give you a sense of the size, this piece is only 16" square and the little 16-patches are 1.5" square. It was definitely challenging to work with such small pieces, but the instructions were awesome.

What is the smallest quilt you've made?

--Ann