Long break...

I have not been doing much quilting. My quilting machine needs some TLC that only a shop can provide and I had a craft show to prepare for as well as a trip to MI to visit with family over Thanksgiving.

 At the craft show in McBain, I sold lots of soap and a bunch of these Story Starter Cube sets. This is the only set that I had left. I have two sets to make up for Christmas orders. Both sets ordered were not the Fairytale set (shown here) so I'll have some work to do, getting the pictures on the blocks, sewing up bags and laminating the instruction cards :)

I drew up all the pictures for the blocks and we came up with four different sets; Fairytale, Sci-Fi, Adventure and Everyday. All of my children think they are great and have been thinking up new ideas for the cubes...I think they want to have their own sets!

 While in MI, The Army Guy had a family Christmas Party.One of the highlights of the party was the Dodge Ball Game. At least most of the guys and a lot of the kids thought so!

 

 They also had cookie decorating available and Princess Sunshine took part.

My guys (The Army Guy and The Boybarian) got into the Christmas Spirit by adhering NOEL confetti on their foreheads. Thankfully, they fell off in the Dodge Ball Game :)

Baby Quilt with faux hexagon blocks :)

I have finished the baby quilt that I made using the faux hexagon blocks. It is cute and I'm glad I tried the technique, but I don't think I'll be making a bigger quilt with them any time soon.

I will be sending it off to Australia as a baby gift for a new baby born to one of the nephews...

  

I was asked previously how I was going to quilt this...and I was undecided. 

When I got it on the frame I realized that doing a freemotion swirl in each hex would be 

a good way to quilt this one - sturdy and easy! (and fast!)

now I will load another quilt on the frame...I have the feel for frame quilting back in my fingers :) (yes, Shel, it is your quilt next!)

Swapping out the Obnoxious Fabrics

It was time for another round of the Obnoxious Fabric Swap and I finished up swapping them last week. It is a fun swap that I hostess twice a year on the About.com Quilting Forum.

Florals reigned supreme in the obnoxious mix (as they always do). What in the world are some designers thinking when they make some of the weird color combos? Next up were the Amphibian and Lizard category. Lots of brights, a few skulls, some psychedelic designs, weird color combos, texture prints...and some that must have been taking over various stashes around the country :) I saw a couple of fabrics that I would have purchased had I seen them on the bolt...and not for this swap!

The picture is from the center of my living room while I was swapping. I sit in the hole in the middle and swap directly in front of me (see the stack, the spreadsheet and pencil?) and have all of the piles arrayed around me. You can not see all of them as the picture is rectangular and the piles of fabric were a bit farther out on each side (and on the couch and love seat!).

Yes, that is Killer Bunnies on the ottoman. The boybarian has been begging to have a family game night, but we haven't all been home for a game night in weeks!

Design Wall Monday

Another UFO project that I came across recently *sigh*

This was from a (small) swap of blocks and I now realize that 8 blocks is NOT enough for a quilt. I should have signed up to make more blocks for this swap! I'm going to have to do some digging out of fabrics to make more so that I have something to work with.

I am going to leave them on my design wall while I dig for the pattern...maybe I can make up a few each week and eventually have enough for a quilt!

For more design wall inspiration visit Patchwork Times.

Design Wall Oct 25

I have finished this baby quilt top and it is up on my design wall so I don't forget to quilt it :) This was the other top I worked on while at our guild retreat a week ago.

This really needs to be quilted as the baby has already been born...and I need to mail this half way around the world!

Check out other design wall inspiration at Patchwork Times!

Bleach Discharge

      

at our retreat one of the participants showed us Bleach Discharge. 

It is something I'd read about but had never tried so I was interested.

First we spent time laying various things out on our fabric. (The stones were to keep the leaves from blowing away...) And then we sprayed over the fabric with a bleach/water solution of 50/50 and let it set in the sun until we were happy with how much color had discharged from the fabric. At that point we rinsed the fabric in water and then used a chlorine stopping agent so that the bleach would not continue to eat away at our fabric. Then we rinsed them again and set them out to dry:

I think my piece turned out pretty cool. I have some ideas
for an art piece swirling around in my head...
let's see if it all comes to fruition ;)

Most of us used a Moda black for our discharge pieces. I understand that different fabrics will give different results. Some black fabrics will discharge gray, some more of a purple...test before doing this on large or important pieces!

Quilt Retreats are Great!

Our Quilt Guild held a retreat last weekend and it was WONDERFUL to get away and dedicate a whole weekend to my machine.

I think everyone had a great time. AND *I* had a productive time.

I finished one top that I had set aside when it was 3/4 done (I'll blog that one later this week) and went from a Jelly Roll to a completely pieced field over the weekend.

The second picture is just before I sewed the field together. We rearranged a couple blocks after I took the picture...but I forgot to take a picture of the completed field.

I will sew two borders on the field before I quilt it :)