More quilts from swaps

Some of my favourite swaps to be involved in were the series of round robins run by Margaret a few years back, called the Spring Fling Round Robins. The quilts went to four different people to be worked on, and ended with a fifth. I really enjoyed seeing this come through as, on the whole, there was a lot of high quality work and it was very challenging to be a part of. I'm no slouch when it comes to piecing or quilting, but even I felt quite intimidated working on some of these. However, I know that the round robins were at times a bit of a logistical nightmare for Margaret, so it's not surprising that she gave up doing them. I did get to play along for three fun rounds before the end, though. Here's the quilt I got in the first round (the dragonflies, above). You can see more detail here, back on my blog in July 2008! This one hangs in our computer room/family room - over the gerbil cage, as you can see...

This lovely brown, Civil War Repro quilt is the one I received in the second round in November 2008, and again, more detailed photos can be seen over here. This one hangs in the upstairs hallway on one of my many doors!

And finally, the quilt from the third round of the round robin hangs on the door to the living room, and can be seen in more detail over here. Not that I have any more room to hang quilts, but I'd gladly take part in something like this again...

I looked for photos of the quilts I worked on, and it's possible I have some somewhere, but they aren't blogged because we were meant to keep it secret at the time, so I can't really show you my contributions. But I remember that they were all quite interesting, and sometimes challenging to work on. Really good for stretching you and taking you out of your comfort zone!

Spring Fling Round Robin

Lookie what I got in the post today - my Spring Fling Round Robin quilt. Isn't it lovely? The colours are a little more vibrant in reality, I think, but you can tell from this photo how great it is. All the participants have done a fantastic job matching colours and style and I'm really really happy with it.

Many thanks to Toni, Amy and Marlene for all their hard work and of course, to Margaret for organising this whole shebang. I hope you'll be doing it again in future, Margaret!

Spring Fling Round Robin

Although I did quite a bit of work today, I can't really show what I did, as the Spring Fling Round Robin is a secret this time around. However, I can show a sneak peek of some of the quilting - this is a very small segment of the whole - and I think it's safe to show the back, which shows the quilting, but not the pieced top, so it would be very difficult to form an idea of what the top looks like, with the possible exception of the person who finished off the top and sent it to me! I had fun with this - I started from the middle with the flowers, as in the sneak peek, and worked out. What you can't see from these photos is the piecing, which is really interesting and quite varied, so the quilting was fun to try to plan. I promise to come back and show more photos after it's bound, labelled, and the final recipient has it in her possession...

Quilting Day

I did lots of sewing today - had an early start as Sarah had to be somewhere by around 9am, so we dropped her off, swung by the supermarket for a few things (and a coffee in Starbucks) and then headed home to do...very little. Well, 3 loads of wash, some tidying up around the house and lots of sewing, while Olivia and Alex watched a film and played on the computer. Ah, bliss.

First thing I did was do some more quilting on the corn an beans. It's now about 1/3 done - quite time-intensive, and I have ordered more thread, just to be on the safe side - fairly sure I will run out before it's done. I also worked on a block for the Around the World Quilt Swap (see above), and then started working on a border for the Spring Fling Round Robin 3, which I can't show. In all, a productive day. Tomorrow we are off to do errands for most of the day, but I might get an hour in the morning to do some more bits and pieces, if I'm lucky.

Alice, birds, round robin

Here are some lovelies I got in the post today - on the left, the ATCs I received from the Alice in Wonderland trade on Creative Swaps. The cards are from (top row) my own, Frieda Oxenham, Linda Garcia; (middle) Sharon Walworth, Betty Cassidy, Darlene Kihne; (bottom) Jan Williams, Lynda Roddy, Shannon Lane Sawyer. They are all wonderful, as are the other cards I saw on the swap blog. I'm very pleased I participated in this swap, which I almost didn't sign up to because of the requirement of using images from Alpha Stamps' Alice collections. (Nothing against Alpha Stamps - indeed, the opposite - but I am trying to moderate somewhat the amount of stuff I order, so am limiting the number of swaps which require specific image sets.) But actually, it was well worth it, as look at the extra goodies I got returned with my swap - I got three image sheets on paper and a fabric transfer sheet AND I got a package of fabrics. All the swap participants got one or more image sheets from Alpha Stamps; the rest of the loot is from Lenna (the hostess), as a prize for her choosing my set of ATCs as a special honourable mention in the "most creative" contest. How cool is that?

If you are thinking of dipping your toes into the swap world and aren't quite sure where to start, you could do a lot worse than sign up to one of Lenna's swaps - not only are they incredibly well-organised and very prompt in their turn-around, but she puts a lot of work into thinking of interesting themes and ideas and always seems to include some sort of extra goodies in with the swapped items. Plus, she's really nice!

I did do some work this morning while the girls slept in a bit (having stayed up quite late with a friend sleeping over - it's the half-term holiday here, so no school this week - they were pretty quiet, so I didn't mind the staying up late so much!), but unfortunately, I can't show it to you, as it's the centre for my Spring Fling Round Robin 3 - we are making our own centres for this round, so in order to keep them secret from the next maker, we are not allowed to show them at all, not even a peek. When Margaret (the hostess) receives them, she will post them to the swap blog so we can all see them, without knowing whose is whose.

I can, however, show a little progress on my cross-stitch. Not a lot of progress, as I didn't work on it much this week - this is not simply because it's been boring me a little, but because I have done some beading on my 4SQS5 (blue winter) mini and done bindings on a couple of small pieces, so haven't had so much time for cross-stitching. Still, I managed to finish off Nebraska (Western Meadowlark) and do most of Nevada (Mountain Bluebird). Once I get him finished, I am going to start on the little house sampler for Cathi. Which I will enjoy much more, I'm sure.

Not Thanksgiving, but very productive

First, a wish for a very Happy Thanksgiving to all you yanks out there reading my blog - hope you have a great day, with lovely food, and a fun time with friends and/or family. And of course, good shopping tomorrow... I don't bother to mark the occasion really - as it's not a holiday, nor is tomorrow, it's a bit hard to get into the spirit...we did have some sweet potatoes at dinner, so that will have to count for holiday eating!



Lots of stuff to show today - including the two things I got in the post yesterday, which I forgot to blog. But first, what I got in the post today - this fabulous mini quilt! This is my quilt from the Spring Fling Round Robin 2, and isn't it lovely? I'm really, really pleased with it - everything, from the fabric choice to the design, to the quilting, is well done and although it's very much to my taste, it's probably not something I would have made for myself, which makes it all the better.

So, many thanks to Julia (centre), Tami (first border), Helen (second border) and Luisa (quilting, binding, finishing) - the quilt is really first rate. Thanks!



I did do some work myself, amidst the carpet fitters (hoorah - the decoration is DONE!), gas & electric meter reader guy, postman, Ocado delivery, laundry, and goodness knows what else... The November ATC lottery for Textile Challenges (this month's theme was a motif - I had to do "leaf", which was straightforward enough) was one thing I did - I did three ATCs, although I only have to send one, as it's always useful to have a few extras knocking around. The big leaf is done with embossing powder & a heat gun; the backgrounds were some I had in my box of pre-made backgrounds, which seemed particularly suitable.

I also did 4 postcards for an Angelina themed swap - basically you just had to use Angelina somewhere in the postcard. My first thought was to use a technique I've never had much luck with - using a rubber stamp and an iron to create a shape in the angelina - but I still didn't have much luck with it, so I ended up making a thin sheet of angelina fibres and embossing a design onto it. I then added some other bits and pieces and sewed and/or glued it to a quilted background and backed with some interesting paper. They've come out fairly well, though of course they are better in person - Angelina is very hard to photograph.



And finally - or perhaps I should have put it first as it's the first thing I did - the arch for November for the year-long swap on Textile Challenges. Only one more month to go with this swap - it's been really great, I think. I would miss it, but next year's swap/challenge is going to be good, too, as it's going to be houses. I expect to have fun with that one.

Anyway, this arch is for Pam, who liked relics and the aged look. Not sure I've accomplished that, though I do like the arch - I used some of the rust-dyed fabric with indigo in it, a photo of a ruin at Ephesus (from my personal collection, lol), and other bits and pieces including lace, buttons, metal embellishments and some lovely dangly things Lana sent me from India for my birthday. I hope she likes it.



And last but not least - what I got in the post yesterday. A postcard from Jeannette for "X is for..." - in her case, it's just for "X" and she's done little people as X's. X is hard. I've been debating what to do myself, but still haven't really come to any conclusions. The cards aren't due out until the 15th of December, and frankly, it might take me most of that time to decide what I want to do - I'm thinking about a treasure map with "X marks the spot" but who knows, I might get sudden inspiration in the next few days.



I also received another selection of Japanese fabrics from my monthly club. I may have to stop that club at some point, as I seem to be doing more accumulating than actually using the fabrics...

Quilting day

Well, I did get lots of things done today, for a change, and despite working lunchtime at school (it was very cold standing in the playground, I'll tell you!) - I put the binding on a the little mini quilt I made as an angel quilt in the ALQS swap (with 9 patches & HST units); I quilted and put the binding on the "Joy" piece - you can see above, sort of, how I've quilted it - a scattering of words in the background, with a textural quilting a little like McTavishing, but not so closely gathered.


And I quilted and put the binding on the Spring Fling Round Robin 2, which has been here a few days waiting for me to be inspired. Can't really show that one, but below is a "sneak peek" which will have to do until the quilt is bound, mailed and safe home with its new owner.





I got some nice post as well - this book came as a thank you from Sharon Z (the American one, not the Canadian one - believe it or not, I had two Sharon Z's in the ALQS2!) for all the work I'd done on the ALQS2 - such a nice thought of her, and totally unnecessary, but I shan't complain as the book is on my list of titles to look for in my travels, so I'm delighted to own it. And the lovely postcard is from Beth - "W is for Water Lily"/ She's used silk flowers & leaves on a very interesting background - not sure how she's made the background, but it's a nice effect - might be a painted dryer sheet or something - or very thin felt, though it's a bit rough for that.

A little peek

...of the Spring Fling Round Robin border I worked on today (now finished and ready to send off). I can't show much of it, as we are not supposed to give away the game - but here's a little glimpse. This bit is about a 2 inches high, so it really is a little glimpse...

Also done today was this week's journal quilt - or rather last week's. In the end, I wasn't really inspired until this lovely drawing which Olivia did for me years ago fell off the pinboard again - I decided to turn it into a journal quilt as it does fall off the pinboard on a fairly regular basis. Now I'll have it forever as a journal quilt. I love the way the leaves are all on the same side of the stems!

Little tease

Well, I did lots of stuff today, but can't really show any of it. I finished up the bag testing for the October bag, which I really like. I added a second round to the centre I received for the Spring Fling Round Robin - the photo above is a little tease of that. And I worked on the Twisted Mystery 4 quilt - which I also can't show. Tomorrow, I will have to do something I CAN show (actually, that shouldn't be a problem as I think I might try to do the August arch and a journal quilt). Anyway, to compensate, I'm going to show some ATCs I have available for trade. But I have to take some photos of them, so I'll put them in a separate post...

Little Virtual Tour

...of my sewing room. As there was no sewing today (though we didn't do what was originally planned, due to lots of traffic - accidents, oddballs protesting on the M25 and so on) I have decided to share some of the lovely bits I am surrounded by while I work. Bear in mind I have a very small sewing room. Don't get me wrong, I love that I have a room at all - but it's not big - it's about 7ft x 7.5ft. It's remarkable how much I have fit in it, and just having it is really freeing in terms of work as I can leave things out when they are in progress. Big projects still need longer time, but if you can leave things out, it really is possible to do some work when you only have 20 minutes or so. ...



So anyway. Here's Mr Scrappy Crow, received yesterday from Julie, happy in his new home on my shelf. He's next to my winter Four Seasons Quilt Swap Quilt, from Jen and a piece I made for a poetry challenge somewhere over on about.com - the art quilting forum, maybe?

And here on the right is the wall as you come into my space - a pinboard crammed with bits and pieces - moo cards, business cards, ATCs and lots of other miscellany. There is also a waxed cloth picture from Uganda which I got from my friend Wil, a silver star Christmas decoration (which I like enough to leave up all year) from a swap with Lana, a pay-it-forward Dear Jane decoration from Cathi and a little hardanger ornament which came from the BQL secret santa swap one year. Then there's the Summer Four Seasons Quilt I got yesterday from Louise, two white quilties from a swap over on Creative Swaps, a piece I made from 4 Japanese Folded patchwork blocks I did in a class, the purple piece I received from Ann in the first miniature booty swap. Below that is a cross stitch piece I did, and some twinchies in a frame - from a FibreArtBits swap. Below that you can just see the top of a mini quilt my friend Sandra made for me - this was from a swap on Dyehard, my dyeing group.



Here's the view of my little wall above my sewing table, next to the window - another little white quiltie, a lovely card and little charm from Penny, a dottee angel from Julie, a wee birdhouse which was actually from a Valentine's ornament swap organised by Lenna, but which I like too much to put away, and a set of metallic inchies which Debbie sent me after I admired them on her blog.

On the right is the door to my sewing room, which has a Nancy Crow poster and the cards from the Angels, Faeries & Divas swap hosted by Lenna.



Here's a bit of my extremely crowded windowsill - a plastic bag chicken I bought in Camden Market, a little fabric box from a swap on my surface design list, a little African doll from Karol-Ann, and the wee doggie I got from Amy in a Valentine's Swap organised by Lucy Locket. And finally, another shelf - the piece of cloth is a complex cloth round robin don't on my surface embellishment list which I like too much to cut up and do anything else with and the red bag hanging on the end of the shelf is from the bag swap organised by Barbara. It was made by Weronica.

So there you go. I did receive something quilty in the post today - the centre of the Spring Fling Round Robin 2 piece to work on, from Helen. But I can't show it - when I've done my round, I'll show a sneak peek, but for the moment, you'll just have to do without! What you can see, however, is this lovely little journally book which she included in the parcel for me - hard to show both inside and outside, but here's a bit of a view - the pages inside are mostly white, with some lovely blue papers interspersed....

I also got two postcards for the batik beauties swap - these are from Sharon and Susan.

I know I promised a little giveaway, and we'll still get to that - just haven't remembered to photograph the stuff yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Not very much

As expected, I didn't get much done today, sewing-wise (we pretty much just vacated the house while they worked on the floor). I did finish the centre block for the round robin (which I can't show) but I can't post it off to the next person quite yet as a)I need to take the paper off and b)I can't actually get to the drawer where the envelopes are at the moment, as there is too much stuff piled in front of it. They hope to be finished with the living room tomorrow, so perhaps I'll mail it Wednesday - it's not due to go out until mid-August, luckily, so it's not really a problem.

Among the errands we ran today to take us out of the house, I popped into my local haberdashery & craft department for a zipper (see - there's a zipper in the above photo!). Technically, I did also need the plain black fabric and the black thread, too, but the other stuff just kinda jumped in the bag (and yes, there are a lot of brads there - I kind of have this brad thing* at the moment, and there are so many nice ones to be had these days) - between the order from the Fruit Pixie and this, my embellishment stock is in much better shape than a few weeks ago - now if I just had some time to make things, we'd be sorted. [Other errands included a haircut for Olivia, the bank to pay in the school uniform shop money, booking a fun day for Alex during the week the girls both have tennis (i.e. no kids in the house between 10 and 3 - how much work do you suppose I can cram into that time?) and various other bits and pieces - such is the excitement of my life...]

*I was going to make a Brad Pitt joke, but couldn't really think of anything funny, so decided not to.

Unimaginative blog post title

(someday I'm going to get the hang of coming up with catchy post titles - but not today...)




Lots of stuff accomplished today, as the kids got up late and then entertained themselves for quite some time (like until 1pm or later) while I worked upstairs. I only had to go downstairs a small handful of times to settle disputes, cut and toast muffins, look at improvements on Club Penguin and so on. Bless them. As a reward, because it was icky weather out, I took them out this afternoon to see Wall-E (verdict: as good as the hype).

Anyway. Here's what I did - first, a journal quilt as a prototype for the batik beauties postcard swap - and the postcards themselves. I wanted to try a landscape type card - I've never done one before. They aren't quite perfect, but they aren't bad.

Also did nearly all (but not quite) of my centre for the Spring Fling Round Robin - but I'm not going to show the whole thing, even when it's done, as we are restricted to sneak peeks (this is to help keep people from working out which quilt will be theirs, as we have been allowed to specify colour & style preferences this time around). I didn't get any quilting done on the forest challenge quilt, but otherwise, I feel I've accomplished a lot this week, even with the summer holidays wreaking havoc with my schedule.



And even a couple of things to show - a late card - "P is for Pussy Cats" - from Angela and a treasure trove of stuff from The Fruit Pixie - been using a lot of bits and pieces lately, and decided I really needed to boost my stock a little. What's a girl to do?

Teacher cards & other bits

Did a little less work today - shoulders still feeling all that quilting yesterday! Though I did take the quilt around to Sharon this morning, and she seemed very pleased with it, so that's good. Anyway, one thing I did do was put some hanging tabs on this little beauty - I was going to do a sleeve, but decided not to in the end, due to the height of the hanging rail (which was already on the wall) - this way, I didn't have to move the rail down, and also, I quite like having the blue at the top again. It's not the same fabric which is in the centre, but it's very similar, so works well. I have moved the quilt which was in this space - the spring Four Season's quilt - it was actually a little large for the space anyway. Not sure where I will put it yet, but I will find it a home before too long...





I also did my journal quilt from last week, which really bears no relationship to the week, except that the kids and I had the sequins out today. The background is a paper napkin from a pack I bought in Sainsbury's (but they are much too nice to be used as napkins), I then quilted it a bit, added a few feathers, and a load of sequins. Simple, but effective... and done!


But the main thing I did today was to help the kids do their end-of-year cards for teachers - which mainly involved wielding the rotary cutter, fusing, and in Alex's case - helping with the glue. The design is entirely due to the children in each case, with relatively little input from me, other than the occasional reminder not to put stuff too close to the edges (as that hinders the satin stitched edging later). I did also do all the edges - more for time's sake than anything else. The three above are Alex's (he has two TA's in his class) - and below, Sarah's are to the left and Olivia's to the right. No surprises there - some people may think "less is more", but Olivia is certainly a "more is more" type of girl!