Tess's Quilt

I have finished the appliqued bows on Tess's Quilt (Tess is my 2, almost 3 year old Granddaughter). This quilt will be for her "big" bed when they move into their new home. As you can see it is not quilted yet. I want to make the back of the quilt the same as the dust ruffle, so need to do a little fabric shopping with my daughter. Some of the churn dash blocks in the quilt were made by members of my club - Stitchin' Friends as part of a pizza box block swap. Sure was a fun swap and it makes the quilt more special to know friends helped to make it. Can you buddies find your block?

I also got real lucky at a yard sale at my daughter's church Saturday and found these beautiful embroidered pillow cases. One of the church members made them and I think they look so pretty with the quilt top so they will be going along for the new "big" bed.

Hey - don't forget to sign up for my pincushion swap if you are interested. You do not have to have a blog, just send me an email saying you want to participate.

Pincushion Swap - continued

Ok...after some thought I think I should post some "rules" - don't ya just hate rules, but sometimes they are necessary. Check the post before this one for what got this swap started.

1. I am limiting the swap to the first 30 people that sign up (don't panic, you don't have to make 30 pincushions!) You don't have to be a blogger to participate - but you do have to have email. Just send a message to jqd@comporium.net and you are in!

2. You can swap either 5 or 10 pincushions....send me 5, and I will send you 5 back; send me 10 and I will send you 10 back.

3. Either write your name/location on the back or bottom of the pincushion or attach a label, it will be fun to see where the ones we receive came from.

4. All pincushions should be made of fabric and nothing breakable - remember, these will be going through the mail and need to be easily mailed. You can be as creative as you like. Use common sense on size - remember I have to mail these out to people. You can applique, embroider, embellish with buttons, beads, etc or whatever you choose to do - just nothing that could get broken in the mail or that adds a lot of weight.

5. When you send your pincushions to me, include in the envelope, a return mail envelope which you have addressed.

If you are in the USA, then have the envelope prepaid with the same amount of postage that you needed to send your package to me.

If you are outside the USA, then please include in the envelope a money order in USA Currency for the amount of postage it cost for you to send to me. I will let you know if the cost was significantly different for me to return the pincushions to you. I think this will be the easiest way to handle for now. If I come up with something else, Iwill let you know.

6. I will allow sign ups for the swap until May 15, and will do the swap on July 1, 2008 - so you have to have the pincushions to me on or before June 30, 2008.

7. Once you sign up, I will send you an email with my mailing address, and when I receive your pincushions, I will send you an email letting you know they have arrived.

8. And this is the last and most important rule.....Keep it FUN!

Pincushion Swap

Hmmm..is pincushion one word or two? Isn't it funny how words sometimes don't look right and yet they are? Recently we were posting pictures of our pincushions - especially our favorite one, and I saw one similar to this on Judy's blog. I decided to make some and once I started cutting out 3.5 inch squares to make the four patch, I just couldn't stop. Now I have a pile of pincushions and more to make - at last count 50! I intend to give some to my guild to sell at our quilt show in September, and some are for Cathedral Window quilt kits that I will be using in teaching my Cathedral Window technique in the Fall. Now what to do with the rest? Anyone want to swap hand made pincushions? If you would, leave me a comment and at the end of this month I will see how many we have to participate. Also send me an email (jqd@comporium.net) so I can get a list together.

Heyyyyyyyyyyyy--Thimble Blossoms web blog is having a give-away and it is this beautiful quilt. Go and sign up and tell her I sent you!!! You can find her site here!

Blossom Time

I recently purchased the Nimble Needle Treasures Magazine cd after hearing about it on someone's blog. On the cd were a series of embroidery patterns for quilt blocks, the title of the series being Blossom Time. Each block is a different flower. I have been tracing these on to fabric and my mom is doing the embroidery. This is one of her first blocks, Lilac, and I will post more as she completes them.

My Favorite Thimble

Nancy in Norway is having a give-away for those who post a pictures of their thimbles on their blog. I have a few that I have collected, but I can not seem to get my camera to work right and the pictures always come out so blurry you can't even tell what they are. My daughter took a picture of this one for me - its my all time favorite thimble and the one I actually use. It was made to fit my finger and its just so pretty it looks like jewelry. I have forgotten to take it off before and worn it to work - that is how nice it fits. Sometimes its fits a little loose though, so I have an under-thimble sticky pad in it to help it stay tight. I will try to post some pictures of my collectible thimbles soon - if I can get my camera to work.

Be sure to check out Nancy's site. She has some beautiful thimbles posted and links to many more.

May I have your autograph?

My guild is sponsoring a signature block swap and I have been busily trying to get all mine done. Making the blocks went pretty quick, its all the signing that is taking me awhile, but I get to play with my new light box and my be-jeweler, so its fun. Its kind of hard to tell in this picture, but there are two gemstones in the swirly thing around my name. Like my artistic flair? That's about as artsy as I get (laughing here).

Yesterday our quilt club, Stitchin' Friends, met and we started working on quilted bags. I hope to get mine finished soon so look for a picture in the next couple of days. This was a fun project and it was interesting to see the fabric selections everyone made.

Time to grab pen and ink and sign a few more autographs........

What's clean, shiny and white all over?

My kitchen cabinets!!!! We spent the weekend sanding, cleaning and painting my kitchen cabinets and they look so pretty. The rest of the kitchen is still a mess as we have stuff everywhere - so you only get to see a head shot, so to speak, of a couple of the cabinets. After three trips to Lowes and one to Home Depot we finally found enough hinges to replace all the hinges on the old cabinets, add in new knobs and drawer pulls and lots of shiny white paint. I wanted silver hinges, but had to settle for white as that is all we could find enough of...but I really think the white looks better than the silver did. Now..on to new counter tops and then we knock a whole in the wall to create a doorway into my dining room. We'll paint the walls after we get the doorway finished.

One of my treasures...

Don't you have a few things in your life that are just so very special to you? Of course, my faith and my family are at the top of my list of treasures in my life, but I am talking about material possessions now. Here is a picture of one of my treasures. It is a sewing basket that my mother made for me. She collects pine needles from our yard and weaves them into the most beautiful baskets. I have several that she has made, but this one is by far is my most treasured. I keep my hand quilting/sewing supplies in this basket and it gives me pleasure to have it close by. How about you....do you have a treasured item that you use in your sewing? Is there a story behind it, a gift made by a special friend or loved one - maybe something that a relative once used?