Good mail is easy to find!

I have had some great mail in the past few days.

Pincushion won from Calico Daisy. The stitching is exquisite.

Fat Quarters won from Krista. I love the ones she sent me and some of them are in colour palettes I have not used. It is going to be so fun to create with them.

 

  

 

My potholders from Rosebud Johnnies/Jessica. They are beautiful and she sent me wonderful things with them. I am scared to use them. I love the smiley face spoon. My daughter has decided it is hers for when she cooks.



Here is something that I hope will be good mail for someone; my submission to the potholder pass swap that I sent out last week.

 

I stayed up late last night to watch the Olympic dance skating, and it was incredible to watch. I am so proud that Virtue/Moir won the gold for Canada! All the athletes are amazing and it is fantastic to see the dedication and hard work pay off. I don't have to watch every 4 years though to see incredible talent. I see it on all of your blogs each day and I am amazed at what you do. You are all an inspiration! 

Friday Night Sew-In

Well, I decided to work on one of my PHDs. I started this project in December. I had some extra fabric left over from another PHD, and decided they would look cute as a table topper.  I designed it as though you are looking out a window. I had some quilting to finish on it and the binding. I tried out some of my speciality stitches on it. I also added a sleeve on the back if I want to hang it up. Just need to sew on the binding and I can have something else completed. I am calling it Through the Winter Glass.

Trying to Quilt Along

I am here. I am so here. I am too much here. I have been spending all week organizing my PHDs. See that long list down on the left. I am finally admitting to all I have going on. I have been trying to organize things for my PHD Challenge with Myra. Life has been getting in the way however, and I have ended up working on different PHDs than I thought I would.  I have been cutting, organizing and sewing a bit.

As always, I have been trying to figure out what is wrong with me! Okay, maybe how I can get off this quilting bandwagon. I am totally addicted. It is a 3rd job for me. What I realized is that I use to make quilts for other people. Trust me I am not trying to sound unselfish here. I just really started quilting on a regular basis when my nephew was born. Then other family members, started having babies, friends had babies, and I had babies. Then there is special occasion quilts etc, etc. It has only been in the past year that I have really quilted for myself, and my family. With all of the swaps, and quilt alongs going on I now have a lot of phds. It is great and I have learned so much but I have to figure out how to maintain some sort of balance. This morning I was fed up with all of it, and decided I was going to stop quilting. I told my husband I was going to stop, and he joked with me about what he would turn my quilting room into. I gave him the look in reply. At lunchtime I went out to run some errands, saw a new quilting magazine and found some great patterns in it and bought it!

The good thing about quilting is that I am my own boss. The bad thing about quilting is that I am my own boss. I realized today as well that I would never work an employee as hard as I work myself. I would also blog all the time, if it weren't for having to take pictures!


Well, now that I have that out of my system, let's move on to more things I am joining!

I have seen so many quilt alongs that I have wanted to join. Last year I started on Amanda Jean's nine patch quilt along and have not finished it yet. I have half of the blocks. I was trying to decide whether I would turn it into a double size quilt or use the blocks in a different setting. I have not decided yet, but I am going to get back to making the squares. This quilt is going to be for my daughter. Last night she told me that she has outgrown her 2 other quilts (she's 5), though she still likes them and needs me to make her a new quilt. Guess what I will be pulling out!

I am going to be joining the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along. I have 2 jelly rolls;  Figgy Pudding and Peace on Earth. I have yet to make a Christmas quilt, and I think this will be a great one to make. Moose on the Porch Quilts is hosting it and every 2 weeks a guest designer will post a block.

I am also going to be doing the Friday Night Sew-In tomorrow night. I am going to be working on my siggy blocks. I think that I will have to make another post, about the difficulty of finding fabric in Canada. My lqs was out of the Kona white cotton, so I ended up buying the Moda white that Rachel had suggested. I got it from Florida.

Just to end on a sweet note, on the weekend my son was playing a game on the computer. When I came to talk to him a few minutes later, I noticed he had started a different game. On it was a puzzle, where you were given a picture and by using needlepoint you had to make your own picture to match the display. When I asked him why he had changed to a new game, he looked at me and said in all seriousness, "Your not the only one who likes to quilt, Mom"!

Trying to quilt along,

Building Blocks

 

 

Here are a couple of blocks I made last week for my quilt guild. We will be swapping 4 blocks and then making something for them for June. I am in the brights and country group.



I realized on the weekend that it has been months since I have made something for myself. The weather here has been quite cold lately and I only have 2 quilts. I have been carrying them around the house like Linus. I decided to start something new for myself but it will actually be a wall-hanging. Here is a little peek.

These are my blocks for the potholder swap. I now need to quilt them.

 

  

For March's meeting of my guild, I have agreed to talk about online swaps. There are other guild members speaking, so I only have (thank goodness) 10 minutes to talk about it. I am hoping to get a few of my quilt tops together to be able to show them. If you have anything you wish you knew/want to share about online swaps I would love to hear from you.

Good mail is hard to find!

Here is some good mail I have received lately.

Beautiful modern fat quarters for my siggy swap and my potholder pass.

I had been wanting this magazine and could not find it locally. I ordered it and also ordered a surprise fabric roll from the Fat Quarter Shop. I have always been wanting to order  a fabric surprise. I was so happy when I found out it was a Blush Layer cake. I have fallen in love with Blush since I saw B-Sew cute's quilt.

Every year my children's school has a magazine fundraiser. I usually buy whatever quilting magazines they are selling. This year I got a new one, and a renewal. I was thrilled when this turned out to be the new one.

Inside, Julie's quilt. I am so happy for her.

 

Here's hoping for more good mail!

Keeping it simple

I must say the OPAM and the PHD Challenge have been very helpful to me. I have 1 phd finished so far, and more of them organized to start sewing. For February, I am trying to keep it simple.

1. Make blocks for guild swap
2.  Make potholders for swap
3. Complete siggy swap
4. Finish another phd

I think I finally figured out my colour blocks quilt. I have been really enjoying the blocks of colour sashed in white that I have seen on other blogs. With my keep it simple theme, I think I am going to that with them. For the backing/fronting I am going to use my blocks from my rainbow block swap. I have never done a 2-sided quilt before and I think it is going to be neat. Luckily, I chose orange and brown as the colours I swapped so I have extra blocks I can put in. I also have some aqua/teal left over from the red/aqua swap so it will be quick to make an extra block at the top.