Flower from Ellen!

My 12 x 12 arrived today from Ellen- THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is our warmest day of the year, my garden just burst into bloom, and now this perfection of quiltiness? Like Mae West said, Too much of a good thing is Wonderful! This arrival just made my day :-) I love the flower, the colors (the back is awesome), the quilting- all of it! Hooray!

Mini finish!

My mini quilt is done and ready to get mailed off to my swap partner!

I hand quilted the red strips with perle cotton, unfortunately it doesn't show up so well in these pics. I went for a two-tone red border. Fun! I like all these little bits framed in red, I hope my partner does too!

Foolin' Aroun'

Before parting with my finished 12X12

I decided to try another ...

and am having equally as much fun as I did making the first one.

Only this time I'm experimenting with curvy geese

(followed V's tutorial) & recommend trying them

if you've never done that.

12 x12 Challenge

There have been so many inspiring 12 x12 challenge pieces here lately, that I just had to start playing with mine.

Looking into my bag of made fabric pieces, I found these that had been bissected with red somewhere along the way.


I turned them this way and that, and decided they needed to be cut up a bit.


They ended up with the red stripe on the diagonal. Pretty fun- I played with these more and more... I was having so much fun that I totally forgot to take pictures of all the different layouts and additions I played with.

I made more fabric. I cut that up. I sewed it back together. I played some more. Finally, zig zags spoke to me... and I slashed and sew some more blocks, sewed them together, and made:


Something from nothing. Hope my swap partner likes it!

Mini Leftovers 12 x 12 swap

I finished! I finished!

Love the way this turned out.

Might have to make a few more of these!

Thanks for the fun challenge Victoria!

12"x12" Swap Finished

Hope my Secret Partner is liking this

as much as I liked working on it!

12 x 12 Mini, Attempts 1 and 2

You know, even when you're doing "liberated quilting," you need to follow some basic rules of quilting. I failed to do so, and thus needed to make a second 12 x 12. The first is just too shoddy.

Here's the first. I've used up most of my non-batik fabric scraps on other projects, so I decided to make this swap mini using batiks. I also decided to borrow one of Victoria's techniques - the wavy strips. Here are the mistakes I made:  1) I trimmed it to 12.5" BEFORE I quilted it.  Why did I do that? I know not to do that, but did it anyway. 2) I didn't make the batting and backing large enough, so after I quilted it, I had to trim it down to about 11".  3) I was hasty with the quilting, which basically was wavy vertical lines, and the backing bunched up - another reason I had to cut it smaller.  4) I didn't put a border on it - and I think it would have looked better with a border.

While I was stitching on the binding, my husband walked in with today's mail.  He handed me the walking foot I'd ordered last week, and I decided to make a second 12 x 12.   Up until now I've done all my quilting with a regular foot.  After reading on two different forums that there indeed was a walking foot that fit a Featherweight, I decided to get one. It sure does make a difference!

So this one is much better - it looks like I know what I'm doing.  I loved making the wavy lines.  I hope ??????? likes it!

Metamorphosis

I have been having heaps of fun using scraps given to me by a friend to piece several 12 x 12s. This is my first one completed but I think it will stay with me as it doesn't really fit the challenge to make a colourful piece. I have another one that I think will be sent to my swap partner. As I haven't mastered doing much more than stitch in the ditch quilting on my machine I hand quilted this piece. It gave me something to take away with me for a couple of days earlier this week.

SUNKISSED....Gotta love a selvage that inspires a little 12 x 12 fun!

Scraps for the border...just in case my quilter likes Tonka Trucks and Rain boots...V, you are such an inspiration for fun!!

Happiness, sunshine, friends...i ADORE it all! 

CLARIFICATION

A few of you have had a couple questions and

I want to write this again so everyone is clear.

Whomever is the name you have, is NOT the person who has yours.

ITS A SECRET SWAP.

So say, I have Helen.

Helen does not have me.

Someone ELSE is sending to Helen...

You are making something to SHARE with someone as  a lovely gesture,

The person you are making for, is not making for you...

It's a surprise! 

SO DO NOT POST THE PERSON'S NAME

when you show your 12 x 12...

Everyone has someone different...

there are NOT two people swapping direct with each other...

A has B, B has C, C has D...

D is sending to A..  C maybe sending to B etc

You will not know who is sending to you until it shows up in your mailbox...

So Post your quilts and your process, but do NOT say who you are sending to...

Or they won't have a surprise!

I hope this makes it clear... email me if you have questions...

thanks!

They are looking all sooooo goood!!!

Scrap Reduction Mini Quilt

I found these blocks in a pile of playtime blocks and decided to put them together and see what happened! It's so nice to move things from the "pile of possibility" to the "pile to be quilted..."  Can anyone relate?!?  At least this is a small quilt so it will be quick to machine quilt!

Something from Nothing

Here is my 12 x 12 Something from Nothing challenge piece.  This is my 1st swap so I am a little nervous,  I hope Xxxxx likes it.  I hope everyone has a great day.  I was inspired by the ladies working on the BOM with the flying geese.  Good work ladies  They look so fun.

Adding a Dimension

I am excited about the Something From Nothing challenge and have been playing around with many ideas so far.  This first idea starts with liberated log cabins - I can't really sew very straight & precise, so I love the liberated stuff : )  Then as I'm constructing them, I add in dangling trims like pom poms, ric rac, piping, and any other interesting trim that I have around.  Here are 2 colorways I've worked on so far (the blue is a distance shot of the block pictured above).  Look closely & you'll find the trims!

Somebody's Watching Me

My 12" x 12" quilt started out bright and orderly...

And then, my organized-by-color scraps burst out of their bags to play. I made them clean my house too. ;)

I'm getting there. It feels a little like someone in that scrap bag is watching me. Gotta be better company than my spitting, incontinent iron. I don't know what her problem is.

I love all the creativity and fun I've seen in this challenge. I want them all! What a talented bunch.

SHARE PARTNERS info sent

OK PLAYERS!

All the SHARE PARTNERS INFO 

has been emailed to you.

I only sent you addresses and a contact email address.

I am a firm believer that whatever IS MADE FOR YOU, it is meant to be with you,

AND It will be the BEST the person can make for you.

Please take this to heart.

Be happy with whatever you receive.

It's a morsel of fun for you to do with what you please.

PLEASE THANK THE PERSON when you receive your quilt.

BE KIND, BE POLITE, and BE THANKFUL.

NOW go have fun!

dig into your scrap bins, make, post, share,

but don't  give away the secret of who it is going to.

PLEASE POST YOUR QUILTS IN THE 

FLICKR GROUP PAGE.

Not everyone is going to be able to post here on the site

(... My 100 spots are filled on blogger.)

Of course if you have spot here to post, then please do so!

but also add them to the flickr site so we can all ooh and awh!

PLEASE NOTE: The person YOU are sending too,  is NOT the person who is sending to you...

It's a secret swap... You have no idea who is sending to you...

My 12" x 12" Block

I worked on this for about three hours today . . .

I couldn't get enough!

Here it is all trimmed up. I wanted to make my swap block in the style of my leftovers quilt . . .

So I had to have a little tree.

This tree is about 2 1/2" x 3"

I loved making this, can't wait to figure out

the quilting now . . .

MINI QUILT SWAP

My first ever paper piecing. Mega wow - what a fantastic technique. I used newspaper for the backing and it came off easily with a little help from tweezers at the end. The other thing I discovered was you often need a much bigger piece to cover a shape than you think you do and when you sew it and flip it over it often doesn't cover the bit you thought it would. Next is to make fabric for a background. I think I'll do pale with flashes of bright colour.

12"x12" Swap

This has been so much fun.

Can hardly wait to finish it & give it away ...

Peak and Preview

Here's a little preview/peak of my 12 x 12. hmm wonder what the final product will look like? Wonder if I might love this one and exchange it for another before our due date?