Stash shortfall

The past two months in my quilting bee have been a bit of a challenge for me fabric wise. And I find it simply baffling when I don't have something suitable in my stash. There's so much in there!

October's queen bee wanted her Checker Block in black and white fabrics, colourful designs on a predominantly white background, and black sashing. I knew right away I had zip in B&W and straight black, but I was surprised to find I didn't have much in the way of the other. Guess I really do like colour.

So then I was on the hunt. I found the black and white no problem, but the other proved tricky. And oh I looked in so many shops. After a fruitless search, I found this bird and building print in my stash. The queen bee said it was fine, so I went with it. I sent her two blocks since it was almost as easy to make two as one once you had the HST. I wish I paid more attention when cutting the owl fabric because they kinda disappear. I love the print for the basket - little sprouts!

All along I have been making practice blocks from a bundle of Meadow. Now I have nine blocks, including these recent additions. (Sorry for the poor lighting. It's getting so tough to get photos with the rapidly shortening days and then the daylight saving switch.)

Now I am on the hunt for fabric for the November queen, who wants a red and green Christmasy block. That green is proving elusive. And to compound the problem I need to make four blocks because she accidentally made for for my month.

Hazel helps out

I whipped up this zippered pouch this weekend to be auctioned in a friend's Instagram fundraiser to help a lovely woman gain some financial independence while she's going through a rough patch. I cut into my precious Lovely Hunt and Abacus prints I just got in the mail, and added in bits of Tula, C+S and AMH. I love how it turned out! Those rich colours are offset so nicely by the text print. This Hazel's purple eyes and her silver nose have a bit of sparkle, too.

I quilted the front in a crosshatch and then the back is a combination of dense straight lines and waves in the blue. The top bid was $70! Can you believe it?! Why am I not selling these puppies?! Oh wait. I hate making pouches. They're so much easier on my new sewing machine, but I still do not like tangling with zippers. Not sure why, but it's something I dread. Yet still I keep making them! Go figure.

All things Alison

This round of the Schnitzel & Boo swap was a breeze for me. My partner said her favourite designer is Alison Glass - plenty of that in my stash! - and she'd love a Mariner's Compass. Coming up with a swap plan is often the tough part, so I was happy to know exactly what to make. I found a lovely free pattern for the block and I was still in a paper-piecing groove after my New York Beauty. (Unfortunately I've got some bad feelings with that swap after my partner couldn't be bothered to post a thank you, but I'm trying to put that behind me.)

I started with the colourful AG Ex Libris print in the centre, then started pulling co-ordinating fabrics in blue, purple, pink and orange in AG prints and solids. Along with bold colours, my partner said she also likes dark greys and black, so I incorporated lots of that too. I love how this turned out, and it was tough sending it off.

She said she likes anything hedgehog, so I made a zippered pouch and tucked the mini in there along with some Smarties. Alison Glass fabric for this, too.

And when I mailed that yesterday, all my swaps were done. It feels odd and wonderful at the same time. Thankfully another round of my favourite swap - the Rainbow Mini Swap - hosted by one of my favourite IG friends is opening soon!

Ps. This post joined the weekly link party over at Blossom Heart Quilts. Be sure to check out Alyce's great blog.

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Storm At Sea

Oh, it makes me so happy to see this quilt again! This modern twist on Storm at Sea is definitely one of my favourites I've made, so of course it's the first I thought of when another instalment of the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side opened. I've entered it in the Mini Quilt Category.

I made this for the Alison Glass mini quilt swap. I'd been wanting to make a Storm at Sea quilt for a while, then I read my partner liked "traditional blocks iwth modern colours/arrangments" and I knew it would be perfect. I played with the design to highlight the waves in the bottom right and the circle in the top left. I stuck with the green and blue fabrics and all is Alison Glass, including the text print and white on white in the background.

Then I was brave and veered away from my comfort zone of straight-line quilting and did a spiral and wavy patterns in blue, green and white thread. That took quite a while!

On the back, the dense quilting stands out on the mostly solid fabric.

I am really proud of this mini. Best of all, my partner loved it! It really is wonderful when you send a swap package out into the world, and then you can tell the recipient genuinely appreciates the effort you put into making something just for them.

You can see all the amazing quilts in all the categories for the Blogger's Quilt Festival on Amy's blog. Don't forget to vote for your favourites! Voting is open Oct. 29 to Nov. 5 and winners are announced Nov. 6. Good luck everyone!

Feeling blue

Last time I have my family over to my place, my middle sister went on not so subtly about how she really liked my quilted pillows. I got a quick yes when I asked if she'd like one. Together we picked out fabric in primarily blues for a Hazel pillow. This pattern is so much fun to make, it really is a pleasure to sew with that cute little face looking back at me.

Wavy lines again, which seems to be my go-to quilting for Hazels. It is wonderfully freeing, especially for a perfectionist like me. I just go at it with no guides, and I go fast! Then it was a quick task to add the envelope back and it was ready to give.

I really need to get around to finishing the Hazel pillow I started for myself way back in the spring. It's all quilted and only needs to be turned into a pillow. But projects for myself always simmer on the back burner.

Keep it simple

Here's my latest finished swap mini. My partner said she loved paper piecing for it's intricacy, which fit perfectly with the pattern I'd had my eye on for a while - the New York Beauty. I found this lovely one made by In Color Order as part of a quilt along.

I think the swap's name - Simply Mini Swap - unconsciously influenced me. Really it meant that we were only sending a mini to our partner and no extras, unlike most swaps where that become a big part of the package. For my mini, I decided to use a simple design and colour scheme. It's so tempting to get crazy and pull a big stack o' fabrics, so very tempting. But because the New York Beauty pattern is so striking, I really wanted that to be the focus and so I stuck with a three-colour scheme - purple, red and turquoise.

I really love how it turned out. My partner said she likes a bit of whimsy, so I couldn't resist including a smattering of that super cute C+S panda print. It adds a nice dimension to the mini as well. I had a bit of a fail on the outside arc when I tried using a low-volume print that was just too busy. Then I found this light mottled grey with a bit of sparkle that worked much better. It was a bit tricky getting the four blocks together and lining things up, but I think I did pretty well. Luckily I had the perfect fabric for the binding - purple mirror ball dot that I just picked up on my L.A. trip.

I've also been plugging away on making Polaroid blocks for my #polaroidgreetingswap. These are so much fun to make, and go really quickly with chain piecing.

First I made a batch for everyone in my group of 20, with a couple extra to send two to my international #pgsbuddies.

Then I made a whole bunch more for my swap mamas to thank them for helping out, and some extras for a few people in the swap. A young girl joined her first ever swap and is doing a great job and is so appreciative of the blocks she's getting in the mail, so I wanted to encourage her in the craft. And then a few more for friends who joined.

I'm even trying my hand at making the cards. I remembered I had a pack of vintage paper scraps and dug into those to make these collage cards. I like a little arts and crafts time that leave my fingers sticky from the glue stick!

That escalated quickly

Another month, another bee block. Last month I was queen bee and I've started getting blocks in the mail from my teammates. What fun! The September queen bee picked a nifty block called Jagged Little Pill. It's fast and easy to put together. I made a practice block first before moving onto the real deal.

Instead of the usual charm squares I've been sending each month, I cut rectangles the queen can use to make more blocks. As usual, I included a signature block and fabric basket.

Then, perhaps in a moment of craziness, I decided to host my own swap! Thankfully I was smart enough to recruit some help with the endeavour, the very sweet Anita of Daydreams of Quilts. I had a simple idea based on my love of swaps and sending cards. I imagined there would be groups of about 20 and you'd make a Polaroid quilt block for everyone on your team and slip each one into a pretty greeting card with a nice handwritten note. Then you'd get months of happy mail from all over the world, and enough blocks to make a mini quilt or pillow! I called it #polaroidgreetingswap.

I had no idea how many people would be interested in joining when Anita and I posted about it on Instagram. We planned to have sign-ups open for a week, but within just one day 240 signed up! Wow! To keep things manageable, we decided to close the sign-ups early. But that also meant I could get started on assigning groups early, and those emails are going out with the help of my swap mamas. This swap is just getting started but already I've learned so much and had several hurdles, like Google flagging me as a spammer for the flurry of emails sent out from a new account.

It's so fun though to see so many people super excited about my idea. I can't wait to see how this turns out! Already there are calls for a second round!