Bee Finished

Well, it isn't long now until the end of the year and I'm pleased to say that I kept my bee commitments and made 24 blocks (21 for other people) in two bees this year. That's it for me, at least for now. I've got four quilts (or parts of quilts) worth of bee blocks in my sewing room and I won't sign up for any more bees until I've done something with them!

To re-cap, here are the blocks (below) that I enjoyed making for the Stash Trad Bee. The idea behind this one, started by Lynne, was to make traditional blocks from our stash of modern fabrics, using a specific background colour decided by the 'person of the month'.  There were several personnel changes throughout this bee, but I enjoyed meeting a few new people and making blocks for some great flickr & blog friends.

The Pine Tree block in the bottom right corner is the one I made as an example for my own month. I am most excited about putting this quilt together. The Pine Tree block has always been one of my absolute favourite traditional blocks and I had everyone make a single colour scrappy tree for me. It's going to be a rainbow forest when it's together....of course I want to make six more blocks for a layout of 18 blocks sashed on point.  I hope to work on that over a weekend retreat with friends in early March.

The second bee was very different. The group was put together by Lynne again and for a few of us, the concept was a real stretch!  The Free Bee meant free-piecing, improvisational quilt blocks. Some members (myself included) showed a photo for inspiration and included colour suggestions, others used inspiring quilts made by other artists/quilters as a starting point, one person chose a theme of urban landscapes and another Provencal doors & windows.  It was a lot of fun! We made a triangle block, a curvy strip block, square blocks & rectangle blocks.  

Looking at the mosaic, I guess most people chose solid or hand dyed fabrics for their month. Improv piecing is exciting (you never know what you're going to end up with!), but also not as easy as it looks. Random can be rascally. And mixing a bunch of colours together is tricky for ye of little colour theory!

So, that's it. I bee done.

And now friends, I will share with you that this is post #499 for me. Yup, it's taken me three years to get here, but my next post will make it an even 500!! That calls for a giveaway and here's a hint: I'll share something I've recently made. It's been published. It's adorable. It should arrive at the winner's home just in time to add some holiday decor. Followers will get a second entry, so come back Monday for your chance to WIN!

Stringy

Hi folks, just popping in today to share my LAST bee block of the year. This one is for Dan. He's going to end up with an amazing collection of odd-sized, free-pieced, colourful, fabulous blocks made mostly from solid fabrics inspired by this quilt.

We could chose any size, any construction, any shape we wanted. I can't wait to see how Dan puts them together. He seems to be a bit of a genius when it comes to jigsawing blocks together, so I know it will end up an inspiring quilt!  I struggled with the concept of tossing a bunch of colours together, hoping they would jive. I'm not sure I met with any success on that front...nor do I have any confidence in the old "if there are enough colours in there, it'll look good" adage.  Maybe because that's not an adage. Maybe I made it up.

I used Gwen Marston's wonky string block construction method from her Liberated Medallion Quilts book (an amazing book if you want to check out free-pieced border ideas). The 3 1/2" blocks were sewn on scrap paper cut to 3 3/4".  After sewing down the strips, I trimmed the squares, then removed the paper, then pieced them into this 6 1/2" x 24 1/2" block. It's the dog's breakfast, lunch and dinner on the back with all that seam allowance pointing every which way, but a liberal spritzing with Mary Ellen's Best Press seems to have tamed it into a state of acceptable flatness.

It's pouring rain here for the foreseeable future. Sewing Season is definitely upon us in Vancouver. I just saw a teeny tiny hummingbird land on my clothes line minutes ago. Poor little thing, it looks like a single raindrop could take it out! My neighbours have a feeder on their deck and there's been a little hummingbird couple that have flown together all summer - snacking at the feeder, then resting on our line. I think it's time they headed south to the sun. 

Hope you are cozy today!

Boo!

Granny Says Boo! for Cindy, a photo by Poppyprint on Flickr.

It's October! How did that happen?

Our visit is going nicely here. My parents celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary yesterday under beautiful sunny skies. In fact, their entire vacation has been sunny. It's a record! No really: Vancouver has had the driest August/September EVER since someone started recording temperatures and measuring rainfall in the late 1800's. I'll take it. As long as it snows when it's supposed to.

Sewing is as sparse as rainfall, however I managed to complete my October Stash Trad block for Cindy last night. I loved making this block (there is something so satisfying about all those nested seams!), so I made two. I'll use the duplicate for our VMQG annual Hallowe'en block exchange. You can find a tutorial for this "Great Granny Square" here

This week's blocks

Preparations for Operation Grandma & Grandpa Visit are ticking along here, but I am procrastinating like crazy. Today I made gluten free lemon squares, then borscht and now I'm writing a blog post. Haven't actually done anything that would qualify as visit prep. Only three more sleeps until they arrive. As long as they have a bed to sleep in, that's all that matters, right?

I'll share some of the re-organizing photos in my next post, but I thought it was high time to show you some sewing. First off, I am pleased to say I have completed my third foundation pieced star block in as many months for the Stash Trad bee. I was not anticipating all of this foundation piecing when I signed on for a traditional block bee, but it's been good to get back into practice (see next photo below). I haven't done much foundation piecing since I made all of these bee blocks about 18 months ago.

It really is a beautiful block and totally worth the effort. If you'd like to give it a try, Corey's tutorial is here. It helped that Felicity (and Berene) came over for an impromptu sewing day on Wednesday. Felicity and I support-grouped our way through it together. Yay for local sewing friends!

My mom got an iPad for her birthday in July and put in a request for an iPad sleeve. It's the least I can do in exchange for the 6 pairs of socks she knits every year as door prizes at my retreats. Her Sybil socks are definitely the coveted prize (so much so, that I have a rule you can only win one pair until every participant has their own!).

We are still a bit pre-occupied with the above-mentioned Operation, so this block is as far as I've gotten with the iPad sleeve. Isn't it cute? It's Kerry and Penny's latest Sew-Ichigo foundation piecing pattern called Latte To Go. Perfect for my latte-lovin' mom.  That even more perfect text fabric on the lid? Designed by none other than Berene for Spoonflower (where, ahem, it won #8 in the Typewriter text contest a couple of weeks ago!). You should check it out. It's designed specially with a 1/4" of background above and below the lines of text so that they can be perfectly pieced into latte lids. Or anywhere else you need quirky idioms we English-speakers are famous for!

I think I'll vacuum now.

p.s. did you notice we got our house painted? That was one major element of the Operation that we (thankfully) contracted out. Our 93 year old blue cottage is looking rather refreshed!

Busy Bee

Summer is a family time for us and therefore my sewing tends to taper off to almost non-existent. I just don't seem to get the time in my fabric lair that I get during the school year.  However, there's no rest for a busy bee member, so this week I was making my two August blocks.

First up, a really fun improv piece for Leanne in the Free Bee. Leanne asked for a small colour composition surrounded by chunky neutrals. She encouraged us to piece the coloured section in our own style, or use fabric that was 'us'. That pink Kaffe is my all time fav print (this week), so that's the one I chose to begin my composition.  I think Leanne's quilt is going to be a fav, too!

The second block I had been putting off, because for some reason I have a little attitude going on about foundation piecing. I used to love it, and actually did many complicated tiny patterns years ago when I was still working at the LQS. I even use a great freezer paper method whereby you don' have to sew through, and then pick off, any paper. Finally I took a deep breath, put my big girl panties on and got busy. Here's Brioni's star block for the Stash Trad bee.

This quilt is going to be stunning with all of the bright scrappy stars that are appearing in the flickr pool!

Now, to complete my Winterkist project for the upcoming holiday issue of Fat Quarterly magazine. There will be yo-yos!!

Home Invasion!

First, here's something that I made yesterday. A colourful Churn Dash, for the lovely Felicity.  We'll see each other tonight at the VMQG meeting, so I figured I might as well save a couple bucks postage and hand-deliver her block!

We're in the Stash Trad virtual quilting bee, where each month we make a traditional block with modern fabrics from our own stash, according to the queen bee's specs. I think Felicity is going to end up with a fabulously fun quilt. The Churn Dash is one of my all time fav traditional blocks.

And now, a story.

We had some excitement chez Poppyprint at 6:00 a.m. this morning. I awoke to a strange, yet familiar sound. Like a box of lego being dumped out on the carpet. Our window was open, so at first I thought maybe it was outside. Then I heard the unmistakable click-click of the dog door flap. Suddenly I was wide awake and realized the first sound was the large bin of dog food tipping over. ALERT! ALERT! RACCOON IN THE KITCHEN!!!  Our 12 pounds of pain-in-the-ass miniature dachshund sleeps in a basket in the corner of our room and I think he and I realized what was going on at precisely the same time. He charged down the stairs ahead of me in full panicky growl-mode, but stopped short of turning the corner into the kitchen when I gave him a stern NO (he suffered a 2:00 a.m. raccoon-attack two years ago in our backyard after letting himself out for a pee).  I am sure the smell is all too familiar to him and while he was anxious to protect his house, I'm sure he wasn't keen to repeat that painful night right there in the kitchen!  Luckily,  all that was left of our cheeky intruder was grass on the kitchen floor and muddy footprints all over the dog food bin.  I guess we'll have to keep the dog door covered at night now.  I'm certain this is the same varmint who was crapping in our back yard every night for a week recently. Euw.

Coupled with a crow robbing another crow's nest and actually eating a juvenile bird on my front lawn yesterday (double EUWWWWW!), it's a bad episode of Wild Kingdom going on right here! In the fall, we had to cover the slope in our front yard with chicken wire to prevent the skunks from digging dens every night. It's a takeover, people! 

It won't be long till the black bears are wandering our street at dusk. I predict they'll be down in a few weeks once some berries are in. Anyone up for a visit to the wilds of North Vancouver?

Make progress, not dinner

Do you have those days where you simply cannot tear yourself away from your sewing machine and suddenly it is 6 o'clock and the natives are restless? Hungry? Opening and closing the fridge every 5 minutes hoping a meal will suddenly appear?  Well, I have those days every day. I distinctly remember a great line from a presentation I saw by Jane Sassaman once where she said "If no one asks about dinner, I'm certainly not going to mention it!"

I am still playing catch up since our travel in March and am slowly plugging away at bee blocks in between sewing stints at D's circus school in preparation for the big production, Blue Sky Circus in two weeks. I'm helping with costumes and have sewn my first serger seams!  Unfortunately, 10 hours of cutting in one week was partly responsible for my back spasm, but I'm slowly returning to normal thanks to my massage therapist and chiropractor.

I am in two bees at present (and I've decided that two concurrent bees is plenty for me!).  First up, the Free Bee. This one is a really fun challenge every month. The idea is to make free-pieced blocks within some sort of guideline specified by the Queen (or in the case of this group, King) Bee each month. We use our own stash.  Both John and Dan are in the Free Bee!

I first had to make Krista's March block which is awfully late:

In fact, so late I made another smaller one to go with it.

Krista's making a 'Modern Mood' quilt inspired by the work of Sherri Lynn Woods. You can read more about these stunning quilts at Sherri's blog here.

Then today I made this block for Ethne, which I think turned out really well.

Ethne's inspiration comes from graphic images in a calendar by Leah Duncan. She asked us to use any dark blue as background and solids or hand dyes for the triangle highlights.  I think both of these Free Bee quilts will be a fabulous challenge to assemble and I look forward to seeing them come together!

Finally, here's a block I made for Elizabeth in the Stash Trad Bee. In this excellent bee we are making traditional blocks with modern fabrics from our stash each month. This is a fabulous block and you can make one yourself using Elizabeth's Radiant Ring tutorial here.  Elizabeth requested either a cool-, or a warm-coloured block from each of us.

Well, it's 5:00 p.m. and that means I can cram another hour of sewing in before people will be thinking about food. I hope that my next post will be my Dresden Pillow pattern release. It's all set up and ready to go, I'm just awaiting confirmation of my new Paypal account.  So exciting!!

Fresh Sewing Day!

Hello November! Nice to see your frosty mornings and crisp autumn winds.

It's Fresh Sewing Day at Lynne's, so I thought I'd put a mosaic together of some of the stuff I worked on during October. It's not all here since the weather hasn't been super cooperative at the times when I want to take photos. Today is looking promising, though, so watch this space for more work soon!

If you want more info on any of the photos, just click on the mosaic to reach my flickr stream and the links are all there for you just below the picture.

One thing I haven't shown you yet is the pine tree block in the middle top row. That is the block I chose for my month in the Stash Trad bee. We are making traditional blocks for our bee-mates out of fabrics from our own stash. Literally within two days of posting my sample and the instructions, 5 others have already made their blocks for me. Can I just say that this might become my all-time favourite quilt? So excited!

I'm linking up so you can click on this button and find the list of other participants and check to see what they've been up to in the last month! Lynne also has a small blog meet up running on the first of the month - head over to visit some of the newest friends in blogland and show them some love.

HAPPY NOVEMBER!

5-Alarm block!

I made this yesterday for Melissa. September was her month in the VIBees, but sadly her fabric package has yet to emerge from the Canada Post Twilight Zone, and I fear it's lost forever. I went ahead and managed to find some red in my stash (uhhhh, not too difficult) because we're almost half way through October already!

Melissa is making a "Going Places" quilt for her son. Bee members are making blocks of transportation in the air, on land and at sea. I was on holidays when people chose their 'vehicles' and when I got back, the firetruck was mine!

Since the blocks are massive at 16.5", I had to adapt a smaller 6" foundation pattern from a photograph posted in our flickr pool. Unfortunately, to maintain the proportions there ended up being a ton of white space, but hey, more room for creative quilting!

I'm pretty happy about the driver, and also the lined paper print that I used for the hose. I love it when you can find just the right piece of fabric in your stash to take a block up a notch. BAM! This quilt will be a lot of fun for her little guy.

Against my better judgement, I'm going to tell you about the most ridiculous giveaway. Alex has given Lynne a truckload of Aurifil thread to share. So much that it even comes in it's own suitcase! Quick - right after you leave a flattering comment on my adorable fire truck block, head over there and enter the giveaway in her super fun Christmas Gifts for Quilters series!

A June Quickie

I'm running today, preparing for tomorrow's retreat. Just popping in to show you this block I finished top-stitching last night for Tracey in the VIBees quilting bee over on Flickr. Tracey sent out delicious 5" charm squares and a chunk of white for background and gave us the theme of "petals". She is expecting her second child and plans to use her blocks for an "if it's a girl quilt".

design & tutorial by Jessica at twin fibers

I hardly made a dent in Tracey's charm squares, so I used a few more to make her this little tag blankie for her baby, and to say thanks for organizing such a fun bee!

There is soft-as-a-dream minky on the back again.

I think June is shaping up to be a really fun month on Poppyprint. I've got lots to share and talk about with you! You'll notice I'm dangerously close to 500 followers (WOWEE!), and you know what that means....yes, there will be a giveaway soon! Maybe even two (more exciting news).

Don't go far!

Weekend this 'n that

It already seems like ages ago, but last weekend I managed a little bit of sewing. It is Katie's month in the VIBees (my first online quilting bee!!) and she sent everyone some lovely chunks of Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush along with some Kona Ash so that we could make a star (or stars) of our choosing. I can't seem to get enough of the snowblossom block and Katie agreed that it was suitably star-like, so I made this for her:

Luckily I had two of the blue prints in my stash to augment the supplies because this block uses pretty big pieces of each print. That's why I had to split the red/blue bits in the block; I just didn't have enough of one print for both halves of that shape.

D was off to a birthday party Saturday afternoon, so I whipped up these wallets (one for her birthday girl friend and a second one for my friend!) using a coveted piece of Echino linen. We've used this Valori Wells "Little Wallet" as a present many times (we hide a gift card inside). I chose the linen and D chose the interior prints to coordinate.

Although the linen makes it a challenge to turn and then poke out the corners, it does give the wallet some extra oomph and just feels so nice in your hands. Typically when I make something small like this (including my thread catchers) I make two at a time...it doesn't seem to take any longer and it's nice to have an extra on hand for gift-giving emergencies!

I hope to do a couple more posts before signing off for a week of Spring Break. The kids are I are heading to Orlando, Florida for some Harry Potter action (at Universal) and a trip to the space centre....but more importantly a much-anticipated visit there with my far away sister and her family. Yippee!

Have you got any fun plans for Spring Break? This is our first ever March vacation. Sadly B has to stay home and work, but I couldn't pass up the chance to rendezvous with sister and this year our school district has a full two week break - we had to do something!!

Wee Bit of Weekend Work

I managed a bee block over the weekend. While my family watched our homeboys, the Vancouver Canucks, kick some serious Dallas a** last night (sorry Texas bloggy friends, but I ask you: is hockey really supposed to be played in Texas? Seriously!), I was busy next door in my sewing lair creating this for Amy :

Amy sent lots of fun fabric, plus the white and peach borders, and asked for a block made with only triangle shapes. Fun!

The sun shone brightly all weekend. I considered cleaning up all the dead stuff from last fall still standing/lying/dying all over the garden. I considered it again. Then decided to photograph the new stuff that isn't clued into the fact that it's only February 20.

Like the hellebore. An early spring keener, who loves her spot and grows defiantly where no other plant cares to grow: under the cedar tree.

Even the poppies are anxious. Fuzzy foliage is up 8 or 10" already!

I used to have hundreds of crocuses, but now only a hardy few remain. Truth be told (as has been done here a few times), I am a confirmed "plant it and hope it lives" gardener. My garden doesn't get a whole lot of Tender Loving Care from me - it is on its own. The lawn is another story. I love me a good push-mower session.

Is your garden still sleeping under a blanket of snow? I fear mine may be in for a nasty late-winter shock. We had a thunder and lightening hail storm on Friday night just to remind us that winter may still have a few plans for us yet!

HSTravaganza

Here's my latest V.I.Bees block for Kelly.

She send the gorgeous AMH fabrics with some Kona Ash and asked for a 12 1/2" block made up of half square triangles. It's so fun to see how everyone interprets instructions like this and makes completely unique blocks from each other! Kelly is going to have a gorgeous quilt.

Have yourself a fantastic weekend!

Snowblossoms

Here are all of my snowblossom blocks. Seven of these are for other members of the Quilting Divas (mini) Sampler Bee. In this bee, we all make the same block for the other bee members, but each person set their own colours + one Kona solid background. I requested jewel tones plus any shade of Kona grey (I made myself the block that is second from the right on the bottom row).

I like this bee because it's all wrapped up in a month! These blocks were super fun to make once I got the size organized (they needed to end up 12 1/2"). There is a lot of fussy cutting in these blocks (check out the Eiffel Towers!) which is a terrible waste of fabric, but so much fun!

For a closer look at any of the blocks, click on the mosaic and you'll end up on my Flickr photostream where there is a close up of each individual one. You can find the foundation patterns here, thanks to Marcia Hohn of the Quilter's Cache!

Unlike everywhere else in North America, Vancouver is completely devoid of snow (except for up on the local mountains). In fact, the Snow Drops have bloomed in my front yard and my hellebore isn't far behind! You lucky Texans!

Red Sky Morn

Check out this sunrise last week. At 7:50 a.m. on February 1st, this amazing sky welcomed February to Vancouver. Only fitting, since we'll be all red and pink for Valentines soon enough!

That is my neighbour's weather vane atop their clothes line pole. I took this photo looking east from our back deck.

That's not all the amazing colour that was in my life last week. This luscious stack of fabric also arrived:

This is Heather Ross' Far, Far Away II collection printed on 75% cotton/25% linen blend. I really love all of the colours combined with grey and the sweet fairy tale illustrations of Rapunzel, The Owl and the Pussycat and the Princess and the Pea. Adorable! The coordinating print of wee flowers in an organized grid is precious, too.

I need to say a big thanks to my generous friend Terri for sharing her FFA II stash with me. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to thank her, but you can be sure there will be something sweet heading her way soon!

B took the kids to Whistler for a couple of nights and one day skiing on the weekend, so I had the pleasure of sewing in the well-lit dining room with fabulous friends. Bonus: we went out for dinner each night, too! Sewing AND eating with friends is the best. I corrected my bee Snow Blossom block foundations and only have 2 more to complete. They are really beautiful - hopefully tomorrow will be a brighter day so I can take some pictures for my bee buddies and you, too.

Andrea and I also caught "Barney's Version" last night. Now, that is a fantastic movie! As is "The King's Speech" that my SIL and I went to last weekend. Those, along with "Winter's Bone" are the only Oscar nominated films I've seen...how about you? Do you make any effort to watch all of the movies up for an Academy Award and make your own predictions before the big night?

Back to the cutting mat

I was so proud of myself, finally seeing some progress on my Quilting Divas mini sampler bee blocks. In this bee (only the second one I've ever joined), there are 7 people in my group. Each of us will make 6 blocks that will finish 12" (7 if we make one for ourselves). Every block is the same design, but each participant has requested specific colours and one Kona solid for their background.

I scoured the Quilter's Cache for a pretty block. Since this is a sampler bee, I wanted to find a traditional, but not so common block to make. Plus, I wanted big enough pieces that would show off some pretty designer fabrics. The Snow Blossom block was the winner. After printing the foundation patterns, I double checked to make sure the 1" test square on the pattern had printed to scale (in other words, it was indeed 1" on all four sides). Check. I was ready to go.

See how pretty this block is? Only these 2 are duds. Epic Fail, as my son would say. When all was said and done, they are EXACTLY 1/4" too small. ARRGHH! I carefully sewed on all of the printed foundation lines. I am Irrrr-i-tay-ted (I say this in my best remembered Afrikaans accent from working in South Africa. No one says 'irritated' in English like an Afrikaaner, complete with rolled 'r') . I actually lost sleep last night I was so disappointed.

I just love this block, so I'm back at it today. I'll make the long outside background pieces larger than the foundation, then trim them back with my 12.5" square ruler after the block is pieced. I hope it works. It will work, right? This time I'll make ONE block and check the results before forging ahead on block #2.

Every mistake is a lesson learned. And as my Flickr friends have already pointed out, now I have the beginnings of two lovely, coordinating pillows that just might look really fab on our red playroom couch!

Riding High

Someone turned 12 this weekend. Here she is demonstrating her mad circus skills on her present. You've seen her in action before here, but she's 5 feet off the ground now! See that gorgeous grin of joy? By Thursday evening, it will be covered with metal. Braces, coming right up. Poor kid.

Big brother T turned 14 the week before (hopefully his braces are coming off next month), so we've been busy transforming his room from 'little boy' to 'teen cave'. This involves about 1000 lbs of IKEA particle board. The good news is that he took on building all of his new furniture by himself, and we were able to donate his old stuff to the neighbour's little boy! At 5'10" we decided to just go for a queen sized bed, because I'm sure T will be taller than his Dad by summer. Honestly, he's growing before my very eyes. Don't even talk to me about shoes.

This blog will return to quilty/sewing action this week, I promise!!

Stuff has been happening behind the scenes even though you haven't seen any evidence of sewing here for ages. I've actually made a decent start on one of my private swaps (hand applique, even! Go me!), sorted out my colour scheme and chosen my block for the Quilting Divas Sampler Bee and organized my scraps into colour-coordinated clear drawers.

Now that Christmas, two birthdays and a teeny bit of tidying are complete, I'm ready for action! Stay tuned....

My heart on a string...the year in review

I began blogging a year ago because I wanted so badly to be a part of the global quilting community. My guild is amazing and my retreat buddies mean the world to me, but I had a sense that exciting things were going on amongst creative women the world over and I wanted IN! No longer content to be the last pick on the baseball team (my hand-eye coordination was, and still is, pathetic), I took a chance and jumped in with both feet.

This is one venture where I think I can speak for all my blogging friends: results do NOT vary. Everyone succeeds and finds their online community, their online voice, their virtual home of creativity, if you will. In addition to blogging, flickr is a wonderful place for community-building through sharing photos and swapping handmade items in groups.

Before long you feel inspired to share your work with appreciative recipients: all of those other amazingly creative people that you 'talk' to every day through comments on their flickr photos or on their blog posts. I have always loved giving handmade gifts and now the fun part is I am receiving them, too!! Admittedly, my large-sized quilt production has taken a nosedive in the last 12 months, but I'm having too much fun to worry about that. Plus, making smaller projects specifically for a person who has shared their likes and dislikes can be a wonderful challenge, like this quilt I made for DQS9.

Monthly swaps with changing themes have also stretched my skills, expanded my colour palette and inspired me to make this,

this,

and this.

I never thought I would make so many original projects, dreamed up right inside my very own head! I was stuck in a 'making it from a pattern' loop but this past 12 months has given me the freedom to create like never before and sometimes I feel full to bursting with ideas. So again, I say thanks to all of you for your encouragement and friendship! (don't forget to enter my blogiversary giveaway here if you haven't already).

Returning to the concept of receiving, and the string reference in this post title, I wanted to show you this happy doll quilt that Carol sent recently. Carol is so generous and supplies all of the angel quilts for the doll quilt swap on flickr....she knows I loved this string quilt, so we arranged a little private swap for one of my selvage coin quilts. Lucky me!!

Thank you Carol, this cheerful number will keep me happy in my sewing room!

So, what's up for the coming months? Despite trying to carve out more time for my own projects, swapping is just too much fun, so I've signed up for another one, arranged a couple more private ones with blog friends, and in January I'll begin my first ever online quilting bee organized by Tracey. I can't wait!

p.s. as an afterthought, I did think of one downside to all this online friendship.....unfortunately I have discovered WAY too many places to shop via keyboard and monitor. While my stash is thriving, I fear my savings account is on life support!!!