Swapping

I participated in the Swap til You Drop mini quilt swap Flickr group in February. The theme was "Love is in the Air". My partner was Lollydo . She made me this absolutely adorable snail mini.

  
She checked out the items that I marked as favorites and based the mini on those, as well as my information that come February I really like red and pink combos to brighten a dreary month.
I think it's just the cutest thing. I totally love everything about it. It has the embroidered snail w/the chenille shell, the red, pink, turquoise combo. And the plaid circles! Have I mentioned how much I love plaid!

The back is really cute also. Look at how wonderful the MoMo 'Wonderland' patchwork looks with the embroidery on it. I hung it on the flipper of my overhead cabinet at work. It makes me smile when I look up from my computer screen.

This is the mini I made for Lollydo. She has 3 dogs that she just adores and told me that she likes orange. I used a photo that she had on her blog of her dogs looking up at the camera after emptying the toy basket.

I used a sharpie marker and outlined the dogs on the back of the paper. I then traced it onto fusible web and used solid black for the dog's silouettes. I quilted in their features w/grey thread.

I used the amzing floral for the top because I thought it looked fabulous with the orange. The bones are the "Love is in the Air" part. I wanted to have the side of a person holding a bone silouette on the side, but couldn't work it out to my satisfaction. 

I used the orange plaid on the back. I think it looks pretty great on the back as well. Don't look too closely at the quilting though.

I thought I was having tension issues, but it ends up that I hadn't pushed the 'feed dogs down' button all the way over, so I was really fighting the feed dogs the whole time I was free motion quilting.

I'm rather pleased with it, and I think Lollydo is as well.

While I was away

I have been away from the blog for a while, so I thought I should share what I've been working on.

This is my first mini quilt swap from the Swap til You Drop group on Flickr. What fun it was! You can really experiment and try things out when the maximum size is 15" square. The green scrappy quilt was made for me for the swap. It's really exciting to receive a box in the mail with a mini quilt in it that was made just for me! And everyone includes little goodies too. I got some ric rac, a batik, a magnetic snap, a coordinating fabric button, scraps from the quilt (for those non-quilter out there, quilters love scraps of fabric!), colorful lace, a wooden thread spool and paper scalloped circles for making cards or scrapbooking. Sweet, huh?

I was asked to make something with aqua and red for my swapping partner. The quilter I made it for likes vintage,modern and shabby chic.....basically the vast array of styles that I like as well. She is redecorating her craft room in red and aqua, so I started there. I think I managed to fit all those things in, don't you?

I used the Applique Quilt Revival book by Nancy Mahoney. I bought the book a while back specifically for the birds, but there are several other really cute patterns in it in addition to the birds.

I quilted flowers in the corners and branches all around the birds. I totally love the ric rac and buttons. I'm not big into embellishments on quilts, but I think they are totally cute. My coworker Laura sewed the buttons on for me since I don't think I've ever sewn a button on in my life!

This is the corner of the Feb swap I made. I can't show all of it until it's received on the other end. I want it to be a surpriseThe theme for March is Japanese quilts and I'm really excited about it. I absolutely adore the Japanese Block book that I got for it. I had wanted it for some time but resisted, but it was meant to be when the topic was chosen and the next day I got a 40% off coupon from Borders! I think I have it all planned out now and can't wait to get started.

I also made a baby quilt for display out at Tammy Tadd's that is just too cute to post. (that is code for I didn't take a photo of it before bringing it in.) Take my word for it though, the bunnies on this quilt are so freaking cute that they should be illegal. It's just ridiculous how cute these bunnies are! The fabric is designed by Lisa McCue. She did adorable dogs before that I couldn't resist either.I made the small quilt from the free pattern on the Wilmington website. And miracle of miracles, the directions were actually spot on!!! Most of those free patterns have glaring mistakes in them. The best part of all is that it literally only took me 2 evenings start to finish!

Ok, here's a picture of the fabric I used. I just couldn't deprive anyone of this much cuteness.Seriously, could they be any cuter? I think not.

Have a Hoppy Day!

Vicki