New Pendants

The above pendants are some recent ones I made. I'm off to the studio in a little bit to pick up some finished pieces and make some more.

Meomi Swap Results

Meet Quatchi. He arrived in the mail Thursday and is the handiwork of Melissa from Dandelionladyseeds. He's simply adorable and garnered immediate hugs from Cassidy. My swap partner was also kind enough to send along one of her garlands and some handcrafted tags complete with velvet ribbons (I dig velvet ribbon!).

This is the Nurse Peso Penguin quilt that I made for the swap - he resides with Melissa now. I thoroughly enjoyed making this and was pleased with the final product. This little 'art quilt' measures about 17" x 18" (roughly, as I forgot to take a final measurement after completing it).

Thanks to Melissa from Dandelionladyseeds for the awesome swap goodies. Thanks also to Karen at Urban Craft for organizing the swap - I had a great time!

Hummingbird

 

Here's a little something that Cassidy made recently in Glass Club. She used some scrap glass, stringers and millefiori slices. Isn't it just adorable? She's so creative - I think she really has a knack for this.

Three of Hearts

The February voting has closed over at Brown Paper Packages and it looks like I get to play along for another month! The theme for March will be announced tomorrow. I didn't think of a name prior to submitting my pictures, but decided afterwords on 'Three of Hearts'...I know, remarkably creative. The quilt measures approximately 37" x 45". I was hoping for a sunny day to take pictures, but wasn't that fortunate. I'm not gonna complain though, the sun has been shining just about every day since then. Our theme was Love...here are a couple of shots of my entry.

I accomplished what I wanted with this - mainly that it was completely finished in time for judging. I didn't want to end up with more additions for my pile of unfinished quilts. I also christened my new machine (thanks mom and dad!) with this quilt. The quilt was pieced on the old machine, but I decided to (finally) unpack the new machine for the quilting. Originally I had planned on doing free motion quilting (feed dogs that drop at the flip of a switch!). However, after a little practice, I determined that a lot more practice was in order. I need to spend a little more time getting to know my machine before I commit to my next free motion project. Since I didn't have the luxury of time, I made the decision to quilt this in an echo pattern. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with the way it turned out.

Meomi Swap

My first swap! Karen at URBAN CRAFT has organized a swap and I'm getting involved - because, you know, I need another deadline staring me down! I need to make something based on a Meomi character. I'm leaning towards Nurse Peso Penguin. Isn't he the cutest?! Perhaps a stuffie? Or maybe recreate one of the scenes in felt for a wall hanging? I need to mail out whatever I create to my swap partner by March 20. That seems reasonable (deadlines often seem reasonable to me at the beginning and much less so at the end). I'll likely start really planning this out after I send off pictures of my finished quilt for the contest at Brown Paper Packages, speaking of deadlines...

Is It Spring Yet?

Saturday I went with some friends to Chicago. While there we stopped by the Lincoln Park Conservatory and pretended like spring was near. Truth be told, it made me really miss Florida. February in northern Indiana will do that for you! We had a nice time strolling through the conservatory. I took lots of pictures of tropical flowers to help me get through the next few months.


What about these poor guys? They exemplify how I feel about all this cold. Brrr. We walked through the Lincoln Park Zoo to get to the Conservatory, so we stopped and said hello to a few of the animals.


Sunday, it was on to glass club. Above is a 'Before' shot. It'll be about a week before I've got an 'After' of the work. I'm primarily working on some pendants to donate to the club for their annual sale. The purpose of the sale is to raise money to fund a local service project.

So You Think You Can Quilt...

Leisel at Brown Paper Packages, a blog I enjoy reading, is hosting a "So You Think You Can Quilt" elimination contest. After going back and forth, I finally decided that I'd join in the fun. Considering my current workload this is probably pure folly, but what the heck!

The contest requires that contestants design and create any sized quilt top based on that month's designated theme. We can quilt and bind the quilt, but it is not required. I'm hoping to turn in pictures of completed quilts - goodness knows I don't need more UFOs (UnFinished Objects) lying around the sewing room(s). Once the theme is announced, we have a month to send pictures to Leisel so that she can post them and open up voting. The contest runs ten months, but someone will be voted off each month. Here's hoping I make it at least a couple of months! Leisel will be introducing the contestants soon, so come on over and see what we're up to. I won't be able to post pictures of my progress until after voting is closed each month (to keep things anonymous), but I'm really looking forward to this challenge.