Spring is here! (4/14/2014)

Hi hi!  I hope all has been well for everyone :o)  I took a very much needed break from the blog during the winter - there was so much going on!  I didn't stop sewing though and I hope to get you all caught up soon :o)

I'll start off with a little mosaic of what I did right before the holidays ramped up - tested blocks for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 8.  I started testing for them on Volume 7 and had a great time so when they asked for volunteers for 8, I jumped at the chance!  Here's what I tested with my group of testers:

Aren't these blocks fun?!  So many of them evoked different memories when I did them.  The top center, the ukelele and flowers, reminded me of our trip to Hawaii last Christmas and New Years - just me and Josh.  The one next to it, the hive, it reminded me of spending a couple of summers in high school at BYU's Provo campus going to Education Week with my best friend and her family.  The sunflower - my favorite flower.  The block right below it, the up and down arrows, reminds me of a horse blanket and riding a horse named Grouse bare back for hours on end as a little kid in the Northern California foothills.

Too much fun I tell ya!  The Tree of Love, I quilted up and sent off to Karin in Norway as a mug rug for a Valentine's Day mug rug swap over on iPernity and the red and black block was made twice because I think I know everything and refused to use the templates the first time around.  The first block got ripped up and sewn back together into another mug rug for a swap at my guild and is now happily in a black and red kitchen!

I've since tested for Volume 9 and will post those after the magazine comes out - can't wait, there are some great patterns in there!!!  I've got two customer quilts under my belt and two other baby/baby momma quilts finished since my last post, as well as a couple swaps and other fun things.  I'll be posting again!  

But until then, here is what I get to look at every morning.  A little pup love!

woof woof meow!!!

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 7 Testing (6/5/2013)

Hi hi!  I wanted to share this with you a month ago, but life happened and pow! time went out the door.  Last fall my friend Martha told me about testing for QM 100 Blocks Volume 7 and I sent off an email to the editor letting her know I was interested.  I got picked up and started getting blocks to test.  What a fun group of blocks!  There were a few that I wouldn't have tried on my own (and won't again) but I had a good time trying the different techniques and what not.  Below is a mosaic of the 12 blocks I tested for Volume 7.

The top three are my personal favorites.  I used the trimmings from the first one for my mug rug here, the second is a Melissa Corry block (and we all know how I feel about Happy Quilting) and Scooter Girl is going to be a gift to a real Scooter Girl.

The house was my least favorite - simply because I don't like needle turn applique and I tried to do it on this one.  I think I would have liked it more if I had just done raw-edge like scooter girl.

The orange and black circles were fun - you use a free motion quilting zig-zag technique on the edges so you get a really neat looking stitch pattern on each circle.

The Penny the Penguin block will be a pillow for my SIL who likes penguins - just need to put some black buttons on the eyes and sew it up!.

Again, I had a blast testing for Volume 7 and as a tester I got my very own copy of Volume 7 for my library.  I also got a second copy which is going in the Travelling Stash box as a bonus giveaway here.

Just wanted to finally get this on the blog and I hope you all have a chance to check out Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 7 - so much fun!  Here is Martha's post with her blocks.

And some shy Bug love.

woof woof meow!