spice up the kitchen swap sent!

My partner requested blue, orange and gray so I came up with these placemats for her. I hope she likes them because I want to keep them for myself!

Here's the full shot of them. I made them in sets of two so she can mix and match them depending on how many people she has over. And I did some straight line quilting to accentuate the movement create by the chevrons.

I included a little extra set of spoons that matched and a little snacky surprise.  You can see a bit of the backing here. I used the Far Far Away II from this post on the back because I know she's a Heather Ross fan. This was my first swap and I'm so nervous about it. I hope she's happy with them!

ETA: I'm linking to Sew Modern Monday. Go check out the creativity here!

WIP Wednesday 2.9

So I finally have another finish. It seems like it's been a while. Of course the move has made everything feel like a time warp and my sense of time is messed up.

1. This is my Spice Up the Kitchen project all rolled up and ready to go in the mail tomorrow. I'll post photos of everything after I've mailed it.

2. This is what I've got started for my Make Mine Modern Swap partner.

3. My king size quilt should be arriving today from the quilter! wohoo! Of course I decided to order binding for it instead of making it scrappy and that is not here. So it's going to be a while before I can get it bound and photographed.

4. I also have fabric coming for binding and backing my postage stamp quilt.

5. I've been doing some sketching. I've totally changed my mind on the Monochromatic Challenge. I'm going to pull more fabrics and do some more thinking before I start cutting on that.

Waiting for my attention:
6. Curtains for Bathroom
7. Curtains for great room
8. Samantha's Quilt
9. Painting my sewing room / dining room (does that count?)

Still 9 projects in process. Head over to Freshly Pieced to see what everyone else is doing.

it's all about the pillows

You may have noticed tons of talk about pillows on the blogs this month? Sew Mama Sew has put together a bunch of great pillow tutorials and I am super excited to be included! Head on over there to check them out. You can find my Argyle Pillow with the geometrics.

Kitchen Swap Received!!

Oh wow, did I get a great partner. This package for the Spice Up the Kitchen Swap arrived on Friday and I literally squealed when we opened it. My husband thinks I'm addicted (yeah, doesn't the blog name say that?).

These photos don't really do it justice. It's so dreary outside today I can't really get good photos. The wonderful Sujen101 made these for me.

This is the back of the potholders. Adorable!

Look at this fantastic little detail on the towel! I have no idea how she did that, but I love it.

Here they are making my kitchen look adorable.

And then there was little cute little surprise that was never shown on the flickr site. I totally squealed again when I opened this. She "spiced up" my daughters kitchen too!!

And it's double sided! It's so cute I want to wear it.  Of course, being a 2 year old, Samantha did not want to try it on for me. I'm sure once I unpack my own aprons she'll want to be just like mommy. I'll try and get photos when she does!

BIG thank yous to my awesome partner! I love everything.

More bee blocks and the problem with swaps.

I put together my blocks for the do. Good Stitches charity bee. These were really fast and fun to put together. I may need to put together a quilt for myself with some of these. Since they are essentially scrappy HST's there are a ton of layout possibilities.

So I've also realized the problem with swaps. Every time I order fabric for my swap projects I have to order some for me! I went to my LQS the other day just to get felted wool. I walked out with these too.

Going into the fabric store for just one thing is like going to the grocery store for milk when you are hungry. You aren't just walking out with your milk. You're going out with a full cart!  Anyone else have this problem?



Also curious what people think about these heavier weight fabrics (i guess it's a linen blend) like the Ruby Star Rising above. Is it okay to mix with quilt-weight cotton?  I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I love the prints though.

snow, ice and my first bee block

This is what things look like around here after our storm yesterday. It's pretty at least. But lots of branches are falling and causing destruction. Thankfully we didn't lose power.

I was able to get my block done for Sew Fresh Fabrics. They sent out the scraps I mentioned here. We could do anything we wanted as long as it was a 12.5 inch block.  I've never really worked with fabric that has pictures on it that tell a story. So I struggled with what to do with these. I knew I wanted those Castle Peeps to dominate, I love them so much!
It was fun to design a block around the fabric since I usually work the other way. Though I will say I was totally nervous cutting into these fabrics knowing that I didn't have anything to replace them with if I messed up my math! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I hope they like it!

Another bright spot in my day was when Fed-Ex showed up with this baby! I was a winner of Rachel's giveaway on P.S. I Quilt during the book blog tour. Wohoo! I'm so excited about this book, it's got some great patterns in it.

 

This is my favorite design in the book. I think I have a thing for diamonds.  This will be first on my to-do list from the book.

Definitely a bright spot in my yucky day. Thanks Rachel!

WIP Wednesday February (!?)

Wow, I can't believe it's February! Happy Groundhog Day. We are all moved into the new place. It seems like forever since I've posted anything. Probably because I've been getting a good workout hauling boxes. I have managed to unpack my sewing machine and some of my fabrics. I really should be painting my "sewing room" but since I've got deadlines I'm sewing instead.

Here's what I've got going.

Those are some sneek peaks of my Spice Up the Kitchen Swap projects. I'm in search of the perfect binding fabric and then I'll be finished and ready to send!

I've been pulling fabric for the PMQG Monochromatic challenge. I've got a small project in mind, but I may decide to enlarge it in order to enter it into the Modern Quilt Guild Challenge. We'll see what kind of time I have as we get closer.

I received this beautiful package of fabrics from Sew Fresh Fabrics for their Charity Bee. I've got a block sketched for this, I just need to measure the scraps and make sure it will work. I think I really like working this way. Finding the fabrics first and then designing around it. Very fun.

We also got our instructions for the Bliss Group of the do. Good Stitches Charity Bee. The inspiration fabric is the Clamshell in Mist from Parisville. That's the fabric on the left there. I happen to have a lot of scraps left over from my king size quilt so I'll definitely be using those up. I've pulled a couple other fun scraps to add to it. The design chosen is a Roman Stripes Block and I love it. These are really going to be fun together.

Stalled:
Make Mine Modern Swap - already posted my fabric ideas, just need time to work on it.
Bathroom Curtains
Great Room Curtains
Samantha's Quilt

Waiting for Quilting:
Postage Stamp Quilt

Total WIPs -9

My question this week: I know a lot of bloggers mention that they work in the evening when the kids go to bed. What I wonder is does your spouse mind (if applicable obviously)? When do you spend time with him?

Head on over to see what everyone else is doing at Lee's!