Bee Sew Whimsical hosted a Secret Santa Honeypot Swap.

Here’s what I mailed to my partner last night:

My partner, Peggy from Quebec, sent me these very cute stockings with beads, which are now hanging in my kitchen.

She also included 6 charms for the Charms for Charity contest stuffed in the stockings… I was too excited and took it all apart before I took a photo.. oops. She also sent me this gorgeous cross-stitched card, and yummy chocolate.

Thanks Peggy, and thanks Darlene for hosting the swap. It was great fun.

Here’s the wedding quilt I made for my friends that were married this past summer.

I used the Disappearing Nine Patch design (also called the Charm Square Quilt). I started with 12 fat quarters, which I cut up into 5″ charm squares, made the nine patches and cut them in 1/2. The finished block unit is 7″. I added a 1″ sashing, following by the 2″ (or 2.5″?) squares and a 3″ black border.

For the quilting, I first anchored each 7″ unit, by stitching in the ditch with black thread. Then I did the large diagonal cross hatch through each unit and into the borders using Superior Rainbows thread in the top and Bottomline in the bobbin.

I used one of the fancy stitches to secure the binding and add colourful interest (stitch #16, length 0.25, width 5). I love the way the binding turned out. This is the first quilt I’ve done where I’ve been thrilled with the binding results. You can bet I’ll be using fancy stitches to secure it from now on… hehe.

And of course, completed the quilt with the label blanket stitched to the back.

While it is a simple design, this is one of my most favourite quilts that I’ve ever made. I’m glad it has a good home.

Just before I left for Nashville, I mailed my Doll Quilt 4 project to my partner Alison. I started with this, and below is my finished piece.

Here’s the one Alison sent to me. I’m not sure if it was intentional that we were both each other’s partners or if it just ended up that way by coincidence. I really enjoyed doing the doll quilt swap.

Last weekend, I finally got around to picking my fabric and pattern for the Doll Quilt Swap. I’ve been wanting to do a paper-pieced project for a while, so I could put to use the mini iron my folks bought me at Christmas and also to try out the paper made specifically for paper piecing.

I chose a geometric pattern from Carol Doak’s Easy Paper-Pieced Keepsake Quilts book. I picked four coordinating fat quarters that I purchased from Connecting Threads a couple of months ago. I decided on the stars fabric pictured below. I love the fabric I purchased from there, the quality is great and it washed up very nicely. Needs a higher than normal iron setting, but that’s not a big deal. I purchased a bunch of threads from them too that I can’t wait to use in upcoming projects.

The next picture shows the progress I’ve made and my set-up next to the sewing machine, which is to the right of the photo. It’s very comfortable and I can easily roll from one side of the table to the other. The mini iron is fabulous to work with. Thanks Mom and Dad for the great gift. I use the 1/4″ masking-like tape to hold the pieces to the paper while sewing instead of pins as I find pins distort too much. I’m loving the special paper too, it’s very easy to sew and ironing doesn’t make it wobbly (you’ll know what I mean if you’ve ever used every-day paper).

So far, I have 9 of the 12, 4″ blocks completed. I’ll probably do a 1″ sashing between each block and finish off with a 2″ border.

I’m hoping to wrap the project up this weekend, but we’ll see how nice or not the weather is.

I think this quilt pattern has been secretly calling out to me to make it. Several months ago, my mom was given a huge stash of fabric and quilt books & magazines from a friend of a friend who was downsizing. My mom doesn’t sew, she knits and paints, but sewing is not her forte. So, I was the lucky recipient of all these wonderful gifts. I kept some of the fabric, and the rest I donated to Victoria Quilts Canada.

One magazine in particular caught my attention and has lived on my window ledge, on my desk, on the sewing table and on the TV hutch for the past while, calling me to pick it up every time I walk by. It is Quilting Ideas, Fall 2003 issue from Better Homes and Gardens.

See the adorable quilt on the cover? Well, imagine my surprise when I was browsing the All People Quilt web site a week or so ago and discovered this pattern, Hearts & Flowers Appliqué Quilt featured on their home page. Of course, I stared at the picture for a long time, then went in search of the magazine, and sure enough it is exactly the same pattern.

While I don’t have kids of my own, I do have a wonderful 2+ year old niece, Lucy. I’ve had great ambitions to make Lucy her first quilt since before she was even born, yet I still haven’t. I have made her a wall hanging and crocheted her a blanket. I’ve had a few patterns picked out for her, and even the fabric purchased for each, yet still no quilt.

Well, she’ll be getting this one, either for Christmas or her third birthday next February. I’ve already traced and rough cut all 70 pieces of the fusible web. I’ve been going through my stash of fat quarters picking out the various pieces of fabric. I’ll be doing the blanket stitch around each piece by hand. I can’t wait to see how this one comes together.

Yes, I do need to clean house … no I’m not going to show you photos of the mess. However, a few things I wanted to mention this wonderful Monday morning.

If you’ve sent me an email, and I haven’t responded yet, and you think I should have… I apologize. If you don’t get an answer by end of day today, please get in touch again. I discovered this morning that I had inadvertently set up a mail filter, which resulted in me missing a tonne of messages, so I’m trying to play catch up now.

I’m looking for some prize donations for an upcoming contest this month. If you’ve written a book or pattern(s), can donate fabric or other supplies.. I’d love to hear from you. Minimum donation $10 value, please, and you take responsibility for mailing it to the winner. What you’ll get in return, lots of link love, good will, free advertising. Drop me a line, let’s talk!

July is Charity Quilting Month … more to come in the next few days. If you make quilts for charity or belong to an organization that does, please check back as I’ll have the details posted on here about how to submit your information.

Approval for new Quilting Bloggers will be slightly delayed over the next couple of days, as I play catch up and focus on other things. I’ll get to them once a day, instead of several times throughout the day.

I’ll leave you with a photo of the card I made for my friends that were married on Friday. The card uses the same fabric as I’ve used for their quilt, which I’m in the process of quilting. I hope to give it to them in a couple of weeks. Which reminds me, I’m looking for a quilt pattern or instructions to make a bag for the quilt, if you have one, please post it in the comments, or send me a message directly.

Happy Monday!
Michele aka Mishka