Happy Friday!

My nine patch swap quilt is finished! Back in the fall over a year ago, Barb hosted a block swap. She has a great method to make itsy, bitsy, cutie, patootie nine patches that end up measuring 3" x 3". I loved making them and was excited to see what I got in return. Check out her website for directions.

I was in the modern group and there was also a reproduction group. All these pretty colors go together so nicely! It's also a great scrap eater.

I chose a white with green polka dots for the other patches and my favorite is the black and white striped binding, perfect! Sorry for the crummy pictures but it was raining today.
I ended up doing a meandering quilting stitch all over and it was a bear to quilt. I procrastinated the quilting for quite a time and am so glad I finished it.
It' the perfect size for laying on the couch on a chilly evening, I have already tried it out!

Don't forget to enter a chance to win the Scrap Quilt Secrets book that was in Monday's post. I will be picking the winner on Monday April 4th. Good luck!

Kelly

Sewing Day

I finally got all my nine patches from the swap that Barb, from Fun With Barb held last Fall. It was such a fun swap and I got a great variety of fabrics in this quilt. I did make some more on my own as I wanted it a little bigger, this one will go on the couch for naps.

While this was not the original pattern I chose, I sewed them all  wrong at the Getaway in February and decided I was not going to unsew them. I really do dislike sewing long rows together, it is pretty boring.

On my design wall I have another group of swap blocks also a swap that Barb organizd. This is a randomly pieced quilt so it is taking a bit longer than I thought.

When I haven't sewn in a while, I want to make everything that is floating around in my head. Not that it is practical but things get pulled out, willy nilly. These blue fabrics are going into the quilts for the twins now that we know they are boys. It's pretty bad when you are stacking up your boxes of scraps. A cleaning is in order!

I came upon this vintage Economy Patch quilt that I absolutely loved. Sorry for the bad pictures, it is very bright here today.

It is damaged and needs repair. There is one fabric in particular that has disintegrated. Part of me feels the needs to rescue it.......

but as I look closer at it much of it is coming apart. It was hand pieced and hand quilted with no batting and no binding.

The fabrics are very vibrant and have wonderful designs. It does need a bath too.
So would you cut it apart and use the fabrics or keep it whole and try to repair it? Does anyone know if I wash it now, would I be sorry?

Kelly

Snowy Sew Day

Last October I was in a 9 patch swap that Barb of Fun With Barb hosted. I have  200 - 3 1/2" nine patches. I have been letting them sit until an idea of how to put them together comes to me.
I took them with me to our retreat 2 weeks ago and started sewing them together. I should have brought my sketch so I would remember how I was setting them. I sewed them all wrong and was not unsewing them.

So now I am putting them together totally different than the original plan. I even made 52 more so it would be a good size. It will measure up at 63" x 72" a perfect size to use for a nap!

The more I looked at the "new" design on my design board, the more I liked the simplicity of it.

These are all I have left to sew together into a 9" block. I will finish them up tonight, because....

it is snowing.....Right now we have a little over 8" and it hasn't stopped yet. My husband just left for the night to go out and plow so I will have the whole evening to myself.

What is it about a snowy day that makes you want to drink hot tea and eat 50 cookies? I love the name of this one.

I will finish this tonight. Not my usual genre but I did like it. Did you read it?

Kelly

The Postman Always Delivers and So Does Barb!

Today my package came! It was all rolled up into a little ball but I wasn't worried.

Here are my beautiful little nine patches just waiting to be put into a quilt. Thanks again Barb for a fun swap. Now the ideas will be swirling around once I feel better.
Thank you everyone who participated in the swap, I really appreciate all the work and time you put into making the blocks.

Kelly

Red Hot

I laid out all my Farmer's Wife blocks to see what I had in the way of colors. I am heavy on the red and blue! I am up to 50 blocks and I am trying to decide how far I will go. I definitely need more yellow and green.

I really like the combination of these two fabrics together and I love basket blocks.

So you will notice both of these blocks have red and blue in them.  Now I have to plot out the rest with a little more green, yellow and a dash of pink.
I do love these blocks and think it will be a nice quilt when I get to the end.

I also made some more nine patches, I can't stop making them. Some of them were made with the scraps from the FW quilt and some were just scraps laying around on the sewing table.

Oh and I started another quilt, for my cousin who just became a grandmother for the first time. I also need to make a baby girl quilt for a special mom who thought she would never have a baby. Sometimes you get the nicest surprises when you least expect it! I am so happy for her.
Do you have a go to pattern for a baby quilt?I would love to know......

Kelly

Nine Patches

So while I was away from the computer I got all these nine patches sewn together. They are for the swap I am doing over at Barb's blog. Even though the swap is closed check out her tutorial, it is the only way to make a bunch of nine patches in a short amount of time and they are very accurate. I made a total of 100.

No small pieces, strip piecing.

Chain sewing makes it all go fast. It's kind of addictive you just want to keep making them!

When you use this technique you get 2 patches that have opposite colors. I now wish I had made an extra set for myself using my fabrics. I thought of  that at the very end when I had ten left to make.

The break from the computer was nice, I didn't even look at the emails on my phone, I thought I would be tempted. I did check on Saturday night because I got a new phone and was playing with it, but only one. I found I did not miss it as much as I thought I would.
I did get a lot of sewing done but now I have a ton of blogs to catch up on! Have you ever given up the computer for any length of time? How did it make you feel?

Kelly