DQS9 Reswap

Remember my DQS9 swap quilt?  I wasn't very happy with the overall experience, and I think my blog post made that clear.  Unfortunately, I made my partner really sad.

Not my intention, please believe me.  But, I understand her feelings.  I was pretty negative about the whole deal, and I can see why she would think I was pretty negative about her, too.

I was always taught to make my wrongs right, and so I begged Michelle to let me reswap with something I love and am proud of.  Essentially, she gave me another chance!

Michelle has a really fun sense of color and uses beautiful fabrics in all her projects.  The items she's made for swaps are extremely cute!  So, I decided to use one of my favorite, fun color combinations-- orange and pink.

The patchwork top is piece entirely of 2.5" hexagons; I used the English paper piecing method, which I think is easy and fast.  The fabric is an excellent cheater cloth that someone sent me in a swap-- perfect for this task!

I quilted this top three times-- yes, three times!  The first two attempts were ugly and sloppy looking, so I picked them out.  Instead of doing something complicated and cutesy, I settled on a diagonal straight line grid.  Personally, I think this quilting is immaculate.  The stitches look beautiful and the overall pattern is simple but visually impressive.  I've never done this pattern before, but I will definitely do it again, and probably on another hexagon project.

The backing is a print from Riley Blake's Summer Song-- once again, another perfect fabric for this project.  Honestly, with this print and the quilting, I think I like the back more than the front!

Lastly, I bound the miniquilt in my favorite pink fabric-- Lakehouse Antique Dots in Berry.  I have a limited supply left from my fabric crisis search, so it was a sacrifice to give this up.  But, it was too perfect a match, so I bit the bullet.  Looks good, right?

I made Michelle quilted hex needlebook with some more of my Timber stash.  I love this calm, botanical line.  Very opposite of my miniquilt, but I'm sure she'll love it all the same.

Of course, now that I've finished all these goodies, I realized I don't have Michelle's mailing address anymore.  Bummer.  I sent her an email; hopefully she'll respond.  I really want to give her these goodies!

DQS9 Reveal!

Been a long time.  Shouldn't have left you (without a dope beat to step to).

Seriously, though, it has been a long time.  I read all those posts about quilting without obligation, and I started to feel a little obligated myself.  So, I spent time doing the things I really wanted to do all summer long.  Things like go to the beach and watch baby sea turtles go out to the ocean, fly to Chicago, see my sister get married, take a class and grow professionally.  You know... me stuff.

Anyway, one of my quilting obligations from this summer was a swap quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap 9.  I participated in round 7 and received a beautiful quilt, and enjoyed my making experience, so I decided to go ahead and participate in round 9, too.

It turned out to be a big fat regret for me.  My partner was pretty silent for the most part.  She seemed nice enough, with similar taste to the rest of the blogging world, but her silence left something to be desired.  So many women were participating in discussion conversations, posting sneak peaks, and talking about favorite quilts in the pool.  I was hoping to observe from afar, see what she was making for her partner, and learn more about what she liked.  But, since she added only half a dozen pics to her flickr for the duration and virtually never blogged, not to mention made no comments in the flickr group, I felt that I didn't know anything about her.

I put off the making of the quilt for as long as possible, hoping to catch a glimpse of my partner around the internet.  No such luck.  So, I went ahead with the little direction I had.  My partner said that she liked "trendy" fabrics, so I chose a red and aqua color scheme, put the prints with white, and tried to make something cute.  It turned out cute, alright, but it's also fairly generic.

During the sewing process I became frustrated and disillusioned with this quilt.  I couldn't figure out how to properly use the blanket stitch on my machine, and couldn't even do raw-edge applique!  In the end I just left the circles fused to the background without any stitching holding them down.  Instead, I basted and quilted over the pieces, praying that the quilting stitches would be enough to hold the fused circles on.

I quilted a grid-- straight lines all one inch apart.  The quilt is backed in an awesome red print I bought about two years ago; I think it could be a Kaffe Fasset print, but who knows.  The binding is pieced with red solid and the same fabric as the backing (I think that is my favorite detail).  I failed to add a label with the swap information; it doesn't really matter now because it's already in the mail.

The pictures were taken while I was in line at the post office.  I think that shows exactly how I felt about this quilt.

Seeing Spots

I finally started my DQS9 project; my partner hasn't posted much-- maybe once or twice-- but I think she will like this!  My partner has a lot of bright colors in her favorites, and almost everything she seems to love is on a white background.  

Personally, I've been obsessed about dots lately.  I even consider stashing every time I see a dot I like.  Today I bought 17 dot prints.  Don't judge me.

I used the die-cutter at Quilting Adventures to cut four circles from twelve prints.  Then, I laid them out when I got home.  They're stuck on with spray adhesive; I didn't want to mess with fusible this time around.  Last time I had a hard time stitching through the fusibles.  Of course, I won't do hand stitching this time, but it was nice to skip the extra step and cost of iron-on fusible.

Neon Houses

My Modify Tradition Swap quilt is finished and out the door.  I mailed it on Thursday; hopefully it has already arrived (because I'm revealing it right now)!

This quilt measures 13.5"x13.5" and is constructed of four paper-pieced house blocks.  Fabrics used include a selection of batiks and Kona cotton solids.  I machine quilted this quilt in an orange peel (also known as pumpkin seeds) pattern over each block.

After a binding mishap (cutting it too small, attaching it, realizing it was too small, and ripping it off), I hand-finished the binding in one short sitting.  The corners are perfect, if I do say so myself.

To create my label I used the Electric Quilt Co. printable fabric in premium cotton lawn.  I first used a word processor to design my label.  Then, I printed it on printable fabric and cut the label in one long strip.  Finally, I pinned the label into the corner of the quilt and trimmed it down to a proper size.  I attached it when I finished the binding.

Swap Progress

Something is happening with my Modify Tradition swap quilt.  You know there's a swap going on, right?

I've paper pieced these blocks with templates from EQ7.  I have to say, the program is amazing!  The block I chose (from what seemed like hundreds of blocks) isn't even intended to be paper pieced.  However, the program allows you to print any block in foundation piecing format.  It will even section and number the pieces for you!

My swap partner likes house blocks, and I've always wanted to try them, so I decided to go for it.  I went through several virtual mutations in layout and eventually settled on some kind of combination of all of them.

The blocks are about 6.5" square and I think they are super cute!  I love the fabrics I chose.  Originally I had picked a pink Kona solid, but decided to use a bit of pink dotted batik from my stash instead.  I'm glad I did; these pink houses are adorable.  The background is a natural colored Kona solid, and the roof is also another Kona solid.  I don't really pay attention to the colors; maybe I should get one of those whacked out color cards.  Or just check the bolts when I buy.

HEN Swap

I signed up for the Hand Embroidery Network swap a month or so ago.  Apparently I hate deadlines because I didn't even start until this weekend (which is way late, let's just say).

The swap's theme is spring time.  My favorite part of spring time is how everything is so full of blossoms, fresh, clean, and green.  So, I let that feeling take me away while stitching.  And of course, I got inspired by beads and fabric.

Hopefully my partner likes this.  I still have another to make for my partner, since we agreed over email to make two.  I don't know much about her; she only uses facebook (and I don't!) so I haven't seen any of her work.