Churn Dash Love

Yay!! I received my doll quilt in the mail last week. I am thrilled with the little quilt that was made just for me.  It came all the way from California, made by Wendi. Isn't the design so cool? I just love churn dashes and stars, so this just works in so many ways. (It also reminds me of a block that I like that was in my bee quilt.) Check out the binding. She aligned it with the colours in the block!

She sent along some wonderful goodies. I got some great text fabrics that look like typewritten words and some yummy chocolate. I am so spoiled!

And let's not forget about this wonderful zippy pouch. I really like it a lot! The colours are just awesome. I keep meaning to make myself one, but that hasn't seemed to happen yet.

The back is just great too, with lots of lovely handwriting fabric and a cute label. Also, Wendi made some hangers for it. Very practical for hanging on my wall.

Here it is on the wall behind my sewing machine with the doll quilt that I got last year! I'm so excited to have a collection now. Maybe I should make something to go up there too.  (If I ever get around to it.) Maybe I'll just participate in some more swaps!

I haven't forgotten that I need to show you the completed Owl quilt.  I'll get to that soon.

xo Nicole

Doll Quilt Swap

I managed to finish up my doll quilt for the Doll Quilt Swap 12 on Flickr.  I am so thrilled with the results.  It was rather difficult to send it off after all that work!

I have always maintained that I hate foundation paper piecing, but I thought that I would try it again with some special paper.  I found that the paper made a good difference, and I think that my machine being serviced and the tension being so much better helped out a great deal as well.

I designed this quilt on EQ6 and printed out 5 papers.  Then I grabbed my test fabrics and tried it out.  It worked quite well and came together just as I had hoped.  I dove in with my chosen fabrics for the swap and made up the blocks over 2 weeks or so.  I think it took me about 1.5 hours for each block.

Then I still had to take all the paper off - ugh!  I still hate that part of paper piecing, although my pointy tweezers helped me out in some tricky spots.  After basting the layers together, I decided to hand quilt it with some matching red embroidery floss.  I think that the design pops!  I also added in some green quilting, kinda in the ditch to secure the outer part of the quilt.

I hope my partner loves it.  I expect that she will get it sometime this week.  She doesn't know this is coming from me, so hopefully it will be a lovely surprise.

I am still waiting to receive a little quilt, but I have no idea which one will be mine.  There are some absolute stunners in the photo pool!

xo Nicole

A New Swap

I joined the Doll Quilt 12 swap on Flickr last month.  I'm going to make a little quilt for a secret partner for whom I get some information about, but she has no idea that I'm making a quilt for her.  In return, I will be getting a great little quilt from someone else.  We have some specific rules to follow, like it must have at least 6 pieced blocks and one of them must be a churn dash, New York beauty, log cabin, drunkard's path or flying geese.  It is also required to have a solid in it, but not white or any derivative of white.

I participated in round 11 last summer and it was so awesome!

This is my inspiration mosaic.  I made it up to let my partner know what kind of things I would love in a mini quilt.  Check out my Flickr photostream for the credits of these pictures.

These are some possible fabrics that I put together last night for the quilt that I will make for my partner.  I'm not 100% sure that they will be the best, but I'm going to try them out.  I also have made it my personal goal to include a New York beauty block in my quilt.  I have never made one and feel a bit intimidated by them.  This is a great opportunity to conquer my fear!  I sketched out some ideas on paper and in EQ6 last night.  I'll have to think on it a little more before I decide what exactly to do.  I have until April 5 to send it out, but I hope to finish it up by March 29.

Its so awesome to see what everyone else is up to in the group.  That's one of the most fun things about being in a swap.  There are some super talented people in our group!

I'd love to know what is inspiring you right now!

xo Nicole