Here’s another project–my quilt guild’s raffle quilt for this fall. Obviously, everybody worked on it, but it is one of my original designs I’d love to win it for myself (no dogs on the bed if that happens!!!)

Tanka, my first Hoffman Challenge quilt, is finally back from its cross-country travels, and I’ve started in on 2010’s Hoffman Challenge quilt. Here’s what the fabric looks like–gorgeous, isn’t it.

Also been making my swimsuit cover-ups for the kids in my daughter’s preschool class, and doing a brisk business of it, if I may say so. I think I’ve sold over 10 of them in the past month.

Finally, there’s my almost complete Christmas project, “A Cuppa Christmas Cheer” that I’m hoping to have done this week. I’ll post a pic of it when I do.

Is that busy enough to excuse not posting? Hope so

According to all the other vendors, it was a very, very slow day, so I don’t feel bad about only selling 3 items. But I did learn some important things:

Stuff to bring (other than the patterns, of course)–snacky food, mattress and toys for the Punkin (she liked her little cave), quilting project of my own design, comfy chairs and plenty of table space, something to donate (I didn’t realize it, but I guess it’s common custom to ask the vendors for donated door prizes and such. Took me by surprise.)

What not to do: Bring a computer (didn’t have time or electricity to use it and it was a pain to haul around), not check tablecloths beforehand (luckily we were able to hide most of the stains), work on a non-original quilting project (I was working on a Ricky Tims Convergence quilt, and had to keep explaining to people that no, it wasn’t an original. Bad for drumming up business.). Also discovered craft fairs right before Christmas not good for selling patterns–already finished items (such as these swimming cover-ups) are much better items.

How to chat with people despite being a very shy introvert: bring a quilting project and work on it while sitting at your table = instant conversation starter. Also, display at least one of your quilts (I had Cup O’ Joe hanging on a portable garment rack, and put the for sale pattern right in front of it.).

I’m looking forward to doing this again, though the next show I’m trying to get info on is a quilt show, not a craft show. I’m hoping that it will prove a better place to sell my patterns.

Well, just one curtain to be exact. My mother was auditioning this beautiful brown fabric with the embroidered vines for her new bedroom, and I decided it was just too pretty to leave in the bedroom.

There really wasn’t enough to make a full skirt, but I found the darker brown fabric on sale at Jo-Ann’s and between the two was able to make matching skirts for me and my daughter (she’s still at the age where matching Mommy is a cool thing Not sure I’d use that kind of fabric again–it shreds like crazy (thank goodness for my serger), and every needle prick made the tiniest of runs in the fabric.

And now back to my previously scheduled life…

Not playing hooky this time. Nope, I’m neck deep in the Hoffman Challenge, which is due July 25th. I don’t really think I’m an accomplished enough seamstress to actually win, but I fell in love with this year’s challenge fabric, so I decided to give it a shot.

So…after 75 (yes, 75) different rough drafts (thank goodness for EQ6), I finally came up with a design I liked. However, since the patches involved are fairly small triangles, I am doing it all by hand–machine-piecing triangles is just asking for stretchy bias hassles. And since I’m rather new to this hand-sewing business, the piecing is going very slllooowwwly.

So, off I go to stitchy-stitch whilst the Punkin sleeps.

TTFN

PS The For Sale section of Hitting the Blocks is now updated with better links to our Ebay store. Check it out!

Now back to my previously scheduled life.

Finally got the last of my baby quilts done (for now). This one is the smallest I’ve done in a while, and took the longest to get to its little girl. But now it’s there, and everybody’s happy.

Heidi’s folks didn’t know this was coming, so all I had to go on was yellow and purple, and nothing terribly frou-frou. Heidi’s mum is a dear friend from college, so I did have a pretty good idea of what she would and wouldn’t like.

A special thanks to those of you who turned in your squares so I could make this!

Not much more to mention, so I’ll be a good girl and go get the last of the couch cushions I’m re-covering done so I can focus on my next project–the Hoffman Challenge.

Anyhoo, here’s Tyler’s quilt. If you can’t tell, he had a cowboy theme going. His mom had already made some bedroom accessories from the green, red, and cowboy print fabrics, and gave me the extras so the quilt would fit in even better.

The horse is one I found in a book, but had to redraft from an 8″ by 11ish” applique to a 2′ by 2′ square. The fabric for the body I’d had hanging around for almost 8 years–it was leftover from a shirt my mother made for a former roommate. I used double batting to give the body depth, hand-quilting it once as a 2′ by 2′ section, then sewing it into the main quilt and hand-quilting it again. I think the fringed mane and tail are my favorite part. They’re so much fun to play with

I’m hoping to have the last (whew) baby quilt done by the end of this week, so I’ll get that up as soon as I can.

This is the one I designed, but didn’t piece or quilt. The information given to me was “blue and green.” That’s it, so I had to use my own judgment. The feeling I was going for was old flannel shirts, that manly, home-spun look. The block used was “Bird in Air.” The lady who made this one, bless her poor little fingers, did it entirely by hand. Which for me–a mainly machine-quilter just barely dipping her toes in hand-quilting–is a big deal.

The quilt on the right is one very special to me, and I am so pleased how well it turned out. One of my dearest friends adopted Hope from China. Since the adoption process takes a while, I had plenty of time to chew over the design of the quilt. Her theme was butterflies, in pink, purple, and pale green. The girl is my own design, the blocks a simple four-patch.

It also marks a turning point in my quilting adventures–I was forced to hand-quilt the thing. I tried to shove the monster under my poor little Lily, and it looked terrible. So I hauled out needle and thread. At first I was just going to do the figure, but she turned out so nice that I continued hand-quilting on the diagonal through the purple squares. As that went so smoothly, I thought I’d try doing the binding by hand too. OMG! I have never had a binding turn out so nice and smooth. That hooked me. The next quilt I did (the one I’ll post next month) was also machine-pieced, but hand-quilted, and it too turned out beautifully.

My foray into the world of hand-stitching has taught me two things already. One, a sharp needle is a happy needle. Two, the thimble is my friend.