What a Great Swap!

Janet - who blogs at Rogue Quilter - lives one hour away from me. We became friends through blogging and it was great fun when we finally met face-to-face for the first time a few months ago. Soon after that meeting we decided it would be fun to swap mini quilts - there were no rules to follow - anything goes. Today we met halfway between our two homes and exchanged our quilts.

The Patriotic Pineapple quilt she made for me is breathtaking - the fabrics - the piecing - the quilting! She was very naughty and insisted on pointing out every teeny tiny imperfection on it - most of which was invisible to my eye. The red, white & blue fabrics are so yummy!

And she hand quilted it! I can't even remember the last time I did that to a quilt - what a treat! See how she fussy cut those sheep for the center of each block? Since I'm a rug hooker AND a quilter this is so perfect for me! I really feel like I got the best part of the exchange! Thanks so much for a GREAT swap Janet - let's do it again some time.

Here is the little quilt I gave her in return - I have been loving all the medallion quilts I've been seeing out in blogland so I decided to try and make one for her using all Civil War Reproduction fabrics  since dark & dirty is her preference. I was pretty sure that she doesn't do much applique, so I included a bit of that in the design - and I threw in a few yo-yo's too. It is machine quilted.

And another highlight for me was recently winning a giveaway on Missie's blog - on Saturday I received her pattern for some flower pincushions that can be made by doing needle punch or wool applique - I'm having a hard time deciding which way to do it so maybe I'll have to do one of each. Love this cute design. Thanks Missie!

Americana

I started this little quilt a couple years ago by fussy cutting some Jo Morton stars into applique circles. Then it got set on the back burner because I couldn't decide which red fabric to use for the background squares. Well, I pulled it out last week and chose one - then got it all sewn together - quilted - and bound. Now it's finished - YAY!

It was inspired by this quilt that I saw in a Christmas issue of AP&Q magazine. I didn't make it exactly the same but you can see the resemblance between them. I think the stars on this one were pieced.

I had to chuckle when I saw the Stars & Bars quilt that Janet at Rogue Quilter posted a few days ago cuz I'm pretty sure she used the same Jo Morton star fabric to fussy cut her squares. Great minds think alike, huh?

I'd like to get the quilt below finished by July too. Two, maybe three years ago I made DD#1 a spider web quilt and I realized it was made exactly like this pinwheel block, so I got that part made soon after. Now I need to applique some swags for a border and get it quilted. Wish me luck!

I've been doing a little work on my hooked wreath too - crossing my fingers I have enough of the background fabric to do the entire rug. (not loving that blue flower)

Masterpiece

I met with the SLC rug group on Wednesday and Yvonne brought her finished rug - she's been working on this Emma Lou design for at least two years and she is SO relieved to have it done. It is absolutely gorgeous! It's a big one that measures 54" square. 

Here are a couple more photos so you can see the details better.

I absolutely love the antique black background she did. It's been fun to watch this rug grow and progress each month, but I'm sure she's looking forward to hooking on a new project - probably a smaller one! LOL

Vicki was doing some handwork on a couple tuxedo aprons she was making for her sons-in-law - they were so fun to see. She offered to model it for me so we could see it better. I guess she previously made ruffled aprons for all the girls. 

Remember the little purse I shared a couple posts ago? Well, Nancy has finished the hooking on her version and now it just needs to be assembled. The colors she used make me think of ice cream sherbert - YUM! I like that she did totally different designs on the front and the back. You can see the lining fabric off to the left. Can't wait to see this one finished.

She also had this rug totally finished - a free design in a recent RHM that she added to and altered a bit to make it her own. This one's cute too!

And these are the rugs she's working on now. She had a small piece of linen and decided to use it to make three small pillows. This one is finished........

.....and this is the one she's currently doing - great wonky little house. The third one hasn't been designed yet.

I started a little rug that will probably be a table mat - made from a quilt design - it will have a light background. Hope it works up quick.

I recently won a fabric giveaway from Kathie Holland who blogs at Inspired by Antique Quilts and they came in the mail yesterday - can't wait to use these fat quarters of great oranges in one of my quilts. Thanks so much Kathie!

A Small Project & 1st Tuesday Rug Group

Two weeks ago our rug Guild had a meeting where we learned how to make a darling small bag. We used lots of the techniques that Ali Strebel taught us when she came to Utah last summer - especially quillie flowers and proddy. I got a pretty good start on mine that day, and when I got home I was determined to finish it up - otherwise it would have ended up in a pile of UFOs and who knows when I would have gotten back to it....... 

The paisley fabric was the inspiration for the color choices I made. The lining is stitched totally by hand to the outside of the purse.

You can see some of the other color combos that the group made here on our blog. It is so fun to see the versions that people created.

Yesterday was our annual outdoor meeting at Kay's house for rug group. I didn't snap as many photos as I thought I did, but I do have a few to share. Tonia has finished hooking her Three Billy Goat's Gruff rug and was crocheting the edge while we were there. Her next project is all drawn on linen - it will be Little Red Riding Hood. Fun rugs!

Sandy finished her fall rug and was also crocheting the edge on it. Love those colors. (sorry the picture is crooked)

Angela has been having a love affair with vintage sewing machines for a few years now - I think I heard her say once that she owns about 35 different ones. She has recently begun buying old damaged Featherweights when she finds them. Then her hubby repairs them so they run like new and gives them a fresh coat of paint in the most wonderful colors you can imagine. This is the first one that they've finished and it's totally awesome! She has started a blog to document her journey.

Last year when I made strawberry jam, I added the ingredients in the wrong order and it never set up properly - turned out more like syrup than jam. So a few days ago I dumped it all out and made two fresh batches that are perfect. Now it's getting eaten almost daily on toast and peanut butter sandwiches!

I recently finished reading the very last book that Maeve Binchy wrote before she died in July. She's been one of my favorite authors for a long time, and I really tried to savor each page and take my time with this one, but as usual, I gobbled it up because I enjoyed it so much.

And finally I wanted to share a pet peeve. I often used to use my 40% off coupons at Jo-Ann Fabrics to buy magazines cuz they're SO expensive these days. Then they started have them on 'sale' for 10% off so the coupon wouldn't work. Now I've discovered that their coupons state that they cannot ever be used to purchase magazines - what's with that? ARGH!