Saturday's Smile

Woo! Hoo! A Finish!!

I wanted to make something special for my dear, dear friends in Colorado Springs and I thought - hmmmm, I'm a quilter . . . I think I'll make them a quilt!!  It's going in the mail tomorrow!!

My sweet friend over at Summit Creek Quilts did the quilting for me!!  Thanks, Sue!!

If You Like Postage Stamp Quilts

here is a great link for you!!

Bonnie left a message on my last post but was unable to create a link to her website, Quiltville.com, so I am doing it for her!!  It is well worth visiting!!  Click on the quilt to see more!!

I've Been Working and Working and Working and . . .

working on cutting all these little, and I do mean little, 2" squares!!  Yiks, I joined a postage stamp swap  and had no idea was I was getting myself into!!

I am sending out 700 hundred - well, I am sending them out as soon as they get done!!  LOL!!!  It will really be fun to get 700 little squares back in the mail - all different!!  But once they arrive, what do I do with them??

Little Houses on the Hillside . . . Little Houses Made of Ticky Tack

Do you remember that song from long ago??  Well, as I was putting a row of little house blocks together that song came into my head!!  Funny how our minds work!!  Anyway first row of houses.  Notice that two of the houses have perfect corners on the roof sides and two are not so perfect!!  Guess which ones are the paper-pieced houses!!  :-))

Saturday's Smile

I Hope This Isn't Cheating . . .

because the paper-piecing works fabulously and it took me about 1/4th the time to make a house!!

Construction Has Begun in Kaffe Fassett Village!!

This my first attempt at this type of quilt piecing and quite honestly, it's much more difficult than I would have imagined.  I was going to say that it's tougher than paper-piecing when it dawned on me that I just might be able to paper-piece these little goodies!!  Has anyone ever tried that??

This is going to be a very colorful village!!

Is It January 15th Yet??

Because look what came in the mail today ~

from Shell over at The Rasberry Rabbits!!

Everything I need for her new 2012 Raspberry Rabbits BOM featuring her darling design assistants, Harrington and Hannah!!  So, I am aready for the big unveiling of month one on Janaury 15th!!

If you would like to play, you can click on the button here and see whats going on. This is going to be a fun and very different BOM because Shell is using a wool applique technique that she invented!!

Then, the mailman also brought me a box from Amazon with my

book for the Quiltalong that is being hosted by Donna over at Brynwood Needleworks.  This Quiltalong starts February 1st!!  Check it out, it is going to be lots of fun!!

And then finally, in order to get free shipping I HAD to order a second book and for those of you that keep a close eye on me, you know that Kaffe Fasssett is my VERY most favorite designer and so I got his newest book

Now, even though the quilt on the cover is not my favorite, there are some amazing quilts in this book that are quintessential Kaffe!!

Oh, this new year is turning out to be extra, extra special!!

First Project of the Year Started!! Woo! Hoo!!

It seems like it is always hard for me to get started on a project but once I finally do, I just dive in and love it!!

I just started the Quiltalong "Just Takes 2" presented by Gay over at Sentimental Stitches and Brenda over at Dear Jane.  It's a year long project where we will recieve 2 sections of the quilt from the two websites each month.  The quilt is set up to be a red and white quilt but many of the participants are doing their own thing.

Here are my first 2 of 6 blocks that we received January 1st.  I decided to do my applique work by machine as that is my favorite but I also noticed as I finished the block on the left that the red thread in the white fabric will compliment the red work that can be part of some of the blocks.  The red work is optional and I opted to add it.

You can click on the button below to see what others are doing

This is going to be a fun, fun project!!

A New Flimsie is Going to Be a Gift.

I don't have health insurance and so whenever I can I get a massage and call that my health insurance.  Pretty good excuse, huh??

Well, the guy that we have been going to is a very nice man and he truly has healing hands.  Paying for his services is not really a true way of saying thank you, so I decided to make a quilt that he could use on his table.  That way, everyone that gets a massage can say thank you too.

His entire office is in earth tones - ya, know, nice and soothing and medatative.  So, I thought I would pull my batiks out and make a nice earth tone quilt.

Ok, ok, so what one would normally call earth tones it is not, but I do see the sky and the ocean and the pink clouds of a spectacular sunset, the red rocks around St. George, the spring green of grass, the gold in the autumn leaves and so much more.  Anyway, I am going to back it in a dull color so if he really wants muted he can use the back side!!!  Hope he likes it!!

New International Siggies to Start Out the New Year!!

I am finally catching up on some of the siggies I have received over the past few months.  My Siggies to them are going out tomorrow morning when the post office opens again ~

This one is from Gea Lamberts.  Gea is from the Netherlands and she sent a very nice note with her Siggie but it is in a different language so I am not sure what she said - I did get "Hallo Kris" though!!  :-)

This one is from Jose Brouwer.  Jose is also from the Netherlands.  I apparently sent her friend two of mine - which is unusaul because I seem to have a hard time getting one out - and so the friend gave mine to Jose and Jose was kind enough to send me one of hers!!  Donna over at Brynwood Needleworks  would love this one as it has the acorns on it.

Oh, I wish you could see this amazing siggie in person!!  It was made by Ali Maria Bruna in Italy and she has done something with the orange color in the face and hands that makes it three dimensional!!  It is incredible!!  Ali just joined the list a few days before she sent me this fun Siggie - I hope she can keep up this beautiful work becasue as soon as folks see how incredible her Siggie is, they are going to want to swap with her!!

This little cutie was made by Petra van Opzeeland, who also lives in the Netherlands.  The cool thing is that Petra is only 37 years old!!  How neat that there are more and more young people who are carrying on the wonderful art of quilting!!  And, she has already been quilting for 15 years!!!

This one is from Simonetta Troian, who lives in Italy.  She lives in a cottage by the sea in a small town in northern Italy.  The little bone is sewn on.

This last one is from Celine Combet.  I actually got this one from Celine when she sent me two beautiful Hexie Flowers, as I was her partner for November in the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap.  The reason she put a "pram" on the front is because at the time she sent the package, she was pregnant.  As of Christmas night, she is the new Mom of a darling little girl, which you can see on Celine's blog Espritpatch.

Thank you ladies, I love the addition of all your Siggies to my collection!!