Signature Block Swap

I received my Signature Block Swap swap-out on Saturday:

I think all of the participants did a fabulous job on their blocks. Initially, we had ten people sign up for the swap but one person didn't complete her obligation so I only have nine blocks. I'll have to play around with the layout to see what I'm going to do with them.

What are you working on?

I've Been Busy...

My week has been busy trying finish up my signature blocks while preparing for a sew-in on Saturday. Initially I thought I'd finish the signature blocks on Tuesday but that didn't happen.

On Tuesday I discovered it isn't a good idea to plug in two irons at the same time and on the same circut. Even if one of the irons is a small one. So I blew a breaker and couldn't find which one needed to be reset. After flipping all of the breakers off and on for about an hour I finally gave up. I had lost all of the power in my sewing studio. It wasn't until an hour or so later that I remembered we have a second electrical box. It's hidden in a different area of the house and was installed during some construction on our house. My sewing studio is wired into this electrical box and I was able to find the flipped switch as soon as I opened the box. Well, now I have power but it's late in the afternoon and I no longer felt like sewing.

The last couple of blocks went together rather quickly...

Except for one hiccup. Because I was making a couple of variations of the block, I had multiple prints per piece and I guess I wasn't paying attention and was stitching two different prints for the heart section of the block.

Here are my three versions of the block. I'm not sure what my favorite one is, but I'm a little partial to the upper left corner one with the soft pink as the background. I really fell in love with the pink/red/floral print and had to go back to the quilt shop and purchase an additional 5 yards of it. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for, but I have it for when I do.

Here are all my completed and signed blocks. I can't wait to see what everyone else has done. Our swap out is on Saturday during our sew-in so I should have a picture to show you next week.

With my signature blocks completed, I had to run to the quilt shop to pick out two green fat quarters for our drawing on Saturday....

As you can see, I have no self-control. I found the two green fat quarters, as well as five more fat quarters and four yards of a couple of other prints. Love them brights.

I've already been cutting and assembling... (these two prints are from my resources)

Into vibrant Jake's Heart blocks.

As my contribution in a comfort quilt for a friend who is having surgery. Oooh, I really love those brights!

So what's on your work table?

My Weekend Progress...

I spent many hours in my sewing studio this weekend working on my Signature Swap blocks. For the most part, they went together rather quickly and without too much drama.

Last week I cut all my fabric pieces to size and sorted them according to the piece numbers and whether it was for the heart, background, or signature. If you've seen my tutorial on How To Paper Piece, you know I prefer to store my cut fabric in ziploc bags with the number of pattern piece and it's dimensions written onto the baggie. This way of organizing may not work for everyone, but it works extremely well for me. I'm one of those fanatics who hates to look for things... It breaks the rhythm!

Here is one version of my block, minus my signature. The Signature block pattern creates a 6" finished block and it is taking me about 20 minutes per block as long as I don't have any interruptions. So why am I taking so long to finish them you ask? Well, between the telephone calls, laundry, and husband, I'm lucky if I can get three pieces assembled before I'm interrupted. LOL

I'm hoping to have them completed this afternoon so I can move on to my next project on my To Do List... 

So what are you working on?

Signature Block Swap

I'm participating in a Signature Block Swap and although I had lots of resources to choose from I decided to purchase new fabric.

Above are the fabrics I selected. I only need two prints plus the white muslin for each block but I decided to make two variations of my blocks and purchased four prints.

The block we're using is called Friendship Heart and it's a paper pieced pattern. It seems simple enough and I should be able to complete them in a relatively short period of time.

So I've added another item to my long list of To Do items. LOL

What's on your To Do List?