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?

What I'm Working On...

I spent today preparing my fabric to begin working on my Signature Swap blocks. I have almost all of the pieces cut so I can start paper piecing. It should go quickly, but we'll see.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to share with you since I didn't do any sewing today. So, I'll leave you with this...

The true meaning of friendship. I hope you're getting lots of sewing / quilting done. I'd love to hear what you're working on.

Giveaway Winner...

And the winner of my first giveaway is:

Susan, author of Hanging On By A Needle and A Thread blog.

Congratulations Susan! Send me your snail mail address (denajmartin@msn.com) so I can get your package in the mail.

Thank you to everyone who entered. I'll be having another giveaway soon.

Birthday Swap - Block 2

I made the second block for my Birthday Swap group and have another one in the making for the month of April.

This one was made for my friend Judi. She requested a block of a flower in a size that is divisible by 3. I selected the above block that measures 3" x 6". It's a paper pieced block I found on Piece by Number site. I was not thrilled with the block and how the two sections joined together. I had to resew the joining seam a couple of times and this is the best I could get the stem and the flower to match. Of course, the most important thing is that Judi liked it and she did.

If you haven't already signed up for my giveaway, please do so. I will be selecting the winner Monday. To sign up, see last Monday's  post.

What are you working on?

100th Post Giveaway!

It'd hard to believe that this is my 100th post. When I first began my blog I wasn't confident I would have enough to say to attract any followers. However, through this blog I have met many other bloggers and blog followers who share many of the same interests and ideas as I. To celebrate this milestone I am hosting my first giveaway.

To enter this giveaway, become a follower and leave a comment. If you're already a follower, simply leave a comment and I'll add your name for the giveaway. The winner will be announced next Monday.

Good luck!

Acres and Acres of Tulips...

Mean only one thing, it's Tulip Festival time here in Skagit Valley.

Every year, beginning on April 1 Skagit Valley hosts the Tulip Festival for the month. Normally, the tulips bloom by the second week of April. But this year, the tulips bloomed early.

Aren't they beautiful? There are literally acres and acres of color as far as the eye can see.

The picture above was taken during the Tulip Festival in a previous year, but the effect can be seen every year.

There are several events occuring during the festival, including a street fair in downtown Mount Vernon. Bus loads of tourists visit the participating farms solely for the purpose of taking pictures of the beautiful blooms.

So, if you're planning on visiting the area to see the tulips this year, you might want to play your visit early so as not to miss the blooms.

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?

Puyallup Sewing Expo

Every year we are blessed with the Puyallup Sewing Expo held the last weekend of February at the Puyallup Fair Grounds. This annual event is sponsored by Washington State University and is said to be one of the largest sewing expos in the country with  over 400 vendors while people attend from all over the United States and other countries. Four days of attending seminars and/or hands-on classes. What can be better than that?

Below are some of my sewing expo highlights:

There were Batiks

 And more gorgeous Batiks... If my last name was Gates, I would have bought several of these prints.

Tons of beautiful yarns and other embellishment materials.

Here is a collection of I Spy quilts. I forgot who had these but I think it was either Marti Michell or Kaye Wood.

 I was intrigued with this wall hanging at A Quilting Roadshow's booth because it had lights that blinked on and off. Unfortunately, my picture doesn't do it justice. If you're interested, you can contact them by clicking here: A Quilting Roadshow

Isn't this baby quilt spectacular? Shelly Smola, owner of My Fair Lady Designs does beautiful work and some some lovely patterns for children available on her site.

There were several well known guests, including:

Mary Mulari who hosted several classes.

Linda MacPhee who hosted a couple of classes and a fashion show.

Marti Michell who hosted classes and had a very nice booth.

And Eleanor Burns.

On the third day, I demonstrated Brother's Quattro 6000D... I wish I was rich because I'd buy this in a second. But, reality as it is, I am not and I can't justify spending a few thousand dollars to replace a machine that still stitches as nicely as it did when I purchased it. If you're looking for a sewing/embroidery machine, this one is a gem.

 I purchased this fabric to make a new ironing board cover. I had a difficult time locating something without a distracting pattern, but I kind of like this one and I purchased enough to make some accessories for my sewing studio too. Spoiler... I'll be posting a tutorial on the ironing board cover sometime soon.

I found a tutorial for a pincushion on Ivory Blush Roses blog and fell in love with it. While I was browsing one of the booths I found these decorative ribbons, beads, and silk fabrics to use just for this project. I can't wait to try it.

I found this at Lorraine Torrence Designs booth and thought I'd give it a shot. I've never used a kit before so I'm hoping I can successfully assemble this wall hanging without running out of fabric. LOL

One day as I was leaving, I noticed a tent set-up outside of the fairgrounds. I decided to take a look after I saw it was filled with fabric and I came upon these prints. The store doesn't have a website listed on their business card, but their name is Trains, Fabrics, etc. and they are located in Tacoma, WA. This was a particularly nice find since I only paid $10 for the six 1/2 yard cuts.

I love Oriental prints. I purchased these from Shibori Dragon's booth. They have a nice shop in Tacoma, WA specializing in Oriental and Batik fabrics.

I don't remember where I found these charm packets but I thought they'd make a nice Disappearing 9-Patch project.

I'm always looking for flannel prints to use whenever I have a baby shower gift to make and these are perfect to add to my resources.

And finally, I found these at one of the booths and thought these were perfect to share with all my quilty friends. 

I hope you've enjoyed reading my highlights of the sewing expo. Next I need to get back into my sewing studio so I can get back to posting more regularly while catching up on my blog reading. I'd love to hear what you've been working on lately.

The DIY Dish - Sewing Machine Give-A-Way

The DIY Dish is a new series of free online videos and to celebrate, they're having a give-a-way. Watch the video to learn more.

Good luck!

Birthday Block Swap - #1

A couple of postings ago I wrote about the a Birthday Block Swap that I'm participating in. This swap is where a each participant selects a block of their choice, including fabrics and colors, and on her birthday all of the other participants send her a completed block. We've had our first birthday of the year...

Gayle chose a block called Quatrefoils in shades of soft green, yellow, pink, flowers, and butterflies on a cream background. I'm not a collector of pastels or soft colors, as I'm sure most of you know, so it was difficult to find fabrics I could use in my resources. The above floral print was one I received during a luncheon I attended a couple of weeks ago and it has metallic accents which I fell in love with. It also has small butterflies in it. Although the green isn't technically a soft green, I think it goes well with the floral print.

I hope my friend Gayle liked the block... I can't wait until it's my turn to receive blocks.

An Afternoon With Friends

A couple of weeks ago one of the quilting groups I participate in celebrated its third birthday with a couple of fun events. The first event was a weekend long cyber retreat filled with tons of activities.

My friend Dawn coordinated the cyber retreat as well as acted as host of the event. She had several games, including a fast track round of BINGO, a mystery quilt project, a Jake's Heart block challenge, miscellaneous quilting projects, a random acts of quiltiness challenge, a lotto block challenge, several fat quarter drawings, word games, jokes, recipe sharing, and lots of laughter. The retreat began Friday afternoon and ended Sunday afternoon.

I wasn't able to participate in the cyber retreat because I was at the hospital with my friend, but someone on the list RAQ'd me into the fat quarter drawing and I won. Here are some of the fat quarters that I won. Aren't they great? I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

The lotto block is called Swamp Angel and towards the end of the cyber retreat, Dawn's husband drew the name of the winner and it was Dawn! Even though I didn't participate in the retreat, I made a block for her as appreciation for all her hard work organizing this event. Its a nice block and it went together rather quickly. I'll be mailing it in the next day or so. I sure hope she likes the fabrics I selected.

The second event was a luncheon at the Olive Garden in Tacoma, which is a mid-point for our members. There were about 18 members who were able to attend, which is about half of our membership. We had a great time visiting with each other.

Proof that my friends know me well... My friend Sue was handing out small blocks with little sayings and pictures to everyone and this was mine.

My friend Diane had a basket filled with fat quarters and each participant was to take a fat quarter. Because there was extra, I got an extra one. Afterwards, we were instructed to open up our fat quarters and if there was a sticker inside, we won a prize.

This is what I won. I actually won two sets of two kitchen towels, but I gave one of them to someone. These are so cute!

Someone else had a basket filled with fat quarters circulating too, but I don't remember who it was. Each attendee received a fat quarter and a key fob.

Isn't he adorable?

We had so much fun. A couple of people brought things for show 'n tell and we ended the luncheon with a drawing for fat quarters. My friend Diane's son Caleb drew the name of my friend Molly who won about 20 fat quarters.

What have you been up to lately?

Please Be Patient...

I know I haven't been posting as regularly as I normally do, but my life has been in turmoil and I haven't had the time to write daily posts or to create in my sewing studio. Please be patient, I promise I'll get back into my regular routine shortly.

Just to give you a little information, my MIL was in the hospital and with not knowing what was wrong and all of the out of town guests, my focus was with her. Thankfully, she is back home and on her way to recovery.

The day before she was released from the hospital, our dear friend passed away. Although he will be greatly missed, his passing will allow his family and close friends some closure and once the memorial is over, the healing process can begin.

I'll be gradually getting back into a routine and will post about my sewing / quilting projects soon. I'd love to hear about what you're busy creating.