I had so much fun with my last quilt-a-long that I've joined a Christmas block quilt exchange. If you're interested check it out here. We'll be using the Starling Scrappy BlocK instructions tutorial but using Christmas fabrics. There is a link to the tutorial on the modernjax blog.

Thank you Liane for the card idea

I received a card last week from my swap partner, Liane (you can see it on my Art From My Friends blog . I used one of the stamped images Liane sent me to make a card for my granddaughter.

I searched my stamp drawers looking for a stamp to use to make my BBQ/Grilling inchies this month. I knew that somewhere in all these stamps I must have one that I could use. No hamburger, hot dog, corn stamps but I did find some ants!

Use one of my new dies

I got the Quickutz Anime dies in large, medium and small sizes. Here is a card I made using the 2 largest dies.

How did I miss this?

I don't know how I ever missed this great chipboard selection in the Stampin Up catalog! Owls and birds...you would like my eye would have been drawn to it. Anyway, I ordered the On Board So Tweet and love it. Check out these two owls I made yesterday. They were so easy! I decided to add wings to them by using the SU round scallop punch and trimming it down. I can't wait to use some of the birds and branches in the set. There are a ton of them! I may use the SU tag punch and make a purse for them too.

Click on over to see Jerri sue's reclycled inchies using the link on the sidebar to Art From My Friends. She was so much more creative in "recycling" that I was. My first inchies are made from pieces of a monopoly travel game. The second ones are made from a sheet of music. The base on the next ones are made from an advertisement and finished off with mini scrabble letters. The base of the bottom inchies are punched out of a postcard from a friend in England and topped off with a stamped image.

I used another piece of the advertisement to get my creative juices going on a spinner card for Roc. The leaves on the tree brances are made using scrap paper and a punch I found in the clearance bin at Michaels several weeks ago. I have fallen in love with this punch! And finally, one of the cards that I made up several weeks ago using the sketch for scraps. I added the owl and used that great punch again to make a card for a friend.

I did it!

It was really scary cutting into someones fabric, especially when I knew there was no way I could replace it. I had odd size pieces so ended up making small 2" squares and finished it with some left over flowers that I cut out and appliqued on two sections of the square.

This is a first for me

I joined an online quilting bee and was so excited....then I received my fabrics in the mail and I'm not sure what to do, YIKES! The way the bee works is there are 12 quilters and we each host a month where we mail out fabrics of our choice with instructions. The only instructions for this month is to make a 12 1/2" square. I am going to work on this today and see what I can come up with. I'm almost afraid to cut into the fabrics.

Here are some red inchies I made for a swap.

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I worked on a card last night that I've had the sketch sitting in my pile of "things to try" for a while. I still need to stamp a sentiment on the pull out but I was happy with the way the card turned out. I also made a pencil holder for myself and one for a friend...the friend's holder is not shown because I know she checks my blog.

Away from the sewing machine and back to the craft table

I started joining swap-bot swaps for inchies and recently made this set of 8 Under the Sea inchies for my swap partner. I also made some Autumn themed inchies for another swap.

I hope to be posting some art again soon

I have spent the last week working on a quilt so all other projects have gone by the wayside. I hope to get some crafting time soon and will post more pics.