Quilt swap quilts

Having now sorted out who's getting what in the ALQS6, I got to thinking (in light of having no idea where on earth I will hang another quilt in my house!) about all the quilts I have already up (and a few not on display) from swaps - both big, organised ones like this one, and private ones. So, I thought I'd show some of them over the next few days on my blog... The quilt above is, I think, the very first one I got in a swap - it was with the now defunct yahoo group QuiltSwap. I swapped with this group twice - the first time, in 2006, I made a quilt called Sunset on Another Planet, and received the quilt above. It hangs in my bedroom.

The second time, Quiltswap4 in 2007, I made a Sheer Pocket Quilt and received the flowers above. This also hangs in my bedroom, on my closet door. This group is where I took my inspiration for the revised swapping method of my own ALQS series of swaps - after round two created a lot of headaches for me with late, missing and inconsistent quality pieces.

Another early swapping series I took part in was Margaret's Four Seasons Quilt Swap. I missed the first round, which had an autumn theme, and joined in at the second round, Winter (Dec 2007), for which I made this snowflake quilt and received a red and white winter quilt from Jen in Finland, which is actually on display in my house on a small table, but I forgot to photograph it and can't be bothered to go back upstairs. You can see it here.

For the next round, Spring, I made this piece (I seem not to have photographed it with the binding actually finished) and received a piece called Watch My Garden Grow, which I don't have on display because it's a bit too big and doesn't really fit anywhere sensible in my house.

In the Summer round, I made a quilt with teacups and flowers - very English summer! - and received this lovely summer dress, which hangs in my sewing room at the moment. My sewing room is not big, and it's hard to photograph all the quilts on the wall in there because you can't get back from them very far!

You might think that was all the seasons, but Margaret did a 5th round, which was slightly different - it was seasonal and monochromatic, so we all picked a season and a colour and the quilts were made to that spec. The quilt I received was this lovely one, from Liliane in Luxemburg:

As you might have guessed, I picked Autumn and brown. This quilt hangs on the door to my sewing room. My upstairs hallway has 5 doors that lead off it, and they all have quilts hanging on them!

The quilt I made was for someone in Australia (I think - hard to remember that long ago!) who specified winter and blue.

And finally, Margaret ran one last round of this swap - a holiday edition in 2009 - for which I made a log cabin Christmas tree quilt and received this Christmas Tree in return. This one is not on show for obvious reasons, though it does come out at Christmas!

There are lots more, so stay tuned!

Quiltswap quilt

This lovely little quiltlet, made by Peggy Schroeder of Sweet Home, Oregon (I know, I know, wrong state for the song!) has come to live at my house, as a result of Quilt Swap* IV. It's even lovelier in person than in the photo & I'm really pleased with it - it's not big, maybe 15x15" or so - but it's a great little work and is now happily hanging in my sewing room. My piece I did for Quiltswap IV can be seen here... I have now heard that it has reached its new home & its owner is happy with it - always nice to be wanted!

No work done today myself - I was at school this morning, and though I had originally thought I might do some work this afternoon, I had lots of other bits to deal with including a trip to the central post office to pick up this chap, so in the end, I didn't. Tomorrow I do hope to do something (Christmas themed inchies is on the list) as there won't be anything done next week while I am away...

*QuiltSwap is a Yahoo Group where you make a small quilt and in return, get someone else's small quilt - it's not a direct swap with partners, but rather photos of the work are uploaded and you send a list of the pieces you like best to the coordinator, who in the end, pairs everyone up. I have taken part in III and IV (which actually allowed other forms besides quilts, such as bags, journals, dolls) and look forward to V, next year sometime. It's a great way to acquire work by others without having to pay a fortune for them.

Sheer pocket quilt and other unrelated stuff

And now for something completely different? My mother thought it was fairly different, at any rate (but I think that was different in a good way). This is a small piece, 18x24 and is for Quiltswap 4. Perhaps I shouldn't blog it, as the pieces are anonymous, but I can't imagine too many people in Quiltswap read my blog and if they do, well, will knowing a piece is by me make them like it more or less than they would have? I doubt it. It's not like I'm an internationally known quilter or anything. And anyway, I've already blogged it several times, so it's too late now!

The background is pieced from leftover batik QST units - I used them for a series of triangle postcards a while back and decided I liked the effect, so used some more here. There are still more of them, and I'm getting tired of them, so if anyone out there would like a handful, let me know! (I'm serious here - I'd be glad to send them to anyone who can use them - the units are about 2 inches square and each one contains one triangle in the yellowy sand colour and one other colour and I probably have a hundred or so left.)

Onto the background, I then attached pieces of organza, which I sewed down with cotton thread, capturing a variety of items inside and used a soldering iron to remove the excess organza. Next, I used Markal paintsticks to outline the edges of the pockets, and then couched a variety of threads all over the top, including around the organza pockets. The piece was then fairly heavily machine quilted using loops and vague flowers. Finally, after binding, I added strands of beads (which hang loose) at the base of each organza pocket. And that, as they say, is that. On the whole, I'm fairly happy with it - it's kind of funky and worked more or less the way I imagined, which is all we can hope for in these things, right?



And now on to other things. I received the above fabrics in the post today - my fat quarter frenzy club - and they have been duly washed and ironed (though not put away yet). The good thing about this club (other than getting fabric in the post each month) is that often the fabric is not stuff I'd necessarily choose (though I usually don't dislike it), so it fills holes in my stash - very useful for block lottos, swaps, challenges and so forth. And postcards, of course.

Two postcards finished today - one will be going out as a birthday card tomorrow, the other will form, with its yet-to-be-completed comrades, my cards for the 1900's swap on Arts in the Mail. Hopefully I will get a chance to finish them tomorrow. It may not show in this photo, but I've added a sheer layer over the nouveau print and cut-out, stitched it down in a few places, and edged it. This card is much simpler in technique (or at least in the number of techniques!) than many I do, but I think the print in many ways speaks for itself, so I didn't want to do anything too distracting. I did try one with some fabric paint, but didn't like it, so didn't pursue it further.



And finally, I managed to finish off my sunprints today for the swap with my dyeing group. The sun immediately went inside as soon as I got my prints all out, so except for the salt one (left), I ended up finishing them off in the oven. I tried doing some folding and tying on them to see what would happen, in addition to using my favourite method of scrunching - I'm not sure the others worked very well, but this one, which I painted and then gathered into a loose spiral (like for doing t-shirts) and then dunked one side of into a different colour paint, before setting out in the sun/putting in the oven came out really well (or at least, I love it. Actually, I realised I now have 9 pieces and I only need 8, so I'm keeping it . So there.) The rest are here on flickr - the first 6 photos in the set are today's pieces.

Oh, and nearly forgot - thanks to Myra and Susan for commenting and thereby enterring the blogversary draw. We're up to 12 people now. Hopefully, there will be some more - you have until the 26th to comment, so even those away on holiday and stuff will hopefully get a chance - details are here, if you missed them before.

Odds and ends

An odd assortment of stuff got worked on today - partly, it was just really hot and who feels like doing anything that involves keeping the iron on, when it's hot... So I worked on the quiltswap piece, which might actually get done after all (it was beginning to look as though it wouldn't). I did a lot of free motion quilting on it today - it looks ok, though not brilliant. But it did acheive the effect of really making the pockets stand out, which is what I wanted, so I guess it was successful in that respect. It still wants something, I think maybe strands of beads dangling off it. We'll see. Binding attached ready to stitch down, so at least it's nearly a completed stage.

Another thing I worked on is a piece for the sheers swap on FAI - it will get cut up into postcard sized pieces (in fact, it already has done, but that was after this photo). I did the usual (for me) sort of stitching organza on top of an interestesting piece of fabric, then using the soldering iron to remove pieces here and there. I'll do something else with the cards, too, but not sure what yet. And it strikes me that the August challenge for Arts in the Mail is to do with burning or melting, so I may be able to kill several birds with one stone here...

And finally, I made a little doll-type form for one of my lovely faces which Dy sent me a while back - the intention is to bead the form, as the spirit dolls one sees are beaded. I've actually made a start on it, but of course, that was after the photo was taken (well, I have to save SOMETHING for tomorrow, in case I don't get any work done - a real possibility, as we have to take Grandma to the airport, which will eat several hours of time.)

Bits and pieces (my favourite blog headline!)

We had a busy day today, but as I decided not to be a lazy bum, I got up when Alex came into bed (7.45) and put the telly on for him, then did a bit of sewing. As I knew I'd not have too long, and didn't want to get the ironing board out, I worked on these two pieces - the one on the right is fairly recent - my piece for quiltswap 4. I think I have now put as many yarns on it as I am going to - next step is to put in backing and batting and do some quilting on it. And then maybe some embellishments of some sort. We'll see what it says at that point.

The piece on the right is in plain sight whenever I work, so it's still fresh in my mind, but I haven't worked on it in ages, so you guys might not recognise it. Today I added lots more light green. The sky will also be covered in yarns, but the sea will be beaded. It's going to be a 40th birthday present for my friend Sophie (no, not that Sophie - sorry chick) - her birthday is in October, so I thought I should probably get my act in gear and actually do some work on it.

That was all I did today, but I did get tons of post and other goodies, so here goes:

From Sophie I got this great parcel (the other Sophie this time!) with the basket blocks that I won in the May Block Lotto on about (there are actually 13, but if I had a place I could display 13 x 16" blocks in my house - well - can you say "design wall"?). I also got two oriental lantern blocks from that swap, which she forgot to send me (this is not a problem as I am not ready to put these blocks together by any means) before and some black scraps for my pieced sashing project. Which I might someday finish :)



I also got this great postcard from Lynda which doesn't really show much in the photo but is the most amazingly textured thing - I really like it. Must get some cheesecloth or scrim and work with it... And Sarah got her postcard for the kids' exchange from Dylan in New Zealand. She was very pleased, as was I as she will now stop asking me when it will arrive. Of course Olivia is desperate to get hers now...



And finally - treasure! The QGBI Region 2 was having a quilter's sale in Mickleham Village Hall, which is right down the road from our all-time favourite family picnic spot. And the weather was good today. So in a spirit of serendipity, we decided to tootle along for a picnic - Geoff and Alex dropped me and the girls in the village and drove on to the carpark and walked up to Juniper Top; the girls and I scooped up some bargains, then walked along to join them.

And there were bargains galore - it was kind of like a table top sale or jumble sale (only tidier), but for quilting stuff - there was one shop trader there, but the others were individuals or roving shops or similar (only about 6 or 7 vendors) trying to get rid of stuff and make some money doing it. I got all the stuff on the left, plus the bags below for the girls (including a 1/2 metre piece Sarah stuffed in her bag), plus a piece of fabric for Alex which has wandered off somewhere before being photographed - ALL for about £25. There were a lot of £1 FQs, but there were also lots of stuff cheaper than that. The smaller grab-bags were 50p each or 5 for £2. (We got 5, of course.) I sorted through my grab-bags and there were some things in there that will go straight to Olivia, but also lots of nice smallish pieces which will be good for postcards or birthday swap blocks. And the Tesco baggie in the front of my stuff was great - lots of small pieces in various blues for £2 - what a bargain!

Arty farty stuff

Today I have been mostly embellishing stuff. I finished these postcards, which are for the Arts in the Mail June challenge, which is Fabric painting - I used Jacquard Lumiere paints, and Markal Paint Sticks (which I don't think I ironed enough, as they are still rubbing off a bit, though not seriously). Then I did some free motion quilting (not very well, but it's very different on a domestic machine than on a longarm - that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it) and added some net on top to soften it a bit. Then edged them. Tada.

Then I worked a bit on the piece for Quiltswap 4 - first I made a number of little pockets of sheer fabrics with stuff inside - beads, glitter (which comes through - interesting but a bit messy), sequins, washers, seashells, angelina, star-shaped confetti, and other stuff I can't remember any more. These I did with the same method as on the triangle cards -stitched the sheer fabric down with a shape, then burned the extra away with my mini-soldering iron. After that, I used the Markal paint sticks to go around the edge of the sheer shapes for a little interest. And then I started layering yarns and stuff on it. I've only just started with that process, I plan to add a LOT more than what is on there now, but personally, I enjoy seeing things in process and though you all might also.


And I got some fun stuff in the post. A postcard from Debbie in New Zealand - this is for the summer swap on FAI. And the first issue of the journal thr3fold by Linda and Laura Kemshall, which I haven't had a chance to look at yet, but which looks very promising. I probably won't have a chance to do much with it for a while, but I just wanted it - you know how it is!

Triangle thingy & other exciting stuff

Didn't do a lot today, just finished putting together this base for my quilt for Quiltswap 4 - it's approximately 18x24 inches and now, it's time to heavily embellish it.


I'm going to work with sheers on this one - capturing stuff behind the sheer fabric, using thread to make shapes in the sheer and then my little soldering iron to cut away the excess. Not sure just what I'm going to do, but I intend to have fun with it. Hopefully, it will turn out well. Watch this space, as they say.

I also got all my FQs from Sandown washed and ironed - and most of the kids' ones, too. Given that there were about 30 of them in the wash today, this is a slightly more impressive feat than it may seem at first glance :)




And tonight I finished sewing on the binding onto the blue and white quilt - I still would like to photograph it outside for better colour, but it may actually never stop raining here, so... But at least this gives a decent idea, even if it does look less white than in reality - it's really very white - the closeup shows it better. It's not destined for a specific purpose (other than I am going to show it at Hever quilt show) but if you are a friend or relative of mine and plan to get married any time soon, you might well get to see it in person...

Tuesday again already

Anyone know where June is going? Can't believe it's nearly been 3 weeks of it already!


Lots of goodies today, most of them in the post -first, the batik Jacob's Ladder blocks back from that swap. Guess I have to think about doing something with them now. At the moment, I have just filed them away to mature... :) And three back issues of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. I have several miscellaneous back issues, but I really like this magazine a lot, and want to fill in the collection. Luckily, it's not been going for very long, so it shouldn't be too difficult or expensive to do. Lots of treats to read, hoorah!

Another postcard from the tree swap also arrived today - this one from Judi, who has used a great yarn for edging as well as creating a really lovely tree. One more to go on that swap - there have been some great ones. I'm glad I signed up to it, despite agonising for ages over what to do (actually, once I got the triangle trees idea I was much happier). And the other "goodie" is two pack of cheap rubbers (erasers) from Woolworths - I was queuing up to buy some polo shirts (school uniform) and saw these on a rack, and thought they'd be great for carving rubber stamps from. And if not, well, they were only 65p per pack, so no great loss.





And this is what I worked on today. I decided to pull the scrapbuster blocks back out and work some on the black mock sashing - I decided I wanted more black space between the blocks, so have added another row of black squares on all the blocks. I like this better - more differentiation, even where some of the pieces in the middle have back or another dark colour touching the sashing.


The piece on the right is a start to my quilt for Quilt Swap 4 - inspired by a comment on my triangle postcards that they would make a nice quilt all sewn together. I am using these HSTs as a base - the piece above is about half the size I want it to be - at the moment, it's about 18" wide or so. I plan to add sheers on top of it, and use stitching and my soldering iron to make little pockets holding bits and pieces - not sure quite what all will be in the little sheer shapes - glitter, sequins, small beads, bits of fabric, thread, lace, ribbon, anything else I can think of that will work. But first to piece the triangles. I am trying to be quite random about it, though it's hard to resist lining them all up the same way...

I also finished binding the funky circles quilt - I tied and buttoned it last night and sewed the binding on today (luckily, it was already made) and took it to quilt group tonight, where I sewed it down. Productivity, hoorah!

Buffy's quilt - the better photo

Here's a much better photo. The colour is pretty close to true, and the photo is higher resolution, so it shows the whole thing well. It's fabulous, isn't it. All day today when I went into the bedroom, it kept making me smile.

Yippee, yahoo.

So, here it is. This is my quilt from the QuiltSwap (for which I made Sunset from another Planet). This photo does not show it well (it's a cropped version of a photo that shows it in situ - forgot to take a closer one of the complete quilt and it's too dark now - d'oh!), I will attempt another one tomorrow if it isn't raining. It's by Australian quilt artist Buffy Beggs, and is called Battery: Randomization - it was inspired, she says, by the abstract designs her computer music player shows when playing music - when she told me that, I understood immediately!

Anyway, here are some better photos, with detail:

Oh, and I keep meaning to say, my Sunset quilt has gone to live with Jacquie in Vermont (US) - hopefully it will be very happy there with her!

A few moments to myself

Not necessarily what I expected today, with the kids still out of school and a trip to the pantomime (Peter Pan) planned for the afternoon, but I did get a little sewing done today. First I fixed a little bit on my sunset quilt - I had to unpick a small section where I had added some extra angelina and accidentally sewed it on through the sleeve (oops) - so, after detaching it from the sleeve and sewing it on again, this time NOT through the sleeve, I put it aside to finish the binding (and sewing down the edge of the sleeve) and decided to do some more of these winter swap blocks. Again, the colour isn't great in the photo, but the four colours I am doing for the swap are a sort of topaz-gold colour, emerald green, a ruby red (bottom left) and a purple (amethyst?). I need 16 blocks and have done 8, so I feel pretty good about those. They don't have to be mailed out until February, so I'm doing ok on that one...

January sneak peak...

Spent some time working today, hoorah! Finished off (I think) the sunset piece - added a little more angelina to soften the look. Now I have to bind it, and sew down the sleeve, and it will be done.

That didn't take very long, so I made four pairs of double four patch blocks in blue and white-on-white for the January Block Lotto on quilting.about.com. Technically, it's not January, but as the instructions are up early (there was no December block), I won't be spoiling anything by sharing this photo. The other three pairs are similar, but with different blues.

And then (productive day, or what?) I also worked on some blocks for a winter swap in jewel tones on quiltshoppe forum on delphi. This photo is a little dark, but essentially, the corners are to be a deep, sapphire type blue, with the central stars in another jewel tone - the three gold ones are a topaz type colour and the dark one is actually a deep purple - just doesn't show well. As the background for those is white on white as well, it seemed sensible to work on them at the same time.

I probably won't get much sewing time tomorrow, as New Year's Day is traditionally when I take down all my Christmas decorations, and in keeping with that, I usually rearrange some of my ornaments, too - I do have one box of stuff I rotate, as I have too many pieces of pottery, etc to keep them all out at the same time. But I only allow myself a small amount of stuff in storage or it just gets too silly. Luckily, I didn't get any new ornaments/knick-knacks for Christmas, so I don't have to do TOO much rearranging, but I do like to move it around from time to time, otherwise, I think you stop seeing things so much. And this is a good time to do it. And give everything a really good dusting at the same time...

Sunset, sunset

Spent my sewing time yesterday (nice to have some of that!) working on the little art quilt "Sunset on another planet" -- first I finished the quilting, mostly in the orange variegated thread, but also added a little red, including some quilted circles. Then I used angelina to make some sheer suns to add on top. Then I took it downstairs and added some foiling and tiny beads. I think the foiling looks a little raw, so I think I'm probably going to add a little more angelina in places, just to soften it a little - especially on the sun with three foil stars. Then I think it's probably finished (though I still have to stitch the binding down, as you can no doubt see in the photo. On the whole, I'm happy with it, though, and as it's not "due" until the end of January, it's nice to be ahead of time, for once!

Sunset on another planet, revisited

Made some progress on this little quilt today - put the red/orange "suns" on, and began quilting it - I've got a nice variegated orange thread which I'm using, which I really like the look of. After I finish quilting with the orange variegated I think I'm going to do some more in gold or red or possibly both - I think it wants lots of quilting. So far, so good - we'll see how it comes along.


I also did some more of the 9x9 squares - just finished up what I started the other day - photos of them on another day, perhaps, when I don't get any work done - like tomorrow & Thursday... And I've received a really super set of Christmas postcards and Winter Solstice ones, too, so I should really get some photos up of them. Especially the Winter Solstice ones, as there are only 7 of them (6 +1 still left to arrive) and the others, though great, are essentially just Christmassy, for the most part.


I meant to put up a photo of Sarah's log cabin blocks, which we worked on on Saturday (I think - I'm losing track of days a bit at the moment), but forgot to photograph them, and can't really be bothered to get them back out and do it, but next time we work on them, I really will remember to take a photo. She's doing all the sewing, although I am doing the rotary cutting - just too hard for a nine year old, especially a left-handed one with a right-handed mum - and frankly, I don't like watching her touch the rotary cutter in the best of circumstancees!

Start of the sunset

Started working on another new thing today (welcome to the way my mind and art work!) - this time, the background for a small quilt which I will enter into the swap on a yahoo group which swaps quilts (everyone sends in photos, then you send the coordinator a list of your favourites in order and she pairs the quilts up with new owners - apparently it's very successful - a friend of mine on my dyeing list belongs and I thought it sounded like fun. Last swap, no one got lower than their fourth choice - out of about 70 I think).

Anyway, I got these coordinated fat 16ths a while ago, I think as a Secret Santa gift and have never been able to decide what to do with them (not doing a lot of applique). So today, I just stitched and cut and stitched and cut until I ended up with this... It's 18 inches square, more or less. And the plan now is to applique orange and yellow "suns" on to it and quilt it with some sort of variegated thread - haven't quite decided yet. I'm going to call it "Sunset from an unknown planet". Pretentious title, I know, but it popped into my head, so why not.

I also managed to do some more postcards (well, the tops) - really must get those finished, but I'm now lacking motivation :) Not really, I just was itching to do something different. Oh, and I did two more of the little square blocks I was doing the other day. So I made up for not doing more yesterday (started to work on postcards, but felt really icky and tired, so decided to lie down for an hour instead - luckily, it seems to have done the trick as today I feel a little tired, but basically ok. Last thing in the world I need this time of year is to get sick!)