Like I needed another swap....

I've been seeing this all over the land of blogs--Pay it Forward--so I finally succumbed and joined the newly pregnant Audrey's challenge. So here's the deal:

{The Rules}
1. Be one of the first THREE (3) bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?!
2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first 3 bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!
3. The gift that you send to your 3 friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought that Counts!
4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love!If you are not one of the Top 3 Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same.
REMEMBER... Pay it forward!

Okay, who wants to play along?
I don't moderate your posts, so the first three to comment will be the 3 in this chain. I'm going to bed now, and will check when I get up for work. Later!


(P.S. Scroll down for this week's 7 Quick Takes Friday.)

Stash Buster Report Week 20

I need to find a better system for keeping up!

So as far as I can remember, since my last report (week 17) I've added 4.5 yards of fabric, mostly in fat quarter lengths, gifted 1/2 yard of fish fabric to Mary at Quilt Hollow, and used approximately 1 1/2 yds fabric making my table topper and it's accompanying table runner, finished last night:


(Oh, yeah, I need to count this in Jacquie's Spring to Finish challenge.)

There has to be a better system!

Totals:

Added past 3 weeks: 4.5 yds
Added year to date: 16.5 yards


Used/gifted past 3 weeks: 2 yards
Used/gifted year to date: 7.5 yds.

Net total: 9 yards in the red.

Besides Crazymomquilts's 9-patch one-a-day quilt-along, I have signed up again for the 4 Seasons Quilt Swap. Have you seen the project this time? Check it out! This should use up more stash in a hurry, especially if one does 2 batches of 20 blocks each. If you like the colorblock we're doing this time, there are about 20 spaces left, so feel free to sign up!

Sleep tight, all!

2 Out of 3 Ain't Bad

Well, I have officially finished both my 4 Seasons Summer Quilt Swap, and the little quilt for my giveaway. Here they are:

This is the one for my swap partner, who needs to remain nameless just a bit longer, since I have yet to mail this off:


Now the one for my giveaway:

As you can see, it's a smaller than the swap quilt, and that is why I'm giving it away--it didn't meet the size requirements posted. But it's basically the same--borders are different and I turned one fish to swim against the crowd, same as the one I'm making me:

I do like the brights, so my borders are a bit wilder, and this is the Papa Bear of them all by size. See, the fish are appliqued, but the quilting, binding and embellishing aren't done yet. I should have this one finished in the next day or so.

The pattern came ouf of Quick Quilts Sept. 2006. It caught my eye from the very beginning and I had decided to make one for us some day, so when it came time for the summer swap, the deal was sealed. It's rated "Easy", but to my mind, this is an intermediate level.

So that's it! Drawing will be by J-Man in the morning at 10:00, so I will be cutting off entries at 9:30 EDT to give me time to gather the names together. To see most of the other items in the giveaway, and be eligible for the drawing, be sure to leave a comment on this post, along with a way to reach you; either email or blog URL.

Good luck, everyone!

More Peeks

Have you registered for my birthday/200th post/cleaning-out-the-sewing-room giveaway yet? I've added a couple of items. I'm sure you could find something you want in there. Go to this post and leave a comment for me. Lurkers, I want to meet you! Who are you? Where is your blog so I can pay you a visit, too? Come on in and make yourselves at home.

Here are some photos to tease you. They are of the same general area on the wallhangings, but, as you can see, they are different.

Wallhanging #1--for my swap partner:



Wallhanging #2--for the giveaway:


Wallhanging #3--this one's for me:


I have to blind-stitch the binding on the Swap quilt, and then it's done. The applique is now finished on the giveaway, and it's ready to quilt, then bind. It's a little bit smaller than the others, so it won't take long to finish. Mine needs to be backed, appliqued, quilted and bound. I'm trying to finish mine up almost as soon as the other two, before I get really tired of this pattern.

I'll be working the next three nights, but should be able to squeeze in at least the movie trivia post. And some news about some friends I mentioned a couple of months ago.

Have a contented, grateful weekend, everyone!

If at first you don't succeed....

....chuck it and start over.

Yep, gotta start my little quiltlet all over again. When I opened my swap quilt from Kristin today, it seemed so large to me. So I got out my measuring tape. The instructions are for the project to be no smaller than 16" x 16" and no larger than 20" x 20". With all the frog-stitching and re-stitching and replacing, my little project now measures 14" x 16"--UNquilted.

Oops.

Back to the cutting board.


Photos previously promised must be postponed.


Later, dudes, um, dudettes.

4 Seasons Quilt Swap--received!

Looky! This came in the mail today!


It's from Kristin in Oregon! It's bright, colorful and features my favorite color: purple! Did you see the yoyo flowers? I haven't attempted those yet--I'm so impressed! And she improvised as she went along. Wow!

She included postcards from the Sisters Quilt Show, 4 tea bags, and a fat quarter of more gorgeous fabric. I love it all!

Gotta get mine finished! Hope my partner likes her quilt as much as I do mine!

Sneak Peak

Here's a sneak peak at the back of my 4 Seasons Quilt Swap for my partner, who is...
TBA!
Gotcha!



The photo was taken before the labels were fused down. Today I'll stitch them and sandwich it and start the quilting on it. The swap quilt should be finished by this weekend, and then I'll post pictures of both.

I don't know how my partner feels about lots of color, and these are some bright batiks, so I kept hers a little muted, but mine is BRIGHT! Such a cheerful little wall-hanging; it's been on my "someday" list for 2 years now. This was the perfect opportunity to jump right in and do it.

Weekend pasttime

Did everyone have a happy Fourth? I'd requested this long weekend off because DD was supposed to come for a visit. Next week is her 30th birthday, but she gets the Federal holidays off, and since we all 3 have summer birthdays, we usually celebrate them at the same time. However, she starts her new job in a new town in less than a month and still hasn't found a place for her and the pets to live, so she has been driving 8-hour round trips every weekend to see prospective abodes.

So I have taken this nice little stretch of off-days and am rearranging and organizing the sewing room. I bought a table with the drop-down panel for my "new" Bernina, which sits about 4 inches above the desktop surface I'd previously been using, and that was causing some muscle strain. I love my little desk, which was refinished by a 93-year-old man in Albuquerque, and sold at his yard sale. He sanded and polished it so, it feels smooth as silk when I run my hand over it.

Well, when it's not all cluttered up, that is.

I really love this carving on the front:


I still use the drawers for some sewing supplies and didn't want to move it out of the room, so after much thought, the set-up looks like this:

I can still see out my window while sewing, and if I want to, I can still put my Kenmore on the desk to sew. But the best part is when I have a large amount of fabric it can just drape back over to the desk.

I might have gotten it all done yesterday if I hadn't decided to cull through everything and try to reduce the clutter there. (Well, that, and the Twilight Zone marathon on the Sci-Fi Channel.) I have a stack of books to take to our area bee to give away, and have started a box of miscellaneous items to donate. There are also a few craft books I think are collectibles and just can't bear to donate so I am considering posting them on eBay. I've never sold anything on there, but have bought lots of stuff, and I think it won't be too hard once I figure out how much to charge for shipping.

One thing this rearranging has brought home to me is just how much fabric I have! And how much of it is fabric I pulled together for specific quilts, which either haven't been sandwiched (so that's a lot of yardage there), or are still in the planning stages. It would free up a significant amount of space to empty those bins.

And yet, I bought more fabric Thursday. This is for my 4 Seasons Quilt Swap:

The bubble fabric was already in my stash, but the rest is new. I bought extra, because I know I will not want to part with the little quilt once it's done, so I'm going to make one for me, too.

This is to back the comfort quilt I made my best friend:

That fabric just had her name on it. Besides, I want the back to look nice, because it does get seen, if only by the person snuggled under it.

Then, Susan, my friend from the Biltmore trip, brought this in to work for me:


It's from a dust ruffle her aunt got rid of. She just tore the bed part off, and asked Susan if she knew anyone who could use it. Susan, who is bugging me to make her some throw pillows for her porch, immediately thought of the apron I made and decided I needed it. It's a 70/30 poly/cotton mix, but so pretty I couldn't pass it up. I believe there might be a few more aprons in my future.

So now that the TZ marathon is over, I should be able to finish up in the room today. When it's all cleaned up and arranged, I'll post some photos.

Oh, and if you play Movie Trivia with me, scroll down for today's question!

Halloween Swap Goodies

Look what I got from Rosemary! She got my name in PEA's Halloween Swap and indulged me in my Roswell Alien theme this year:





And the feet that go with the Alien head and hands:


Tandi didn't like looking at the feet:


She was interested in the ray guns, however:


I never would have thought about ray guns, but they add so much to the whole alien invasion idea. These light up and make a variety of sounds:


There are an additional set of fingers and pair of ears:


Can you see the yellow caution tape? And the bag of jelly beans? There's a green glowstick, too.


These itty bitty aliens are perfect for the table with the refreshments:


And Tandi gets to be the Security Dog! How perfect is this?


In addition to a sweet note, Rosemary also included these wonderful old quilt blocks:


They look to be 30's type fabrics, I think, with maybe some feedsacks in there. I didn't count them, but there's a large stack. They're very fragile, with an occasional cut in a couple of places on a few of the blocks, and some of them are smaller than the others. I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet--I'll have to cogitate awhile.

It felt like Christmas here today! Thanks so much, Rosemary! I'm so excited!!