My UFO finishes for May…

As you probably remember, I was pretty bummed not to finish any UFO’s last month…  (In the Utah Quilt Guild, we have been challenged to finish as many UFO’s as possible this year.  My personal goal is to finish half of my counted UFO’s, which is 30 of 60!  A UFO is an “Un- Finished Object”.)

Last month wasn’t exactly stellar, but I did manage to finish 2!  (Plus I’ve made oodles of progress on about 4 more…)

I completed this one in the nick of time!  It was made up with 25 3 inch blocks I received last year from members of Layton Quilt Guild for being President…  I added the green blocks to give it an “Irish Chain” look.  Yay for finish 1!

My next finish is from a billion years ago.  Or maybe 15?  Long time!!!  It’s my Christmas Sew and Save quilt.  I had started doing some applique and embroidery on it and stalled out as the metallic thread I was using wasn’t terribly soft.

Oh well…  I unpicked a small section that I had barely started and quilted some motif in there…  Bwahahaha.  No idea what, and I’m too lazy to look!

And “Ta Da!”  All done!

 

Here’s the back so you can see what I like to do with left-overs!

Thanks for visiting!!!  See you all next month!

Smooches…

 

What I’ve received…

As you may all know by now, I’m a bit of a swap addict!  I’ve done a couple of swaps on flickr in the MQTS (Mini QT Swap) group.  These are a few fun things that I’ve received!

This is the beautiful little Redwork Mini that I received from Lesliecan’tstopquilting…  Isn’t it divine?  And if this isn’t enough, Leslie also with the help of Marilyn and Pattiann (group Mama’s) sent out all the goodies in this package!

I had sent out a cat mini swap that hadn’t been acknowledged or reciprocated.  (It does happen occasionally…)  They got together and sent me all this kitty awesomeness!  Thanks again Leslie, Marilyn, and Pattiann!  XOXO  You’re the best!

And this is what I received from my partner for the Little Bag Swap…

Tammy was my partner for this swap and her work is exceptional!!!

This is what was inside the little sewing kit…

And even pockets inside the main bag!

Wow!  What an awesome job Tammy did!  Thank you so much Tammy!  Exquisite work!

That’s pretty much why I’m addicted to swapping!  Nothing beats a great partner!!!

Thanks for stopping by…

Just a few things… Why I’ve been MIA a lot this last week.

I’ve been busy busy busy this last week or so…   These are the fun things I’ve been playing with!I’ll start here…  This is a redwork mini quilt I’ve been working on in the MQTS swap on flickr.  I am ready to quilt this baby!

And these little blocks are for a *ahem* late Christmas gift I’m working on…They were just a wee bit of work…  I definitely needed that coffee!

Well, look at that…  All put together!

And a little prep work for Layton Quilt Guild for Thursday’s meeting…  We’re doing a modified wonky house block quilt.  This is my friend Silvana’s  house block design.  Anyone who finished the house by next month will get the tree block FREE!  Yes, that’s right…  FREE…

And last but not least, I was working on birthday gifties for Roy Quilt Guild!  I got 8 finished just in the nick of time for January birthdays!  I’ll post a tute for these fun little tins within a few days!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Hmmm… I don’t think I ever showed this one! LOL!

In Layton Quilt Guild we did a “I Heard it on Vinyl” challenge.  Were were supposed to create a quilt based on a vinyl record.

Well, any excuse to make a Wizard of Oz theme quilt is good enough for me!  Mine is based on, you guessed it~  “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”! performed by Judy Garland.  Here is my interpretation:

I paper pieced mine.  I saw a quilt several years ago on flickr that I loved that inspired me to make this one…  It was created by Lolablueocean.  Mine is considerably different, but has the same feeling!  I love me some text fabric!

Thanks for visiting!

Trunk Full of Quilts!

My good friend Soma at http://www.whimsandfancies.com is hosting an online Trunk Show…  For those of you who follow my blog may have guessed, I have a trunk, closet, house, and garage full of quilts!  Lots of them are little…  But I have my share of big ones as well.

This little quilt was created for a “Not Square or Rectangle” mini quilt swap on flickr.  I used a stained glass pattern, and bias strips for the black.  I love this technique!

This little quilt was made for a Chinese Coin Swap on flickr…  I used bullion roses to decorate the bottom.

This was for a place mat swap on flickr…  (You’ll definitely see a theme here!)

This is a close up of the quilting on a Modern Doll Quilt Swap.

I made this little quilt for the precious baby sitting on it!

And this is me in my tiara, having won the “Recycled Quilt” Challenge for Roy Quilt Guild!  The petals are made from Pistachio shells.  I drilled holes in them and stitched them on like buttons…

I made this little NYB to swap with one of my friends…  She made me 2 applique quilt tops in return!

I made this quilt with scraps for Happy Chemo.  I took lots of pictures of it on a looong drive to Northern Montana.

This little snowman quilt was made for a swap on flickr…

I donated this little quilted clock to the Utah State Quilt Guild for a fundraiser.

In Layton, we swapped pre-cut teacups with fusible already applied.  We were challenged to bring in our quilts the following month.  This is what I came up with!

I know, you’re supposed to love all your children equally, but this is one of my favorite quilts!  I was given several of the flower die cuts in Layton Quilt Guild as an on time drawing.  I incorporated them into my “Show Stopper” challenge quilt which was supposed to show movement.

This is my Challenge quilt I made for Roy Quilt Guild.  It represents “The Power of 13”  I was given a fat quarter, and a package of buttons and came up with this design.  It has 13 (or multiples) of each item.  Plus I quilted 13 on the right hand side.

This was a swap piece that I experimented using micro quilting and fabric paint on…  Love the way this came out!

This was a Fair Challenge Quilt  summer before last.  I used a UFO block I had made in a class in the center and designed the quilt around it.

Who doesn’t love Rat Zombie?!  I still see a future in store for him…

I quilted this quilt for Roy Quilt Guild using “Bingo blocks” we had made.  I added the white strips on the diagonal.

My claim to fame!  (Or infamy as the case may be…)  I swapped these house blocks with my friend Silvana over 12 months.  When we were finished, I designed the quilt.  I’d live here, wouldn’t you?!

Another flickr swap…  I designed this myself.

This quilt was for the RJR Landscape Challenge at HMQS this year.  It won an honorable mention…  I called it “Crayon Canyon”.

This was made using the underwater/beach theme blocks I received in the BBC (Bitty Block Committee) on flickr.

We exchanged fabric colors in a small group that I belong to, “Prairie Fairies”.  I put mine together differently for sake of the quilting.

This is this years’ Utah State Fair Challenge Quilt.  The challenge fabric is the white with circle designs.

I made this one for a Kaffe Swap on FB.

Just finished this little quilt as a gift…

Thanks for joining me in Whims and Fancies “A Trunk Full of Quilts”!  Feel free to follow me by entering your email address in the sidebar!

Such a precious gift…

As many of you may know, I lost my Mother in February to a long battle with Alzheimers.

I have belonged to a group on flickr  for several years called the “Epiphany Group” that makes quilts for online friends who

are having a difficult time.

This time, I was the recipient… My online friends (and one sneaky local friend) each made a block, and sent them on to Quiltedoma (Andrea) who stitched them into a quilt top.  Batting and backing was donated by members and the quilt was quilted by CASharp (Cindy) from “Tops To Treasures”  Bouncypoodle (Pattiann) bound it and applied the label and then Nannette invited my to breakfast.

Nann made the special delivery in person!

My friends made this in my favorite colors…  Each block is a  master piece!

I’ll post some close-ups so you can see them all…

And finally the label…

A special thanks to JGMehlin, Laura VanVleet, Spiced Coffee, Karin F., Quiltedoma, EdyB1, Silort, Mamacjt, DeeRooG, FriedaZZZZ, Mollyjolly, Sewgentle, SandyinBA, Suzy H (sneaky!) Soma, Bouncypoodle, MarilynKB, Yayaquilter, Sewjo, Lesliecan’tstopquilting, Flossieblossoms, CASharp, Nanotchka, JanBran, Sewwunderful, and JanR.  Thank you all for these beautiful blocks!  What a treasure!  There is nothing better than a fabric hug from friends all around the world!  I love you all!

Mini QT Swap Folk Art Birds…

How’s that for a mouthful?!  But that’s what today’s post is all about!  What I sent, and what I received!

My partner, Mumziepooh, over on the MQTS site on flickr, both received our little quilties today!  Perfect timing!

The theme was “Folk Art” and I decided to do my same little bird pincushions on the Wooden Spools but used needle turned and freezer paper applique, in addition to bias strips made with bias strip makers…  (Love those things!)  Here are some close-ups of the embroidery on the birds…

I used bullion knots to edge the wing.  Then I used a stem stitch on the hair and tail feathers, and colonial knots to accent the stem stitches.  A simple seed stitching on the belly give this one 3 dimension.  And of course a little yellow chain stitch under the chin…

I edged the blue bird’s wing with x’s separated by colonial knots.  Again, stem stitching on the hairs and tail feathers, accentuated by colonial knots.  And the belly with the little seed stitches…

I prefer a Colonial knot to a French knot  as they seem to hold their shape better.

And then today this is what I received…My partner, Mumziepooh, aka Debbie made this little gem for me!  Isn’t it fantastic?!  She did some awesome embroidery!  Plus she added beads.  It is adorable!!!  I love receiving soft mail!!!  My mail lady is a quilter and I’m sure she has soft mail envy!

Thanks for visiting!

Shhh…  My secret project is being delivered to people in power this week!  Wish me luck!!!

Folk Art Bitty Block and Happy Chemo Quilt…

Just trying to get some things finished before the end of the month…  My bitty Folk Art blocks are due in the mail tomorrow.

I still have to get them embroidered, and beaded.  Hopefully I’ll meet the deadline!

This is my own pattern…And last month, I took a “Happy Chemo” quilt that needed to be quilted.  Finished it up last weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

A friends quilt…

My friend just gave me this little baby quilt to FMQ for her new grand baby due in a few weeks…  I love the traditional feeling of this one, and really wanted to quilt it as it would have been done hand quilted.

I followed the checkerboard pattern using a feather stitch and filled it in with a grid background.  There has to be an easier way to do it, but I haven’t found it yet!  LOL!  I used strips of tape to mark it with.  (The last grid quilting I did bled when I spritzed out the markings…)  I surrounded the center section with my least favorite motif, meander.  (I’m not terribly comfortable with it!)

I used a pebble stitch in the narrow yellow sashing.  Then I finished it up with a leaf motif along the edges, and a floral along the top and bottom sections.

Here’s a picture of the back…

The whole thing…  I love the use of 30’s fabric in this, and I really enjoyed quilting it!

Thanks for stopping  by!

MQTS Harvest/Halloween Swap…

In the Mini QT Swap on flickr we had a Harvest/Halloween theme…  I made this for my partner, jm1122:

Some of you may recognize “Rat Zombie”, for whom I have a deep love and affection…  LOL!

He was the star for this little mini quilt!  He “loves” candy corns.  I added arms to the candy corns after I took this shot.

A few days ago, I received this in the mail:

I just love this!  A spider web block with spider web quilting!  Brilliant!  Plus, Jodie was so generous…

She included all of these awesome goodies!  (All I sent her was a bag of M&M’s and a spooky music CD!)

Thanks Jodie!  What a fun package (x2) to find in the mailbox!

(That’s why I love swapping!  Best mail e.v.e.r.!)

And here’s the purrr-fect way to say “goodbye”…

Thanks for visiting!