I've been bitten!

it's the swap bug and it's very contagious.  Symptoms spread rapidly between participants - and sometimes it affects everything you do - you can't eat or drink or even sleep because your mind is possessed with creating another quilt or block or postcard, or mug rug!  You have to create, sometimes many many versions to try and get it out of your system.  Work gets in the way, there's not enough hours in the day. 

It's bad. 

and

it's good!

You get wonderful things sent to you in the mail - things that you know have been made just for you, with lots of love, care and attention.  Just this week I received this wonderful package from Laura in Brazil.

Laura was my secret DQS9 swap partner, and everything in the box was as fabulous as the box itself!  Look what I got

Lots of fabulous fabric - look at those shoes! Some yummy candy, lipstick!!!

and this picture doesn't include the pincushion I found when I unwrapped my doll quilt, or the quilt itself!

Isn't it gorgeous?

 I love it!  All of it!  See this swap bug thing is good!

The latest strain of this bug that I've caught is the MugRug Bug.  Now this could be a really dangerous one.  You see it makes you want to make more and more of these cute and fast oversize coasters to go under your mug

Just check out what kind of havoc it's creating here!
I sure hope I'm strong enough to survive this one!
Happy quilting!

DQS9 - Bird's of a Feather - Done!

It started with this


then I started pulling fabrics until I had this


Construction started!


How to quilt?


It's got to have some feathers!

Labeled


To done wrapped and ready to take to the post office! Gotta love it when a plan comes together so well!

Happy quilting!

sent it bare!

I sent this birthday postcard to Thea as August is her birthday month, and I was adventurous and did not put it in and envelope!  It made it! Yaaay!

A Good Day!

Today was stinking hot outside - the thermometer read 33, and that's before taking into account the humidity.  (I know for some of you that's balmy weather, but for us on the westcoast of Canada, it's HOT!)  I decided to avoid the heat and stay inside where the AC was keeping things tolerable.  I managed to get the quilting finished on my DQS mini.  I did the echo quilting around the geese a couple of days ago

and the today I worked on the rest of the quilting

I'll sew down the binding tonight.

Then I had some fun playing but I can only give a little peek,

but I'm really please with how it turned out.

Next, I started working on my challenge quilt entry for our quilt show in October.  No pictures, but progress is being made, and I'm happy with it, too!

To top of my day, I was just going through my Google reader when what should I see but my name at the top of Emma of Sampaquita Quilts post!  I've won some Tula Pink fabric - what fun!!!, and a copy of Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine that Emma has an article in. 

The article is about organizing your craft space, and I can't wait to read it, as well as see the rest of the magazine! See this post for the details of the fabric I won.  Thank you Emma!  You should head over to Emma's site as she is an extraordinary quilter - I love her quilting and her designs!  and to see some really cute pictures of a koala bear that was in her backyard yesterday!  Might look cute and cuddly, but I sure wouldn't want to mess with those claws!

Hope you are having a productive weekend,

Happy quilting!

Picture post and thank yous!

as I mentioned in my last post, I have received a lot of goodies in the last little while!

From Paula Ozier in the Picnic BBQ Mini QT Swap I received this beauty!

Paula designed all the fabrics you see in it!  Pretty cool, what???  Go here to check out more of Paula's fabrics and designs.  She included 2 wonderful FQ that are just so pretty!

Thank you Paula!

Then when I met up with Isabell, she presented me not only with my postcard but with all these goodies!

Thank you Isabell!

And I received my Potholder Pass 3 potholders and were they worth waiting for!!!  They match my new kitchen perfectly!  Thank you Karen!

there were potholders, dish towels and fridge magnets in the package - all absolutely gorgeous!

Then there were all the 3.5" blocks from the Bitty Block Committe swap - aren't they fabulous?  Still a few more to come - I'll end up with 13 this round 

Thank you to all my swap partners!

and here's a picture of the 4x6ers Ocean postcards - just one more to come

another big thank you!

and finally, here's what I've been working on:

for the 15 minutes of Play - wonky stars and blocks

and my DQS9 mini progress shot (DQS blog here)

I'm hoping to actually get the applique done today and get started on the quilting.  Have to say, I'm not sure about how it's turning out, and am thinking I may have to try a different variation, but we'll see once I get some more done on it!

Happy quilting!

J

Summertime!

Oh my!  It has been a while since I posted, hasn't it?  The last couple of weeks I've been having all kinds of internet connections, but hopefully it's all sorted out and I've got a somewhat stable connection now! 

Enough of that!  On to fun and sew quilty things!

A few weeks back I got the opportunity to meet a cyber-friend who was here in Vancouver visiting her son & DIL from England.  We met at the local quilt shop where I'm working part time - oh what fun it was!  Here's a picture of Isabell and I at The Needle and I Quilt Shop, not far from where I live.  Isabell is as lovely and charming in person as she is in cyberspace!  She is also an incredible stitcher - check out her Flickr page here!  I wish I had half her skill and talent!

We had great fun shopping and exchanged our Ocean theme postcards in person.  Pop on over to the 4X6ers blog to see some images of all the cards.

I have managed to get a few things finished - here are my postcards

and

this little tape measure house I made on one of my Monday morning sewing sessions with Laurraine of Patchwork Pottery.  This is Laurraine's own design - isn't it cute? See more of Laurraine's great work at her Flickr site here!  On another day at Laurraine's I finished sewing the binding on this, and Laurraine took these wonderful pictures - she not only is a talented designer, she's a great photographer, too!

I also finished this one a few days later

Way back on June 21 I sent off a mini quilt to England for the June Picnic/BBQ Mini QT Swap (blogged about it here).  Well it finally arrived on July 31!  Phew! and my partner likes it!  double phew!! I was thinking I was going to have to make another one!  Anyway, here's the final version

.

I've got a few other things finished or nearly so, but those along with some other pictures, will have to wait.

I've also been the very lucky recipient of all kinds of goodies - more to follow on those next post, too!

Happy quilting!