Swapping Stars

I've been swapping quilt blocks on About Quilts. It's a fun way to do scrappy quilts. Here's how it works:

1. You make a bunch of blocks
2. send them to the hostess
3. she sends you back a mix of blocks from other people.

The above blocks are for the Batik and Cream Stars Swap. Before I assembled them, I played a little with the components and made an entirely different star block!

I attended the San Diego Quilt Show for the first time today. Lots of great quilts in the competition and plenty of vendors. I purchased this pattern, Bamboo and Pinwheels. It makes two quilts at the same time, and is written in a work-saving style with COLOR diagrams.

Charmed, I'm Sure

On Sunday, I took a fun little class at Quilter's Paradise: Party Charms tote. These are the fabrics I chose:
And this is the tote I made. Cool, huh? It's got topstitching and a magnetic clasp. I am just as thrilled as I can be!

Carol, the teacher was very encouraging and explained every step. She actually adjusted the original pattern to make it work even better.

I've finished all the stitching on Cold Hands, Warm Heart. Now it calls for French knots, but I hate making French knots. So I'm putting in beads instead! This little guy is gonna be done in no time. (Especially with shows like Top Chef on!)

Hotel Studio

Did you hear about that lady who was sewing in the hotel room? Yes, that's me, holding up a block from the New Zealand Quilt. Okay, here's the scoop:

1. My daughter is away at camp.
2. My mother-in-law was owed a visit.
3. We were driven out of house and home by termites, okay, not the termites. They were happy to coexist with us as long as we continued to feed them. The fumigators drove us out.
   

So... off to Newport Beach for a couple of days. Of course I overpacked! Not only did I bring the New Zealand Quilt (pictured), but I brought three other quilts in progress and three cross-stitch projects. Not to mention a couple of books. (Phillipa Gregory's The Queen's Fool and Diane Mott Davidson's Dark Torte, just in case I finished one!) Well, I only got to read a little and I only got to sew a little, but it was still nice.

You can see progress on Cold Hands (during long talks when my fingers got itchy.)

Turns out the desk at the Hyatt was big enough for both Bill and I to use: he was on the internet and I was on the Featherweight... and we weren't jogging elbows or anything! Ah, bliss!

I also had the opportunity to visit the best discount fabric store in southern California, perhaps the world: M & L in Anaheim. Woo-hoo! I got flannels galore and some great quilting cottons for 25% of the retail price. I even picked up a non-floral white-on-white bolt of fabric for making more masculine quilts... or at least not girly!

Restaurant Recommendation

The Pleasant Peasant
Newport Beach, Ca

Not just the food--the pureed turnip soup was amazing--but the atmosphere, the service, the reasonable prices, and the surprisingly generous servings of country French food.

SunShower and Snowman

Sunshower got some attention today. Prayer quilts always get attention, and personal quilts get ignored. So sad. Okay, so it has more to do with the fact that Sunshower is a really fun quilt to work on! Those little parasols have been calling out to me ever since I spotted them in the "Ladies' Prints" Bin. (A scary name if ever I heard one, but I was brave and found this little charmer.) Then I hit the scraps and had a blast!



Cold Feet, Warm Heart is almost done. Got a lot of work done while watching "Top Chef!" Just background and backstitching left, as well as French knots. I'm not a real fan of those, so I'll probably put beads in instead.

This was a kit from the Dimensions Daydreams line. Here's the other stuff that came with it. I think it will make a dandy Christmas gift!

The New Zealand Quilt

I purchased charm squares and fat quarters in New Zealand, all with a Kiwi flair: ferns, birds, Maori images, sheep--what is this thing I have for sheep?--shantytown scenes, and kiwis, of course!

When the fabrics were laid side by side, they didn't play nice, so I had to find a way to make them work together. I'm putting them into a twist and turn setting. The next framing will be olive green--don't you just LOVE Moda Marbles?

This project was set aside for quite some time, until a UFO challenge was issued on About.com quilting forum. I'm supposed to get it done by August 31... hmmm.