Sarah-- in progress

Well, the nine-patch top is finally finished. I ran into a kind of funny/very annoying problem. I used most of the nine-patches I just received from the Twiddletails swap, which was cool, but as Anina warned in an email, some are probably smaller than they should be. I'm not one of those super anal quilters, and really didn't think it'd be a big deal. I happily interspersed the swap blocks with my own, sashing away. Then I was attaching the strips together, and had a major problem-- things weren't off by a half inch or so, they were off by, like, 5". Too big to ignore. So, I decided to lay them out a little more organically:(It started to rain right as I took the picture)
Notice some of the crazy three-patches on the ends? It's one of those happy accidents, where I'm pretty thrilled with the way it came out, as non-linear as it is. I even added the pieced border, like the original picture. Two things I really dislike: long strips of sashing, and complicated borders. This had both, and I'm thinking it's worth it, every once in a while. This has over 150 different fabrics in the top. The only thing I had to buy specifically for this was the white (Kona Premium, my very favorite).
I'm thinking this will probably call for a scappy binding and backing, just to keep with the spirit of it. This will be going to live with my cousin Sarah in Michigan. She discovered my blog and was appropriately impressed, so we decided she needed a quilt of her own.

tulips in my garden

Look what I got in the mail from Daniela, my partner for the six o'clock stitch's spring swap:That's the front. Here's the back:
Love it! She calls it "Tulips in My Garden", and I think it'll have a new home on the wall leading upstairs. I'll post pictures of what I sent Daniela as soon as I know she's received it (not wanting to ruin the surprise, you know).

3x3= 9 patch

I'm one of the fifty participants in Twiddletails' nine-patch swap. And I'm such an overachiever, I finished my sixteen today:I made eight of each. The blue is a seed dot from Amy Butler, and I'm in love with orange and blue now. I'm a little bored of all of the red and aqua, so I feel like this is a fresh change.

Also, I got Allison's fabric in the mail and I'm going to give curved piecing a try. Yikes!

swap yumminess

This was a good mail day! First, I got an email from Katie saying that she got the block I mailed for the Pieced Together Quilting Bee. She seems pleased, which makes me very happy. Here's what I made for her:
I think it looks much better if you click on it to see it full size. My favorite part is the bit of selvedge I included on the left-hand side.

That alone would've made me happy, but then I got home from work and had a package waiting for me from Heather, my spring fat quarter swap partner. I finally have my very own Katie Jump Rope! YAY. I've been loving this forever but haven't owned any. Plus, the VW bus fabric is great, too. I've enjoyed petting these fat quarters today (what, is it weird I pet fabric?) These are going to be very hard for me to cut into-- I just adore them. Even my husband said these look fancy.Weirdly enough, these coordinate nicely with my latest work-in-progress. Is everyone thinking about pink and orange these days? I thought it was just me.

Stitches and Scissors FQ swap

I love swapping fabric with other crafty people. Again, it's part of that community that I seem to crave. Darci, who is also part of the Pieced Together Quilting Bee, is generously hosting a Spring fat quarter swap. Won't you join us? Check it out here.

I'm pretty excited about Anna Maria Horner's new Drawing Room, especially the yardage called "volumes". I think a library-inspired quilt is in my future.