What to do with leftover blocks?

I found a GREAT idea over at Modify Tradition! I used 12 1/2 " Quatrefoil blocks to make.....Ricebags with removable/washable covers :) These will be gifts for some of my favorite quilters, who all happen to be related to me. We are off to Paducah on Wednesday for 4 days of quilty fun! Don't look, Joy :p

Elizabeth's FQ pack from SewMamaSew

Elizabeth's FQ pack from SewMamaSew, originally uploaded by myittybittyquilts.

So, I recently decided that I was going to make a picnic quilt for my cousin and his bride-to-be. He has two young boys involved in sports and I figured they would be spending a bunch of time sitting outside watching ball games :) I was checking out her gift registry and saw that her basic house colors were grey, brown, and green. I don't know the bride very well, so I wanted to go with the colors I knew she liked. I'm just planning to do large simple squares. Anyway, I saw that Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson had put together a FQ pack for SewMamaSew and it was just perfect! I went to order it and the site said Sold Out :( I thought I would just look for something similar and I saw the pack again in another section of the store and this time I was able to order it.. Hmmmm...not sure what happened, but I'm tickled! Not only was I able to order it, but the package was here on my door step in 3 days! Way to go, SMS!

I have been in a bit of a sewing slump, therefore a blogging slump. I did need to get a few things done, though, so today I set aside the time to get re-acquainted with my sewing machine. My aunt picked up these vintage blocks at a flea market somewhere. I think she even got them for free. She found sashing and border fabric and pieced the top, then asked me to quilt it. I mulled around a LOT of ideas. Researched how quilts from the 60's era would have been quilted. I realized that this quilt very well could have been tied. I knew I wasn't going that direction, so I began to think of doing the Baptist Fan pattern, or maybe Clamshell, then I thought of cross-hatch quilting. I hadn't done any of these on a quilt larger than a doll sized, so they all were a bit intimidating! I finally decided that my good 'ol stipple would work swimmingly on this quilt and as soon as I made the decision, my mind was free to get to work on it. I'm pretty pleased with the results and now I have a little extra cash for the trip to Paducah!

My 1 year12quilts month! Woohoo!

Mermaid Quilt finished!!, originally uploaded by ritapizza { mochistudios.com }.

This quilt was my inspiration. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. A huge thumbs up to this quilting bee and especially to ritapizza for her fantastic finish!

I also happened to have a few layer cakes of Tula Pink's Neptune line hanging around just waiting to be used and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. I'm sending each participant 7 layer cake pieces along with a 2 1/4" strip WOF.

I spent some time on Flickr looking for quilt blocks reminiscent of the sea and found quite a few. Snail's Trail looks a lot like waves to me. Marinier's Compass, Storm at Sea, Geese in the Pond. I could go on and on.

Just look at this gorgeous Storm at Sea by quiltedoma...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27027073@N04/4103894530/

In a nutshell, my "guidelines" are:

1. Be inspired by the sea.

2. Use the Neptune fabric only (if you must add one fabric to make your vision complete, use a solid-ish white)

3. 12 1/2" Pieced blocks- no applique this time

4. One or two blocks, whatever works :)

5. Know right now that I will probably be thrilled with your idea and execution, so relax and have fun!!!!

I really can't wait to see what the group comes up with!

On my Sewing Room Floor

Well, it WAS on my sewing room floor. I had the first two rows sewn together and got called away from the the project and although I meant to finish up this weekend, unexpected company came and there went the weekend plans! Did I mention that we have a 7 month old lab puppy AND a 5 year old little boy, both of whom felt it was their duty in life to mess up the carefully laid out blocks. *sigh* So, I picked them up, all out of order, and put them back in the UFO pile. I WILL get to it soon! I plan to make this a quilt for my daughters double bed. I'll wing the borders as I go, so who knows what the finished product will look like :) I promise I'll share, though!

A pair of doll quilts

First up is my doll quilt for DQS8. Based on my larger sized MerryGoRound quilt. I used a 1 1/4" strips this time. The trickiest part of this was definitely the binding. I *almost* cut the edges off straight so I wouldn't have to mess with all those corners, but I just knew I wanted to show off the hexagon shape, so I went ahead and did the hard thing :) As it turns out, it's my least favorite part of the little quilt, but at this point, I'm not re-doing it!

Next is the doll quilt for my Sewingmamas partner. It was really a winter themed doll quilt swap, but I just loved the color scheme of my first mini, so I stuck with that. Besides, my partner mentioned that her daughters play room was decorated in these colors. I was completely inspried by Oh, Fransson's baby sized quilt. Ack,my colors are kind of washed out. Oh well, it's already packaged up!

Quilting Bee Blocks For February

Rene had a great concept this month. Improv crosses, red on white. I was excited to start, but I was stumped for so long on what I wanted to do. The day I SHOULD have had the blocks in the mail, I sat down with my trusty graph paper and sketched out some ideas. As soon as I put pencil to paper, I began to trust the whole process. I suppose the whole idea of improv is to just start sewing, but that worries me a little :) I felt better when I could see where I was going.