Miracle of miracles.... I'm going to Sewing Summit 2012!!!!!!!!!!

So funny how life works out sometimes! A little story to share...

After obsessing a whole day about Sewing Summit 2012 last week (aka my blogpost) and resigning myself to the fact that I'll just have to go in 2013, I decided to tease my hubby a little. We are planning an anniversary trip in Sept. for our 5 year anniv. and I asked him if he'd like to go to Utah for a week instead of something else. We could go for the LDS General Conference, have Mon/Tues/Wed together to hike and explore, and then I could go to Sewing Summit and the ticket to the conference could be a belated bday present for my 29th bday in July. He totally agreed that we could check it out and that it would be fun because he has old mission companions, family friends, etc. there to visit while I am busy!! Best husband EVER!

I don't think that plan will work out because it looks like it will be too expensive for us with 2 tickets, hotels, flights, food, etc. BUT we did decide that if I save up my personal money (aka fabric money, let's be honest... I don't but anything else lol) for the next 8 months enough to pay for my plane ticket, then the rest will be my birthday present. O man o man o man I am so excited, it is definitely worth a huge fabric diet to get to go to the awesome conference! So people - Tuesday at 11am EST I will be buying my ticket and hoping to be one of the first 50 people so I get a little discount. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Excited!

So now that I am definitely going, I MUST know - who else is going because I can't wait to meet you ALL in real life!! A couple blogging/emailing buddies are MAYBE going and I am super excited about that because then it won't be so scary not knowing anyone for real. So tell me... who is thinking about it? :)

I've been blog-stalking some of the teachers and I am SO excited about some of the proposed class offerings! English paper piecing, advanced bag making, fabric design, color theory, frame clutch construction ... just to name a few - so awesome!! *Sigh* happy happy kid :)

Sewing Summit - are you going?

Tickets for the 2012 Sewing Summit go on sale next Tuesday - less than a week away!!

I've been reading over the information all morning and checking out the teachers. There are going to be some SWEET classes this year by some bloggers I've been following for the past 2 years and am dying to meet.

This is definitely the coolest conference ever - a great mix of classes, open sewing time, meeting other cool bloggers in person, and ofcourse fabric shop-hopping around SLC... what could be better?

If you haven't heard about it yet - you really should go check it out. I am not in any way affiliated with this conference - I just think it is an awesome opportunity and wanted to share in case anyone missed the news in bloggyland :)

What I also want to know is... who is going? I'm going to live vicariously through you because I probably will not be going - but on the off chance that there is a miracle and I CAN go... I would love to know who else will be there to hang out with! :)
... barring a miracle, I expect you all to take tons of pictures and give detailed updates when you get back!!
I would LOVE to go and if you consider the amount of classes you get to participate in, the conference is well worth the money... just a bit too much with a plane ticket from the east coast on top of hotel and food costs. *sigh* Maybe next year if I am super duper duper lucky ;-)

Another cool link I wanted to pass on from their webiste is the Travel Handmade series. This is an awesome list of links for making bags of all kinds. Even if you aren't going to the Sewing Summit to show off your nifty new bags, there are some cool links to make for any reason - I am definitely bookmarking quite a few to work on when I have more time :)

Has anyone ever been to a sewing conference or even a weekend retreat? What is your favorite part? Was there anything you didn't like about it? ... I read the whole "Elm Creek Quilts" series and ever since I've wanted to go to a sewing retreat/conference/quilt camp ... Sewing Summit is adding to that obsession haha.

Liebster Blog Award & Quilt Updates

Jill from Just Jill  awarded me with the Liebster Blog Award. You should check out Jill's blog - she has lots of super cute projects on there! Thanks for nominating me Jill and for passing on my blog information to your readers!

What is the Liebster Blog Award you ask?

The Liebster award (German for favorite) is for bloggers with 200 followers or less. As a recipient of the award, you have the chance to thank and link back to the blogger who gave it to you as well as pass it along to five other deserving blogs.

I think this is a great way for those of us with a smaller following to pass on word about eachother and share some really great blogs with our dear readers which they might not have run into otherwise!

I started blogging in May of 2010 when I got my first sewing machine as a MA graduation present from my mom. Best present ever - it just keeps on giving and giving and giving :) I figured if I was going to dive into the wonderful world of quilting and sewing, I might as well document my adventures for myself and anyone else who is interested. I have learned SO much from tutorials on other people's blogs and have been introduced to so many great ideas through blogs. I hope I can pass on a tiny bit of inspiration and ideas to my readers as well.

I also REALLY love "meeting" new people through blogs. Here are a few of my favorite bloggers who I think you should check out when you have the time. Not only are these ladies super talented, they are really nice too and worth getting to know :) (They might have a little more than 200 followers but I'm stretching "the rules"  ;-))

Diane at From Blank Pages
Lindsay at Purely Handmade
Nicke at Kiss Kiss Quilt
Impera Magna
Craft Couture by T.C.

According to "the rules" - this is what these bloggers are supposed to do:
Liebster Conventions:
1. Thank your award presenter on your blog and link back to him/her.

2. Copy and paste the award to your blog.
3. Present the Liebster Award to 5 blogs that you think deserve to be recognized.
4. Let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Have faith that your followers will spread the love too!  

Do I care if they do any of these things? No, not at all - I just wanted a reason to share their blogs with you and this was a good one :) 
... just to be a sneaky-sneak I'm also not going to tell them I nominated them. They need to read this post to find out ;-) We comment on eachother's blogs enough, I have faith they will find this post eventually lol.

In other news... Sugar Pop is back home!! I picked her up on Saturday and o buddy does she look AWESOME with her new quilting. Michelle did a fantastic job! I was able to get half the binding sewn on over the weekend but haven't had much time yet this week to finish it up. Hopefully by this weekend I'll get done and have some pictures to share... you're just going to have to wait until then, homework calls to me a little louder than crafting these days :-p

I was also able to get my pink stripey quilt prepped and ready for Michelle by Saturday as well so in a few weeks I will have that lovely beast to share with you too - she ended up being 72 x 88, perfect for a spring/summer quilt on our queen sized bed.

*sigh* I love quilts and I am SO happy to finally have one of my own to snuggle on the couch and will soon have one on my bed, yay! Also nice to have something to show people - when they find out I am a quilter they want to see what I've made but other than softies and pillow covers, I've given everything away! lol

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week - thank goodness it is Wednesday... only a few more days until the weekend which for me means sleeping in and crafting! :)

Jackpot Fabric Swap!!

O MAN... I really hit the jackpot with my latest swap partner. I saw on flikr that she was looking for some FFA3 FQs and other HR prints in blue and I just happened to have 3 prints for her. She is in Australia so we decided to do a bigger swap to make it more worth our while with the shipping. I'll show you all of "the loot" when it gets here later but I wanted to show you the main picture of it because I am so giddy about it...

That is right, this SWEET package of Mendocino is all for me :) *sigh* I'm overjoyed - especially about those Plum mermaids which are next to impossible to find! This is going to be such a great addition to my current Mendocino stash and will def. add some more color to the quilt I am planning on making out of it.

So grateful for the generous fabric-swap partners I've had lately and I'm glad I've been able to help some people out with fabric they've been looking for too. Such a genius idea to organize this way on Flikr!

Just wanted to share my Happy Friday moment with you all - wishing you a lovely weekend!

... O!!! One last bit of news to share... I'm picking up my quilt tomorrow!!!! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY lol Pictures to come this weekend if I can get the binding sewn on around homework and the Hunger Games :)

Swaps and crafting therapy...

It has been a hard week and boy am I glad for my hobby! Crafting is good therapy sometimes - keeps you engaged and entertained enough to be distracting but is enjoyable and not stressful (if you aren't rushing to hit any deadlines). You can make squishy snuggly things to hug and cuddle when you are feeling blue too.

I've needed all of that this week and more. My grandpa passed away last Friday and even tho we knew it was coming soon, it was still a shock at how quickly it happened. He has been battling cancer for the past few years and it recently came back too strong to fight anymore. He was only in his middle 70s, not ready to go at all and we were certainly not ready to say goodbye to him. Unfortunately he and my grandma live out in Kansas so I don't get to see them much and I was not able to go to the funeral either. Let me tell you - I needed to be distracted to keep from obsessing about it all week and definitely needed the snuggles an overstuffed pillow can give. Anyway, enough of that, just a thought I wanted to share as I know several of you will agree with me about the theraputic powers our hobbies can have... my family is not the first nor the last to suffer sorrow and I hope you are able to find comfort and even distraction as needed when your time comes.

A lovely blessing in disguise as a swap package showed up on my doorstep Friday after work - from Kansas no less!

My partner, bubbabean22, sent this big lovely box to me and what was inside you may wonder?

Not one, but TWO beautiful pillow covers already stuffed with big squishy pillow forms - and a bit of foxy fabric to go along! Such a fantastic surprise!! On the left is the "For the Love of Solids" swap pillow she made me - so in love with this pillow!! Love the shades of grey and the bright colors and the quilting is fantastic- it highlights the alternative star pattern that the greys make in between the bright stars:

The other pillow is my "small" item included in this swap - we were supposed to send one big and one small - she definitely spoiled me! It is so pretty and springy and wow - so squishy, love snuggling that giant pillow :) Can't say enough what a great surprise it was and how much I ended up needing that snuggly goodness after the news on Friday night about my Grandpa.  

My couch is a bit overwhelmed with swap pillows now tho - every pillow that came with our couch and loveseat now has a bright and pretty pillow cover on it and these 2 new ones are living there as well:

I've been so spoiled by great swap partners - love all these beautiful pillow covers I've received this year and last in the Pillow Talk and For the Love of Solids swaps. There are 2 swaps I never want to miss out on.
Now if only I could convince my hubby we need a grey couch to match them all... hmmmm ;-)

I wasn't really feeling up to doing a whole lot this weekend and didn't really want to be around people so I just kind of vegged and enjoyed browsing Flikr for ideas and reading everyone's blogs. A bit of creativity and pretty pictures is a good heart lifting distraction. I also got a little bit of sewing in and made a mug rug for my friend and co-worker who had a birthday on Monday. Forgot to take a picture of it - maybe if I remember to bring my camera to work one of these days I can show you.

I also was able to get a lot of work done on my stripey quilt and added 2 more rows and 1 more column to make it a whopping 72 x 88 inches - big enough for our queen sized bed even if it isn't a standard comforter size. I ordered backing fabric - bright pink of course! - for it this week so hopefully I will have everything put together and squared up in time to drop this one off at Michelle's when I pick up my other quilt.

So glad my hubby is going to let this beautiful quilt live on our bed when it is all done - it is so bright and cheerful and perfect for Spring and Summer - definitely will make me happy to see and snuggle every day :)

And speaking of Michelle and quilts - that girl is so fast, she was done longarm-quilting mine in a week! Awesome, I know! She has had family in town and we've been busy anyway so I haven't picked it up yet but hoping to soon. I will get that binding sewn on lightening fast and will have pictures of the finished quilt and especially Michelle's awesome quilting for you soon thereafter.

I think that is about enough rambling for one day. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Pillow Talk Swap 7 - Received - O BUDDY!!!

Yesterday was a bit of a crazy day. Our systems froze at work so I got to leave early and was able to hang out in the lovely 70+ degree weather with my husband and our dog for 2 hours while painters and cleaners were in our apartment. While we are sitting outside my husband casually mentions "o yea, you probably didn't get my text, a package came for you today." WHAT?!!? I was in the house a whole 5 minutes - he failed to tell me a package arrived for me? AHHHHHHHHHHHH! lol That is just mean to mention when I have over an hour left before we can go back inside... what could it be - For the Love of Solids Swap package or my Pillow Talk Swap package.... and which item for which swap did I get? O man... it was hard to wait and not run in there regardless of the painters and cleaners haha.

Well my whole hour of pseudo patience paid off because this is what was in my lovely swap package from Little Blue Bell:

Isn't it gorgeous? She seriously did a fantastic job of stalking me and making something exactley perfect for me. These purples and pinks from Joel Dewberry and Amy Butler are some of my favorites and I love the golds mixed in there from Heirloom as well. The grey linen is fantastic and her quilting is perfect for this pillow! And the pin cushion... are you seeing that beautiful cathedral window pin cushion? Do you realize how obsessed I am with cathedral windows? lol A++ for Little Blue Bell - I couldn't be happier!

Here are some close-up pictures of the quilting and pin cushion, they are too fantastic not to show you more!

*sigh* happiest kid ever :) Made a great afternoon even better! And oddly enough I keep forgetting that there is a lovely new pillow on my couch so I get excited everytime I go in the living room and see it haha - the suprirse that keeps on giving!

All 4 of our standard pillows that came with our couch and love seat are now covered with beautiful pillow covers - 3 from swaps and 1 I made. It is funny that all of them have grey in them and none match my couch haha - apparently I need a grey couch! I keep telling hubby but he is ignoring me, which is probably good ;-)

I have to say tho, the only disappointing thing about finally getting a swap package is that you don't need to stalk the flikr group anymore to see what has been made, who has already received what, and keep guessing as what is coming to you. I've grown to enjoy it hehe. O well, my For the Love of Solids package isn't here yet so I can keep stalking that page while I enjoy this beautiful snuggly pillow cover!

In other news about swaps - I have successfully avoided 2 so far! There was a potholder swap in my bee group for April and since I don't use the potholders I have, that was easier to pass up. The Pretty Little Pouch Swap is taking an unlimited number of participants this round and they close today - trying so hard to ignore it! lol Atleast I have a timeline from them now since I am using this swap as my first "be inspired but swap with yourself!" experiment.

3/13-3/15

sign-ups*

3/16

mosaics & surveys are due

3/20

swap partners announced

4/20

mail date

I already signed myself up for this 1 person only swap.

My mosiac has been created (sharing it again just because I love it!)

As far as the survey goes - I think my partner (as I've already asisigned myself to myself early, hehe) is leaning towards something in one of the following styles or a combination thereof:

Rainbow/scrappy

Cathedral Windows

Foxes

Using some of my HR FFA2 stash

I'll stalk myself some more and see what I come up with tho! lol

4/20 is the mail date so that gives me a month to work on a awesome pouch for awesome me :) Since my other swaps are finished I will defintely have time to fit this in among my other projects. Stay tuned for progress pics and I look forward to seeing what everyone else makes who is participating in the actual PLPSwap!

Happy Thursday - for those of us who are working and waiting for the weekend - ONE MORE DAY!!! (Yes, I've been counting down since Monday at 6am haha).

Swaps Finished - woo hoo!!! :)

My swaps for this quarter are finally finished and being mailed off today, woo hoo! One is almost local, I could drive it the few hours to her house, and another is international so I hope it makes it safe and sound!


I added some fun FQs to my Pillow Talk Swap pillow package along with the pillow top I've shown you a few times - so hard to send this one off!! :)

And here is my finished For the Love of Solids swap package - made her a little travel project bag to go along with her mini-quilt.

And I've been told that this picture looks more grey and less salmon - but I still don't see a difference because ALL of my pictures looked grey/blue to me - not salmon/blue/white! lol

Feels good to be done and get everything in the mail - I can finally relax a little and work on personal projects. Super excited to see what I will get in the mail this week from my partners for both swaps!!

Hoping these swaps don't run at the same time again - I'd like to keep doing both but it is hard to keep up with multiple swaps when I have so much else going on.

I will ALWAYS sign up for the Pillow Talk Swap, that is by far my favorite and my #1 swap priorty.

Do you have any favorite swaps?

In other weekend news - Saturday was a little crazy. I was so excited about my meeting with Michelle and nervous that I was going to forget something important, like my quilt!, that I woke up and got ready super early and thought I was totally on the ball. 25 minutes into my hour drive I realized that I forgot my purse at home on the couch!! I had to go all the way back and by that time I only had 1 hour before I was supposed to meet her - ugh. Took the faster way and paid tolls so I could get to my mom's house, pick her up, and get to our meeting place hopefully on time. Ended up only being 10 minutes late which was not as bad as I thought it would be but O what a stressful morning after I thought things were going so well! lol

All is well that ends well I suppose tho and my meeting with Michelle went great. She brought some colors of thread to show me and I picked out a lovely light pink. She is super nice and I'm excited to work with her on this quilt and more in the future. Sugar Pop should be completed in a few weeks and I'm super excited to see it finished and ofcourse share pictures with all of you!

One more fun picture for you - Plush Peeps from my mom for Easter - they are so realistic, I keep wanting to eat them everytime I see them haha.

Happy Monday - hope your weekend was filled with only good things!

Sugar Pop off to the quilter!!!

O man... I am so excited but also exhausted after spending 2 hours prepping this quilt!

So glad that is all done tho and she is off to the quilter tomorrow!!!!!

Giddy... seriously... beyond giddy lol.

Here is a picture taken tonight to show her with the borders even tho you can't see the print so well:

And here is a picture to show the fuscia pink I used for the back (I promise it does match some of the prints in the quilt :)):

Next time we all see her she will be quilted by the wonderful Michelle and will just need her binding.

My first quilt to finish just for me.... it is so close... giddy... o so giddy... and sleepy haha goodnight!

Fell right off the wagon... and hit my head :(

14 days people - that is how long my fabric diet lasted... only 14 days lol. Ugh... I am pathetic.

But seriously... how is "This Crafty Fox" supposed to withstand the appeal of Aneela Hoey's foxes? I tried to convince myself to wait until April but my favorite store has a tendency to sell out of popular lines/prints quickly so I just couldn't hold back for long.

I was atleast good and move those "half yards" down to fat quarters in my cart - also got the mushrooms and dots sets because they are gret blenders/basics and were just too darn cute to passup since I was already being bad lol.

... and if I have to be honest, I might as well admit that I fell off the wagon yesterday by buying some Farmdale prints I've been drooling over for months, so today is basically hitting my head after falling off the wagon lol. It is funny how easy that second purchase is compared to the first ;-)

Ok... seriously... back on the diet until Guising comes out in April! I should punish myself by waiting until May but I know it won't happen... Guising will sell out quick and I really really want some of those pearl bracelts and a couple other prints so I might as well stay realistic lol.

(Good thing I've never been interested in smoking, drinking, drugs, etc. but apparently I have the makings of a very week addict! lol)

Pincushion Swap Awesomeness!

Speaking of swaps...I forgot to share the awesome package I received from our Pincushion Swap!

Yes - I realize I should have just made myself a pincushion instad of making and mailing one lol but regardless - I did it and my partner loved her package and I absolutely loved mine :)

I wanted a happy rainbow pincushion and that is exactly what I got - so cute! She added a matching thread catcher, pins, a super useful and cute needle book, and some fun scraps including that little Heather Ross fish and the clothespin people! Yay!

Awesome partner made up for the fact that I really should not have signed up for this swap in the first place due to everything else I should have been working on lol.

The Selfie Pouch Swap :)

I join TOO MANY SWAPS - I will just come out and admit it. With all the money I've spent on shipping I could have cut a week or 2 off my fabric diet! Therefore I've decided that there are 2 types of swaps and I need to be more selective:
1. Awesome must join!! swaps
2. Cool - should just make myself one - swaps

As for category 1:
Right now on my "awesome must join" swaps are the Pillow Talk Swap and For the Love of Solids swap. I am in the current round of both and finishing up next Monday by mailing my packages out. I was in the last round of both and had awesome partners and got really great pillows from both and hopefully made fun pillows that both of my secret partners enjoyed.

There is some much awesome talent and inspiration in these swaps, I love being challenged and inspired to create new things - even tho they are hard to let go - especially my log cabin pillow from this round of the Pillow Talk Swap haha. I will make time for these swaps, even tho my sewing time is SUPER limited these days.

As for category 2:
There are lots of cool swaps like mug rugs, mini quilts, pouches, purses, pin cushions, etc. that seem so cool but really - do I need to spend precious sewing time making these things and sending them to other people on a deadline and spend craft money on shipping? For these smaller items - I really could just make something for myself that I love - and that is what I've decided to do. I don't think this is selfish, I like making things for other people - but sometimes I think it is good to spoil myself and use my fabric and time for something fun for me :)

That being said, I want to be inspired by the photos in the swap and challenged by an inspiration mosaic - so I will still follow the swaps to see what others are making, and make a collage to get myself going in an interesting direction I haven't tried before.

That being said - a new round of the Pretty Little Pouch swap is starting up in the near future - so this will be my  first " follow - but make something for myself" swap. Here is my inspiration mosaic:

A few things my partner (aka me lol) is interested in:

Using some of my Heather Ross fabrics

Applique/collage effects

Cathedral Windows

Hexagons

Rainbows/scrappy

Hand Embroidery

Linen

Not sure what the purpose of the pouch will be - maybe the pattern will choose that for me once I've decided on one. I have several keykalou clutches I'd like to try out, but also there are several basket patterns I've been eyeing lately so something fun like that for my sewing room might be nice?

Who knows - guess I will surprise myself lol.

I may sound insane, but I challenge you all to make something lovely for yourself once in a while - you owe it to yourself to enjoy that creative talent too instead of passing all your cool projects along to partners, family, and friends :)

Will of course keep you updated on the progress of this selfie swap - giving myself until the end of April as a deadline - seems reasonable for a swap, 8 weeks? We'll see how fast inspiration hits! (Not the actual deadling for the PLPSwap since it hasn't started yet - just throwing out a timeline to get myself motivated :))

Longarm Quilting Update

Saturday I have an appointment with a local longarm quilter - my first time, I am so nervous and excited! I realize that I will just be handing my quilt, batting, backing over to her and that will be about it, but I am still beyond excited and can't wait until Saturday gets here!!! :)

Sunday I tried to square up my batting and backing which was a huge pain in the behind on my tiny kitchen table - especially when I realized afterward that both were too small for the 4-6 inches she wanted all the way around (2-3 inches on each side) - BAH. I cut the batting and backing originally so that I could quilt it myself so I only left around 1-1.5 inches on each side, which is more than enough for doing it in my home machine, but not enough for attaching it to a long arm machine.

I was super bummed, ALMOST broke my fabric diet to buy new fabric for the back, found some other backing I could use, and was stewing over the whole thing to my hubby... when I noticed that my quilt almost fits our queen sized bed.

I recently won another honey bun of this fabric so I decided that I am going to add on another row and column and make it big enough for a bed cover. Hubby said he likes it and it isn't too crazy/bright for our bed for Spring/Summer - so that is the new plan for this lovely. I am going to be so excited to have this on our bed for half of the year so it was a blessing in disguise that the backing/batting were too small.

Obviously I have no time to get this done by Saturday tho, especially between this head cold, work, and homework, so I decided to take a different quilt down to the longarm quilter first.

I did add a border after this picture was taken, using this fabric - cut it down to about 4 inches all the way around so it would fit the batting that didn't fit my other quilt:

So now all I need to do is make a backing before Saturday, make sure I give myself 3 inches all the way around, and iron the heck out of that and the quilt top because it has been folded up for over a year!

Crisis averted, I didn't end up breaking my fabric diet, I have a lovely quilt to take down on Saturday and a good plan to make my stripey quilt bigger and better before I get her quilted next month - so all in all I am a happy kid :)

Hope everyone is having a good start to the week!

Head cold is getting a tiny bit better so I think I can still go to our mini-quilt club tonight which is exciting! Still need to make binding and machine sew it onto my mini quilt so I can hand sew it tonight... but I should have time after work without any freaking out ;-)



Heather Ross Stash Love :)

Just wanted to share my latest stash addition of Heather Ross awesomeness. And YES this was purchased BEFORE the fabric diet - I have been good and have not broken that yet :)

Heather Ross - Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries

Love this collection, especially the 2 fish prints - in and out of bags. I have a FQ of the fish out of bags as well as 2/3 of a yard of the fish in bags now - so excited!!!

The pink camper busses are pretty awesome too - I bought the pack for those 3 prints and love love them :)

The other 7 are ok but not my favorites- 4 dots, 1 stripe, the orange and the yellow prints - would be willing to trade if anyone is interested - only looking to trade for Heather Ross prints tho.

And the Etsy shop I purchased this sweet pack from sent along that little piece of pink mermaids from the Heather Ross Mendocino collection - I am totally over the moon excited about this scrap!

That big section to the left is definitely becoming the center of something great - either a quilt block or a pillow, not sure yet! I am leaning towards pillow perhaps.

Happy Monday everyone! Still sniffling over here with lots of eye watering, blowing my raw nose ten million times a day and infecting everyone at work... yay ;-)

A tiny bit of progress and a major headcold :(

I have been totally knocked off my feet for the past 3 days by this awful head cold! This was definitely not a good weekend for it - I had plans for sewing, gym time, homework, cleaning, and and and and... and none of that got done to the extent that I had hoped.

After being completely useless after work Friday and all day yesterday, I was able to battle the headache and general head fogginess.sneezing/sniffling/million times nose blowing and get some sewing done - here is the finished quilting on my For the Love of Solids Swap mini-quilt:

People are still telling me that the grey looks salmon - and I think they are just insane - but please be assured it is GREY with 3 shades of blue, not white and salmon and 2 shades of blue. (Seriously - is my monitor the only one that sees this correctly?!?!)

Anyway, I am super relieved to have the quilting done because I've been stressing over this for weeks without any direction. Hope my partner likes it - she hasn't commented much in the swap at all so I am worried she will hate it, especially since I like it so much! Blue wasn't listed as her favorite color on the swap form, but I used 2 of the other colors she listed and inspiration from her favorites - so hopefully I was not too far off.

On Tuesday my friend from work and I are having a "mini quilt guild" meeting - our very first! My project will be sewing the binding the mini quilt. I need to get the binding strips made and machine sewn on the front so I can hand sew it on Tuesday - as that will probably take me the whole 2 hours of our meeting so I want to be prepared.

Our little meeting stems from the lack of a modern quilt guild around us. The closest one is 90 minutes away up north of Philadelphia and that runs just too late for me when I go to work at 6am every morning. We tried the local quilt guild meeting at the senior center last month and were treated as "funny young pups who are trying to see what this quilting thing is all about" - and definitely did not feel like we could ever fit in or were interested in ever going back. So, we decided to have a monthly meeting of our own to work on our quilting projects and just have fun hanging out together. We will have good company and good food so I can't complain - even tho it would have been nice if we could have found some more people with the same interests at the other guild.

I still need to make a "small item" for this swap and a little extra something for my Pillow Talk Swap and get those both sent off around the 12th of March. I still have a week left, and thank goodness one Sunday left to work on my items since we know that is generally the only day I ever have sewing time. I was thinking of a zipper pouch for both - they are so good for holding crafting supplies and little projects! We'll see what I can come up with when I have some more spare time.

Sick of being sick and wish I had the energy to craft some more today since it is only 4pm. I need to get my quilt top, backing, and batting "squared up" today tho because I am taking it down to the long arm quilter on Saturday - so excited! Nervous that my backing and batting are not big enough tho... should go check on that... if only I could stop sneezing, sniffling, and blowing my nose long enough to do anything! UGH...

***Insert FREAK OUT here. After squaring everything up, my batting and backing is too small - only 3 inches bigger than the quilt top, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. After a lot of that (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh freaking out!!!)... I found another solid backing I was going to use for a different quilt and it looks like I have enough so I'll just make a new backing, cut new batting, and stop freaking out :)
Hope everyone else's weekends were less germ filled than mine and a lot more productive!