Fun stuff!

I'm not at home this weekend, but I wanted to put up a quick post about fun quilty stuff from this week! I'll post pictures in a few days, maybe Sunday night.

I need to check my mail more often - I got a surprise package from Toni! She had been collecting lots of cute flamingo things, and packaged them up just for me! Thank you thank you! I have no idea how long they were in my mailbox, as I'm bad about going to get the snail mail unless I know something is coming. :D

I went to my sewing bee last night. There was a lady who was a dear friend of one of my bee-mates who recently passed away, and the lady's daughter asked Mary to clear out the woman's quilting room. Mary said there was TONS and TONS of fabric, and she brought a boatload of it to bee last night. We picked out the red, white, and blue fabrics for some Quilts of Valor, as well as some cute juvenile fabrics for baby bundles. After that, it turned free for all. I got probably twenty yards of fabric...free!

I took Jöran in today for his tune-up and bath. :D While I was there, Amber, the girl who sold me my machine, said, "Oh my gosh! I was thinking about you just two days ago, and your group of young quilters that you get together with. Rafaelle here is learning to quilt, and would probably be interested." Raff and I hit it off instantly, and she's super excited about coming to Squad. She's working on her first quilt, a Stack-n-Whack, and is also interested in dyeing fabric. We exchanged information, so I'm going to do my part to keep in touch! Yay for new quilty friends. :D

Practice in Purple

Toni (The Quilting Pirate) will appreciate this one. :D I'm going to use her idea for displaying my little quilts, too! :D

I ordered a few miniature quilt tops from a woman on Ebay for about $10 each. They arrived today, and they're very well made (points, size, lay flat, etc.). I thought it would be a good way to work on specific quilting techniques with minimal hassle - and I'd get a finished product quickly. :D I received my two tops today, and finished the first one. I was working on my stitch-in-the-ditch, which I don't do often (because historically, I've not been good at it) and microstippling. The SITD came out very nicely, as I was using my overcast foot with the little guidebar right in the middle of the foot. That helped a LOT - it's perfect! I also, surprisingly, had NO tension issues with the FMQ. Yay!

Finished quilt. It is 16" x 16":


You can see how the log cabins "pop" out with the denser background quilting with it hanging off the edge of the ironing board here:


Close-up of SITD and fabrics:


Back of quilt (pictures taken before the sleeve or label is put on):


Close-up of FMQ (sorry, it's a little blurry):


This is the other top I bought. I'm still thinking about what I want to work on with regard to quilting it...It'll probably be something FMQ-related, but I'll have to come up with a design just for it. I am going to call this one "Oceans Away!"

Top:


Close-up of the fabrics. There are two batiks and two Fairy Frost fabrics, very pretty!