Alice in Wonderland Tags!!

My package from Karla's "Alice Tag Book Swap"
came in the mail today!

It's beautiful--Karla does such a nice job of choosing tags that look good together.


She also painted the picture of Alice for the covers of all the tag books...and added the little "Drink Me" bottle--cute!

(front)

(back)

From Jessica (Kids Napping? I'm Scrapping!).....


From Cami (Creating Myself).....


From Rochelle (Southern Girl...Northern Woman).....


From Hope (Thoughts of Whimsy).....

(front)

(back)

From Ellie (Ella's Edge).....

(front)

(back)

From Amy (Ruby Moon Designs).....

(front)

(back)

A huge THANKS to all of you for your gorgeous tags!!
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These are the six tags that I made for the swap.....


one for Karla for being a sweet hostess.....


and three for myself.....

because it was such a wonderful theme and I was just having so much fun making them!

Marilyn

Quilts, quilts.....lots of quilts!

First, let me show you the Doll Quilt Swap 8 beauty I received from my partner, Meg (Boutique NutMeg Designs)!


She picked up on my love of Anna Maria Horner fabrics and put them together in such a fabulous way...and doesn't it look great on the warm tan wall in my craft room?!

Meg is so creative...she also sent the cutest notepad and note cards and wrapped them up so sweetly with ribbon and crocheted flowers!


Thank you so very much, Meg!

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More quilts? I'm happy to oblige:)

Lots of Show & Tell quilts from the March 11 meeting of
KC Modern Quilt Guild:



and the February 25 meeting:



After seeing these amazing quilts, I went home from both meetings inspired and ready to sew!

However, I'm currently in the midst of a clean-up, re-organize project in the craft room. Maybe I can rush through that and move on to sewing.....OR maybe I can scoot the craft room stuff aside--I'm an expert at making piles--and move on to sewing! Care to wager?

Marilyn

Craft Day Tea Party Baby Shower...

...sounds fun, and it was!

On Tuesday, Shawn and Bethany and I drove out to Karla's for a craft day with Beth, and Mary (who brought all of us a pack of her French dictionary pages) and


Lauri (who also gave us lovely crafting goodies).

(And the doilies in both photos are from Shawn.)



So why the bunny ears and hats you ask?


Because it was also a Tea Party--an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party--in honor of Karla's Alice Tag Book Swap.


Complete with pretty little tea sandwiches that Shawn made :)


Karla had the table beautifully set...




...and placed a tiny little frozen charlotte doll wrapped in vintage flocked wallpaper at each seat!


The party also honored Shawn who is expecting a new addition to their family next month--she is holding a picture that Karla painted of Bethany holding her new baby brother:)


Even Karla's dog, Twinkle, dressed up for the party!

It was really a special day!!!

Marilyn

Doll Quilt Swap 8 (sent)

Last week, I finished my little quilt for Doll Quilt Swap 8 and mailed it to my partner............

Jo, (sparkly green knickers) in Melbourne, Australia!

Jo emailed me yesterday to say she received it and she loves it. That is always so nice to hear!

**quilt front (21 x 21 inches)**


**close up of the embroidered tree**


**quilt back**

I usually try to make something for my partner that I think they will like. Jo said she likes nature, green and natural tones.....and I noticed in the inspiration mosaic, that she created for the swap, several quilts that included linen and/or trees. I like to use this information for a jumping off point and then work intuitively, creating as if I'm making it for myself. It's much more fun and I think my work turns out much better this way.

I had several fabric strips leftover when I finished the quilt so I used them to make a matching zip pouch (with this tutorial).


And, of course, I felt compelled to fill it with green goodies!


So, now I'm anxiously checking my mailbox everyday, hoping to see a DQS8 package for me in there ;)

Marilyn

February Quilting Bee Blocks...and more

Another month almost over...maybe it seemed to zip by because it's a short one??!

Kinda fun to measure a month with quilting bee blocks though...here are the ones I made for February:

In Sew Connected 2, Doris is making a neighborhood quilt and asked for simple houses and, if we wanted, we could add embroidered details.


Ruth is making a similar quilt, "About Town", in Bee Obsessed.


It's my month :) in Stash Busting Bee International and I've asked for blocks for an I-Spy quilt for the grandbabies! Some really cute blocks are being created.....I can't wait to show them to you when they arrive and I've had a chance to lay them out!

Doll Quilt Swap 8 is wrapping up soon and I'm getting close to being finished...here is sneak peek #2. I'm ready to stack, quilt and bind it and it will be on it's way:)



The second meeting of the newly formed KC Modern Quilt Guild is tonight and I'm very excited--it's such a great group quilters! I think they are expecting twice as many as the first meeting.....how FUN!


Marilyn

Craft Day!

Yesterday was craft day at Karla's with Shawn, Bethany, Beth and Mary...a wonderful way to forget about a cold, dreary day! At craft day, it's our own little world!


We eat lunch at Karla's perpetually beautiful table...


...and the food is always delicious at craft day; we each bring something to share and it turns into an instant feast!

We talk and giggle while we work on whatever projects we brought with us. Yesterday I decided it would be my gluebook...I don't have to think too hard on it or bring a lot of supplies.



(Although.....Shawn, Bethany and I usually ride together and we can pretty quickly load up with lots of crafting supplies...plus our food and other things.)

Sometimes, at craft day, I work on pages for our very casual round robin books, but yesterday I only delivered a page for Mary's that I had done at home...

(front)

(back)

We also talked a lot about Karla's Alice Tag Book Swap...


...and Karla and Beth even started working on their tags (here and here). I think it's going to be a great swap and I'm feeling inspired too--thanks, craft day! (and thanks, Karla!)

Marilyn

Doll Quilt Sneak Peek

I wanted to give you some peeks at my work in progress for Doll Quilt Swap 8....

1.25" strips lined up on the ironing board ready for piecing:


And a few completed blocks with strips of linen mixed in:


There are 161 quilters playing this round and I've seen some amazing little doll quilts so far. The deadlines for mailing are March 1 for international packages and March 8 for shipping nationally. With that in mind, I'd say that in about a month I should know who is making a quilt for me! Exciting!

Marilyn

Happy Valentine's Day!

Smitten? Yep, that's exactly how I feel about this tag book! It's the collaboration of the "Be Smitten" Sweet Tag Swap hosted by Mary Ann McKeating! Twenty-plus pages of Valentine love.....and you can see them all too in a slideshow on Mary Ann's blog.

This is a picture of the tags I made for the swap right before I packaged them up and sent them out...

It was a fun swap---thanks, Mary Ann!!

Rick and I celebrated the day of love with a movie and dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. The food is delicious and the atmosphere is delightful--all of the tables have painted tops, each of them different. This was ours...

...so cool!!

Wishing you much love in your life,

Marilyn

Hoop Up! Stitching

The dreary days and cold nights we're experiencing have at least been good for stitching! Once it warms up (notice I didn't say IF), I won't find myself huddled under a blanket so much and my embroidery will probably slow down.


For now though, Hoop Up! Stitch & Send has been the perfect swap to work on!

I finished this one just today for
Aneela...her theme is Little Girls Playing.


Aneela has a tutorial for a fill-in backstitch that I tried and really liked!

For June's theme, Baby Girl Loves, she sent out white fabric to some members in our group and pink fabric to the others to embroider on. I was excited to receive a pink piece--it was really fun!


June is going to use the stitched pieces to make a quilt for her 3 year old daughter...won't that be cute?

I think I showed this one in it's beginning stages, but now it's finished too...it's for Marianne. Her theme is Found in an Oriental Garden.


She is also going to make a quilt, to use as a wallhanging, with her stitched blocks...this is a photo of her own embroidered block and the fabric she's using--lovely!

Thanks for letting me share my stitching with you. In my next post, I hope to share some photos of work-in-progress for Doll Quilt Swap 8. I have my fabric and I have a plan so it's time to start cutting and sewing!

Marilyn