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

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

From "I Think I Can" to "All Done"

I have to admit that the I Heart Zines swap turned out to be a very satisfying project.

(my I Heart Zines front cover)
But I had doubts along the way...

The mere size of the zine was somewhat looming--five folded pages/20 sides (I chose a 8.5 by 5.5 format) and did I have enough in my noggin to fill those pages? If I did, how would I communicate my ideas?

I also was feeling some intimidation, without any basis as I don't know who I'm actually swapping with. But, typically, I was sure the other swappers' zines would shine up against my little first attempt:)

Lastly, would I be able to complete 10 copies before the November 13th deadline? I signed up to participate in mid-July...four months = easy peasy...right? But then that little bump in the road, my August hysterectomy, and a few other swaps I signed up for. I'm usually pretty good about timing my swap participation, but perhaps removing one's uterus affects one's wise swapping judgement! Suddenly it seemed that several swap deadlines were falling very close to one another!

(I Heart Zines back cover)
But this is where the satisfying part comes in...I did it! I finished my zine original, compiled 10 copies and popped them into the mail last Saturday, a full six days ahead of the deadline!

I took it one page at a time and focused on that project, not the twenty page project. I wrote about things I know (duh!). It's amazing how easy it is to fill a page with things you know, lol. And I ignored the intimidation, even if it didn't disappear completely...it was my zine--it could only reflect me--and that had to be good enough.

My pages were done in a cut-and-paste style...collaged backgrounds with printed text cut out and pasted onto the backgrounds. That style allowed me to really play with color and pattern and magazine/catalog pictures that I'd torn out and kept in a "I'll use it someday" file.


I included articles about my own discoveries of inspiration for color and creating...and lessons learned:) I talked about a couple of my favorite books and added a few helpful quotes I've come across. I talked about nature and traveling and laundry (yes, color inspiration in your laundry!)...and pinking shears, teehee. I included a copy of one of my smaller mixed media pieces and some quicky instructions for a patchwork pillow that mixes up four different patchwork blocks. And there are a few things tucked in for the other swappers to play with: fabric, ribbon, decorative paper, etc.

When Alma emailed me earlier this week to let me know that my package had arrived, she said some very nice things about my zine and it gave me just enough confidence to share it with others in my Etsy shop.

This is probably a good time for me to thank all of you for your sweet and encouraging blog comments over the past almost two years. It's the give and take of blogging, and the support of one another's artistic endeavors that gives me the push to try new things. What a gift...thank you!!

Marilyn

I Heart Zines Swap

I continue to work on my issue for the I Heart Zines Swap...


...and continue to ponder, "Why am I so slow at cutting and pasting?!" I'm Speedy Gonzales when I'm at the sewing machine. I don't get it.

My zine is very close to being finished and I'm starting to get really excited about the swapping part. I'll be sending my ten copies to Alma Stoller soon. She will swap them and send back ten different zines from other swappers. FUN...yes?

OK, back to work!

Marilyn

Putting the Pieces Together

This week I've been clipping, snipping and dyeing--sounds like a hair salon--and pasting to make Halloween tags for Sarah's Vintage Spooky Tag Swap.


Sarah is going to make tag books from everybody's tags (due 8/28), tying them together with a ribbon...13 swappers, 13 pages...how's that for a Halloweeny tag book?! I can't wait to see it!!

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Here's another fun tag book swap...

Sweet & Sinister Tag Swap

It's still open for sign-ups if you want to jump in!
(Tags aren't due until October 10th.)

You can go here or here to sign up.

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This next picture may quite possibly fall into the same category as watching paint dry...


I'm coming right along on my 1000 piece puzzle. But not without help...second daughter and her boyfriend were here last weekend. The three of us worked on it Sunday morning while Rick was cooking up a delicious breakfast--he's not a puzzle person:) But he is a fabulous cook and I swear he added some magic to our breakfast--we really knocked out a lot of this puzzle after we ate!
(edit - 08/22/09...finished this baby last night--yay!!)

Marilyn

More Guilty Pleasures

Ten days post-op and feeling amazing. Minimal pain and, of course, less energy but I'm not complaining. It's a good time for things like coloring...


I love to color! I especially like coloring books that I can get from Dover and Bellerophon; and also mandala coloring pages that can be downloaded from different sites online.

But I really love my prismacolor pencils!


If you use colored pencils, you know what I mean...laying down color with these is practically effortless and even meditative:)

And puzzles...the dining room table is currently covered with 1000 puzzle pieces. Seeing the table reminds me of my grandparents who frequently worked jigsaw puzzles, although I think they used a card table. Guess they used the dining table for crazy things like big meals or something!


So far, the outside border and the cornflakes box are put together. No rush, it's a process, lol! The part of the process I really like is when I walk by the table, pick up a puzzle piece and magically drop it into its proper place! The part I don't like is having 100 or so pieces that seem to all be the same color--green, in the case of this puzzle!

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The fabric I ordered for my Doll Quilt Swap 7 quilt came in the mail on Tuesday. I'm excited to get started!

Marilyn

Swap, Swap, Swap.....and Swap?

I'm excited about the start of Doll Quilt Swap 7...last night, I received the email with my secret swap partner's name and preferences. Now I can start "stalking" their blog and flickr photostream and hopefully get some ideas about what I'm going to make for them. The quilt is to be mailed by September 15th so I think that will give me plenty of time...famous last words?!

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A swap that I have finished and is ready to mail is the Itty Bitty Book Club "Children's Fairy Tale Book Swap"...




...2.75" by 3.5" cards, twenty two of them ready to send to Mary Ann who will swap them out with the other swappers' cards and bind them on the left side. I think it will be an adorable little book. The deadline for cards isn't until September 1st so I'll have to wait a while...but worth it!

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Here's a sneak peek at the mini quilt I completed and mailed today for the Swap Til You Drop "Summer Lovin'" theme...and how many times did I sing that song while sewing this little quilt?! (heehee)


Laura should receive it early next week so I'll show the rest of it then:)

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Finally, remember the mermaid I made for the Under The Sea Swap? She was waiting for my swap partner, Bairbre Aine, when she returned to California after holiday back home in Scotland. Bairbre Aine named her Mipsy.


Sadly, the little seagirl that Bairbre Aine made for me has not arrived yet :(
She was mailed from Scotland, so we are both hoping that she is just delayed someplace along the way.

Marilyn

Wanna Sneak a Peek?

Today, I finished my creation for the Under The Sea Swap and it is now swimming its way to Bairbre Aine. Here's a little sneak peek...


I can show you more when it beaches itself at Bairbre Aine's. And, on June 19th, Zan Asha, the swap hostess, will be posting a parade of sea creatures from the swap on her blog. I had fun with mine and now I'm anxious to see what others have done. There are some big name doll artists participating so I think it should be a good show.
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Another sneak peek of something I'm not able to say too much about JUST YET...



It's difficult to be so secretive, but it's also impossible for me to not show you some of what I've been up to this week! So I guess sneak peeks are the way to go for now;)
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In other news, I joined another virtual quilting bee group on Flickr. This one is Stash Busting Bee International and is a little different from my other group.

It's the same that each month, we will all make and mail a quilt block to that month's person and by the end of the month she'll have enough blocks to make a whole quilt.

The difference is that instead of each month's person sending out a whole set of fabric for the others to make blocks with, she will just send out a scrap of fabric to each quilter and they will use their own stash to complete the block, incorporating the scrap that was sent.

I think it will be a lot of fun and a creative way to use some of the fabric in the closet and drawers and bags in my craft room. We start in July--I can't wait!

Marilyn