Sunday, November 30, 2014

Patchwork of the Crosses

I love this POTC quilt, made by Sandra White of Ohio! I need to get busy on mine :) I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I can hardly believe it's December tomorrow already!

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Design Wall I

I have mentioned before my "Design Floor", but inspired by my friend Lori's Murphy bed design wall I decided to go for it and try one on our Murphy bed.
I bought the design wall material at the Houston Quilt Festival a year ago and just recently asked Mike to attach boards to either end so when I was not using it, or when we needed to use the Murphy bed it could just be rolled up and tucked away on top.
Mike questioned whether it would be too flimsy and move around too much (there are handles behind it which prevent it from lying flush against the bed). I assured him that it would work just fine!
Well... He was right. Since it moves so much, you have to very carefully (and annoyingly) lightly tap the pieces into place and typically this action causes one or more other pieces to fall off when the whole wall starts moving. What was I thinking? And why does my hubby know more about quilting design walls than me?
Well I had to admit I was WRONG, and ask what his original idea was 😒 , which happens to be a very good one and I think it will work much better. It just requires a bit more work on his part. I must say, he was VERY gracious and didn't even say "I told you so." What a great guy! 😊
Anyway, when we get that design wall put together I will post pictures of Design Wall II.
In the meantime I am going to spend time with my family the next few days and enjoy some Thanksgiving dinner! I won't have time to quilt but plan to get right back to it next week, so I'll keep you posted then!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your loved ones and count your many blessings! Quilting and quilting friends among them 😃

(This is a baby quilt I am working on for one of my son's friends,expecting their first baby in December.)

Monday, November 24, 2014

The Christmas Collection

And last but not least, I have a Christmas collection that I can hang up during the holidays!
Sarajane Goodwin from Washington DC made the pretty blue snowflake in 2005.
Terry Dorman from Wisconsin made the deer postcard in 2005.
Mary Jo Haczewski from Maryland made this wonderful Christmas tree .
And my dear friend Phyllis Davis made this cute little teddy bear in 2005. It arrived in the mail and on the back it says "Arrives with a bear hug, if missing check with mailman." 😄
I love this Santa which was made by Jan (that's all the information I have on this one).
The poinsettia was made by Corinne DuBay from Virginia in 2005.
This wonderful nativity came from Canada and was made by Maggie Robinson in 2005. Maggie and I corresponded by email for quite awhile after the postcard exchange. A very talented lady, it was fun to get to know her!
This beautiful postcard came all the way from Cornwall in the United Kingdom, and was created by Valeri Bennett. I wonder if she is related to Elizabeth Bennett who became Mrs. Darcy? Just kidding....
Well now you've seen my entire postcard collection! It was really fun to do this exchange and I would like to do it again sometime. I think I'll go online and see if I can find one 😊
Have a great day!!

Sunday, November 23, 2014

The Purple Collection


This is my purple collection of postcards.  I usually hang these up in the Spring since I do not have an official "Spring Collection" :)

This one came all the way from Australia and has a cute Koala Bear stamp on the back.  It was made by Carol Batson of Brisbane in 2006.


This was made by my friend Cathy Stewart in 2005 - right here in my home town.
She is the one who got me interested in the postcard exchange.

Linda Lozic of Oshkosh, Wisconsin made this one in 2007.



Sandy DeLaney from Rockville, Maryland made this one in 2005.


This came all the way from Holland - also with an interesting stamp attached!  It was made by Trees Wolffers in 2005.


Lisa Coulombe made this one in 2005.
quilts2wear.blogspot.com




Cyndi K. Meier made this in 2005, it came from Roseville, Minnesota.


Another from Australia (Bracken Ridge)!  Made in 2006 by Heather McKenzie.  (It has the same cute Koala stamp :)



Anyone want to start a postcard exchange?

Saturday, November 22, 2014

The Summer Collection


This is my Summer group of postcards!



I bought this one at the Houston Quilt Festival in 2005 (wow, has that already been nine years ago?)  It was made by Sandy Uman


This one came from Maria Goodwin in 2005


From Winchester, Oregon. Karen Naylor made this one.


Nancy Linz made this one - she said on the back "This is a lovely island in Northern Wisconsin that the family visited this summer."


Making fabric postcards of places you've been is a great idea!


This came from Beverly Hills, Florida, made by Ellen Hines in 2005.



This is another one I made!

I love this one!  It's called "With Liberty and Justice for All" and was made in 2007 by Carol Valenta.  On the back she wrote:

May you always be free... to buy fabric, to make quilts, to buy fabric, to have quilting friends, to buy fabric... etc. :)  Happy Stitching!"

Friday, November 21, 2014

Postcards - The Winter Collection



My St. Patrick's Day postcard came from Barb Lulack in March 2007.


This cute little postcard traveled all the way from Australia and was made by Judith Crawford.


Another postcard from Moira!


A lovely Valentine postcard from Tillie came from Springfield, MA.


An old-fashioned Valentine from Sherida - right in my home town!


Another Valentine from Sue Cox in 2006 - it came from Powhatan, Virginia.


And from Jana in Hoxie, KS.


You can see how much fun it was to receive these.  It makes me want to start another postcard group!

Thursday, November 20, 2014

The Fall Collection


Here are a few more postcards.  I decided to group them together by season and/or color and hang them on a skinny wall with a small hanger.  I used pearl cotton to tie them together.

Here is the group I strung together for Fall.  I will try to say who made each one and where it came from if I still have that information on the back of the postcard :)

This one was made by Moira in 2007.


I actually bought this one and am unsure who made it.


This one was made by Linda Lozic.


This one came from Carol Valenta in 2007 from Greenbay, Wisconsin.


This one is from Fabienne Peter-Contesse and it came from Juneau, Alaska in 2006.


This is one I made.



I am having fun looking through all of these again!

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Fabric Postcards

I haven't been in my sewing room much, but I have been working on hand appliqué, trying to finish up the borders on my TQS block of the month quilt.  I'm getting close!

Since I have nothing to really show in the way of accomplishments this week, I thought I would share some fabric postcards that I made several years ago.


I joined a fabric postcard exchange online and made over 25 postcards to send all over the world and received 25 postcards from all over the world.  It was really fun!  Part of the fun was picking out unique stamps. If I remember correctly, mine were Disney themed stamps.  Then I wrote a message on the back to each recipient and sent them off, just like a postcard.


I used some paper piecing patterns for inspiration on some of my postcards.  Those - like this one - were very time consuming.





The funnest and easiest to make were when I just cut and fused fun designs.  I got this Christmas tree idea from a book on fabric postcards, but on some - as in the pictures below - I just cut shapes and played around with them.


Tomorrow I will share some of the postcards I received.  It was a great treat every time I received one in the mail.

Anyone making their holiday cards this year?