Doll Swaps and Boomerangs

For a few months now I have been a frequent visitor to The Quilting Board site. I actually have become a huge fan!  There are so many quilters of all levels that post, ask questions, share tutorials, make comments and show off their lastest masterpieces.

There is a topic section for Exchanges and Round Robins, etc.  I decided I would try a doll swap in September and had a great time!  The theme was "black n white with a splash of color"
Here is my creation with an added 3D touch!  Don't look if you have a fobia of spiders.

I entered in our county fair and got third place in small quilts catagory.

Here is the doll quilt I received from my partner.

I had just bought the little green desk caddy earlier in the day right before I received my doll quilt in the mail.

How cool is that match!  I didn't even share any color requests with her.

After this I couldn't wait to do the October doll swap. I have had many other projects going on so I just finished this months and mailing off tomorrow to my partner who has also become a new good friend.

We have discovered we have many things in common and our personalities match !

Here is my creation for Nanci. I hope she likes it!

I tried my hand at some thread painting.

In some of our conversations, she mentioned she loves horses and has always wanted one...

Well now she will have a small one!

One other thing I have gotten into at The Quilting Board and that is a Boomerang 6 Swap.

I had no idea how much fun this would be when I signed up!

This is the sixth swap that they have done and this is my first.

Are are assigned to a group of quilters and then you send a Fat Eighth piece of your choice fabric

to each of the other members.  They in turn will create a block of their choice and mail it back to you.

So in the end you will end of with a variety of blocks with your fabric in each blocks along with

what ever fabrics they choose.

I am in a group of 16 including myself.  I choose a variety of western fabrics that I had purchased here and there.

Here are the blocks I have received back so far. I just love them and can't wait to see them all and make ME a new quilt!

Now here are the blocks I have made for others and mailed back!

Getting envelopes in the mail daily or almost daily is really quite fun!  We call them "Squishies"
I can't wait to get more blocks completed and mailed and received more finished ones for MY quilt!
And YES  this will be my new quilt for my bed.  It is about time I made me something!  lol

Been WAY to Long!

I have been side tracked and not keeping up with my blog.  I really enjoy this so I'm not sure why I have let it slide this long.  So this post will be a quick kinda catch up on things I've been doing.

I just what has taken me away from blogging is my new found love of The Quilting Board.  I have had so much fun commenting, posting and joining swaps.  If you haven't tried it, you gotta!  You find new friends, new ideas, links and resources and share information and knowledge.

Right now I am doing the October Doll Quilt Swap.  I have a partner who I will create a doll quilt and send to her and she will create one and send to me.  I have to figure out what I will be creating yet.  In Sept, I the theme was Black n White with a splash of color.  Here is the one I made for my partner.

Yep! I won a third place ribbon for it in our county fair!

The one below is the one I received!  Kinda fits perfent in my sewing room!

The boomerang swap I'm doing is with 15 others across the states and the world!  Really!  I have a partner in Ireland, Austrialia and Canada!  How cool is that.  What we are doing is we each send a fat eighth to each member in our group.  So we will receive 15 F8 in the mail and then we are to create a 12.5" block for that person using their fabric and our stash.  I choose brown western style fabric that I have been collecting here
and there.  I plan to add to my 15 blocks I receive back and make a new bed quilt for me!  I will have to add to it but I still have plenty of fabric.

So far I have received 6 pieces from others and created two blocks so far.  I will mail these back tomorrow.

The blue fabric was sent to me.

The BUG fabric was sent.  I just love that fabric.  This will be put in a

Project Linus Quilt.

I have a niece in Oregon that is expecting her first baby time 2!  Yep it is twins girls.

So here are the two quilts I am working on for her! 

I need more yellow to add the border to the pink/purple one.

This one the top is done.  Both quilts are the same pattern and different fabric

except I am using fabric from the other quilt for the borders.  That way the both have something the same!

 Both quilts have this fuzzy wuzzy bear in the center!

Here is another little mini I created from a pattern in American Patchwork & Quilting Magazine.

I got a second place ribbon in the fair!

I just love this little ditty!

Here are a couple of other things I won ribbons for.

Our Golden Comets hens lay some pretty brown eggs.  Notice the basket liner??? yep it's quilted!

Here is a picture I took last winter one night!  The glass cracked on the way to the fair!

I have been practicing my hand quilting on these pieces on my version of a Hawaiian quilt.
I will put these pieces together with more and hopefully make a full quilt .... One day!

Here is a baby boy quilt I made for my boss's new son! They are

big motorcycle people!  I have it on good word that he loves his new quilt!

Here is what I call "Watermelon Squared" 

It is a Bento Box pattern I discovered on the Quilting Board!

I bought some of the fabrics in Atlanta at the Quilt Expo with my Sister!



Well that's about it for now!  Feels great to be back blogging!

Local Quilt Show

This Weekend Lake Norman Quilt Guild  held their "Sailing On A Summer Breeze" quilt show in Mooresville, NC.  It's been awhile since the last local show and I was ready to go see some Inspirations.
If you click on the link above you can see some behind the scenes photos of getting ready for the show and of the judging.

Over a year ago or more, my hubby and daughter bought me a new camera mainly for me to take to quilts shows so, of course, I had it with me today.  I began taking pictures of the quilting in some, the colors in others and patterns that I really liked.  Well then all of a sudden..... DEAD BATTERIES!   WHY!  Seem like those batteries last forever but never die when you are just taking a picture of nothing special!  UGH.
Note to self.... change camera batteries before quilt shows!  Note to vendors at quilt show... SELL BATTERIES!  lol

I have been a fan of Susan Brubaker Knapp and her wonderful art quilting.  She happens to be a member of the Lake Norman Guild and I was Thrilled to see so many of her pieces at the show, up close and personal!
I have seen many of them online, but to actually see the real piece... amazing!
Here is one of her lastest and one of my favorites.

Well before my camera died, I did get a few other pictures.

My daughter is wanting a new quilt in purples and greens. Looks like a good combination.

This one was just...wow!

This one looks really fun and easy. I would like to do one in bright colors.



I'm not a pink fan really, but I do like stars!

I think the colors contrasts really make this work.

Just about the time my camera died, I came across this small wall hanging, so

I had to use my iphone to get the picture.

This received a Third Place in "small pieced" catagory.

I was kinda suprised when I saw it because....

Here is my version of the same wall hanging!

How Cool is that?  I did enter this in my county fair and did win a first place

ribbon in the "wall hanging"!  This isn't a great picture of it, washed out looking.

This does hang in my office at work!

Here is a link to a few more pictures I took.

LakeNormanQuiltShow

Just gotta brag a bit....

Brag on my baby boy!

My son Nathan has been rediscovering all his talents lately.

He has a natural talent for the gift of music and has taught himself

to play guitar, harmonica, mandolin, and now violin or fiddle

depending on what part of the country your from!  lol

He has just started trying his hand in oils and canvas too.

Lately he has gone back to younger days and started drawing and using a pencil

and sketch book (electronic style)

When he was little he would draw stick figures and make all the sound effects to go with!

About a month ago Nathan posted pictures on his facebook page saying he was going

to keep doing this until he gets it right!  Then he said that he hope to do a

children's comic book somehow. He is a kid at heart and always will be! 

Here are a couple of those pics.

The other day he posted about sixty pictures he has recently drawn.
As his Proud Momma, I loved them all!

You can see by these he doesn't have just one style.

Here is one I just fell in love with!  It is just so fun and whimsical.

Begin a quilter, I see things and think FABRIC!

So I just had to create this little guy from my stash!

Not having that artistic gene my son has, nor having much experience

in thread painting, and this type of quilting, I think I did pretty good. 

I did goof up on his eyes but it's ok.

All I know is I had a great time putting this together. 

I posted it on my facebook page

and Nathan thought it was pretty cool!  So all is good.

I hope y'all didn't mind my bragging on my baby boy just a bit!

Hopefully some of these drawings brought a smile to you

as they do for me!