MQG Mini swap

 I can't believe this is the sixth year I've participated in the MQG Miniquilt Swap! It's fun to swap at Quiltcon each year and make a new quilty friend. That was the plan this year but again (still?) Covid got in the way and my partner is choosing not to make the trip. I get that! Did we let that stop us from fun? Heck no! Betty and I decided to FaceTime and swap our quilts live as soon as they both arrived. We were able to do that this week. 

My quilt got to Betty in California right on schedule. I made her a variation on my Welcome to my neighborhood quilt.

She seemed really happy with it.... whew! And here's the incredible improv quilt I received from Betty...

I love EVERYTHING about it! The beautiful colors, the improv, the incredible curves.... Betty nailed it! She also sent me this amazing mister which I immediately filled with water and put to use!

How do I always get the most amazing swap partners? Seriously, I am the luckiest person on the planet. Betty I'll miss you next week..... hopefully we will get to meet in Atlanta next year!

MCKMQG Scrap Jar

 My guild, the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild started a fun tradition a year or so ago. We have a big jar full of scraps. Every meeting, one attendees name is drawn and that person gets to take the jar the next month. They make a fun small item from some of the scraps, refill it to the top and then pass both the jar and the item on to the next person drawn the following month. It's been fun to see the cute little items everyone has made.

Finally, in May, my name was chosen! I won a darling tiny flying geese magnet made by Stephanie. When I picked up the jar from her, I went home and immediately dumped it upside down on my floor. I had so much fun digging through the scraps and finding colors that spoke to me.

I'll bet you're wondering what I made. Potholders! I added some insulbright that I had on hand and pieced a couple of improv log cabins with the scraps. 

The other day I dropped them off with my friend Chris who is going to make something fun for June. Scrappy is her jam so I'm sure whatever she makes will be lots of fun.

Pin Cushion Swap

 When Lissa announced she was hosting a pin cushion swap I was all in! I love cute pin cushions and I love swaps! It was the perfect storm for me.....

Here is the pin cushion I mailed off to Colette (@rcwfam). She has received it and seemed to like it! I used lots of my Liberty scraps to make it, some I had bought at the actual Liberty store almost 9 years ago! I made it using this tutorial from retro mama's blog.

And I was so happy to receive this beauty from Tamara (@daisy.creates). I love the little pocket to store my scissors!

Such a fun swap! Lissa says she has more swaps brewing and I can't wait to participate in them too.

MQG Mini Swap

Tonight, Quiltcon Together begins with the awards ceremony and I'll be zooming with quilty friends during the webcast. It's the best we can do during these strange times. 

One of my favorite parts of Quiltcon each year is the mini quilt swap. Participants are assigned a partner and make and swap minis during quilt con. This is my fifth year participating and I have beautiful minis from all of my partners hanging in my house and have formed strong friendships with my former partners. Of course that looked different this year too!

My partner, Kathleen, and I have actually "known" each other for a while now on social media, which was a first for me! We decided to do our swap over zoom, saving our unopened packages to open together. What fun! Of course an in person meeting complete with hugs (will we ever be allowed to hug again?) would have been best but in a pinch, this was a good solution. Hoping we can meet up at Quiltcon in Phoenix next year.

 I just adore the beautiful mini Kathleen sent to me! It's all solids (my favorite!) and the colors she chose really sing....

It's already hanging in my studio and makes me smile every day!

And here is what I sent to Kathleen....

 Also solids,  a different version of my funky dresden which she seemed to like. 

So Quiltcon Together is off to a fabulous start for me! Will you be there? 

ornament swap

Every year the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild has a great ornament swap during our December meeting which is a fun Holiday party. Of course, this year looked much different. Our party was on Zoom, so there was no stealing of ornaments. boo. that part is always fun! Instead, swappers signed up ahead of time. The Saturday before our meeting, swap fairies flew all around the city and swapped out the packages that had been left by the front door of each member's home. Then we waited until our meeting on Tuesday to open up our packages.

I ended up swapping ornaments with Kacey, a fun new member of our guild. I found this cute squirrel ornament pattern in a recent quilting magazine and had everything I needed to make him. Kacey seemed to like him!

Meanwhile, I received this beautiful hand embroidered holiday hoop from her. I just love it! Such beautiful handwork.

This meeting also marked the end of my two year term as president of our guild. The time really flew by! I had so much fun leading our guild with incredible board members alongside me. Now I get to be a regular member and be surprised every month by the fun activities. 

variations on Geo Pop

 When my friend Jayne, over at Twiggy and Opal started sharing her Geo Pop pattern in different variations, I decided to see how small I could make one! I pulled out some of my solid scraps and made this citrussy version...

Each block is 1 1/2" finished so the mini finished at 9"x12". pretty small but, of course, Jayne made a smaller one hahaha, which you can check out on her instagram.

Our Improv small group is doing a placemat swap. In August I needed to make a placemat for my friend Anne who had chosen pink and green. I enjoyed making the Geo Pop so much I decided to do a variation of it for Anne...

This one measures 12"x18".  Anne brought me this placemat (my chosen colors are black and white)

I love it! It will be fun to collect different placemats from my friends over the next few months.

Of course I didn't stop there with the Geo Pop quilts. A new great niece was on the way (she has since arrived and her quilt has been delivered). I thought a pink baby sized quilt was in order.

I quilted it with a simple grid on my domestic machine. 

Can you tell I really love this pattern? Jayne really hit it out of the park with this one!

house swap quilt

Well, I just realized I never wrapped up my saga of all the house blocks! House blocks were swapped, and I adored every single block I received from my friends (people, there is an advantage to being in charge of a swap! YOU GET FIRST PICK! although I will say, every single block turned in was a masterpiece so it was a win/win situation). The blocks only spent a few days on my design wall board and I was off and running. I added some low volume rectangles to stagger my blocks but there was still something missing. If you know me well, you know what that something was. WORDS! Improv letters were quickly in the works and added as two borders (because, assymetry! ha!)

Oh, yes, I did add in a little red car to represent my RAV4 (named James) because it's my quilt and I do what I want, so there! It was quickly quilted up with a walking foot grid on my Janome and bound with a tiny low volume polka dot. I quite love this finished quilt and need to find an empty wall to display it (not an easy feat in this house!)

Also, why have I never thought to photograph quilts on this pretty stone wall on my front porch? I wish I could leave it there but unpredictable Texas weather does not allow for that. sigh.....

my little house quilt finished up at 34" x 36".

again with the houses...

I'm having great fun making houses! I'm up to seventeen for a swap (only swapping 15, but I can't stop making!)

These are all 6 inches finished. I got to thinking.... what if I went smaller? So I made a 3 inch house and that didn't feel tiny enough, so I did one that finishes just under 2 inches....

what exactly does one do with such tiny houses, you ask?

why, you make teeny tiny pin cushions of course! yes, I may be going a little crazy around here.

Just when I thought maybe I was nearing the end of my house making phase, I received the June prompt from Jessica for the Solid Seven..... guess what she wanted? HOUSES! woohoo, I've gotten quite good at those..... I got right on it and whipped up three houses and a tree, black/gray/white per her request, with print (GASP!) thrown in for fun. I absolutely cannot wait to see her finished quilt!

you haven't seen the last of houses from me, but I promise to bring you something else next time. 

houses

Last week I was inspired by my friend Jayne once again. She was cranking out little house minis and they were so darling! I downloaded her Heart of the Home pattern, and made this mini for a friend's birthday...

This one is the 8" (largest) version of the pattern. I had so much fun fussy cutting the windows. I'm pretty sure that is hubby in the window, sweeping the kitchen floor while I am off in the sewing room!

My friend, Diann, had also gotten hooked on house blocks and said to me, "let's do a swap!" Well you know me! I'm all in.... and we rounded up some more local friends to swap with us. We are making 6" houses and I added a couple more FPP patterns to my collections (from center street quilts shop). So far I have 9 blocks made to swap.

I can't think of anything better to celebrate these days than home sweet home! I hope you all are staying well.

Quiltcon Miniquilt swap

Hello Friends! Here I am fresh out of the car from Quiltcon..... laundry going and ready for a nap. Seriously. This was the most exhausting, crazy fun weekend I've spent in a long long time. There is much to process and share, but today I thought I'd talk a bit about the mini quilt swap, which I entered for the fourth time this year. And look at this incredible beauty I brought home with me....

Tish from Toronto made this for me and boy did she hit the nail on the head! I love it so much. And.... she gave me a huge bag of treats from Canada; a Starbucks mug, some adorable fabric, a jug of maple syrup and more! Thank you Tish! Here's the mini I made for her...

It was wonderful to meet up with her and swap in person...

Wouldn't this be a great day to reflect on previous quilt con swaps? Last year I was paired with Julie....

Julie's amazing improv mini hangs right over my ironing station and I think of her often when I see it! The year before I was matched up with TziTzi ....

clearly we love the same colors! TziTzi was a newish quilter when we swapped and it's been fun to watch her evolve into a very accomplished quilter. 

The first year I swapped, I did not go to Quiltcon, but swapped in the mail. Back then they were not pairing us off. I made this for Sandi....

And received this gorgeous quilt from Jane...

This one hangs right by my front door. Jane and I have since met and become dear friends. I was delighted to spend a good bit of time with her this year in Austin.

Have I been a lucky girl or what? I can't wait to swap in Atlanta next year.

MCKMQG basket swap

A little catch up post here! In the fall, the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild had a basket scrap swap. We've done these scrap swaps before, with baskets and pillows (twice!) and they are fun! Each participant brings a ziploc bag full of her own scraps. Then we fill out information sheets, how you'd like to use your basket etc. and we swap bags. You take home the bag you receive and make a basket for the original scrap owner. FUN! This time I got Alice's scraps. Let me tell you, she gave me enough scraps to make a dozen baskets!

Here's the basket I brought her at our December meeting. It's quite large. I filled it with some smaller baskets and some of her favorite snacks.

Catherine had my scraps. I had put all Christmas scraps in my bag and requested a basket to put our Christmas cards in. She nailed it!

She filled it up with goodies too. The same night we had a handmade ornament swap. I received the sweet spool ornament... from Alice! It was a full circle kind of night. Here are the ornaments I brought...

We each brought one ornament to swap and one to donate to Meals on Wheels. It was a really fun night of swapping!

Mugrug swap

McKinney Modern Quilt guild just finished a Mugrug Swap with the North West Arkansas Modern guild. What fun! We were each assigned a partner so we knew who was making for us. I was assigned Elizabeth  and I was so excited when I saw how fun her work it. Earlier in the month, at our October meeting I received this beautiful mug rug....

I had told her about my love of red & aqua/teal and that I also love music. The dresden love? Either she got that by snooping on my feed or she guessed, but it's all spot on! I really love love love it!

Elizabeth said she loves teal, rainbows & cats. Here's the mug rug I sent to her (which she received this past week)...

She seems to like it, so I'm happy! It was such a fun swap.

Birds!

A couple of months ago, a beemate of mine made 2 adorable bird quilts and when I asked about them, she steered me to a free tutorial! So I made a bird.

And I really enjoyed it! so I made another.

And another, and another, and another...... another beemate said "let's swap a few birds!" and I thought that was a great idea. Before I knew what was happening, 14 ladies were signed up to make birds to swap with me as their fearless leader! YIKES! (check out our hashtag, #birdswap2019)

By the end of May (yes, ALL 14 ladies sent their birds ON TIME!) I had a huge collection of birds on my design boards ready to swap....

152 birds, if I'm counting correctly. And they were ALL fabulous! I sent them flying off to their new homes and set to work on my own bird quilt.

Back when I posted my first few birds, my friend Martha said they had her singing "Come on Get Happy" by the Partridge Family. Remember that song? and it's cute bird logo? Well that was all the inspiration I needed! I used Heather Givens (Crimson Tate) Noteworthy pattern for the improv letters. I love her pattern! 

My Get Happy quilt fits perfectly with my word of the year.... JOY! It was quilted by my friend Diann of Happy Quilts with whimsical music notes and I absolutely love it! oh, and the upside down bird? yes it was intentional. 

As if that wasn't enough, for my Fifth Saturday Challenge project for Not Your Mama's Quilt Store I had to make more birds....

whew! now on to the next rabbit hole! stay tuned

bunny bags

The McKinney Modern Quilt Guild was having a bunny bag/basket swap at our April meeting. When I saw this pattern at QuiltCon, I knew it would make the perfect bag! First I made the pink one on the left, as a gift for a friend. Then I found some leather cording I had bought a while back, and made the turquoise polka dot bunny for our swap. The cording worked great! Both of these were filled with little sewing treats.

Then I decided I should probably make one for each of my grown kids and pop some Easter candy inside. My bunny bags began multiplying like rabbits!

In the end I made seven. My oldest daughter was visiting friends for Easter weekend and I couldn't very well send her one and not send one for each of her friends, could I?

These were a fun little make, quick to do and used up fabrics from my stash.... bonus! Hope you all had a Happy Easter.

MQG Mini quilt swap

This was my third year entering the MQG Mini quilt swap. Since I attended Quiltcon this past weekend (more posts yet to come on that!) it was a highlight for me to meet my swap partner Julie. This is the quilt I made and took to her. It was designed by Jayne of Twiggy and Opal, who graciously shared the paper piecing template with me! Bonus.... I got to meet Jayne this weekend too!

We chatted for a long time and I loved finding all five (yes! FIVE!) of her quilts in the show. Here's my favorite....

Anyways... back to the swap! I met up with my partner Julie and we were both a bit giddy...

I'm happy to say, she loved her quilt from me. And I absolutely adore the one she gave to me!

I can't wait to head home and hang it in my studio!