"a safe harbor" mini quilt

"a safe harbor" mini quilt
Originally uploaded by greeneyedsilversmith

this cute little quilt was made as a "thank you" for my contact with the navy's severely injured support program. she has helped me find very worthy and deserving recipients of my QOVs and i think she needs a little something herself.

[A] used to quilt herself, so she knows and loves quilts like we do. she has also helped arrange a little trip for myself and snappy to washington, d.c. very soon. i couldn't be more excited about it and will absorb as much as i can in less than 24 hours.

and this morning when i opened up my email, my orders - yes! i have navy orders! - were right there. snappy is just my arm candy in dress blues. funny enough, some of our other navy friends in the baltimore area are attempting to plan a little gathering while we're there too.

and just in the nick of time, i finished sewing all my swap blocks and did an extra bee block for the november's requirements. all of them are out in today's mail. whew! all before the holidays!

this past month, i was lucky enough to secure a slot to have some camp follower bags made. they're all finished and on their way to me. this is just another thing i'm really excited about lately. and if i get them in time, i'll take them on my trip to d.c. i'm all smiley and giddy this past week...plus really really tired in the middle of it all.

blogger's quilt festival

welcome to the fall edition of the blogger's quilt festival sponsored by park city girl!!

this is my first time to participate in the quilt festival, or any quilt festival for that matter, in any way other than as an attendee. how exciting!! so, i'm bringing you my latest fully-finished quilt and my second ever paper-piecing project.

front view

this mini quilt was made for a swap through flickr's swap til you drop aka STUD group. september marked the first anniversary of STUD's formation and first swap, so many of us chose to do an anniversary themed quilt. we were able to interpret that any way we chose.

i chose to represent several of the traditional and modern 1st anniversary gifts: paper, peridot and gold.

detail of fabrics and quilting

i used a peridot green fabric, accented with "gold" triangles and binding. the main fabric is paper print! it's a travel journal - you can pick out the eiffel tower, the great wall of china and the leaning tower of pisa. how cool is that fabric? if only the store sold it in bolt form instead of a couple rare fat quarters (i bought all of them...). plus, i paper pieced this mini quilt, so there was even more paper for that first anniversary.

well fellow bloggers, i hope you enjoyed seeing my little quilt. i had wanted to show you my wonky log cabin from john's quilt-along, but i had a couple setbacks so it's not sandwiched yet. tomorrow...

MIL's mini quilt - WIP

MIL's mini quilt - WIP
Originally uploaded by greeneyedsilversmith

alright folks.... i said i'd post a picture of my first paper piecing experience, so here it is!

originally, it was only supposed to have the skinny black border and the woven border. but my dingbat self trimmed it to finished size instead of adding the seam allowance. i sandwiched it last night and am using the solid green fabric for the backing and will bind it in the same rust-colored leaf print that is the outer border.

should i add a sleeve/pocket for hanging? or just leave it? i have no idea how she'll hang it or do whatever it is that she'll do with it.

one set of my in-laws live in kansas and literally across the street from a farm. it's gorgeous in the snow - all that unspoiled white to look at from your kitchen window. they also live in a flight path to the nearby airport. AND my MIL works for cessna, my FIL retired from there and works contract work for airplane tire companies. they're plane kind of people, so i embroidered a little plane in the sky. my hubby loves that i did that.

speaking of the hubby... snappy is trying to compare my quilting obsession (after i told him i'm joining the quilt-a-long with quilt dad) with his "love" of paintball. how is that a good comparison?! he shoots people, comes home a paint-covered mess and only has hours of cleaning and red welts/bruises to show for it. i, on the other hand, have tangible works of textile art to hold and wrap around me, to comfort the worthy people and servicemembers and make people smile. hmm.... i'm just not seeing it....

here i go again

so now i think i'm joining quilt dad's wonky quilt-a-long. am i a glutton for punishment?! do i not already know i cannot do as many block swaps and mini quilt swaps this month due to multiple birthday's in my house (must plan 7 yr old birthday party....) and i have oh let's see....2 current knitting projects...1 QOV started... 2 quilt tops that need backs for myself...1 kid's quilt in hoop and sitting next to living room tv.... 1 mini paper-pieced mini quilt for my MIL*... plus a whole bunch of other things, such as finishing my illustration and getting the items together for my etsy shop.

um. yeah.

but maybe i'll use my christmas fabric that i've had sitting in plastic bins (i have more for various things in my storage unit. note to self: check on said storage unit this week since i forgot to cover items on weekend and there is construction to repair hurricane damage...) for the past 5+ years. i've never known what pattern to make in the first place. i have TONS of the fabrics. they're taking up lots o' space. who needs 4 yards each of two color variations of the same modern tree print? me apparently.

so tonight, i guess i'm pulling out the christmas fabric and taking inventory to see if that's what i'm using. i vow not to buy fabric for this one. unless it's backing or binding and i absolutely positively cannot find SOMETHING in my stash that will work.

*update on this paper-pieced mini... i'm a complete dingbat...when i finished it and went to trim it, seam allowances were not anywhere on the brain. until i made that last cut with the rotary cutter. i trimmed it to the finished size. nice. so now it's getting a third border. pictures later.

august STUD inspirations - buildings

august STUD inspirations - buildings
Originally uploaded by greeneyedsilversmith

i'm participating in my first STUD swap this month. i'm excited about this swap group - they're extremely active and everyone seems very nice and funny from what i've read and seen. there's a few people in it that participate in some of my other flickr swap groups, so we're a little familiar with each other. in fact, my swap partner is kristin, who was my very first mini quilt swap partner this summer.

this month, the theme is buildings. i had a plan for what i wanted to do, but i may be changing my mind. looking through the photos on flickr, i found some wonderful inspiration. a wide variety of buildings with their shapes and colors. these are some of them.

what's your favorite building here? i haven't decided on my favorite yet - they're all juicy and eye candy in their own way.

sneak peak for lej619

sneak peak for lej619
Originally uploaded by greeneyedsilversmith

this is a sneak peak at the mini quilt i'm working on for the flickr group 6-12" mini quilts. you can make out a fuzzy safety pin...it's all sandwiched together and i'm debating handquilting vs. machine quilting (attempt) and what design i'm going to put on it.

this mini quilt has a few fabrics that i've used in several big quilts over the years. one of them was used in the first quilt i made for my sister, then in the first one i made for my mom, as well as in a wedding quilt and elliot's baby quilt. too bad i'm getting to the end of the fabric stash of this one - i really like it for a neutral.

is it friday yet?

tidal pool

i've joined a couple flickr quilting groups recently. one for the QOVs and two mini quilts - 6-12" mini quilts and mini quilt in a bag swap. the photo above is of tidal pool and my first ever mini quilt. my partner has gotten it, so i can post pictures now.

detail of fish quilting

i have to say this: i enjoyed making it immensely!! despite the fact that i was severely restricted in sizes...it was fun. a nice and quick break from the big and tedious quilts i've been doing. plus, i embellished it. another first. the inspiration hit and i made it in a single day - how fantastic is that?

a peek....

here's a peek at my next mini quilt done for fanny in round 4 of the mini quilt in a bag swap. she sent me a fat stack of asian charms that she cut so i had multiples of each fabric. i LOVE the red ginkgo fabric. it's bright and stands out beautiful. and it's red. i'll mail it off this weekend, maybe monday. this quilt has another first for me - machine quilting. need more practice, but it's not too bad.

so now....i'm going to work on a quilt for me. shocking! yes...i still have to quilt boo's cat-in-the-hat quilt. the poor boy has been waiting for me to do it and i've had baby quilts and QOVs and then i pieced the dia de los muertos one (which i now have fabrics to make up the backing). in some ways, i'm holding off on the stitching until next month when i can take it with me to hospital waiting rooms for my dad. not that my mom will let me do a whole lot and i should be on the laptop doing work...but that's good distraction for both her and i.

so here's the stack:

what do you think? like it? i love aqua/turquoise fabrics. i'm a huge fan of red and my last duvet as a single girl was a deep cranberry and wine print. my hubby is more earthy, but my love of color is rubbing off on him. our sofa is still red, same with the curtains, chairs and most of my kitchen ware. currently, we have a white and various blues duvet cover from crate & barrel that was a wedding present. i love it, but i the bug bit to make us a coin quilt. at first it was just going to be a big lap quilt to snuggle under. now it's for our bed.

weekend activities

this weekend was pretty productive for me. i took friday off to do a navy family picnic thing when all the guys had to do their PRT and i took my bike to the park. i haven't ridden in 2 years... bad me.... unfortunately, my trusty updated classic was having some mechanical issues on the updated part. a long-time friend decided 2 years ago that i could not keep riding with downtube shifters and installed his old set of STI. i was having issues with the STI - they would only shift to a bigger gear and not a smaller one and with this houston heat, i didn't feel like pushing myself that way. so i got 5 miles in. wow. just a warmup.

saturday was full of chores and running errands, including running into my parents at ikea. we got our new sofa cover and entry way table, lunch, mosquito spray for the yard (not at ikea) and made it back home in time for one of the most incredible hockey games of our time. red wings kicked some serious penguin butt!!! whew! but during it all, i worked on and finished my june swap blocks for the facebook group. this month - baskets. i'm not sure i'm a fan of baskets and especially those on pointe.

yesterday, lots of laundry...yardwork...spraying for the miserable mosquitoes in which they bit us while we sprayed. oh - and worked on my computer several times and went to buy a new power supply and fans. the idiot who decided my last computer was "retarded" and that his computer was better was surely wrong. i've had minor issues periodically, but in the fall when it died and my teriffic hubby opened it up to find 2 inches of dust inside it opened a can of worms. the old "friend" had installed several fans in backwards so it sucked in dust and didn't cool the power supply,etc. too bad we didn't check all the fans in the fall. power supply #2 replaced along with the burnt out fan yesterday.

BUT - i had a fantastic time working on my first every mini quilt!! i joined a few flickr groups, including the 6-12" mini quilt group. originally, the task seemed daunting. do an itty bitty quilt with no direction. (ok - so my other mini quilt is going to be more of a challenge once i get the charms) but i enjoyed every moment of it! so much so, that it's bound and labeled already. i'm thinking of adding a little more embellishment before i ship it out super early. i'd post a picture, but in case my swap partner reads my blog....so i'll do that later.

now - back to the daily grind of the small business.