Block Swaps Update

I'm still having a great time swapping quilt blocks. Every time I join a swap I learn something new. Here is a picture of the blocks I received in the Civil War fabrics Ohio star block swap.




Here is a picture of the Puss in Boots blocks I received:




I'm working on three other swaps, a "scrap happy" swap on Quilting Around the World a mini nine patch swap for block_swappers and a nine inch nine patch for the same site.


There are many good reasons to join a block swap.
Reason one is to try a new color scheme. I tried a new color scheme for the Puss in Boots swap. I had all those colors but never would have combined them myself.

Reason two is to find out more about your stash. In the Scrap Happy swap I learned that my stash was lacking in very dark colors. Next time I shop I will be adding some dark colors to help make my quilts "sing".

Reason three is to try a new block pattern. In the Scrap Happy swap I made a block I've never made before. It's just a simple double four patch, it's a classic, but I'd never used it before.

Reason four is to increase your productivity. Those deadlines really get you sewing.I find that having a deadline makes me more productive. I know that without these block swaps I wouldn't have made as many blocks as I have. When I finish these five swaps I will have enough blocks made to put together 5 new quilts. How's that for productivity!

Reason five is to help you "raise the bar" on your accuracy. I always want to send in my best work so I'm a little bit more careful and accurate when I make blocks to swap. That's a good thing because I know sometimes I get a little sloppy than I'm not happy with the way my quilts turn out.

Can you tell I highly recommend swapping quilt blocks? Head on over to some of my favorite forums and join a swap today, you'll be glad you did.
Quilting Around the World
Block_Swappers
MailBlocks
About.com Quilting

If anyone knows of other block swap sites please leave me a comment.
Also I'd love to hear about your quilt swapping adventures so leave a comment, I'm sure we're all interested in what you have to say.

My Quilting Machine

I hate moving! I want to be quilting, but I can't because I don't have access to my quilting machine. I'm lucky to have a temporary sewing room at my friend's house so I shouldn't be complaining. If you'd like to see the old timer I quilt on check out my webshots album.
by cindynvb
I haven't updated my quilt photo albums in forever, but you can check them out here, Dear Jane
by cindynvband my 2005 quilts
by cindynvb
Here are my 2006 quilts, you'll notice I've used lots of scraps.

Quilts 2006

Obviously I'm a just a little behind on posting my quilt photos, haven't uploaded any pictures since 2006. Also I have at least 130 Dear Jane blocks made, but it takes forever to scan them so I don't know if I will upload any more of them. As soon as I do, I'll let you all know. I love to show off my quilts. Show and tell is my favorite part of my guilt meetings.

Floral Quilt

I'm still not in the mood to challenge myself, but I do feel like quilting. Here's what happened when I dug out a HUGE bag full of 6 inch nine patch blocks that I've collected in block swaps, or made when I felt like sewing but had no project in mind.

Instant (almost) lap quilt! This took me about 4 hours to piece.
It has no borders yet because I don't have a stash to shop right now. It's all packed up waiting for my move to the new house, Sure wish the bank and attorneys would get thier paperwork done so I can move and get my life settled again. Needing border fabrics was a good excuse to go to the quilt shop. You can see by my photo of my "loot" that I did buy a little bit more than just the border fabrics!!

I think having sets of blocks made up is like having a brownie mix in the pantry, much faster than starting from scratch and will always come in handy. I've made 3 other quilts from my bag of nine patch blocks and they're all different.

Here's the last one I made. This was a gift for a friend, Joe Cavana,who has since died. I'm so glad I made this for him, he really loved it and it gave him a lot of comfort.

Having some blocks in the "pantry" enables me to make a comfort quilt up real quick when I need to.

How to save money on QUILTING for long time quilters

Saving money on quilting boils down to three things, use what you have, buy only what you need and pinch your pennies when you do buy. Here’s a list of ways to do just that.

1. Use your scraps. For ideas on how to organize your scraps read this post by Bonnie Hunter.
http://quiltville.com/scrapusersystem.shtml

2. Use those ugly and “what was I thinking of” fabrics for backings.


3. Make a challenging quilt. It will take longer to make the quilt so you fabrics will last longer and you will have fun learning something new and stretching yourself.


4. Don’t buy a new magazine until you’ve used a pattern from an old one.


5. Don’t buy a new pattern until you’ve used one you already have.


6. Join a quilting guild if you haven’t already, you’ll have lots of quilting fun for very little money.

7. If your quilting guild has an auction,donate, attend and bid. The members of my quilting guild donate their unwanted items and most of them are sold for under retail. If your guild doesn’t have an auction, suggest having one. It’s a great fund-raiser and lots of fun.

8. Check out Quilter’s Flea Market, it’s a great place to sell unwanted quilting items and buy some new-to-you things for a less than new price. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuiltersFleaMarket/


9. Shop your stash - see Stashbusters online group for lots of great ideas to use your stash.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stashbuster/


10. Finish your UFO’s and WIP’s. Unfinished projects are a BIG money waster. Remember, it’s not a quilt until it’s quilted!



Please leave a comment with your favorite way(s) to stretch your quilting dollars, we all will appreciate it.

Quilter's Block

I'm still not ready to tackle any large projects, so today I finished a paper pieced star from Carol Doak's book "Fifty Fabulous Paper Pieced Stars". I started making this block two years ago, but I really don't like to paper piece so I set it aside. I like the colors (still) but don't know what I'll do with it, I'm not sure I want to make any more right now.
I think I need something easy and quick to finish. I just finished a king size quilt and I have 2 more king size quilts that I'm working on, but I'm at a standstill right now. They are both ALMOST done but I just don't feel like working on them. I guess I have Quilter's Block. Do you every get that? What do you do to get by it?
The Carolina Crossroads Mystery quilt just needs the borders sewn on, then the machine quilting, the scrappy one patch needs the last 3 rows put together, the border and the quilting. I love the machine quilting part, but hate sewing long seams, so I always have a hard time motivating myself to get the borders on. When I can get away with it, I don't use a border, but both these quilts are so busy they need a plain border so the eye has a resting place. Guess I will just keep working on little projects until I'm more motivated.

Latest quilting projects

Today I'm feeling tired and lazy, but not so lazy that I don't want to play with my fabrics. I'm not up to anything challenging so I decided to make the September community quilt BOM for my quilting guild.
It's a very simple scrappy string quilt.
Here is a picture of four blocks put together.
These look great when they're made up. I made one a couple of years ago on a muslin foundation using red as the center strip. It's one of my favorite quilts. One of these days I'll make another one .