Bee a {modern} Swapper

Against my better judgment, I signed up for a year long swap/bee. It looked like a ton of fun so I decided that even though I didn't really have time for it, I'd make time. The sign-ups are closed for this round, but you can always check out the photos and see when the next sign-ups will be HERE.

February is the first month and we are doing a pincushion swap. I have only ever made one pincushion and I hate it. I was so excited about this because I really, really need a new one. I wondered about what to do for my partner. That's the tricky part about swaps; you don't know your partners likes and dislikes very well. They try to tell you a few key things in an e-mail, but mostly you have to do a lot of stalking, ie: sift through their flickr favorites, their blog, their twitter account...

I was looking for online pincushion tutorials and I found this one on the My Go-Go Life blog. I have never made a cathedral window. Never even wanted to. I have always been intimidated by them, but really, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be.

I poked around through my scraps and found some Parisville by TulaPink in there (of course). My partners first favorite color listed was purple so this seemed perfect.

This is where I started. I was pretty pleased with myself at this point because I could see that I was actually doing it!

Here it is finished, before adding the stuffing. I wasn't really happy with it here. It just didn't look right. In the center where the points come together, only one point was correct. I didn't fold the white fabric correctly, I think. I was going to start a new one, but I figured I may as well finish it. So I stuffed it and added a button to the center.

The button completely covered the center and I love the way it looks now! I think this will be a good pinnie to swap, but I'll post it on Flickr to see what my partner thinks before I send it out.

Kids Quilts

A few months ago my husband got a job transfer back to our hometown. All of our family and many of our friends still live there so we were pretty excited when we found out we would be going home. My husband has been living with his parents for the last couple of months and it has been hard to be apart. Originally my plan was to let the kids finish out the school year and we would join him there in June. I promised the kids that I would make quilts for them before the move to help spruce up their new bedrooms. Well, things have not gone according to my plan, and we are also anxious to get settled there and begin our new life. Instead of the 6 months I planned to have, it could be as little as 1 or 2.

I didn't want to go back on my word though. Just because I don't have as much time as I thought I would, doesn't mean I had to give up having new quilts for them. So I decided to go with something extremely simple.

I chose a layer cake (a stack of 42 - 10 inch squares) for each child. I tried to choose ones that matched their style and personality. No cutting was involved in the making of these quilts! So super easy! I simply sewed the 10 inch squares together into rows. I still plan to add borders to make them a bit bigger.

This first one is for my son, Ben. It may look familiar since I just made a jelly roll quilt from the same fabrics for my husband. I thought it would be cute for the two men of the house to have matching quilts. The fabric I used is Reunion by Sweetwater.

This one is for Irene. She is at that age where she loves all things girly and cute. The prints in this line (Farm Fresh) are girly and cute, but not too girly that she won't still love it in a few years.

Alice is a very feminine young lady. I chose Ruby for her quilt. These are all her favorite colors and the prints are perfectly suited to her taste.

Then we a quilt for my oldest daughter, Sara. She loves bright, fun colors and modern design. As soon as I saw Half Moon Modern, I knew it was right for her.

I still have a lot to do to get these finished, but the quilting will be very simple as well so I am confident that that they will be done with plenty of time to spare! These have been so fun to make and I am feeling quite a sense of accomplishment at finishing these tops in just a few days time. Quilts don't have to be fancy to be loved. I know my kids will cherish these always no matter how simple they are.