Valentine's Socks and Candy Swap

Yea! I have a swap partner for sock's and candy! Swap-bot is a place to enjoy swapping a variety of fun things. This will be my first swap with this group. I have excellent ratings with my eBay transaction, Amazon transactions, and Etsy Transactions.

The Valentine's Sock and Candy Swap is just what it says, you get a partner that you send socks and candy to, then you get socks and candy in return. I've already purchased my socks and I can't decide on a candy (there are just so many cute one's available), hey it's Valentine's!

I just love "Cute Socks", and who can resist CANDY!

This is what I'm sending out.

I'll show you what I get in return.

I can't wait, I'm just so excited!

Pay It Forward 2011

Something FUN that is happening on Facebook is Pay It Forward 2011. Someone posts a message then 5 others agree to receive a gift then post:

Pay It Forward for creative people: I promise to send something I'll make myself to the first 5 people who leave a comment agreeing to pay it forward! They must in turn re-post this as their status. Items must be made by you personally and they must be received by your 5 folks in 2011! Whatever you want to share with others! Painting, sewing, cooking, photography, etc...

I'm one of the LUCKY ones. I've already received my gift. I'm working on my gifts and hope to ship them out by the end of February. It is SO much fun. The goodies have to be made by the giver. That's always fun.

Over the years I have jumped into all kinds of crafting. I received 2 beautiful candles that smell absolutely Divine. These are one of the crafts that I have NEVER tried.

Now I'm ready to hit Hobby Lobby to give this a whirl! Look at how pretty these are.

I just want to enjoy the way these these smell, I hate to use them up!

Heart Blocks

Well I decided to make a Valentines Door decoration so I took one block. Now I have thirteen to use elsewhere. I would love to take at least twelve blocks and add different fabrics to make an even scrappier quilt. That means I will need to do something with the extra heart.

I used a nice beige backing because I just hate to use really pretty fabric when I know something will be used as a wall hanging.

One thing that's always makes me feel good, are the very nice comments from the kids at school. The children always think my quilted wall decorations look good and drop by to tell me and get a hug.

Being a School Nurse and getting hugs throughout the day is so amazing.

Long Arm Quilter

Has anyone else ever sent a Quilt to a Long Arm Quilter...I'm sure they have, this is my first. I spent a few hours last night getting my quilt pressed, sandwiched, and folded for mailing. I worked hard to make sure I followed ALL instructions. I will drop my quilt off this afternoon at the Post Office. Whew...I feel like I'm sending a child off to school. I will update the progress on the quilt. I have thought long and hard about finding a Long Arm Service. I like to make really big quilts, but I am the person who has to quilt them with a Huskvarna Sapphire Machine ( nice big bed, but still a tough job). I can do the quilting but I am so limited and what I can do. If this works out. I hope to be able to send out at least 1 quilt every 6-8 weeks. I had to admit, I have a few quilts tucked away, just waiting on me to quilt them. The service I picked was Adopt-A-Quilt on eBay. Wish me LUCK.

Heart Blocks

This weekend with the ice storm that was suppose to be approaching the area, Selma AL, I made Heart Blocks. I really enjoy making blocks for my quilting. I love vibrant colors as much as muted tones. I wanted to work on something with no deadline and no pressure. I have made these blocks in the past all in Blue and White. This time I wanted to use scrapes and just piece and play with my fabric.

What is it about fabric running through a quilters fingers that just makes you feel so good?

I know I included Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, Heather Bailey, and several other designers.

All BEAUTIFUL!

Fortunately the big storm missed my area but work was canceled on Monday, January 10, 2011.

But can't say I didn't enjoy playing in sewing room...

Each heart is completely different.

To achieve complete random piecing, I stick all of my 2 1/2 inch squares in a basket and just keep going until you run out of fabric.

I wish I could say I used up a lot of my stash...but no, I just can't do it.

 

 Completed blocks measure 10 X 10

I made 14 blocks, now what should I do to use these? I would love to make a quilt, 12 blocks with a pretty border, then maybe a mini-quilt or two. These would be GREAT blocks for a mini-quilt.

I have a T-Shirt quilt that I will start on next week that needs to be completed soon, but I wanted to wait until after my son went back to College. After he does that, things will get back to normal around here. Whatever normal is.

What a wonderful Christmas we had at my house. As always Santa was good to everyone! Here is the completed quilt I worked on right up to the day before Christmas...

A Dressmaker's Quilt

As always a beautiful quilt is so hard to sell or give away. This quilt top was made over the summer but was not completed right away. I needed backing and could not decide what to do with the quilt. I had two or three people who were interested and I wanted to decide which backing was going to be used. I always love to pick out the backing. There are so many choices it's a tough decision.

My brother dropped by my house in early fall and asked what I planned to do with this quilt. I didn't think a lot about it until my Mom called and told me she wanted to purchase it for him for Christmas. I told her fine, I would get it ready.  I had to complete two baby quilts for my niece's before I work on this quilt. I quilted this with small swirls. It came down to the wire. The week before Christmas with orders coming in every day on Embroidery work and making sales on my Etsy shop, I worked every day, all day long and into the night. completing this quilt the day before Christmas.

It turned out as expected, BEAUTIFUL!

I ended up not getting this posted as quickly as I had hoped. Unfortunately I came down with the colds that were going around here at Christmas time. I had planned on going to see to beautiful niece's born in November and December, but I didn't want to share my cold with them.

I celebrated the sale of this quilt by ordering the KitchenAid 600 Professional for myself. It arrived today...yeah! Now I want to run to the grocery store and buy something that needs to be mixed up...I just can't decide what to get. Here is my perfect new mixer

Now what to make...if anyone has some really good mixer recipes I would love some.

Tomorrow I'm back to work as a school nurse. Oh well the fun two weeks off had to come to an end at some point.