Orange Challenge

I have been working hard on dufflebags and now I'm waiting for my labels to come to put them together. No bag is complete without a label! Duffles everywhere.


Tonight we have our orange exchange at the Modern Quilt Guild meeting. Oh how I've been looking forward to this. There are 14, 2 1/2" strips in one yard of fabric. Each bag contains 14 strips.  Each bag will be replaced with 14 different strips from other peoples bags. If you bring 4 bags you will take home 4 bags, which is 4 yards. I have seen two of my friends bags and none of us have the same orange fabrics. What are the chances?

MQG Orange Exchange  April 2012

With all these orange strips we do what we want and present it at the June meeting.  Should be interesting.

Until next time, sew happy!

MINI Duffle

I found this fabric online and emailed it to Husband. Lo and behold it arrived in the mail in a few days. It's a MINI (MINI Coopers manufactured from 2002 on) duffle not a mini duffle! He owns a MINI Cooper S and it happens to be red so this was the perfect fabric for this project.

Husbands MINI Duffle April 2012

Classic Mini

Husbands MINI Duffle  April 2012

Husbands MINI

There are a surprising number of older Classic Mini's (manufactured prior to 2002) still on the road.  The twins dad has one that dates back to 1978. It's cool. The steering wheel is even on the 'wrong' side. The Brit's consider the steering wheel placement to be on the correct side!

Friend's 1978 Classic Mini Cooper

While I'm on MINI's and Mini's.... Every year there is an event called A MINI Vacation in Vegas (AMVIV), where MINI's from all over the country drive to Las Vegas for a week of festivities. They are everywhere!  So if you know anyone with a MINI or a Classic Mini tell them to check out AMVIV. The 9th AMVIV commences on June 14, 2012 through June 17, 2012. Check it out here.

Now, back to the charity quilts!

Little Stuff that Makes You Smile

These are so much fun. I need these instant gratification projects between my larger ones. The directions for these little treasures are here. When you make one, go to her flickr group and add your photo. 

Earbud cases  April 2012

I made this zipper bag for Carolyn for pitching in and helping me with my charity quilts. These are some scraps she gave me from a quilt she was making at the time. I learned how to put the fabric on the ends of the zipper so it lays nice. While quilting this I found some interesting scraps and had a wonderful idea. That project is not finished yet but will be soon. I love it when one idea leads to another.


I had so much fun on my Juki I think I will start quilting my zipper bags. Well some of them at least.

Carolyn's zipper bag  April 2012

Have a wonderful weekend.

Fruits of My Labor

I have been working really hard on these quilts. All of these fabrics came from my stash with the exception of the purple and the coral. My friend Carolyn helped me out by making the guitar quilt top. I spent all day Friday quilting it on my Juki. I was very pleased with the outcome. It was pretty hard at first and I realized the table was too high. Lucky me, it was one of those tables that was adjustable and once lowered it made quilting much, much easier.

Charity quilts April 2012

The ones on the right are ready for the binding to be finished by hand. The one with the coral lines still has to be sandwiched and quilted. Amazing what can be accomplished when I'm under pressure! I looked for the top I was going to quilt out of my finished tops to add to make it four but I think I gave it away. It is not in my pile. This may be all I do for now. I will be lucky to get these finished.

Have a happy . . .   

LVMQG Product Challenge

I almost forgot. I worked on this project for so long and couldn't show it because I had to wait for the revel. Our meeting was Thursday so here it is.  This was a project that sounded really fun to me. You pick a product and use the colors on the label to make whatever you want. I was going to be on vacation so I needed to figure out something I could do that could be hand sewn. I love the Dresden plate so that was settled. Looking around the house for a product was not hard once I saw the colors on this bottle. With the pieces cut and sewn together all I had to do was hand stitch the outside and the center circle to the backing. When I returned home very pleased with the work I had done I was surfing our guild site when I came across a Dresden plate done for another challenge. I decided mine had to change so I cut it up, scrambled the pieces and sewed it back together. Here is my little 10" pillow.

LVMQG Product Challenge  March 2012

Since I was on vacation in Hawaii and that is the land of shadow quilting that is what I did, but not by hand.

Detail Dresden plate March 2012

Click on the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild button the sidebar and you can see what everyone else made. The creative things these girls come up with is amazing.


Off to make another charity quilt.

Fear of the Unknown

You know how you put off things that you have never done before because you are imagining your task to be harder than it really is? I have never quilted a large quilt on my Juki before. I have committed four quilts to charity so I finished the top to the first one on Tuesday. As it turned out it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I spray basted it because I have a fear of tucks while quilting. It was a simple design of straight lines but there were no tucks or puckers!

Quilting on the Juki  April 2012

It took me all morning to get the backing ready, cut the batting, layer it and get it spray basted. Now all I have to do is trim and bind it with the purple. They all have to be done and mailed by the end of May. One down 3 to go! I work best under pressure.

Charity quilt #1  April 2012

Here is what I was doing while I was working up the courage to quilt.

Earbud holders  March 2012

They are so fun. Some turned out rounder than others. They can be used as coin purses that can be attached to anything because of the key ring on the end.