Wow, this seems like a fun thing! I hope it's ok that answer the most recent one I found :)
1. Have you ever participated in a Mystery Quilt project?  No, but I'm about to! 
2. What concerns do you have with doing a Mystery Quilt? I've been hesitant because what if I don't like it when it's finished?
3. Have you ever finished a mystery project (share picture, pretty please?)  Does going on a treasure hunt, or a mystery hike, count?
4. Do you enjoy reading mystery genre books? Yes, especially ones with more suspense and less gore, and especially ones with quilts or other textiles in them.
5. Do you like surprises? Yes!

Hi Calico Cats! I've finally found out why folks use LJ so much - all the people. I think this is my first post here, and I hope it's ok if I dive right in. I recently bought a box of OLD quilt blocks at a tag sale for $5-the-box. O.O!! These are the pieced blocks - I'll post about the truly weird stuff next.

There are 30 Spiderweb blocks. The ones at the top are closer to the window, not faded.
They are all very crisp, with perfect handstiched seams. They are about 10" point-to-point.
( More pics... )

I just posted Part One of the pictures from the NJ Quilt Convention if you want to take a look. More to come when I get the time to process the pictures.
http://pds-lit.livejournal.com/158474.html

I had my first encounter with a longarm machine this afternoon. Friend Cheryl gave me a lesson on her Gammill and then set me loose on the baby quilt I finished the other day.

Now, no laughing! This is my first ever attempt using a longarm machine and it is by no means perfect in any way, shape or form. But it did turn out funky and oddly different. :)


While I was at Cheryl's yesterday she would clean out the bobbin area of the long arm with this.



Do you know what it is? I of course, started to laugh. Just goes to prove there are always multiple uses for things. LOLROF!

I'm hosting my first giveaway at my blog,
so come over to comment and maybe, just possibly, win!

:D

x-posted

Here are my latest two finishes. I have about five more in the works, as my friends seem to be procreating at an alarming rate. I bought a bunch of the same fabric in three colorways, and the pink is still sitting uncut - nine boys in this baby batch. The lone girl quilt is for a coworker who I did one for on commission. So expect to see a few different versions of the frog quilt in the next few months!

( Pictures and descriptions! )

I gave my first two completed quilts ever yesterday to two soon to be parents of twins (a boy and a girl). The soon to be new father has been friends with my boyfriend for over 20 years.

They twins nursery has had a monkey mural painted in it, so what better than monkey quilts.

I just can't believe I actually got them done on time. They are totally machine sewn and while I would have liked to have at least done some hand quilting, I just didn't have the time. I had a couple of really really late nights making sure these were done in time for the shower.

Now I shall spam all of the quilting communities I belong to, so sorry in advance if you see these a zillion times.

( Lots of Pictures )

Is anyone else participating in the online quilt festival?

If so, please post your links here - I'd love to see what our community is doing!

This is mine:

Bloggers Quilt Festival.

Even if you don't participate, you'll more than likely want to see all the entries, so you should definitely check out the festival - over 300 entries!

Looking forward to seeing what you're all doing!


xposted

So, we have no tag for tags, and I have a question for you all:

How do you tag your quilts, whether for sale or for gift? I'm starting to actually have items to sell, and I know I need to tag them, but I've always found the idea of large tags sewn to the quilts, while useful and informative, are distracting.

Do you ever just print up a card to go with the quilt? Do you always make your fabric tag & sew it *to* the quilt? What about when you're making a quilt out of a book or other resource that states that you must credit said resource on the quilt tag when the quilt is being made for sale? What if it is multiple different blocks from a source (ie a Block of the Month quilt using Quilter's Cache patterns)? This seems awkward to have on said fabric tag (esp listing 12 different blocks!), but I completely understand the author/artist's point of view!

Help? (as I have a couple of these source credit quilts to tag, and soon, so I can hopefully sell them!!)

(xposted to quilting

There is a virtural quilt show going on. Read all about it and how to add your favourite quilt.
http://parkcitygirl.blogspot.com/2009/04/quilt-festival-spring-2009.html

Have a glorious day!

If you like appliqué and Halloween take a look at this:
http://amidonquiltworks.com/dev/images/baltimoreHalloween2.jpg
Don’t you just love the bat border?


Change the world one loan at a time – visit http://www.Kiva.org to find out how

After not having slept well last night I sleepily tramped downstairs this morning, stumbled into my office to find Pucca, paw inserted into the collection bin of the shredder happily pulling out shreddies and play with them. Looks like I’ve had a snowfall on the carpet. Hummm.

Museum Show of Quilted garments at the Fries Museum Leeuwarden - go take a look.
http://qwilleke.web-log.nl/photos/kunst_met_een_q/img_0016_copy.html


Change the world one loan at a time – visit http://www.Kiva.org to find out how

Quilt Fest was a fun day trolling through vendor’s booths and the exhibit itself. I picked friend Cheryl up before 8 am and we met up with friend Barb in the parking lot at the exhibition center. We lost each other from time to time through out the day but always managed to meet up.

I did make three purchases. The first was a new foot for my sewing machine that promises to be fun and a much easier way to do satin stitching around shapes.



Second was the Martelli zip clip for holding the binding of your quilt down while you do your hand sewing. When I use it I will do a small picture presentation to show you how it works.



And the third was a Quill from a porcupine to be used as a stiletto to help ease fabric when sewing.



No fabric purchases though. I was tempted but was very good in that department. Behind the cut are pictures of just some of the quilts we saw today.

( Pictures from Quilt Fest”> Some of these quilts did not have a label telling who made them unfortunately. <center><a href= )

We all were tired by the end of our day. I was glad to put my feet up for I did something to my left knee yesterday.

Well, I got to put my feet up for a while anyway. Had to run get some diesel fuel for our oil tank needs to be filled – I forgot to check the level…again.



Change the world one loan at a time – visit http://www.Kiva.org to find out how

My goal for February (I set my standards low, *s*) was to finish one UFO, which I'm happy to say I managed to do last week.



My goals this month are to:

1. Finish quilting two UFOs
2. Start and possibly finish a quilt-along
3. complete birthday blocks
4. do border for round robin quilt
5. finish any of my WIPs from last year!
6. possibly start a new top
7. progress to the next lesson on my EQ6
8. make a spring dress or two.

Wow. I'm really behind! ;)

Its been quiet over here lately. Anyone up to posting their goals for the month? I like doing this because it helps me keep track of what I've got to do. So join in with me! :)

1) My SIL's expecting and I finished the top, I just need to sandwich and quilt. Here's a pic without the borders:



2)  Put borders on my mystery quilt from retreat  (no pics yet-I'm usually the photographer!  LOL)

3)  quiltblockswap for march

4)  birthday blocks

5)  quilt daintress 's fairy quilt

6)  quilt my fairy quilt

7)  put together and quilt the really cute snoopy panel I found at Joann's tonite.

Okay.  I think that's overly ambitious for me

What they think of Janome, specifically the Memory Craft 7330 Magnolia sewing machine? I'd love to know your thoughts on it. THANKS!

Happy Birthday grain_damaged! Have a wonderful day!

We had an extraordinary windy day yesterday. Outside in my garden one of my rose trellis is now flat on the ground. ARGH!

Here’s one for quilters from the members of Quilters of South Carolina.
http://www.quiltersofsc.org/artfullbras/artfullbras.htm

Here is one for the knitters…Microknitting
http://knit1fortheroad.livejournal.com/42036.html

The two pictures are of some small squares I've got left from the Mom. When she did quilting, she loved doing applique with her sewing machine. The squares are only 6.5" unfinished, so I'm looking for some image that is not too complicated to perch on the branch. The distance between the two branches is only 4 inches and the length of the long branch is 4 inches. All of my patterns are way to big and I've tried shrinking them on a copier, which isn't looking really good. Anyone got an idea or suggestion on what I can use? Thanks.
(Cross posted to quilting )

Well, I laid out the rest of the pieces for quilt top #6 for the church's quilt forum. I have the binding to sew down on the 3 that got tied last week, the border to put on the pinwheel, and figure out what else I want to sew up for the church.

I managed to get all the oddball pieces of fabric cut either into 5", 3.5" or 2.5" squares, 3.5" strips or 3" strips. Now to decide which one to sew up next.

All the blankets that I collected at the thrift stores have been washed in super hot water and dried so they are clean and pre-shrunk. The various fabric swaths and sheets for backing are washed and waiting to stack with the finished tops.

I shifted a few more things around in the crafting and quilting room, and have decided that I really need the one cabinet with office stuff emptied out somewhere else. This means my little closet office will get papers piled into it, as I need to spread out some of the UFO stuff or it will never come close to getting done.

I also need to stage the things I have to make for farm market somewhere or they won't get done before May. My second sewing machine now has a stable place to sit all the time and I need to get some bobbins run up for it as I've got mending now to do.

I'm considering the purchase of a more portable pressing station so I don't have to lug the huge ironing board from room to room. Problem is there is no good place to put it when I do get it. Needs some more thought processing.