Too Busy Sewing to Blog!

WOW! Where does the time go? I can't believe that it has been more than a week since I last blogged. I have been so busy that I didn't even realize how far behind I am.

I have been busy sewing and quilting. I have Matt's quilt top all sewn together-except for the last two borders. I am dragging my feet about them because I can't decide how to do the corners of the biggest border. It is a directional fabric with a rather large repeat that would look terrible if the side borders do not meet up with the top and bottom borders just right. So, now I am debating. Do I want to put a different fabric in the corners? Or do I want to make it checkerboard or 4-patch in the corner? If so, what fabrics from the quilt do I want to use? Since I am not sure how I am going to do the corners of the third border, I do not want to attach the second border yet because I may want to do something in the corners of it too......Decisions, decisions. 

Matthew was at our house on Sunday and I showed him the quilt top. He was so happy to see that it is almost finished! 

I am also almost finished with a small charity quilt that I am making. Downy fabric softener has a program called Quilts for Kids. You can click on this link to find out more information about receiving a free kit that you make into a quilt for a hospitalized child. I will post pics of mine as soon as it is finished.

I am working on my next blocks for my Summer's Last Bloom block swap. We will be mailing dark tan on cream this month.

Back to the sewing machine. Happy stitching.

Summer's Last Bloom-the plums

I have my plum blocks sewn together for Summer's Last Bloom. This quilt is going to be SO gorgeous when it is put together. This is such a fun swap!

I have one more set of pumpkin colored blocks to receive and I will post a picture of them. We are all currently working on dark tan blocks. 

Summer's Last Bloom-the golds

I mentioned in a previous post that I was doing a block swap with friends.  We are having such a great time with it. 

I have my gold blocks sewn together from months three and four.  When I get the last pair from months five and six I will post them too. 

Quilting with Friends

I love a good block swap.  Quilting with friends is the best! Right now I am trading blocks every month with 4 friends.  None of these friends lives nearby.  One is in South Carolina, one is in Michigan, the third is in Illinois (and moving to Washington) and the fourth one lives in England! Every month I get 2 blocks from each of them in the mail. The beginning of every month I start stalking my mailbox.  I love getting quilting mail.  :)

We are making this quilt from the cover of the Fall 2011 Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine.  It's called Summer's Last Bloom and was designed by Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles Quilters. 

If you've never done a block swap with friends, you don't know what you're missing.  Before we started we decided on our "swap rules" and monthly mailing dates.  We are now into our 7th month and have 5 more to go.  We will finish our last blocks in August and swap them when we all get together in September. We are doing needleturn applique and everyone is doing a great job!

Summer's Last Bloom 

This is the picture of the full quilt from the inside of the magazine.

The first 2 months we swapped blocks with red blooms.  Here is what they looked like  on my design wall when I sewed each of them together.  I am "auditioning" buttons, so these  are just pinned on.  

I will show more of this quilt as it progresses.  In the meantime, I am hanging out at the mailbox these days. :)