Sewing Along with the Travelling PicStitch Blog Hop

Annnouncing - almost a month into it - the Travelling PicStitch Blog Hop!  I learned about this from a blogger I follow, and when I went to the information page, I discovered that one of the dates in November was open. So I asked to be "stop" on the blog hop, and now I am!

Here's what's going on:
1. You take a picture from your travels.
2. You select fabric using the color palette of the photograph.
3. You create an English Paper-pieced block with the fabric
4. You post about it in your blog!  I'll be posting mine on November 17

Palette Builder is a great site for taking a photo from your computer and creating a color palette. It's easy to use, and produces images like this:

Colorado wildflowers

Go to Laura's main post about the bloghop for more information. She has a list of all the posts so far, and all the rest still to be posted. Have a great time going through all the links - there have been some wonderful photos and blocks so far!

Modern Monday/Traditional Tuesday - all caught up!

While we were in Colorado this summer, I didn't do ANY Modern Monday or Traditional Tuesday blocks. I didn't take any of the "modern" fabric with me, and wanted to just wait until I got back and get all caught up. Today I finished the last block, and am now ready for tomorrow's Modern Monday block 55.

Week 41 - Patience Corners

Week 42 - Greek Cross

Week 43 - Chevron

Week 44 - Apron

Week 45 - Monument

Week 46 - Ship

Week 47 - Lantern

Week 48 - Chevron Zig Zag

Week 49 - Card Trick

Week 50 - Orange Peel

Week 51 - Posy

Week 52 (modern) - Hash Tag

Week 52 (traditional) - Crosses and Losses

Week 53 (modern) - Butterfly

Week 53 (traditional) - Butterfly

Week 54 - Tumbler

Say Hello to....Carla!

I'm one of those people who names her sewing machines.  My Featherweight is named Jessie.  My hand crank is Gertrude - a good old-fashioned name.  Today, I acquired Carla. Carla is a Babylock Grace.  My favorite quilt store, which used to be called the Quiet Mouse, went out of business over the summer while I was in Colorado, and reopened last month as Cherry Berry Quilts. The new owners have discounted their sewing machines, and got a great deal on this one. It's my first machine that has a stitch other than the straight stitch.  I just got tired of not having a zig zag, or a blanket stitch, or any others.  This one has 40. 

I set it up today, learned how to fill the bobbins and thread the machine, and finished up a couple of Block Lotto blocks.  I learned that I need a 1/4" foot (well, "want" is more like it) and while I'm at it, I'll get some more bobbins. But I really like her!

Back from Colorado - lots of mail, getting caught up on swaps

We got back from Colorado last Wednesday; I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen and doing some shopping and getting organized. One of the things I needed to do was go through 3 months' worth of mail, which included some blocks from swaps.

First, I've gotten all the blocks now from Boomerang 7.0. 

from Christina C

from Susan C

from Ruth B

from Sara V

from Mikayla A

from Andrea S

from Carolyn R

Next, I have the Block Swap Adventure blocks I received for July and August.  I asked for bright-colored stars, traditional or wonky, on white solid or white on white.

July - Twisting Star from Kim B

August - from Susan P

 I then had to make a couple of blocks for Block Swap Adventure:

Double Quartet for Charlene S - October

Ohio Star for Agnes W in Ireland - September

Two more swap blocks:

Scrappy 9-Patch - Quilters' Board Monthly Bee - for Sandy C - October

for Jennie in Northumberland, UK - Stash Bee - October