Old Eggs and Block Exchange

Would you look at these adorable eggs, they are so unique being made from old quilts. I feel so lucky to have these in my decor. Karen from Yellow Farmhouse sent these goodies to me. I can't believe these are mine mine all mine to keep. She must have seen me drooling over the ones she showed us on her blog. I love them...Thank you bunches Karen for a thoughtful gift.
These yummy chocolate goodies were hiding behind the eggs. The Carmello bunny is already gone.
If you been reading my blog you might remember I was working on this block for a secret block exchange. Here is my block after my partner has added this gorgeous border, I just LOVE what she added to my block. We all started with a 12" block. Now it's my turn to add or not add and then finish it off. Currently this block is 24" square, any suggestions for what to add? I'm really stumped for ideas right now. We'll have a meeting I think in June to reveal our quilts and also our secret partners. The pictures below are other blocks in the group. I got as many pictures as I could and then my camera battery went dead. Bad timing (bad bad blogger) so I missed a few.
Feathered star has always been a favourite of mine.
Some of the leaves are 3 dimensional.
So sweet for spring.

It was sunny here this morning and then it started to snow this afternoon. Where's spring?

30's Quilt

A lucky friend had this 30's fabrics quilt donated to her as a top. Apparently it was made by someone's grandma in the early 5o's. The fabrics are 1930's so I don't know if that means these are the real thing. The fabrics were most likely purchased in the 30's and 40's and the blocks made over time. Anyway the quilt was sent out for machine quilting and my friend can only hand sew for a few minutes at a time because of pain in her hands. So I offered to hand sew the binding for her, how could I resist with a beautiful old quilt like this, I wish it was mine to keep..sigh...I have to give it back. I got the binding sewed this weekend and returned the quilt to my friend. The blocks are 2 1/2" finished size and there are 18 across and 23 rows which makes for 414 little rail blocks.
Here is a close up of the quilt, I like how the rail blocks are alternating directions, makes for a real interesting quilt. The plain alternate block is muslin, it doesn't look so yellow in the picture but the muslin has a antique yellow hue to it. The binding is new 30's fabric done scrappy, the new and old really blend nicely. I like this quilt so much I've already started a little pile of my own but for ease of math my blocks will be 3" finished size.

I hope you had a relaxing Easter with your friends and family.
Happy Stitching.

Happy Easter and Crochet Basket

I saw this little basket on Knot Garden site a couple of weeks ago and felt very inspired to make one of my own. I'm new at crocheting and I found this easy to make, the hardest part was using the fabric stiffener. I found it difficult to shape the basket. With all the fun pictures of pincushion around blogland, I was inspired to make this 5" basket (including the handle) into a pincushion. Do you see the chocolate egg inside? I found this Stuffed Eggies pattern here.

Happy Easter to everyone and I hope the easter bunny remembers to bring you chocolate.

Nine Patch Swap and Doll Quilt

I feel a little slow sometimes. Darlene and I have been trading 3" nine-patches for months, I had my alternate fabric all picked out and most of the top completed way before Darlene had found her alternate fabric of double pink or even started on her piecing. I only had one corner of 20 patches to sew but there it sat until last weekend. As you can see this one was done weeks ago. It was time to get mine finished before a few more months go by, so I was determined to get it done. Thanks Darlene for your wonderful nine patches, I cherish this friendship quilt made by 2 quilters miles apart.
Then I got on a roll and with the left over nine patches and got busy making this small quilt. All these nine patches were made by Darlene except for one. You can see one corner seems a shade darker, well I know better than to leave my quilts on the floor with a cat around. Sometimes they have little hick ups in the middle of the night. If that happens it will almost always be on my quilt if left on the floor. That'll teach me to pick up my quilts. As you can see I also didn't continue the border all the way around. I think it adds character to the quilt. Antique quilts will not always symmetrical and were finished when they ran out of fabric. Hubby doesn't think it looks finished. What do you think should I continue with the border all around?

Polka Dot Girls Block 3

The PDG's now have a sewing chair to sit and stitch. Doesn't it look inviting to sit and have a cup of tea and stitch on a warm afternoon.

This weekend was hubs birthday and so we went to see this concert. I haven't been to a concert in a long time and it sure wiped me out for the next day. I was so tired and the time change didn't help either. I don't know about you guys but it takes me a good week to get over not feeling tired in the morning. I also made bagels from this recipe. I must have been way out of it because after I kneaded the dough for the entire 15 minutes I realized I could have made the dough in the bread machine....duh. I did let them raise for double the time suggested and oh boy they were the most delicious bagels I've ever had. Sorry no pictures but you can see them here. I was inspired by this talented quilter. Speaking of talented, have you seen Happy Zombie has a quilt published in the newest issue of Quilts and More. Check out page 76.
Block 3 has the sweetest little basket stitchery as well. Five more blocks to go.

I've loved seeing all the pincushions this week. Hopefully I can get a few minutes to get a picture of mine to show you. Have a good week.

Block Exchange

I showed this block last week with promises to show the finished block, well not completely finished but the part I'm doing is now done. So here is the block I received to add borders to. I took this to my stitching group to ask them if they had any suggestions. They had absolutely nothing to say about the block, not even a little suggestion and so I was stuck to come up with something myself. Hmmm....not sure what that was all about.
Anyway, here is what I did with the block. I added the dark blue narrow border and put it on point with bluework embroidery in each corner. It's hard to see in the picture but one corner has a bird house, two corners have birds and one corner has a birds nest. They are all different. I hope the owner of the block will like what I did. She will now get it back and add whatever she likes to finish it off.
Here is a close up of the birds nest with eggs.
Here is a close up of one of the birds.
A little sunshine to brighten your day. I picked up this little cup of mini daffodils at Safeway.

Next post will be more PDG's, (pattern found here) I know some of you reading my blog are waiting patiently and some not so patient, I shouldn't mention any names, but she knows who I'm talking about...teehee. The "Sewing Chair" block...is coming soon.

Learning to Crochet

Inspiration for learning to crochet came from here. I tried crochet when I was a teenager and made one doll dress and then put it aside for embroidery and knitting, quilting came a bit later. I'm happy with how this turned out, I did the outside edge twice because I put white on the outer edge and didn't like it, so I ripped it out to finish this off in the red. This was an enjoyable learning experience and I'm sure I'll do some more. I found the stitches easy but reading those darn patterns can be like another language. How do you guys do it???? I bought the "Happy Home" needle case while shopping at an antique shop this weekend. I love finding these little keepsakes.

I did some gardening (pruning) on Sat while we had a brief bit of sun. It's nice to get started but there's still lots more to do over the next few weeks, that's if we don't get rain everyday, which can happen this time of year. I also went to Ikea to pick up there large shopping bags that can be recycled, I found these are excellent for throwing the garden clippings in and they have strong handles for carrying the clippings.

Have a great week of stitching, sewing, quilting etc.