MQG Mini Swap

Tonight, Quiltcon Together begins with the awards ceremony and I'll be zooming with quilty friends during the webcast. It's the best we can do during these strange times. 

One of my favorite parts of Quiltcon each year is the mini quilt swap. Participants are assigned a partner and make and swap minis during quilt con. This is my fifth year participating and I have beautiful minis from all of my partners hanging in my house and have formed strong friendships with my former partners. Of course that looked different this year too!

My partner, Kathleen, and I have actually "known" each other for a while now on social media, which was a first for me! We decided to do our swap over zoom, saving our unopened packages to open together. What fun! Of course an in person meeting complete with hugs (will we ever be allowed to hug again?) would have been best but in a pinch, this was a good solution. Hoping we can meet up at Quiltcon in Phoenix next year.

 I just adore the beautiful mini Kathleen sent to me! It's all solids (my favorite!) and the colors she chose really sing....

It's already hanging in my studio and makes me smile every day!

And here is what I sent to Kathleen....

 Also solids,  a different version of my funky dresden which she seemed to like. 

So Quiltcon Together is off to a fabulous start for me! Will you be there? 

First Finish of the New Year

 

Last night I put the finishing stitches on the binding of my 2021 Word of the Year quilt.  You can read my thoughts on the word believe here.  I thought a magic wand was the perfect item to represent my word this year.

All of the fabrics are Moda Grunge and the finished quilt measures 18" x 20".  I used a bunch of different techniques in this one tiny quilt.... foundation paper piecing for the letters, my own funky dresden technique for the end of the wand, needle turn appliqué recently learned from my friend Martha for the stick, big stitch quilting on the yellow, and machine quilting for the rest.... and I'm really happy with how it all came together.

intention

I mentioned in an earlier post that my word for 2020 is Intention. One tradition I have is making a quilt with my word on it each year. Here is my quilt for this year...

This is my tenth word and quilt. All of my quilts are the same size (18x20") and I plan to hang them up near the ceiling around the walls of my studio. In fact, that is one thing I INTEND to do this year!

I'm happy with this quilt. I think it reflects who I am, or maybe who I am evolving into? I originally thought I would make it purple BUT I had this blue grunge in my stash and I INTENTIONALLY used what I had on hand rather than spending money on fabric. I'm working on a special project that involves improv log cabin blocks, so this is an extension of that. I have also recently experimented with inserting tiny strips of stripes into my blocks. I love the effect! You can see a tiny strip of black and white peeking out of this block.

I was able to be very intentional in January, with my time (lots of studio time!), my money and what I've been eating. So far so good! Let's hope I can keep it up.

McKinney Modern Quilt Guild QuiltCon charity quilt

Hi again! Leave it to me to disappear for 3 months and then post 2 days in a row. I just wanted to let you know I have a blog post up on the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild blog with the story behind our charity quilt for QuiltCon next month. I'm super proud of this quilt and the guild members who had a hand in creating it.

I encourage you to hop on over here and read the full story! Happy Tuesday friends.