Small Quilt Talk Needle Case Swap!!!

I participated in the Needle Case Swap in my Small Quilt Talk Yahoo Group.

It was a lot of fun.

It was nice to make a small project.

Here is the one I received from my partner Cathryn.

She sent me some fabric swatches and those cute little scissors too.

I love it!!!

I made her one too.

I forgot to take a picture of it with the goodies I added to her package.

But here is the needle case that I made her.

Her favorite color is purple, so I used the purple fabric that I had.

I hope she likes it!!!

Hugs

The pincushion I made for the Pincushion Pass

Hi everyone!

My partner for the Pincushion Pass finally received her package.

My partner is Krista from Spotted Stones.

She loves all things modern.

So I thought this pattern would be perfect for her.

I decided to add a flower made from vintage trimmings.

 The flower itself is made from the bottom edge of a vintage dress.

It was among some vintage trim I got at an estate sale.

 The women I bought it from always kept the decorative edges

 from antique clothing when the clothing was no longer good.

 It was cut with a scissor, and wrapped in tissue paper.

 The beads and the taffeta seam binding are also vintage and came from the same sale.

I had made her another pincushion that was similar

 and had filled it with crushed walnut shells,

but you could see the walnut shell filling were there were pinholes.

I just couldn't send it.

 So I made her a new one

 and used mostly poly fill and just a bit of walnut shells.

I'm glad that she likes it.

 It was a lot of fun to make.

Go on and visit Krista's blog.

She makes wonderful modern quilts.

Hugs

Ariane

Scrappy Pincushion Swap Received!!!!!

I received the most beautiful pincushion in the mail today.

Melanie from Texas Freckles made me this wonderful red and white pincushion.

Red is my favorite colour!!!

I absolutely love it!!!!

It's gorgeous.

It's a very nice size too. I love big pincushions.

They are my favorite ones.

 She also sent me a wonderful postcard, pins and a fabric swatch.

I feel like I hit the jackpot with this one.

Thank you so much Melanie.

This made my day.

Hugs

Ariane

Modern Siggy Block Swap 2 and Guild challenge Part 3

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.

 I didn't do a lot of sewing this weekend. I've been doing a lot of this.

But I did make most of my siggy blocks for the Modern Siggy Block Swap 2. I used some of the Amy Butler fabric that I had. I really like the way they look. I used Kona cotton for the white. I already had some of this white on hand. But I only had enough to make 81 blocks. So I will have to purchase more white on payday to finish my blocks. We need to make 101 blocks for this swap.  I really love this block pattern by Julie at Jaybird Quilts. This block was part of her Moda Bake shop pattern found here.

 It is very easy to make and goes really quick. I will definitely be using this block pattern again.

I also finished my table runner for my Guild Block Challenge. This was made using the country blocks. I really had a hard time making this, not because it was a difficult pattern or anything. But my sewing machine kept breaking down on me. It was very frustrating. Nothing was working right. Don't you just hate when that happens. So, it's not my best work by a long shot. Oh well, I don't know what I will do with it, it is too long for my table. It will sit for a while until I figure out what I'm going to do with it.

Well, I hope you all have a great evening. I hope to get more sewing done tonight.

Hugs

Ariane

My finished Madeline quilt and some amazing mail.......

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good day. It is very hot here today. I'm very thankful that we have central air, otherwise I would not have been able to sleep today. I finished my Madeline quilt last night. It has a lot of hand quilting in it. But I love it. It is one of my favorite quilts. I hope you like it.

I also received my potholder pass 3 package today. It's from Kelli, and came all the way from Australia. I just love my potholders. She included some wonderful extras. She sent some Tim Tam's, a wonderful pen and key chain with the Australian flag and for my daughter B-sew cute, she sent two charm packs of Sweet. My daughter was so excited. She said: " I have fans....I have fans... you better watch out Mommy!" I started to laugh. She is so cute. Thanks you so much Kelli. It just made my day.

Hugs

Ariane

Some mail, gifts, stitching......

Hi everyone! I hope you are all well. I got some great mail today from my partner of the Potholder Pass 2 swap. miesmama sent me two wonderful potholders and a matching tea towel. Aren't they all adorable? I love them. Thank you so much!! This was another great swap.

I went to my sisters for an Easter dinner on Saturday. Our families don't get together often enough. It was so nice to spend the evening together. She surprised me with a birthday gift. She gave me some fabric, a roll of Steam & Seam and a nice long ruler. I was very excited. I love all of it. Thanks Sis!!!

I was bored the other night and decided I wanted to do some applique. I just had to use the Steam & Seam! LOL! A little spring block that I just put together. I'm not done yet. Not sure what I will do with it. It just kind of popped in my head and I had to make it.

I have also been trying to finish the Woodland Bloom Quilt. I have it all quilted. The binding is sewn on to the front. I have two full sides stitched to the back. So only half the binding left to stitch and I'm done. I can't wait. My daughter wanted to put it on her bed tonight. But I was still working on it. Hopefully it will be done tomorrow.

That's all for today.

Hugs

Ariane

A Winner, My Sunday Best quilt top, and more.....

I hope everyone has had a good day. Sorry for taking so long to announce the winner of my giveaway! I wrote all the names on paper and my daughter B-Sew Cute picked the winner. The winner is.................

a good yarn said...

Congratulations Ariane - how marvellous! You're a celebrity now. Ann :-)

I am so glad that Ann won. She comments on my blog all the time. Thank you so much to everyone who commented. I am amazed at all the support you give me. I love to quilt and hope to make many more in the future. I also love that my daughter has wanted to quilt with me. It is so much fun to have that time together.

I also finished my Sunday Best quilt top. I decided to make it into a twin size quilt. I used my stash and I love the way it turned out. So, now I need to figure out what to do for the backing. I don`t usually buy big pieces of fabric, so I am not sure if I am going to piece a back or go out and buy some fabric. So, here it is....

I also received my potholders from the Potholder Pass Swap. This was a really fun swap. My partner Trisha sent the most wonderful potholders and a gift for my daughter too.  She sent my daughter two fat quarters and a pattern. She was so thoughtful. Thank you so much Trisha.

Well, that is all for today.......

Hugs

Ariane :o)

My trip back home and more Advent Swap gifts!!!

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday. I had a wonderful christmas with my family in Northern Ontario. There was a lot of singing, food and celebrating. I have a huge family. So it is always a big celebration at Christmas when we all get together. We do not exchange gifts because it would be too costly to buy for everyone. I have 42 people in my immediate family. All my brothers and sisters gave my parents a gift and then we just celebrated together and enjoyed each others families. That is what Christmas is all about. The kids got to play games with their cousins and go sliding down the big hill behind my parents place. It was a lot of fun.

The drive to my parents was pretty good. The drive back was another story. We drove 13 hours in a blizzard. Normally, it only takes 9 hours for us to drive home. It was a very stressful drive home to say the least. I was glad we arrived safely. Many times we had to stop in the middle of the road because we could not see where we were. It was a total whiteout.

I also opened the last of my Advent Swap gifts. I just love all the gifts I received. Jeannette made me so many nice handmade gifts. I am so lucky. My main gifts was a wonderful handmade bag. I love all the tiny little pieces on the front of the bag. I love it. It is in my favorite color too. I have already used it to go out. My Mother-in-law tried to claim it, but I would not let her. Thank you so much Jeannette. This was a wonderful swap. Thank you also to Fiona for organizing this swap. It was so much fun.

I wish you all a very happy New Year. I will try to do a post of all my projects from 2009.

Ariane

Some of my Advent Swap Gifts!!

I want to give you a peak at gifts sent to me by Jeannette for our Advent Swap!!

I am very excited about it. I opened 10 gifts to date.

Look at all I got!!!! I love it!!

I am excited every day to open a new gifts.

My little girl and I do it together.

She is just as excited as me.

Thank you so much!!!!

I hope you all have a great day.

Ariane

I received my Stitcher's Angel gifts!!!

Hi everyone, I just got home from work and received my Stitcher's Angel package from my swap partner Kylie.  Look at what I had to open. Aren't these packages beautifully wrapped!!!

I was so excited to open them. My daughter helped me with the wrapping. She gets so excited when I get packages in the mail. I received the most wonderful gifts.

She sent me a wonderful floss holder. This is definitly going to be handy when I'm working on my hand stitching projects. I always carried my floss in a ziplock plastic bag. This will help me stay organized. She also sent me three wonderful fat quarters. They are so nice. She also sent a wonderful little stitchery pattern. I love it. But best of all is the little stitched bag and needlecase. Here's a close-up.

I just love the stitching on the bag and needlecase. It's just wonderful. Thank you so much Kylie. I just love my whole package. Thanks Again!!!!

Thanks to Helen for organizing this Stitcher's Angel Swap. It has been so much fun. Thanks to all the wonderful designers who shared their patterns with us to make.

I also received another package in the mail today from my Advent Swap partner Jeannette. I can't open that yet. I have to wait until December 1st to open my first gift. There are 25 gifts in the package she sent me. One for each day until Christmas. I'm so excited. I can't wait to see my little gifts.

This has been a great mail day. It just made my day!!

Hugs Ariane

Amazing packages in the mail!!!

I got home from work today and my husband said:

"Hey Honey, You got some more mail! How come you always get packages in the mail?"

Hmmmm! A little bit jelous I think! Well, he should be.

I got the most amazing package from Caryn @ Pieceful Chaos. She was my swap partner for the flickr placemat swap. She made me 6 wonderful matching snowman placemats. I just LOVE them. They are amazing. She made them out of the softess flannels. I feel so blessed to have received such a gift. Thank you so much Caryn. I'm so excited about them.

Then, I also received my package from Fahrenheit 350. She sent me a sample of her traditional sweet log. It was eaten by MOI in about 60 seconds. I did have to savor it a little. Mmmmmm!!! It was delicious and sweeeeeeeeet!!! I loved it!!! Thank you so much Kitty!!

As you can see, I was very excited after work. This just made my day. Thanks to both Caryn and Kitty. I'm so very blessed!!!!

Hugs Ariane

Two packages in the mail today!!!

Hi everyone, I worked evenings tonight. It was a really long day. I had to take my oldest to the hospital this morning because he injured his back playing football, then had to rush to get to work on time. Then I had a so much work to do. It was a long night.

On the positive side, I received two wonderful packages in the mail today. The first one is from the Good Ol' Summertime Mini Quilt Swap. I received this wonderful little quilt from Vanessa. She stitched a little scene in the center of the quilt. It's so cute. Thanks Vanessa for the lovely quilt.


I had also won a giveaway a couple weeks ago from one of my favorite craft blogs "Paper and String". I received the cutest little felt brooch from Sarah. I love it. She also sent this cute little card with a picture of one of her softies. Thanks so much for the lovely gift. My daughter has claimed this brooch. This is her favorite blog. She checks it almost everyday.

I'm so very fortunate. I just love all the sharing that goes on in blogland. Thank you both for such lovely gifts. It really made my day.

Happy Stitching!!!

Ariane :o)

My daughters pincushion swap received!!

My Mom and my Daughter decided to do a pincushion swap. I showed you the pincushion my daughter made in the last post. She received the package from my Mom. She was very excited to receive it and couldn't wait to open it. My mom made her two pincushions. The first one is a little pincushion with a picture of dogs appliqued to the front. It can be hung up as a decoration as well. Very cute. My daughter loves dogs. So she was very excited about that one. The second pincushion is a selvage pincushion. My mom got the pattern out of a magazine. Not sure which one....but it is gorgeous. My daughter loves it too, and has used it already. My mom and my daughter had such a good time doing this swap. It's a good way for them to get closer and to have a special keepsake of each other, since they live far apart.

I'm so glad I had a bit of influence in this swap. My daughter wanted to swap because I had done some swaps and had received wonderful gifts from my swap partners. She wanted to get into the fun too. She's so cute!! The two of them already decided to do it again. If I hadn't started doing swaps they probably would never have done this. So, I'm glad I could share that with them.

I've been working all weekend and I don't have a day off until Friday. It's going to be a long week. I hope I get some sewing done. I feel like I haven't accomplished very much this month. Oh well.....I can only do what I can.

Happy Stitching!!

Ariane :o)

My daughter's pincushion swap, a baby quilt in a day, and I won some giveaways

Well, My daughter wanted to do a swap since I've been participation in so many. She had only done a little bit of sewing. She wanted to make a crazy patch pincushion. She chose all the fabrics herself. Then I showed her how to use the iron, and used fusible web to put her little pieces of fabric to a basic square piece of material. I watched her closely during this process. Then I taught her different hand embroidery stitches for her to use on the edges. She did all the work herself. The only thing I helped her with was making the knots and the blind stitching to close the pincushion when it was stuffed. I'm so impressed at how well she did. She is swapping it with my Mom. Who also had never done a swap before. She was just as excited as my daughter. So my daughter is sending her pincushion in the mail today. Yesterday, My mother-in-law told me she was going back to Northern Ontario on Friday to go to a baby shower for one of her nieces. I asked her why she waited so long to tell me...I would have made her a baby quilt. Well, since I was off work yesterday, I decided to just whip up a simple baby quilt with stuff I had. So I got it all done in about 4 hours. I think that's quite good. I even machine stitched the binding. I had never done that before. It turned out nice. I wouldn't use that method too often, but it's nice to know I can manage it at crunch time. I hope you like it. It's very simple. I tried the wavy quilting that I've seen others used. I like it. All I had to do was wash the quilt. Then it would have that nice crinkly look.

On another note, I won two giveaways this week. I think it's been my lucky week. I won some wonderful bag patterns (package #3) from Carol's Crafty Creations. I'm so excited there are five beautiful patterns in the bundle. I can't wait to reason them. Carol has a great blog you should go check it out.

The second giveaway that I won was also amazing. I feel so fortunate to have won the entire Authentic pattern collection from Sweetwater. I entered their giveaway on there blog. The collection has 8 patterns in it. They have the cutest blog called makelifesweet. They often have giveaways, and tutorials. You have to go check it out.

Happy Stitching!!!

Ariane :o)

This is what I made for my Paper Bag swap partner!!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great day. I worked today and ended up being forced to stay at work for an extra 2.5 hrs. I was not that happy about that. But there wasn't much I could do about it. One good thing about today is that my Snickerdoodle Paper Bag Swap partner received the package I sent her. So now I can show you what I sent her. I made her a wall hanging mini quilt. I hand pieced it and hand quilted it. I used the pattern Patchwork Cottage by a Canadian pattern company called The Rabbit Factory. I made a few changes to it since this pattern is for a whole quilt and I only used one of the blocks to make my mini quilt. This pattern was great and the instructions were very easy to follow.

I also made a large pincushion using some of the trims that Kjerstin sent me.

I gave her a nice notebook and also gave her the Patchwork Cottage pattern. Just in case she would want to make the whole quilt. I really enjoyed making this little quilt. I almost didn't want to send it to her, because I loved it so much. But I was also excited that I had put my all into this little quilt, and hoped that my partner would love it as much as I did. And she did. I'm so glad.

You should all go check out the Rabbit Factory Blog. She has a free applique block of the month. I think you would love.

Happy Stitching!!!

Ariane :o)

I got my Snickerdoodle Paper bag swap gifts!! Yeah!!!

Hi everyone! I got home from work tonight and what did I find, a package from the postman from my Snickerdoodle Paper bag swap partner Kjerstin Aker. I got such wonderful gifts. I got a wonderful bag with a cute little bumble bee and my name embroidered on it. I love that. I don't have too many things with my name on it because it's not that common here.

She made me a little thread catcher basket, a needle organizer and some great embroidery needles, a scissor cozy, a mini pincushion with some tiny little applique pins in it, a beautiful thimble and a strawberry that turns out into a cloth bag.

Oh!!! I just love it all. They are all so well made and so cute. I think she read my mind when she made me the needle organizer, because I can never find my sewing needles. I have a package here and there. Can never find the size I want, even though I know I have it somewhere. Now I'll be able to have them all organized together. That strawberry bag is such a great idea. I can put that in my big purse and have it for when I go shopping. Then I have an extra bag to put items in.

Then to top it off, she sent me some pieces of Thai-silk that her closest neighbour has given her. I love them. I'll be able to use them in a special project. A mini crazy quilt or something like that.

I'm so happy with all my gifts. Thanks you so much Kjerstin. It was fun to do this swap with you. I hope you receive my package soon.

Happy Stitching!!

Ariane :o)

Stitcher's Angel Swap 2009!!

I have joined the Stitcher's Angel Swap. This is so exciting. I will get to have a free pattern every week starting August 17th for 7 weeks. I'll be able to make a minimum of 3 wonderful patterns and send it to my Swap partner. It sound like a lot of fun. I had just started to look at blog last year when they had the last Stitcher's Angel Swap. I just loved seeing all the wonderful gifts everyone made. So I'm very excited to participate this year. If you want to know more about this swap just click here. Helen is organizing this wonderful swap. Her Hugs and Kisses blog is one of my favorites. Go check it out.

I hope you are all well. I went back to work this weekend after being on leave for almost 6 weeks. It's always hard to go back after so much time off. But I'm glad I did. I also got to meet a wonderful blog friend, who lives near me. It's Michelle from Dresden Quilter. It was so nice to finally meet. We had been emailing each other for a while and we decided to go for a coffee/tea together on Friday night. We ended up chatting for over 2 hours. It was a lot of fun to meet someone who likes to quilt like me. We are going to be doing again. I can't wait. I hope you have a great night.

Happy Stitching!!

Ariane :o)