Swapping

Do you ever say no if anyone asks you to join a swap? I can hardly resist so when Nicky called out to start stamping I tried my best for days until I gave in. I remember potato stamping when I was a little girl in school but it was never one of my favorites. Also my kids have stamps I do not really like (To be honest I love their drawing much more but sometimes it is fun). Just making my own stamp sounds so much more fun.



So this could not be so hard. So I went out to get some rubber and a scalpel to get started. The hardest thing was to get the ink pads which had to be ordered. To tell you a secret I am not a very patient person so after I got rubber and scalpel I started to cut and shape. Of course I wanted to see how it looks so I improved a little with an ordinary sponge and it worked quite well. So this was my first attempt in stamping a fabric


In the meantime the ink pads have arrived, the school has started so now I am off to stalk my dear partner and try to make her something beautiful.

Time to finish the Bees

Today was the day. My new lovely darling - so called sewing machine - had the first go after a long break. After cleaning the kitchen table from the birthday cake, presents, candles and giving it a good wipe I could start. There were some bee blocks waiting for a long time to be finished. I started with the Stash Bee Blocks from July. These were quite simple as I could do paper piecing which I really like. 6 1/2'' equilateral triangles, straight or wonky. A perfect block for little scraps.

The other one for August straight forward as well. Adrienne was asking for a churn dash. She gave us a great tutorial to work with so it was really fast to make. For an other one I would just make the cuttings a little bitter as I like to trim the blocks. You know, just in case you need it. It gives a little safety

This was the last month in Stash Bee. After 17 month it is over now. It was fun and sometimes it was a challenge. It was a great time. I am sure there are some blocks I would have never tried.

I asked for converging corners to be made and I am so happy with my quilt. I love to snuggle in especially now when the temperatures are falling. Thanks so much to all the ladies who made a block or two. They work together so nicely.

An other Bee is coming to an end this month: The Modern Irish Bee. I could not finish the blocks for Judith before the summer and I am terrible sad about that. She asked for two tumbler blocks and in each of these we should use one of our fabrics. For one block I wanted to use the Glimma from Lotta Johannsen I used in my month and the other block I used a fabric I got in Austria in summer.

Last blocks for today were the ones for August for Sophie. The fabrics were already waiting for me when I came back. It only needed some time to get started. As my son was so bored today I let him make the design and let him arrange the HST. To be fair the girl had the pleasure to do the photoshooting with me ...

This was also the last month in Modern Irish Bee. It was great fun and I had the opportunity to make lots of different blocks.

I hope to finish my quilt soon so I can show you what the lovely ladies made for me. Thank you so much for the great time with you!

Swaps done and comming up

I am only back for some days now but there is plenty of work now to be done. I am sorry for the delay in the bees but you still have to wait an other day until I am sorted. I have to thank all the Bee members of MQGI for the lovely blocks they made. I will post a picture soon and hope to put them together soon. For the modern Irish quilters they started a pincushion swap and you know, you never can have enough pincushions so of course I signed. With all those lovely ladies there I had so say yes! To sign in I had to start with a mosaic and to be honest it is not that easy to select just a hand full but this is what I cam up with

In case I could get bored or run out of fabric I also joined the map swap! Did you ever see all those gorgeous fabrics out there with map prints? I always wanted to have some as well so thanks to May doing an other swap. There is still some place so if you want a piece of "Road 15" by Sweetwater head over and join the group.

Before the summer I took part in the "Fabric Basket Swap". My basket arrived save at its new home as the parcel sent to me was rejected and went straight back. I was so sorry when I heard that and time was running out as I was almost on the plane. So I hoped that the second time sending the basket will be successful and when I arrived I was searching for the parcel. Unfortunately I could not find it. I was so sad until two days later the kids found an other parcel in front of the door! What a surprise when I recognized it is my basket! Thank you so much Laura! Rainbow colors and stand alone baskets! How lucky am I?

Think this are all the swaps for the moment so if I forgot about anyone this time I am sorry. My head is not back in working mode but I am sure I will talk about the next days. So that's it for today ... I think so!

Summerholidays are over

Earlier than planed we are back in Ireland. We had a great time in Austria again meeting lots of old and new friends, enjoying the summer even if it was much to hot at the end. Looks like we are no longer used to this temperature so we are quite happy being back to (almost) normal. There was no sewing during the vacation. Just mountains, water and sight seeing. We went up on towers and sliding down, went on ships and trains, visited castles and tourist attractions, watched the knights and played chess in the park....

... had fun on the playgrounds, painted the street and had lunch with this gorgeous lady ...

.... visited the bear, watches butterflies, falcons, dragonflies and frogs, fed squirrels and walked with horses ...

.... went on mountains to see the sun rise, waterfalls and flowers (gentian) and loved to sit outside watching the moon...

... had a little birthday party for the girls (just in case Rhonda is still wondering - not I did not turn 69 -  not now) before we packed and came back to Ireland!

When we arrived there were some parcels already waiting for me and there are some bee blocks waiting to be done! So time to go back and start the sewing machine!