packages

I love packages. Some I order and anxiously await, some come full of wonderful surprises. Both are fabulous.

Before I left for vacation last week, I received two such packages.  One was a packet of 4-inch squares as part of Crafty Tammie's Swap a Rainbow that I participated in.  I forget how many people were involved - 20, maybe? - but we each sent a pack of 20 4-inch squares in each of 10 colors.  200 squares.  I sent mine from my current stash-on-hand and this is what I got back...



Plus a few extra charms from Tammie and a wonderful key-chain she made.  Here's a closer look a the squares.

The colors were yellow, blue, purple, orange...




...brown, black, green, teal...



... red and pink.




I've got a couple of ideas brewing for these...mostly involving half-square triangles.  I'm really happy with the fabrics that I received - high quality and a lot of fun.  I'm still new at this swap stuff, so sometimes I get a little nervous that I'll receive rejects.  Not so with this swap.  Of all the fabrics - over 200, remember - there was only two that were repeats.  Not bad, not bad!

Now, my other package was expected, but exciting none-the-less.



The package was from Fat Quarter Shop, and represents two quilts I'll be working on soon. The first is for my friend Jen, and is my first commissioned quilt. She is an excellent photographer and asked me for a quilt to use in her photo shoots. I had her pick out a few favorite collections, and she chose Oasis as her top pick, along with several other Moda collections. I chose the beige for the quilt back and the teal (or is it aqua...what's the difference?!) for the binding.




The remainder of the package is a collection of Stonehenge fabrics that I toiled over for days.  They had several pre-chosen collections, but none seemed to fit the bill for me.  Plus, I needed a yard of each color, so precuts wouldn't work.  I wanted blues and greens but with an earthy feel to them, so I added the grays for a granite look.




The tan/beige (next to bottom) is the background and the green/beige on the bottom is the back.  The remainder of the colors will be the diamonds in a Star of Bethlehem quilt.

The pattern is by Edyta Sitar and my church group is working on it through the summer.  I am behind already (there's a surprise!) because I forgot about the prep work and didn't have my fabrics in time for the first class.  I'll start working on cutting the fabric immediately after I get home and try desperately to catch up.

Once finished, the quilt will be 78-inches square - the biggest I have ever made.  It will be for my father-in-law.  He's the one who made my quilt table for my sewing room as well as doing countless other things around the house for us - including coming to my rescue at 5 AM one Saturday to free a possum from my dog lot.  If anyone deserves a quilt, he does.  But...shhhhhh!... it's a surprise.  (And right now, I'm glad he doesn't have internet!!).  :)

As far as current projects, I'm sewing the binding on Molly's quilt and Matt's Coffee quilt.  I'm missing my sewing machine terribly, but making do.  Today was an inside day with a lot of storms and rain.  Otherwise,  we're just not inside much - the rest of the week looks much better.   The guys and a couple of the kids went fishing, but only caught one Spanish Mackerel each.  Not a good fishing day.  Since we were stuck inside, I worked on the binding, made a few more hexagons and did some computer work.  I'm nearly halfway around Molly's and hope to be done by Saturday.  I also started on a new blog/group that I'm starting up - more info on that in another post...but if you are paying attention, you'll see a new button in my sidebar.  :)

Hope you're all having a great week!