Announcing:

arrival of the doll quilt from the swap!
Jill, from Pennsylvania, 
made the little quilt for me and I'm in love with it!
Thank you, thank you, thank you Jill!!!!

Isn't it adorable?!?
The amount of fabrics Jill used in this little quilt is astounding - 
truly like a vintage doll quilt, 
made for a little girly from the family's clothing scraps.

With our yucky weather again today,
it was hard to get a good picture of the true colors, 
but the setting squares fabric is a salmon-y pink, 
and the outside, half-triangles are a deep, chocolate brown;
the four patches are made with shirtings and fabrics of every design:   
there are keys, itsy-bitsy flowers, pins, tacks, berries, baskets, hearts, sprigs, stems, dots, and flourishes.  Also circles, squares, diamonds, stars, horseshoes and jockeys.  There are even roosters with little tossed feathers!  
(In her note, Jill said she doesn't know why, but she always puts a piece of fabric with a chicken in each quilt she makes - isn't that great?)  

The backing fabric she used
 
is a beautiful vintage-looking, golden stripe with salmon flowers.
 And to top off all of that?  It's hand quilted with what looks to be a variegated pink thread (you may be able to see the excellent hand-quilting if you enlarge the photo).

Just beautiful.  I already have it on my old Singer sewing machine used as a stand, that sits beside my stitching chair, and it's perfect there - like it was made specifically for that space.

Jill packaged the little quilt in a fat quarter of beautiful green fabric, tied with a flourish-printed selvedge, and in the package was a sweet card, a PA-made chocolate bar 
(: of which I've already eaten at least half :) 
and a little 2 1/2 inch charm pack of Jelly Bean - 
a fabric line by Laundry Basket Quilts. 

I am so thankful to Jill for all of her time and love she put into making this quilt, and for all of the extras she stuffed into the envelope to send to me.

It was another wonderful 'swap' to participate in and I thank Lori (of Humble Quilts ) for hosting again!  I think there will be a link-y party on Lori's blog soon, to let all 70 people who participated share their little quilts from the swap.  I'll share it when it's available.

Happy Thursday, and thanks for visiting!

the little quilt I sent for doll quilt swap #2

I admit,
I was a day late in sending my little doll quilt for the swap.
I finished it late evening on the last day of May -
the day it was to be in the mail.
It was cold and rainy and cloudy all day on the first of June
and I needed to get a picture of it before it left to go to it's new home.
So, between showers, I ran outside to try to get a picture of it.
A picture with a little more lighting than inside the house was offering.
After shooting about 25 pics, this is the best I could come up with:

 I do have a couple of close-up shots to share after it's received by my swap partner.

The swap was hosted by Lori of Humble Quilts blog.  It was so much fun to participate again.  My thanks to Lori for all of her work.

making memories

For the last nine days,
I've not been doing much of this:

Or much of anything else, for that matter.
I apologize if you are my Swap Partner 
in Lori's Humble Quilts doll quilt swap, 
I promise, it's coming.  Soon.

I HAVE been doing a whole lot of this:

one year old orneriness

and this:

three year old orneriness

We've had help doing this

opening the pool

and this:

making strawberry-rhubarb pie

planting tomatoes in the backdoor garden bed

 And I'd forgotten about the middle-of-the-night awake times.

I now know why the good Lord gives babies to the younger folks. lol
I'm not complaining, it's been fun making memories.
But I think I need a nap.  Then another one.
And I just may be counting down the remaining two nights. 

Sweet rewards?
When the three year old randomly says unprompted things like:
"It's SO fun to have sleep overs."

Happy Thursday!
Here's hoping you are have as much fun as I am. :)

Bluebirds are my sure sign of Spring

Happy April!
I saw more snow flurries last night - no April Fool's joke!
But today it's sunny and the birds are chirping.  
One of my signs that Spring is a'coming, is when
the bluebirds come back to my area,
and flit around in the pines.

So what did I see a few weeks ago???
The first of the bluebird arrivals!
Around that same time, I needed to make postcards 
to send to quilting friends in a fabric postcard swap.
I had an eureka moment...
since bluebirds are my sure sign that Spring is around the corner,
I should make some 
Bluebird postcards for this Spring card swap!! 
This is what I came up with:

Since I had the bluebird/card idea, 
I dug through my photo archives and
pulled out this photo 
that I took in my back garden a few years ago:

Aren't they so sweet looking, lined up & sunning themselves?

Using my photo, I made my applique pattern:

and chose the fabric for the back/writing side of the postcard.

Then I exploded it into color-pieces, and traced it onto fusible:

Some of the bird-parts awaiting assembly:

 And, finally, here's what I ended up with - ready to address and send!

My Bluebird fabric postcards! MyLifeIsAStitch.blogspot

Though I'm not usually a fan of machine-applique,
I loved making them - maybe because of the cheery bluebird.
Each card was quite labor intensive, 
but I loved sending them so much so, that
I also made a few extra just to have on hand,  
to send when needed, as thank you notes.

I've mailed them off to gals in the United States,
Belgium and Canada.
Nationally, they should have already arrived, 
and internationals will get theirs this week, hopefully.

So, April has arrived here with sunshine, 
and my bluebird postcards have flown out of here...
A great way to start a new month!!!

Hope your April is great,
and happy stitching!

I have mail!!

And not the electronic kind!!
Why is it so exciting to get mail?
Even at my age!

I signed up for a fabric postcard swap,
and though I don't have the cards I'm sending 
to the finished/mailing stage yet,
I have recently received a few postcards from friends world-wide...

Cards from quilty friends:
Caroline in Belgium, Sherry in Texas, and Susanne in New York.
Aren't they beautiful??! and very Spring-y!  
Can you tell everyone is wishing for some warmer weather? :)

Here in central Ohio we have another 
Winter storm warning for tonight and tomorrow...
the warning is for high accumulations of snow and strong winds.
I'm ready for another snow day with another slow-cooker full of soup simmering and the wood stove blazing.
Also, the grandkids are coming over for sledding -
sounds like a great way to celebrate the end of February!

Happy end of February to you also,
and Happy Stitching!

doll quilt swap!

When I saw Lori's idea (Humble Quilts) for a doll quilt swap
about a month ago, I was in!!

Because I don't already have enough going on, you know?

Ha!

Really, with enough going on for two people,
I still thought it was a great idea for me to join in...
I could use up some scrap fabric, and
it was a small, under 24" project
so that made it attainable in my eyes.
Also, the little quilt was to be mailed before Easter,
so there was a month to get it done.

I mailed my finished little doll quilt
the Thursday before Easter,
so I made the deadline.  Yay.
But it will take 7-10 business days to get there,
as it has to take an airplane ride!
(I'll share a picture when I know my swap partner has received it.)

So, guess what came to my mailbox today??
A squishy envelope... from Texas!!
It was my swap quilt!!!!
Can you tell I was just a little excited?

I couldn't wait to tear into it!
Check out the contents...
a beautiful little doll quilt!:

Indigos and shirtings!!!

And the gorgeous toile back!:

The most adorable little quilt is from Ruth!!
Ruth of Country Log Cabin blog!!
Isn't it just the sweetest?
And in the colors that I love!
Thank you so much, Ruth from Texas!
I'm going to add this beauty to my wall of small quilts!

Ruth also added a little purse-sized tissue-pack cover:

It's already in my purse!

Thanks again Ruth. 
I really do love, love, love both the quilt and the tissue pack!

Also, many thanks to Lori for all the planning and organization!
Can't wait to see the linky party of all the swap doll quilts
that Lori is going to have in early May.

Happy Stitching!!

April 15th: time for some Spring decor

April 15th...time to pay taxes and do a little decorating today.

I changed out the table-topper quilts,

and added a few tulips and some bunnies:

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

(Joe Raposo, Sesame Street)

Did you notice the outdoor background?

Here's a shot without the Spring flowers and bunnies:

A day ago it was almost 80 degrees and sunny!
Went to bed last night and it was freezing rain -
making a coating of ice on all the trees
and the finally blooming daffodils.
This morn, there was this!! 
And the weatherman said that the ground was too warm for accumulation...

Yes, if you look carefully you'll see that those are the finally blooming daffodils hidden under the snow.

FYI: I Do Not consider snow part of the Spring décor!!

So,
I put on a big pot of stew
and I'm going back the studio and work
on my Lori Holt Doll Quilt Swap!
I still have some quilting to do on it before it gets mailed.

Happy Stitching on this snowy Spring tax day!