9-patch swap blocks are here!

A great, squishy package arrived in my mail box,
and I couldn't imagine what it was...

I didn't remember ordering anything...
I did a double-take - 
it looked like it was addressed in my hand-writing.
Then it struck me - my blocks from the 9-patch swap!!! 
They arrived!!!
I had almost put them out of my mind, so it was a nice surprise! 

 50 pairs  - all 100 little, three-inch (finished) blocks!!
Thank you to all the bloggy friends 
from across the nation and around the world 
that made these wonderful little nine-patches!
They are all gorgeous!
All different fabrics and colors - 
I don't think that there are fabric repeats in any of them! 
Also, I don't have many of the fabrics from which they were made!
Amazing!

Also a BIG thank you to Barb (of Fun with Barb blog)  
for coordinating and doing all the swap work!  

So now to decide what to do with them.

Too many ideas! 
And, not enough time, as usual.
I have a baby quilt to get finished -
which I'm delivering Sunday at the family gathering...
Hopefully sometime this weekend I'll be able to get to play with them.
 
Happy Weekend to you.
Hope you are getting time to play with your fabrics!

nine-patch fun

SO.
Sew.
I have issues. :)
(Don't we all? - please say it's so :)
My issues are, well, numerous.
As numerous as the irons I have in the fire.
Which is my problem - irons/fires.

This time, this iron/fire is -
a block swap I signed up for in July. 
It's a 9-patch block swap, 
and I only have to make 50 pairs of blocks 
in Civil War reproduction fabrics to send.

Not that I have to justify it,
but... here goes anyway :)
I figured it was a good way to use up more of my stash, 
I'll end up with blocks in fabrics I (maybe) don't have in my stash,
and, I have until October 1st to mail my finished blocks.
No pressure, right?

Barb (who blogs at Fun With Barb) is hosting/organizing
and I was so excited to get into the group!
(Unfortunately, the swap group is already filled and sign-ups are closed, 
but you can go check out the 9-patch tutorial 
that Barb is recommending for use for this swap.)

Bonnie Blue, New Town Farm/Williamsburg, Indigo by Nance Gere.

I cut my 4 1/2 inch square fabric pairs weeks ago
and planned to sew a few every day.
That didn't happen.

Fast forward to this week, and I cranked them out.

All ready to send off to Barb.
And early,  imagine that!

Happy Stitching!!

I've been working on the railroad...

On the railroad?!
Sure seems like the railroad, anyway.
Just exhausted every night,
and not a whole lot accomplished each day.
Do you ever feel this way too?
I need to get out of this routine and
stop singing that railroad song over and over again!

In reality, I'm just working on the normal 'stuff' around the house...
I could dust every day and the next day the whole place is
coated in another lay of thickness -
as there's construction again in the neighborhood.
The type of construction where they are planting houses
instead of corn in the cornfields,
so heavy dirt movers 
every day - dawn to dusk.
Combine that with the hot summer breezes wind tunnels,
and it seems as if construction is happening in my house, not near it.

I have been doing a little machine-piecing...
I've joined Barb (of Fun With Barb fame) in her 9-Patch Swap:

The blocks aren't due until October 1st, 
but I've chosen the fabrics, cut the fabric into blocks and sewn a few.

For some reason, I have a lot of that blue, so I'm going to use it with both of the light fabrics.
There are 50 of us in the Reproduction Block Group, so I just need to make a pair of blocks for each person in the group.
The group is closed now, but if you visit Barb's blog (here)
you can see the method she's having us use to construct the blocks.
I've used this method before, but because you end up with two opposite blocks,
I've only used it a few times, as most of the time I want all my 9-patch blocks the same.

And then, I've been working on these blocks for a small quilt:

Churn Dash blocks!  
There are 12 blocks in each of the above stacks.
I love Churn Dash blocks!
Churning and churning...maybe that's my 
'I've been working on the railroad' 
problem from above... 
all of those Churn Dashes!
I'm just 'churning' away. :)

Happy August!

end of October fun...

A little rain.
Then some freezing temps,
along with some sleet and snow blowing through the fallen leaves.
Seems like Winter is trying to sneak into late October.
Fun, huh?!?
But I'm not ready for that yet!

I have a little Halloween-y quilt finish to share first:

This little quilt finished 17" by 24"

and I used the disappearing nine patch block method

with a little charm pack of 2 1/2 inch squares. 

These little pre-cuts/charms were from the fabric line BooCrew.

The inner border was an orange scrap from Honey and Me fabrics with little pumpkins.  Outer border is also BooCrew.  The binding was a Lynette Anderson print - kind of a purplish-gray with little web-dangling spiders - too cute! 

I quilted it by hand in a big, freehand spider web design. 

I quilted it using the Utility Stitch (or big stitch) with a ball of

Valdani variegated thread - size 12, color O540.

I love Valdani threads!!! 

Color O540 is a black and green variegate

and just the perfect color for this little mat.

It took longer to finish than I had anticipated because I decided to hand-quilt it. 
But turned out really cute, I think, so totally worth the extra time.

I don't know if you can tell from the pictures,
but I took it outside to photograph. 
The slanting, late October sun and dry leaves tell the story of Autumn in Ohio.

That's some of my end of October fun!
What's happening in your part of the world?