Swamped with Swap blocks.

This evening I went digging through one of the storage tubs of swap blocks.  Yes, there is more than one storage container of swap blocks, and yes they are very large containers.  I can stand up and proudly say, my name is Denise and I am a swapaholic (though I do hold a friend responsible for getting me started – definitely an enabler). 🙂   I love participating in and  hosting them (most of the time – being a hostess can sometimes drive you nuts).  But picking out a pattern or theme and then seeing all those lovely blocks come in to swap out – such an easy way to get lots of variety for a quilt.

Here’s the swap blocks I pulled out to work on. Moon Over the Mountain — tho I think I’m going to call my quilt “Setting Sun/Rising Moon” since some look more like sunset and others more moon like.  All the fabrics in them are batiks. I’ve got them all on the design wall, arranging, rearranging, sitting back and staring, shifting blocks around some more.  So have now taken a photo since it’s easier to see from a photo if there’s too many blocks of same color in an area, etc.

There’s still some shuffling to be done and I think one row will come off the side and be added to the bottom since I don’t really like square quilts.  I’m going to be needed a couple graduation quilts next spring so this may be one of them.

I haven’t decided on how I’ll sash them so need to stare at them a while longer but have two ideas I’m contemplating.  Of course the puzzling thing is in looking at these blocks, I made the vast majority of them myself.  Not unusual since I normally make extra blocks for myself when swapping but I know I swapped a fairly good stack of blocks so either (1) I made a previously project with some of them and I just can’t remember it at the moment or (2) they were really not all together in the same baggie and somewhere in the swap boxes there are more of them.  So I may have to search the other boxes to see if there are any more.

In the meantime, I’ll just shift a block or two around and try to figure out what kind of fabric to use between the blocks.

Friday’s quilting

Back into the big hat box I went today in search of another project to finish.  I found 9 blocks from an apron block swap that are siggy blocks signed by the makers, along with some apron print fabrics and kitchen print pieces.  So sashed and bordered the blocks into a simple little quilt and pieced the leftover sashing and fabrics into the quilt backing so it’s all ready to go.

Here they are

I also pulled out of the seemingly bottomless hat box a group of wine glass blocks from a swap at a quilt retreat three years ago.  I’ve made at least one project with some of them in the past but have this group left over.  So have them up on the design wall contemplating what I want to do with them. I may need a trip to the quilt shop for some “wine cork” print fabric I know I saw there. 🙂  In the meantime, I think I’ll switch to digging in one of the swap block tubs to see what I can find in there to work on tonight.

Progress finally

I finally settled down to some sewing yesterday.  Inside the hatbox I found some blocks  that had been made by a group of us on vacation two years ago.  They were to be used for charity quilts. All the blocks have one common wild fabric in them – a zigzaggy/stripey geometric of bright colors – that one of the gals brought along and that’s the fabric everyone worked with to make their block adding other fabrics individually chosen.  So I made the last few blocks needed so that we coud have two nice size lap quilts to donate.

Here they are in all their bright, chaotic glory….

The flash is affecting some of the colors since it was rather dark in my sewing room when I was taking this photo last night but trust me – they are definitely eye poppers with the purples, lime green and yellows.  And one of the blocks is made up of 4 swap blocks I had also found in the hat box. 

I may have to delve back into the hat box again today and  – or maybe one of the swap block boxes – to find something else to work on today.