I knew that!

Peachy Keen/Jelly Beans

Look what I found in my drafts: an old post that’ll be a month old tomorrow! Sheesh.

I finished my Peachy Keen quilt for DQSII last week. Whew! What a relief…for a minute or two. THEN I remembered that I’d committed to making a “fairy” quilt for another swapper whose partner had to drop out.

I finished binding the Jelly Beans fairy quilt this afternoon,  washed and dried it, and then hotfooted it to the P.O. minutes before they closed. Last-minute Lisa strikes again.

I forgot to put the walking foot on my machine for a few rows of quilting both horizontally and vertically. Gah. Didn’t have time to rip it out; I never would have made the post office on time.

All of the fabric came out of my stash. And yes, it’s the Plain Spoken quilt again from the Modern Quilt Workshop. I love that design. It almost makes itself. This is my 3rd or fourth time making it, although I halved the finished block sizes, making this piece 19″ x 21″.

Today was the deadline for sending quilts, so much of the work is done for the other Swap Mamas and me. A few swappers here and there need a little extra time, but all that’s really left to do is sit back and watch the little packages show up on blogs and of course on the Doll Quilt Swap photo pool on flickr. We’ll track to make sure that everyone gets something. Then it’s on to planning Doll Quilt Swap III! Maybe the other Mamas and I can get together on IM to toss some ideas around for the next round.

Now that my swap projects are done, I finally get a chance to play with a few quilt tutorials shared by some very clever ladies.

Liz posted this technique on Whiplash for their miniature quilt contest. It’s since been adopted by Kim and the gang for the July Doll Quilt Challenge. I want to try it in brights on a black background.

Sarah G.’s swap quilt employed some cool and wonky Log Cabin blocks. Here’s a link to her tutorial on flickr so you can try it yourself. I have to warn you: it’s very addictive. I’ve tried it out on a several blocks, with varying degree of success. It has motivated me to tidy up my scrap basket, though. Now I don’t have to paw my way through piles of scraps to find the right size or color anymore. I’ve made a few and multiplied them in a graphics program to see how a quilt might look:

And look at Amy’s swap quilt! Isn’t it cool? I stared at it for a while wondering how she made the blocks. Luckily, she posted the technique tonight. I’ve made up a block, and people, it is fun! And fast, too!

A day late and a dollar short

Yesterday, fellow Doll Quilt Swapper Kathy and I had an all-afternoon-and-evening push to complete our quilts for DQSII. I’m happy to report that, one day past the sending deadline for the early wave of swappers, I’ve finished hand-quilting and binding Peachy Keen. It’s on its way to a far, far away country and a lady I hope likes it very much.

As I mentioned before, the design for the quilt came from Denyse Schmidt’s “What a Bunch of Squares.”

I named it “Peachy Keen because it reminded me of these:

Its final dimensions were 19-1/2″ wide X 23-3/4″ long.

I found hand-quilting it to be quite enjoyable. I love the way hand sewing really demands that you slow down and focus on the project – the stitch, even – at hand. I felt successful with even two good (okay, passable) stitches in a row and immersed myself in the process, rather than rushing through every seam. “Done” is a delight, but “doing” was just as much so with this!

I have a few blocks that didn’t make it into the quilt. I want to include them in Denyse Schmidt Sampler. And hand-quilt it, of course.