Painted Lady sent to Barbara!

I hope that my swap partner for this month likes the painted lady. I used a fantastic panel sold by my local quilt shop, Gypsy Moon, and I thought it lended itself well to thread painting.

Until later, keep sewing and creating!

The Cheeky Quilter (Tena)

Modern Mystery!

This month it was a modern theme for Doll Quilter's Monthly Swap, and so I gave it a go. It is actually my name mirrored then appliquéd and quilted. So much for anything too cool!

Until later, keep sewing and creating!
Tena- The Cheeky Quilter

A little bit of springtime sent to Mary for Doll Quilter's Monthly!

As I sit here listening to the rain, I decided it is better to hear rain than sleet or freezing rain! It looks like we are turning a corner to spring and I wanted to send a little bit of Spring to Mary in Canada this month.

Until later, keep sewing and creating.
Cheeky Quilter

Entry for Sew Little Swap on Flickr!

Here is the entry that I have submitted for the Flickr swap. SSHHH!!  It is a blind entry so no one is supposed to know who entered!

I will let you know how it goes!

Doll Quilters Monthly: March Quilt for Emily!

 I finished it all up today and this will be on its way to Emily (My March Swap Partner) on Monday! (Whew right under the deadline!)

Potholders and Tea Towels for a Swap

I had a great time making this potholder and tea towels for a for the Mug Rug Group over on Ipernity.  (http://www.ipernity.com/group/mugrug). It is a blind partner swap, so I hope she likes it!

Until later keep sewing and creating!
Tena

Without Rain there is no Rainbow

I am hoping to finish this up soon and use for a quilt swap this month! I will post pictures when it gets completed.

UFOs! EVERYWHERE!!!

UGH!! I have been so busy lately that I haven't had much time to get to as many of these UFO's as I would like. All of my unfinished objects are in various states of completion and I hope to get to them- SOMEDAY! (What you are not seeing here is another set hanging up- I was too embarrassed to show all of it!) 

So my question to fellow quilters is- how many UFO's do you have and what are your goals for completing them? Sometimes I love, love to design, and others I love to just free motion, and yet others it is binding (well I don't love binding but I get in a groove and do several in one sitting). Is anyone else like this? Why can't I treat these like I book and just plow trough one before starting another?

Until Later, keep sewing and creating!

Tena

A wreath for a friend.

A friend of mine is having a baby girl and I offered to make her a wreath for her hospital room door. At first I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew, but finally an idea came along and it was easy to do! I cannot wait to make more wreaths for different occasions.

The Big BIND Theory! Use Craft Ribbon for Binding!

Okay folks, so I love the design and I like the actual process of appliquéing my quilts, since we all know by now that I am NOT a traditional block quilter. There, of course, is nothing wrong with block quilts and I love to receive them in my swaps, but it's like putting a round peg in a square hole for me to create them. I dislike the rigidity and the whole patterness of it all for me to make them. Have I done it before- yes, once. Can I do some of the amazing complicated blocks that are out there? I have no idea, I've never tried and probably won't. It's the same reason why there are so many varieties of clothing and furniture in the world- we are all different and that's awesome.

But back to the original reason of this post, I have heard many a quilter groan about the binding. The blasted, final thing that requires the dexterity of a concerto pianist it sometimes "seams".  If I "cheat" and wrap around or get bias tape, I am really limited and can't get those awesome contrasting, bada bing finished edges. So I have been successfully playing with.....drumroll here..... RIBBON. It works PERFECTLY. It comes in unlimited colors and patterns that are perfectly proportioned for the width. (We have all been excited about a contrasting fabric for a binding, only to cut and iron and find out you can't tell what the pattern is cause it looks like a blob.) It takes a little bit of practice, but it is EASIER, CHEAPER, FASTER, and GREAT-LOOKING. What's not to like? You can pick up ribbon anywhere- Wal-Mart, Craft or Fabric Store, Dollar Tree, and you can find ANY COLOR, ANY STYLE, ANY WIDTH, and ANY PATTERN. I love it, and it is now a go to favorite. Give it s try on a practice piece and you won't be disappointed.

Here is an abandoned mug rug that I use as a threading scrap where I practiced using a pink 2" houndstooth ribbon as the binding.

Til Later, Keep Sewing and Crafting.

Tena

Now you Ski Me!

I am working on a birthday present for my mom and here is a sneak peak of the soon-to-be-finished quilt. Ssh, no ruining the surprise! She loves to ski and the skier looks surprisingly like my mom (I included a picture of her, so you can see!) What do you think?

Until later, keep sewing and crafting.

Tena

Valentine's Mug Rug is Finished!

I finally finished the tiny little Valentine's Mug Rug for the Ipernity group. Here it is:

POP ART quilt Mania!!!

Lately I have been in love with Pop Art (more Roy Lichtenstein and less Andy Warhol mind you).  I just can't seem to get enough of it. So much so that I am doing a Pop Art inspired Valentines Day Mug Rug over at Ipernity with the Mug Rug group. (Check them out on my favorite links page).

I realized as I am almost done- whoa, Tena you are really going a bit nuts with this theme. Here is a sneaky peek at the mug rug, and I will post a picture when it is finished in the next few days.

And to prove my point that I am a woman gone mad for quilting pop art, check out these other pop-art inspired quilts that I am currently working on:

 

 

Hopefully I get my fill and find another theme to wear out!

Until later, keep sewing and creating.

Tena

My first swap was sent ... and received!

I had a bit of a challenge in my first swap, since my partner was really wanting something more traditional for her quilt- a specific block to be specific. However, I don't really do blocks (I have but they don't excite me to work on) so I made her something that was a little me and hopefully a little her. Here is the result now that it has been received on her end. She seems to like it, so hopefully she is not just being nice!

Come Join the Valentine Mug Rug Swap!

You're Invited! 

Make up the valentine of your dreams for a secret partner, you will not know who your partner will be until the week of mailing! Launch your New Year with creative freedom! Sign up's at www.ipernity.com/group/mugrug
look for the sign up thread in the discussions.

What happens when it just doesn't turn out like you hoped?

I am in a predicament- I have a swap coming up and the piece just isn't what I had in my mind when I laid it out on my computer. To my credit, I did try a couple of new techniques, one worked, and the other, well, not so much. I am on a deadline and I don't quite know what to do. The piece itself isn't bad necessarily, just not what I had envisioned. Do I send it, knowing that everything I create I won't love, or do I ask for an extension and create something else? I have gotten some feedback from friends and family who think it looks great, but my inner perfectionist, OCD, and self-conscious teenager is out waving her arms, doing cartwheels and generally being obnoxious, fingers on either side of her mouth saying "Neener, neener, neener."

So there it is. I feel better having said it aloud, and I am hoping for the best!

Until later, keep sewing and creating.

Tena

It's not always about quilting!

So the awesome power of social media has allowed me to reconnected with many people from my past and one of those happens to live right here in Tulsa! Anyway, she and I went to high school together and have not seen each other in almost 20 years, and tomorrow we are meeting for lunch. She is expecting her first child and I wanted to make something special for Baby Girl Sylas. So today I got busy and made some custom burp cloths for mom (mainly for mom) and baby.  Here they are! I hope she likes them!

Until later, keep sewing (and creating)!

Tena

To label or not to label?

So I realized that I needed a label for these quilt swaps (some even require it), so I scoured, literally scoured Ebay, Amazon and Etsy for a great option. I found a few on Etsy but they were a little pricey. So I have made my own and printed them out on this great printable inkjet fabric I found on Amazon. I absolutely love printable fabric sheets, especially for art quilting. Most of the time I freehand designs, but there are times when I just can't get things to look good, especially if I am doing faces of people. Other times I am a regular Rembrandt and the face can be drawn like I am a rock star. Go Figure. Anyhow, here are the cute (I think anyway) labels that I have printed up and I will add to the back of all the quilts I make going forward.

A Package in the Mail!

A real fabric addict and quilter gets very ( VERY) excited when a new piece of fabric arrives, and today was such a day for me. I ordered Michael Miller's Ahoy panel:

I also ordered this extremely adorable panel called City Construction:

I cannot wait to get started on projects using both panels. A family member recently saw my "Save the Day" quilt and asked if I would make similar quilts for her two young boys. She was quick to point out that each boy would need something almost identical (a slight difference so they would know without a doubt which one belong to which child).  Her first request was for the Save the Day quilt, but I realized that I would likely not be able to replicate the fabrics easily, so I decided that it would be better to start from scratch so that neither boy had a "better" quilt or a "more super" superhero. Of course I have a lot of projects going on so it will be a while before I get to these, but they are such fun!

As far as the ahoy fabric, your guess is as good as mine how I will use that one. I saw it online and I love it. It is a stretch for me since I do not typically start with a panel, but rather just layer the fabrics in an appliqué fashion. So maybe I will just let the design stand and play with some more intricate free motion stitches. That is where I could really use some work and practice so that might be the perfect piece to use.

Until next time, keep sewing.

Tena

New to blogging & new to quilt swaps!

So recently I have been participating in quilt swaps- mainly the "Another little quilt swap" and "Doll Quilter's Monthly". Most of the quilters have great blogs and I finally thought "Oh why not, it could be fun to document my quilting adventures and perhaps I can host my very own swap at some point. So here goes nothing.

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