Home Run!

LAST YEAR (it sounds dramatic, even though it was only a month ago), Courtney and I did a baseball-themed doll quilt swap. I forgot to share!

I made my first dresden plate and my first round quilt:





And Courtney "hit one out of the park" (wink wink):




The backing is the softest corduroy and has me wanting to back a full size quilt in it. So snuggly!

Also, I've done a little blog update -- now that the auction is over I've removed all the Scrappy Holiday Block Swap stuff (a little sad, as it has been a part of the blog for six months!!), and added a WIPs list. These are all projects that I started last year (or before!!) and have resolved to finish this year!! I've also updated the "Books Read in 2010" list. My grand total for January is four, enjoyable reads all. I've mentioned The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and The Girl Who Played with Fire was a worthy sequel, even though it was slow to start. I look forward to the last book in the trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, due out in May. The 7 Professors of the Far North was an impulse borrow from the library, simply because it had "professor" in the title and I liked the cover -- how's that for shallow! It's a kids book with little character development, but the story's rather grand and very interesting. And finally, I read The Bright Side of Disaster in just a few days. It would make a great beach read -- not too deep, a little
predictable, but with interesting, realistic characters.

Next up...I found a kid's book at the library by Carl Hiaasen. I had no idea. And I am trying to decide if I want to read the next book in the Wheel of Time series, or just wait for the last book and read them all together. It has been 14 years since I started the series. I also need to pick up the next in the Outlander series.

To continue this stream-of-consciousness post, I came across this this week. EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!!!!! Heather Ross is teaching a fabric design class?!?!?!?!!?!? HEATHER ROSS. Deep breaths. Other bloggers immediately signed up. The class itself, while a chunk of change, might be doable -- but getting across the country might be harder. As Amy points out, you can cancel up to a week before and get a refund (minus $25) so it's almost worth it to make sure you have a place in the class. Anybody have some frequent flyer miles going to waste?!?!?!?

But I guess I could stay home and comfort myself with my new toy.
BAM! It's fabulous. That's red camera's grandfather looking on in jealousy.

Auction's End!

A great big thank you to everyone who bid on a quilt or tree skirt. The high bidders are:

Tree Skirt I: Katie
Tree Skirt II: anonymous ;-)
Lap Quilt: Rita
Quilt: zoelizabeth

For a grand total of $785 raised to aid Doctors without Borders and Partners in Health!!

I have emailed the high bidders with directions -- except Katie. Katie, I don't have your email address. If I haven't heard from you in a week's time I will offer the tree skirt up to the next highest bidder. I hope to hear from you soon!

And, finally, I put all the bidders into a hat and let Jaxon draw a name. The winner of the table runner is....Lara! Congrats, Lara! You should have an email from me soon.

Thanks again to all who were able to participate, and a special "shout out" to those of you who donated your bid amount even if you didn't win! Every bit helps!

I'll be back tomorrow with something I forgot to post LAST YEAR and my super cool new toy. Don't tell Jaxon.

Auction to Aid Haiti: Tree Skirt II

Up for auction is this festive Christmas Tree Skirt.

Dimensions: 50" square
Quilting & Binding: Annette

Please place bids by commenting on this post with bid amount and email address. More information about this auction here.

AUCTION IS CLOSED

Auction to Aid Haiti: Quilt

Up for auction is this fabulous Christmas Quilt.

Dimensions: 62" x 64"
Quilting: Molly
Binding: Cecelia

Please place bids by commenting on this post with bid amount and email address. More information about this auction here.

AUCTION IS CLOSED

Auction to Aid Haiti: Lap Quilt

Up for auction is this jolly Christmas Lap Quilt.

Dimensions: 42" x 55"
Quilting: Natalia
Binding: Cecelia

Please place bids by commenting on this post with bid amount and email address. More information about this auction here.

AUCTION IS CLOSED

Auction to Aid Haiti: Tree Skirt I

Up for auction is this sophisticated Christmas Tree Skirt.

Dimensions: 40" square
Quilting: Wendy
Binding: me!

Please place bids by commenting on this post with bid amount and email address. More information about this auction here.

AUCTION IS CLOSED

Finally Auction Time!

AUCTION IS CLOSED
I will email everyone after dinner!!!

The Scrappy Holiday Block Swap charity quilts are all done and here!

These pictures don't include one of the tree skirts -- which looks fantastic!! And, as usual, my photography does not do justice to these amazing quilts!






We have the opportunity to do so much good to help the people of Haiti. Over 111,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and over 600,000 people have been left homeless in and around Port-au-Prince alone. Winning bids will be donated to Partners in Health and Doctors without Borders.

The auctions begin Sunday at 8:00 am (EASTERN) and end Friday at 5:00 pm (EASTERN). Leave a comment on the entry for the item with your bid amount and your email address. The highest bid at the auction close wins. I will ask the winners to make an online donation to Partners in Health or Doctors without Borders in the amount bid and email me the receipt -- at which point I will ship the quilt!

Also, everyone who bids will be entered in a drawing to win the this Christmas table runner -- as a thank you for bidding!

Quilting and Binding by Anna
Thanks once again to all of you who participated in the swap and donated quilting, binding, fabric, and time!

Hoop Up Swap

Hoop Up! Stitch and Send Swap is a collaborative quilt block and embroidery swap I joined in December. I've been assigned a group of six other stitchers and we are each to decide on a theme, stitch an initial design, and mail fabrics to our teammates by January 20.

My theme is Ed Emberley–inspired worlds, like this:


Ed Emberley Embroidery
Originally uploaded by modernjax


Ed Emberley is an illustrator who authored a series of books that support his philosophy that with the right elements, anyone can draw! I've asked each of my teammates to choose a city, state, or country to illustrate in Emberley's style. I chose Copenhagen, Denmark.



Ed Emberley's artwork has been licensed for fabric (and other things, too) in Japan. *SIGH* Why won't it come here??

Digging Out

Like a lot of the world, we have had a lot of cold weather, ice and snow! Two of the family has enjoyed it, including Jaxon...


...and Samantha (and you can see how much snow we got!)



Also, we used a little snow reflection to get some snaps of the Star Wars quilt.


And although the back is just a sheet, I thought you might like to see the tootsies of my quilt hanger.



BRRRRRR!!!!!!

Back to the Grind

We've spent the last two weeks avoiding the cold and celebrating with family. I've had a lot of work to do over our winter break, and that certainly didn't let up over the holidays, but I made time to enjoy family and FOOD!

I finished Charlie's Christmas present YESTERDAY. I'm still counting it as a 2009 finish, all I've had to do to finish it since Christmas was hand stitching the binding (which, by the way I love...it's some random Christmas print from my LQS with a navy background and silver and blue dots in the EXACT colors I needed). I just pulled it out of the dryer, so I will get some full length photos when Charlie's home to help...



...and besides finishing up Christmas presents and teaching myself Javascript, we spent some time at the library:

From the top: Seven Professors, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, Patchwork Style, Sew Darn Cute, Snow, Hooray for Snow!, Material Obsession, The Room Outside

I've resolved not to buy any more sewing books before previewing them. I have many on my shelf that I've never used, thinking based on online reviews I would like them. Material Obsession is a must buy. In fact I already have! I am counting The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as my first finish of 2010. I really finished it New Year's Eve, but it was very good and I would like to have it hang around on my sidebar list for awhile.

Also, I've been playing with my Christmas gifts, like this and this, and...



Now you might wonder how I've been playing with a sewing machine travel case...but you're forgetting that it is the perfect size for a three year old. Anything on casters + hardwood floors = happy child. I have to say that I am very impressed with JoAnn's customer service. Charlie bought this for me through their website and the day after Christmas it was marked down 40%. I called their customer service hotline and they reimbursed me for the difference. Good thing Charlie puts off shopping for Christmas -- they will only do a price adjustment within 7 days of shipping.

Speaking of JoAnn, I received a couple of gift cards for Christmas and I wanted to take advantage of their after Christmas sale. I couldn't decide what to get -- my Gingher's are out of balance and I can't find anyone to fix them, and I've also been wanting another rotary cutter to keep a pinking blade in. Everything I was interested in was on sale -- so I ended up with a new pair of Gingher's (in PLAID!), a rotary set with a 45 mm cutter and an 18 mm cutter as well as a small mat, an extra large yo yo maker, and "Material Obsession." All for less then my gift cards -- although I forgot the pinking blade for the cutter...

And now my scissor drawer looks like this:

Yay!