Rainbow Mini Swap

I actually remembered to take pictures (and good ones at that) and show them to you before I packaged it up and sent it off. Usually I remember that I needed to take pictures as I'm sitting in the post office parking lot after I sent it.

I joined the Rainbow Mini Swap and instantly I felt on top of my game! I had a plan! I know and love color and I couldn't wait to get started.

 This was my first time playing with Liberty of London fabrics and I AM HOOKED!!! I started with the feathers and once I finished those, the mini needed to grow just a bit and I still wanted to play with more color, so I added these offset borders. It worked out almost perfectly to run "around the rainbow" twice. I had to improvise just a few pieces. It was pure luck because I just cut haphazard widths of strips, there was no rhyme or reason to the pieces besides thicker strips for bigger pieces and smaller prints were cut into thinner strips...

 Then I played with the quilting and did this denser-ish swirl design in the background and these angled lines on either side.

I wanted to mimic the feather into the border and you can see how the quilting added to the quilt as a whole. I had so much fun making this mini and I can't wait to see what shows up at my doorstep!

What what what?!

That's what I was saying to myself during my little giveaway a couple weeks ago. Things have been a bit busy on the blog I hadn't had time to share this tidbit yet!

I woke up early in the morning (when Ben gets up for work) and I usually check some emails and watch some news until I fall back asleep... Well, I was searching through my emails and one of the comments on the giveaway said:

I just learned about your blog in a quilt magazine Fresh Quilts. I am so excited to find your blog! And bonus a giveaway!

Well, Lori... you changed the number one item on my to-do list for that day in an instant! No matter what, I had to get to the store... And when I did I found this:

I was trying to play it cool... But there was this large gentleman blocking all of the quilting magazines. I didn't want to be rude, but I really wanted him to get out of my way! Didn't he know I was a woman on a mission?! And then I spotted it and flipped through feverishly until I saw:

It took every ounce of my being not to scream in the middle of the store! I probably had a ridiculous grin on my face, but I didn't care. The gentleman had moved on so I grabbed some other favorites to read and I practically ran to the counter... But not ran ran... More like that goofy walk that kids do when you tell them not to run at the pool but they still try to get the same speed...

And that's when it happened...

I got busted. But in a good way. There was only one cashier and she was busy, so I stood there with this stupid grin on my face... Another guy working at the store comes up and asks me to come to another register (SCORE)...

He starts ringing me out and then asks if I have their rewards card to save whatever... I reply no...

Then he looks at me with a weird look on his face and asks, "Aren't you in here like every other week buying these magazines?"

I WAS BUSTED. I tried to brush it off and my reply was something less than cool with, "It has to be more like every other month, duh"

But I didn't care, I had my magazines including the magazine with my little mini in it that I had no clue about, so I ran to my car and posted on social media...

To which I got a reply from my Hubby's aunt... "Oh yeah, I saw that a few weeks ago. I was at the store sipping coffee and looking through magazines and saw your name..."

After my jaw hit the floor I demanded in not my nicest tone "And you didn't say anything?!" She thought I knew...

Such is the life of a quilter, I tell you. So there it is, my goofy story about my quilt in a magazine that I didn't know was there. This issue is still on newsstands, so run and pick yourself up a copy and I hope you got a good laugh at my tale!

Mini Madness Continues

A little bit ago I hosted a giveaway over on Instagram for reaching 400 followers. I offered up a choice of either $75 towards long arm quilting or a personalized mini quilt...

 Aurelie won and chose a mini quilt. I had so much fun piecing this and then the quilting was a blast! I love it so much that I may just have to make one for me!

 I drew up this pattern and paper pieced the feathers and adapted the rest as I went. There was a certain size and proportion I was trying to get and I'm so happy with how it turned out.

 I really like how the quilting stands out on the pieced back too!

 You can really see the quilting details in the feather at this angle.

Then just as I was getting ready to pack this mini up and send it on it's way, the sunset was shining through the window and it cast the most amazing light and shadows!!! This picture really doesn't do it justice, but it was so pretty I had to snap a few more pictures!

I know I know, many of you may be feeling neglected that I didn't offer the same giveaway here... Well, just hold your horses and come back next week for a giveaway! It's been long overdue here on the blog and you all deserve some quilty love too!

I have some other wonderful posts scheduled in the meantime while I hash out the details for the giveaway, stop back tomorrow for a new printable that I'm sure you're going to love. On Monday I will be featuring a new project from Seems Like Scrappy and then probably Tuesday I will post the giveaway... Sound good?

Aurelie, enjoy your mini and if you ever get tired of it, feel free to send it on back! I will miss it so!