Back from Morocco, had a fantabulous time,
pictures to be posted later. First, I have to get caught up. Woke up this morning at 4 am (after going to bed at midnight), so decided to get up and work on my fabric postcards. This is my "G"- for Girlfriends. If there is anything cuter than these two, I don't know what it is! It didn't turn out as cute as I thought it would, so it's not my new favorite, but I'm happy with it.

And also finished my 1 to 1 for Fabricards - "Going in Circles" - love using that circle attachment.

My friend, Susan is here from California on business, but she stayed over an extra day because we haven't seen one another in 3 or 4 years. Going to pick her up, turn her rental car in, tour the CNN Center, have lunch, then take her to the airport. Hopefully I can stay awake tonight - although a lot of good that did me last night!

Most quilters are the nicest people you'd ever want to meet, and I have met the nicest of the nice, at the Crazy Quilters for Newbies group. I love this statement from the coordinator of the heart swap:

"Our group has many dear ladies on it, and I ask that if you are disappointed with your swap heart, then please keep your feelings to yourself. Every stitch in these hearts will have been made with the greatest of intentions, the grandest of planning and labor from the heart. "

Yes! A kindler, gentler Yahoo group!

I was the 400th member to join the group, and as my reward, a bunch of people have sent me goodies to build my CQ stash! But they're not doing it just for me...any new person who joins can post an email and some of the members will be a "starter stash" package in the mail. Getting the mail every day is like Christmas, and they are sooo generous! Here are photos of some of the stuff they have sent, just out of the goodness and kindness of their hearts!

This postcard took waaay too long to do...it doesn't look like it, but it did! This wasn't my original design, but the original design didn't work, so after playing around with it, here's where I ended up. This is for the Black Music Month swap for the AA Quilters. My chosen topic was Nina Simone. Yes, that is Nina Simone! I loved that coquettish pose, very different from the usual photos you see of her. My original design was the usual side shot of her stunningly beautiful profile, and I was going to make a fabric head wrap to give it a 3-D effect, but it so did not work out. I did use that photo on the back, but I can't show it here because the address of the recipient shows. OK - on to the other 4 I have to finish! And have I done anything for Morocco yet?

This is the "sane" quilt I have most recently finished. The fabrics are all batiks, and I named it "Batik Sun Dance" because the quilting makes each block look like a dancing sun to me. It was quilted by Melinda Fulkerson with a really pretty variegated thread. Verrry happy to have another UFO crossed off the list!

Oooh, I forgot about this one...this was my favorite postcard...it was my "C" - is for Circles. Drawing these circles was too much fun. The green and rust stripes are actually left over from a border for my Batik Sun Dance quilt. Way to use up those scraps, Girlfriend!

This was a frustratingly fun card to do...the theme was Abstract, and this is "In the Style of Mondrian."

Speaking of using leftovers, this card is from an "Orphan blocks" swap. The idea is to recycle blocks which are leftover for whatever reason, and these are leftover from a "Stripes and Curves" quilt I didn't finish. So maybe technically they are not orphans? We were talking about "Honkin' Orange" on the CQ list...aren't these pretty? How could you not love Orange????

I barely have time to sew, let alone write about sewing. But, I recently got bitten by the Crazy Quilting bug, and all of the members of the Yahoo group I joined have blogs, so I figure if they can do it, I can do it!

I tried to start a blog ages ago, but Ms. Technology couldn't figure it out. And, besides there's the time issue thingie, plus, who wants to read about what someone else is doing? Well, I do - I can get lost for hours reading someone else's blog!

So my first post is about the Heart Swap for Crazy Quilting for Newbies, the Yahoo group I just joined (more about that later). The swap hostess, Sue, posted that the swap was at the deadline, but she would hold the swap open for a day or so if anyone else wanted to join. Well, I don't have enough to do, so I joined the swap, and got busy sewing. Here is my heart:

This is an Ermine stitch and French knots at the top left of the block. Don't ask me how long this took...for-freaking-evah! The Ermine stitch is just a straight stitch with two side cross stitches, but the challenge is in making those cross stitches even.

My very first stitches on a block!

A-w-w-w.

And here she is with a Herringbone stitch and pretty red beads at the top of each stitch. You can barely see it, but I'm very pleased with this so far. This block is begging for some pretty silk ribbon roses, which I just didn't have time to do, but when I get it back, I'll put some on. Off this goes in the post tomorrow to Sue and she will swap it out for someone else's block for me to work on. How fun is this?

And before I go to bed, here's the current postcard for a swap for another Yahoo group, Artsnthemail. We make fabric postcards, little pieces of art that go through the mail like a postcard. We're doing an alphabet series, and this is "F is for Folded Fabric." I got the idea from the book "Folded Fabric Elegance" by Rami Kim. The fabric is pearlized with metallic paint and it is just so pretty - I almost didn't want to use it! This is my favorite card so far, but I have a fabulous idea for G and I 'spect that one is going to be my new favorite.