Charms and Other Charming Things

I waited until after the mail came today to write this post, hoping against hope that my mini quilt from the Little Quilt - Sew, Vote, Swap Group would arrive. Alas, it did not. But I do have a stack of charms from the 4x5 modern Quilt Bee fabric swap to show you.

It's hard to even describe what a fun array of fabrics these are - all colors commonly used in the modern block swap. I plan on putting them to use right away in this round's bee blocks.

Anyway, on to the photos I promised you this morning . . . I'm not one to yell from the rooftops, "It's my birthday!" But that doesn't mean yesterday wasn't. And I went to sleep last night feeling very pampered. An afternoon of shopping with my mom, a homey meal with our family, and a skype exchange with my son left me feeling quite content. There were lovely gifts, too, of course, but I'm pretty sure you are most interested in those of the quilty variety, yes?

First was a jaw-dropping beautiful "Cinch It Tote Bag" made by my friend Sharon. I was so shocked when I saw it, as I had pinned this pattern to my Pinterest board just this week! And to top it off, it was made in some of my favorite fabrics! (Remember this?) Awesome.

There was also a coordinating zip pouch inside. More awesomeness.

Side note - Sharon's been accepted into the do.Good Stitches charity bee, and is waiting to be placed in a circle. I'm secretly hoping she's placed with one of you! That would be so fun to have that connection!

Needless to say, I was pleased when my daughter walked into the house last night with a fabric gift bag. It's not that I hadn't received one before - she's been making them for a while now (see here, here, and here). But this one was different. Adapted from Pink Penguin's Reversible Patchwork Bag tutorial, it had a fun green chevron star on the side from thought & found. Darling.

And of course, there was something very cool inside - a St. Patrick's Day mini quilt!

I love that it has some blue in it, as dictated by the darling focus fabric.

Oh, and did I mention it was hand-quilted? Yup, that's my girl!

All in all a fine day indeed.

Truly Random

Thought I'd share the creative blocks I received from the 4x5 modern quilt bee, quarter 4.

Nice, huh?? I still can hardly believe that they came not only from around the U.S., but also from Canada, Australia(!), and Morocco(!!). Amazing. So I have 12 modern gray and orange blocks from the first two rounds of the 4x5 {here's my first set}, and will be going one more round, this time as a caretaker. Cool.

A really nice surprise was realizing that two of my pics of Tangerisk made flickr explore! Must say, that's always pretty exciting.

1. "Tangerisk" for Tangerine Tango Challenge, 2. sneak peek, 3. Dead Simple Quilt, 4. Kaleidoscope complete!, 5. Mini-Swoon II, 6. Supernova! 

Have you heard about the Simply Charmed Blog Hop? Melissa from Happy Quilting got a group of quilters together, and beginning February 1, there will be Valentine tutorials each day. See all the details here. 

I ended up trimming quite alot last night - charm squares for the 4x5 fabric swap . . . 

    

Sketch White and Black Screen by Timeless Treasures & Nature Elements Candy Pink by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics, per my assigned colors of black and pink

. . . some of my Hometown blocks . . . 
and my Modern Halves blocks! Don't get too excited - I just slashed and starting placing them randomly on the design wall . . . (phone pic!) . . . but this is going to be one brightly colored quilt!