Minis and Friends

I am really missing my blog so I am will be making as good effort to come back here and be a regular poster and reader again. I love Instagram, where I spend most of my time with quick photos, etc. (you can find me at @sarcasticquilter there also) but I like posting about my finishes and seeing what is up with all of you, too. 

So here I am, looking back a little to 2014 to share a couple more things I worked on.  Since 2014 seemed to be the year of mini quilt swaps and meetings/sew dates with friends, I couldn't let a post go by without showing you two ladies who played a big part in my sewing adventures last year.

Here we have Amy who occasionally blogs over at amylouwho. I met her first at Sewing Summit a few years ago and told her then she was my first "celebrity" meeting. This is because she was blogging regularly, had a good following and was a person I was hoping to meet.   Of course, she has no recollection of the meeting at all. ;-)

We kept in touch and got to know each other on line fairly well.  When I attended the first Stash Bash event, she was in NC and half-heartedly asked if I could swing by and pick her up on my way down. I said "sure" and a real life friendship was born.  6 hours in a car together will cement a friendship or teach each person it's not meant to be.  Amy, ya'll, is a gem.   On our way home we were discussing fabric likes and dislikes. I am not a fan of big florals and Amy is. It lead to her handing me a fabric scrap and challenging me to make something with it.

I sat on this thing for about a year and a half. In that time, Amy moved nearer to where I live and we started getting together to sew whenever schedules permitted. She convinced me to join a local quilt guild and we co-chair newsletter duties.  

And still, I sat on this fabric. I really wanted to make something to give back to Amy but just couldn't figure out a design which highlighted the floral until one day the light went on. I made this for her. 

She loved it. :)

This next lady, I met on Instagram sometime within the last year. She is hysterically funny and we just "get" each other. As it turned out, she was coming up to VA from NC and was planning to stay with Amy. I caught this on IG and told her I was closer to where she was going and she should stay with me. She agreed without having ever met me before.  All this was done in the space of an hour or so with Amy returning to Instagram to see I stole her house guest.  (All is good, she's forgiven me.) 

Karie is a pattern designer (TwoKwikQuilters) and she sells her patterns, has trunk shows and teaches. While she was here for one visit, she gave me one of her newer patterns, Kwik Trio of Stars and true to its name, I whipped it up over the weekend. It probably would have gone faster except I had kids soccer games to attend and such.

I am donating this puppy to charity, since I have no home for it. I think it is bright and happy that a child somewhere will like it, don't you?

The other one I whipped up of Karie's is PERFECT for a winter throw. I backed it with flannel, added batting and quilted it up loosely. So cozy and perfect.  Super quick and her patterns read so well, if you've been considering one, take the plunge and get it.  (No, she didn't pay me to tell you that but I might ask her for some chocolate now that I have!)  Here I have Kwik Geese.

I'm blessed to have these two ladies in my life and know, without a doubt, they will not only keep it real for me but laugh with me (or at me, and that's okay), too. 

Cheers!

Beck