Happy! Happy! Happy!

Just like that little quilt top says, thats what I am!

A few months ago I got involved in several swap groups on flickr.  The first one was a Spring Fling Mini Quilt.  Had to be a mini quilt with a spring theme and between 6"-12"....easy enough!!! This is the idea that popped into my head (below) that I sent to my partner.  In this swap we were told who our partners were.  We could find out preferences, get to know each other and have fun!

So yesterday I received my quilt from my partner.  I was totally blown away!  It is the cutest little mini quilt ever made!  And to make it even more awesome, it is backed in vintage fabric!!!  I LOVE vintage fabrics!

Praire points, embroidery, buttons, pieced letters......WOW!!!

A couple weeks ago I was checking out some blogs of other quilters and came across this tutorial for these pieced letters that I had seen on so many quilts.  It is a lot of free cutting and piecing and I am pretty impressed at how small my partner can do these letters!  ALL of her letters are almost as big as one of mine!  I just thought it was pretty neat that I was trying to make these letters and I receive a quilt with them in it!  The piece I made was the "happy" piece at the top.

Here is the link to the tutorial if you would like to give it a try.

I also made that little flower from a tutorial which you can find here on the House of Krom blog.

Not sure how I am going to put the two together but that is for later.

My very first quilt swap from last fall, from the Quilting Gallery website.

This is the fall inspired quilt that I received in that swap.

Love this quilt also, and it hangs in my studio near my sewing machine.  Batiks, cotton solids, half square triangles, beads, fall leaves.....awesome fall quilt!!  This came from Sew It Up Baby.  It will always be so special because it is my very first swap quilt.

This gal does some amazing quilts and quilted projects so check out her blog and be inspired.

So after I opened the quilt swap envelope, which I had to restrain from doing in the car WHILE driving home, I had a few other boxes to open that were online orders.  One was a box with my new running shoes in it.

woohoo!!! Yellow and Lime green!!!!

I see this envelope in that box (sometimes my shipper does that so small packages don't get lost), and I realized it was probably my potholders from the potholder swap I was in!!!!  In this swap our partners were secret.  We gave a hint of what we liked in our sign up email and from there our partners had to check out our blogs and flickr pages to get a feel for what we liked.

I think my partner did a pretty good job!

How cute are they????  Blue and green - 2 of my favorite colors; a log cabin - love those; and a BIRD!!!!  I think these will be hung as decoration, not used on hot pans that are dripping with food to stain them!!  And my partner sent a cute little fabric card with a sweet note inside.

As if those two swap packages weren't enough goodness for one day I also got my new mini kiln, so I don't have to make lots and lots of beads and ceramics before I can actually fire, and my Spring Fling swap partner sent me some quilting tools as extra goodies.

A magnetic pin case, a seam ripper with a hidden compartment and a fancy little sewing box with notions.

The day ended with doggie school with agility and fun with great people and some awesome dogs :)

Doesn't get much better!