heeeeeeeere's green.

whew. green is done. luckily, Jennifer S. lives down my street, so she's already the happy owner of this block. i enjoyed creating it because the pattern is fun. but the company was even better!

question: who's next? =)

Hi, I am Mardie. Born in Salt Lake City. Grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota and met my husband in a canoe. That's fitting, isn't it? We have 5 children, 4 of whom are married and we have 8 grandchildren. Our youngest child is graduating from High School this year. We have lived in Arkansas for a total of 15 years. 1990-95 then 2000 to the present. We love it here! My life whirls around the church and school and my husband and our kids and their kids. I babysit a granddaughter every Monday and others as their parents need help. I am taking SCUBA lessons right now. Crazy!

I love to garden, I love to read when I have time, I love home crafts. I am excited to learn new things in "Trading Pieces".

Howdy, I'm Jennifer "S"

I live in Little Rock AR.  Just moved here from Caldwell, Idaho.  I grew up in Blackfoot, Idaho.

I love, love, love: my husband, the totally from scratch chocolate cream pie he makes for me, my 4 boys, making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with them and eating Semi sweet Chocolate chips-by the handful,  Family in Idaho Utah and Texas, good dark chocolate, my new friends here and my “old”  friends in Idaho-Hi Julie!!!, William Joseph –piano player extraordinaire http://www.brickhousedirect.com/product/3116.htm (Chocolate to my ears and sole), perennials,  French croissants with bittersweet chocolate, photography, Heritage Makers (www.heritagemakers.com/174155), faux finish painting, nutilla-on a spoon http://www.nutellausa.com, being creative, THRIFT STORES, canning and preserving, food storage, 75% off, couponing (not a diehard yet.)  The blog: olderandwisor.blogspot.com,  chocolate truffles, Florence’s Chocolate  http://www.florences.com/index.html (Rexburg), raspberries, frozen hot chocolate, naps, Dove dark chocolate, long baths, children’s books, sleeping through the night, feeling fabrics, heirloom sewing, collecting tea pots, our family cabin in Gibbonsville, Idaho, Chocolate shakes, finding true friends, a clean kitchen, happy children’s eyes, sparkelies, the color clear-cuz it goes with EVERYTHING, fun people, good choices, having no regrets.

I'm a NEW fan of:  Southern BBQ Ribs, peach soda, pecans, Blue Bell Ice-cream (Dutch Chocolate and Cookie Dough), my children saying: “yes mam, no mam”, video chat, navigation systems, mild temperatures, quilting, getting out of school for a skift of snow, round trip plane tickets, facebook, car seats, booster seats and air bags, Dr. Eddie Jones at  Perfect Alignment Chiropractic http://www.perfectalignmentchiropractic.com/, Missionary work, pass along cards, Garden Ridge, cell phones and when people call shopping carts “buggies.”

Two favorite sayings: 

"If Momma aint happy, aint nobody happy. "

"Chocolate, it’s not just for breakfast anymore."

Thanks ya'all for letting me in your group!

Jennifer Schwartz

Introductions:

Hi, I'm Jennifer Russell. I'm super excited to be part of Trading Pieces. I'm married and have four children. We have one beautiful daughter, Jillian, who will be 8 this year. We have 3 delightful boys: Tyler-8, Oliver-2, and Andrew-10 Months. You might say I'm super new to quilting. But, I have watched and assisted my talented mom with quilts over the years. I'm more than ready to fly solo. I love to draw, paint, and sew. I love to wade through creative blogs for ideas and find myself crashing about midnight after EITHER discovering a new crafty inspiration OR beating my husband at a game of Risk on our dueling IPad's. In my little "special world" my kitchen is "magazine ready", my children are always smiling, I've just painted a masterpiece in my awesome studio, I'm a size 10/12, and I can create the most beautifully written sentence. In the world in which we share, you may not see what I see. oh well. =)

Answer To Mardie's Question

Sorry, I have not seen this sooner. You need a black or a black on black and a yellow. Your twins will be 1/2 yellow and 1/2 black-Julie taught me the twins in quilting jargon are called 1/2 squares. Julie has her red done and she is go...ing to upload some photos. I just found my sewing machine and get to unpack it tomorrow. I have orange baby tiger stripes and a black on black. This is sooooo fun. Can't wait to see it together. FYI your block will only show a zig zag of your color. The black will form a border, however when the blocks are sewn together you will see the ziz zag effect with the black too.

Question From Jennifer R

Jennifer S:


Could you please answer the following question for us?

 

Jennifer R. asks:

Should we prewash our fabric??? I know everyone feels differently about it. I just thought maybe we should all either do it or not. What is your opinion?

Final Member

Hey Ladies,
Our final member is Lara McElderry.  She will give us more information about herself.  Welcome Lara!

Facebook

Facebook: "Ready for some boyish fun? More info to come but here are the color assignments. You will need 1 fat quarter of black (or a black on black print) and 1 fat quarter of your assigned color/print. I have 4 boys -5 including my husband ;-). Think star wars, bugs, stars, wheels, airplanes, monsters, mud, transformers, soccer.... Have fun. Marnita will send out info and a tutorial.

Blue-Terri Shaw Bailey
Blue-Kristin Beaumont
Purple-Courtney Sanderson
Purple-Llewellyn Webster
Yellow-Lara McElderry
Green-Jennifer Turnbull Russell
Yellow-Mardie Tobler
Green-Connie Bisbee Tollett
Red- Nikki Webster
Red- Julie Larson
Orange- Marnita Bisbee
Orange-Jennifer Schwartz"

This is a question from Mardie:
"Jennifer, I have a question. Or rather need a clarification. If I have yellow as my assigned color, then my 'twins' are the black and yellow, right? If my color was red, or blue or purple, would that be enough contrast with 2 dark colors? Or would you want us to use a more pastel version of the red, blue or purple?"

Hi my name is Julie Larson. I live in Caldwell, Idaho. My friend Jennifer Schwartz up and left me to move to Arkansas. Hope you all enjoy my friend. I have three children Steffen 18 and a senior in high school....how did I get a senior???...Kendall 16, and Rebekah 10. I LOVE quilting. I have been quilting for 12+ years and have really taught myself what I know. I love the process of making a quilt from choosing fabric to the final binding. I have a home business. I quilt alpaca duvets and quilts for anyone with my gammill long arm quilting machine. (Never thought I would have one.) Jennifer said I was a quilting master?????? Like I said I have taught myself what I know but will be happy to pass on anything I know to help someone else catch the bug. It is addictive!!! Happy quilting!!!

Marnita's Story: A Very Short Bio

My name is Marnita Bisbee and I live in Little Rock.  I am Connie's sister,  I have three children - Bryan (15), Bailey (13), and Kristen (11).  Life is very interesting around my house.  We live a multi generational life.  I have my great aunt (86 with Alzheimer's), my aunt (56 with Down Syndrome) and my mother (68 with not so great health) living with me and my three children.  We never lack for excitement! I was so excited when I saw the quilting group 12 Square that I just had to get involved in a similar one.  I love to draw. I want to learn to paint. I love to quilt (but am only a beginner) and knit. I guess I just enjoy creating in multiple mediums.  I also love to travel and have been fortunate enough to travel to all 50 states and some fun countries.

Hello, my name is Courtney...

and I'm officially addicted to fabric. :) (I've even started dreaming about it.) I live in Bella Vista, AR. I have 2 girls (14....heaven help me) and 2 boys (9 &8). I am daughter to Llewellyn and sister to Nikki. I am a Postpartum Doula. I'm currently trying to grow my business, and I'm becoming certified to be a Lactation Educator and Childbirth Educator. I think I've always enjoyed sewing but I've never really done much. My husband bought me a decent sewing machine for Christmas (thanks to a little help from my sister). So for now I'm having so much fun discovering a new hobby. I've always wanted to learn how to quilt, but it has seemed too daunting. It will be fun learning a new skill and getting to know all of you better at the same time.

I don't have any recent pictures of myself to post, so here's a picture of my kiddos. It pretty much sums up life around here.

Pinwheel Tutorial

 The Birds and the Bees

Straight talk about quilting color basics. 

What were you thinking of?

So… I am a visual learner and to answer the question of “what if I received back different “blocks” from my 11 other quilter friends-  would they go together and HOW to make sure the zig zag was preserved? 

 I thought about what I know about color values, like light and dark, shades, tints, …. and decided to test it out.  Here is my thinking out loud and a silly analogy that is just for kicks and giggles.

Welcome to Trading Pieces!!!

Ok, to get started I think we need to introduce ourselves here.  So here goes......

I am Connie.  I am married to sweet hubby and I have 3 kids, Josh (30), Sarah (29), and Caleb (6).  I teach at UALR and absolutely love it.  I LOVE quilting!!!  I am not great and have only finished two quilts but I love quilting!!!!   I also love to read and travel.  I have traveled to all 50 states and to several countries.  My dream vacation is to someday go to GREECE!!!   But for right now I am content to quilt!!!  

Ok, now it is your turn.  Introduce yourself to the group.  I will upload the tutorial for everyone.  Also, as you finish your quilt blocks upload a picture to the blog.