Friday, July 23, 2010

Bartering at It’s Best!

Ahhh the joys of blogging!  Every morning I get up, let the dogs out, pour a coffee and head up to my sewing room to sip my coffee and enter the Blogging World…ahhh life is good!! 
Usually without fail, there is an email from my blogging buddy, Quilt Sue (Quilt Times).  I love starting the day reading anything from her as she has this wicked sense of humour!  Anyways…there IS a point to this story…a couple of weeks ago I complained to her that I was sick of stitching in the ditch..and that I REALLY needed to learn how to free motion quilt…Well before I knew it Quilt Sue was offering to quilt my quilt for me!!  (Her quilting is gorgeous!!!)  Imagine…!!  Yes, imagine indeed…to make a long story short we worked out a barter or a trade…she would quilt my quilt and I would make her a penny rug!!  So remember this quilt…P1090159

…yup..it’s getting packaged up, along with the backing and it’s heading all the way to England where Quilt Sue will work her magic on it…I am so excited about this!! Imagine making a quilt and then have it quilted by a blogging friend, someone you have never met and who lives on the other side of the world…what an age we live in!!

So what about my side of the deal?  WELL…without giving too much away…(I do want Quilt Sue to be surprised..)…here’s a little snippet of what I did yesterday…that is after I spent all morning cleaning off my cutting table and ironing table…what a mess!!

Sue told me what she likes and I found a pattern that is perfect…has everything that she wants…(I hope!!)..so I traced the pattern onto light weight heat and bond.  Some people like to use freezer paper but I like the light weight Heat and Bond better as it doesn’t pull or distort the wool when you remove it.  Plus it helps to stabilize the wool without making it stiff.P1090170

I finally got to use this Tap Light…I turned my clear plastic sewing machine extension table into a light box…just push the light under the clear acrylic extension table and presto instant light box…It worked great..see how well you can see the pattern!

P1090171

You can find these lights at the dollar store, Wal-Mart or hardware stores and they are really cheap- $1…the batteries cost more!!

P1090172  Here is a snippet of the penny rug..so far…take my word for it…it’s going to be nice…really nice!!

Copy of P1090174 It’s all ready to stitch…it’s going to take me awhile…but that’s OK because while Quilt Sue stitches my quilt, I’ll be busy stitching her penny rug… sure hope she likes it!!

FRIDAY NIGHT SEW-IN!!

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Tonights the night to get out your sewing –imagine all the quilters from all over the world sewing in harmony…sounds like a song doesn’t it?  “I’d like to teach the world to quilt in perfect harmony…” Hurry over to Heidi’s grab the button (and sign up- see Sunday’s posting)…and join in on the fun…

Have a fun Friday and Happy Quilting/Stitching!!~P

15 comments:

  1. Awesome barter! Blogging buddies are amazing!

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  2. Love the quilt--love the barter! What a fantastic barter!

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  3. Wow! What an awesome barter! You are both lucky. Can't wait to see both finished.
    Paula

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  4. What a wonderful barter and I can't wait to see what your penny looks like.

    Debbie

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  5. Blogging and bartering...doesn't get better does it?!!

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  6. What a deal! I like the barter method. The wool flower you show a peek of looks very familiar. I went back to look at my wool projects to see why. I am going to e-mail you a link to look at.

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  7. Wonderful idea!
    I've enjoyed catching up on your blog this afternoon...

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  8. what a great idea! You both win.

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  9. What a great deal for you and for Sue!! I can tell already that the penny rug is going to beautiful...your hand dyed wool is gorgeous and so is your stitching! Have fun tonight.

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  10. Actually, I think I get the best of this barter. I love penny rugs, but I'm no good at applique, so when I try one it doesn't ever look like it should - cross-eyed snowmen and chickens with odd length legs just don't quite look right somehow. This way, I get a lovely candlemat, and I get to play with Paulette's quilt. Lucky me.

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  11. I'm so happy for you Paulette that you worked out a barter with your quilting buddy. I worked out a deal for machine quilting through blogging and it was perfect. QuiltSue will be working on my favorite quilt, you know!!

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  12. How exciting! Bartering - what a clever idea. I am buddies with QuiltSue (she lives close by) and her quilting is beautiful. Perhaps I'll get to see your quilt in real life and I hope I get to see the penny rug too!

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  13. Love your Quilt Pauline! Can't wait to see your penny rug, what a lovely friendship!
    Love your idea with the touch light under the sewing table too...I'm gonna try that, beats having to drag out the lightbox each time I want to trace something...hehehe!
    Have a good day
    With love Wendy xx

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  14. What a great deal for both of you to do what you love for each other! That is an awesome idea!

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  15. Oh, this is amazing .... what fun each of you will have when you receive your barter item!

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