I have yet to receive the charms from the first charm swaps I participated in.  Lorelei is sorting all of the charms she received, and she’ll be mailing them out when she’s finished.  I can’t wait!  I’ve been perusing Flickr pics, blogs, and websites for ideas on exactly WHAT to do with the charms when I receive them.  Then I wondered….will I have enough?

The only reasonable thing to do when faced with that question is to find another swap to join!  Steph Jacobson is hosting one, and I was able to sneak into it as an alternate – someone that had originally agreed to participate backed out.  Steph also has a blog, and you can find it here.  When I got the ‘GO’ from Steph, I ran right out to my LQS and found a super cute surf board fabric that I’m sending in.  It’s ‘Adrift in Paradise’ by Hoffman.  It’s ironed and waiting for me to pick up my rotary cutter and go to work on it.

I think I’ve settled on making the kids their own small quilts for the camper with the ISpy charms.  I’m thinking that I might use the same pattern for both kids, and bind his in blue, and hers in red.  I’m also leaning toward incorporating white into it somehow – although I’m not sure if this is so smart considering they’ll be mostly used in the camper.  A few quilts I’ve found that I like are:

Lula’s ISpy Block by Carla at Lollyquiltz.

Disappearing Nine Patch – ISpy Version as found on Obsessively Stitching.

Or maybe I’ll just add white sashing between the blocks like Melanie at The Crafty Cupboard did here.  I think that looks mighty sharp!

Yes, yes, I realize that I don’t even have the fabric yet, and I’m already starting to plan out the quilt – but I know I’m not the only one that does that!  While at my LQS on Friday, I picked up some cute camping fabric that I have no idea how I’ll use for these ISpy quilts!  I thought about using it in the backing.  Then I thought about making pillowcases for the kids out of it for the camper.  But, my kids don’t use pillows – they each have a big stuffed dog that they sleep on.  I’ll figure something out.  Here it is:

Oh, by the way…I’m still clipping seams on Blue’s monkey rag quilt.  I’m 3/4 done.  I have threads all over my living room rug.  My hand hurts every time the scissors is within 10 feet.  But I must persevere!  I must finish this darn quilt!  It’s been in the making for over a year.  I feel a little bad that his little sister has a finished rag quilt, and he doesn’t!  In my defense, I did start 2 other quilts for him.  START is the optimal word….neither of them are finished, and now they wouldn’t be appropriate for him anymore – they were baby quilts.  He’s 8.5.

Did I mention I have a problem finishing quilting projects?  (As I sit with my very first quilt draped over the chair behind me.  The binding is sewn on the front, and pinned on the back, and it’s been in this state for….9 or 10 years.)