Look at what arrived at my house......

Having part of the first Mouthy Stitches Swap, I was pretty excited when Mouthy Stitches 2 was launched - and I quickly signed up.

We all had to create a mosaic of what we liked and then watch the Flickr group photos and 'ooh' and 'aaah' at the stupendous creativity.

It was really fun trying to work out who had who - the talent in the group was so great that I must say I coveted about 99% of all the totes made!  There were one or two though that I would have traded my husband for.......

......and I waited, and waited a little more and then the must wonderful thing happened - I received one of those special totes, made by the very talented Karen of Laughter in Quilts - someone I've been following for quite some time - and she N.A.I.L.E.D it!

It has texture, linen, wonderful colours and a perfectly simple appliqued flower using none other than one of my most favourite designer fabric (Lotta Jansdotter) - she even put polka dots inside!  The key fob matches beautifully and I truly couldn't be happier that this came to me.

Thank you Karen - I will treasure it always :)

Swap tote finished

I was a lucky person indeed to be able to join a pool of very talented sewists as part of the Mouthy Stitches 2 swap.

For this round we had to create a tote, all using the same basic pattern but tricking it up in line with our secret partner's mosaic.  My partner made it super easy to understand what she likes and she's been fantastic in terms of commenting and encouraging - it's that sort of group I can't reveal who I made mine for (and I am coveting many of the totes already showing up in the Flickr group...) but I can reveal the tote......

An attempt at an arty shot!!!  This is either the front or the back of the tote - her choice - and I made a lanyard/key fob to go with it (it's the only 'extra' we're allowed to send - except maybe some chocolate too

Here's the other side....

and inside, a pocket (so it's not reversible - sorry partner!)

I really enjoyed making this - and thank you to the wonderful Swap Mamas, Cindy, Susan and Hadley.

Hope my partner likes it!

Squishy post

Some time ago, the Circle Mamas of do.good Stitches thought it'd be a great idea to get to know each other better, and a swap was arranged......

My secret partner was the very talented Hollie of Undercover Crafter fame, and I sent her this - happy to report she loves it and is using the bag - yay!!!

So, back to today........squishy mail in the post is always welcome at my house.....and the one I received yesterday was no different....

Jenn of The Knotted Thread must have been looking over my shoulder - look what she sent me...

The sewing roll is fabulous - great fabrics, a very usable configuration  and so, so pretty - the pins will definitely come in handy - I find I never have enough pins - not sure what happens to them.........maybe I have some Borrowers at home.........maybe they're left in pieces of work that I have abandoned in disgust, slowly rusting into the fabric........maybe they fall into the heating vents behind my sewing table and fall under the house when they become overheated and burn though the ducts, scaring the wildlife....I digress...

The pouch on the left is a perfect size for my rotary cutter - and that's is what is happily ensconced inside as we speak - and you can't really see the clever quilting - follows the chevrons on the fabric - noice!

Thank you so much Jenn - I love what you made :)

Hostess Swap

Some time ago, the Circle mamas of do.Good Stitches decided to have a swap amongst ourselves - we thought it'd be a great way to get to know each other better and too help introduce new mamas to the Bee.

In time-honoured tradition, the swap was organised as a secret - we had to create a mosaic of what we liked as well as a questionnaire (have to confess though that between me filling out the form and creating the mosaic, I'd forgotten what I'd written so the mosaic may, or may not, bear any resemblence to what I wrote I liked - sorry partner!)

Well, I received the details of a wonderfully creative hostess - obviously I can't divulge the name - but I did a little stalking, read the likes and dislikes form and viewed her (I can say 'her' - there's no blokes as yet...) mosaic.

Hmm, what to make, what to make??

I'd been eyeing off a tute put up by the very talented Ayumi at Pink Penguin and thought I'd play around with the dimensions a bit to accomodate what my secret partner said she'd like...

So....

French General linen, with Ruby Star Rising strip - the fabric flower on the front is Denyse Schmidt - and I hot glued it to a badge so it's removable

....and looking at the top

The Ruby Star Rising inner is sewed into the top of the bag to create a cover - ideal to shove all those things in there and fasten them up for safety

inside is a couple of little gifts..

a little pouch in the French General linen - it's lined with Good Folks and I stamped a little flower on the front

This is a piece of Kate Spain fabric that I've embroidered over - not all over - and it's made to hang on the wall - I think it's a 5" hoop, could be 6"

Once I replace buy some goodies to pop inside the bag too, it'll be winging it's way to wherever it needs to go.

Hope my secret partner likes it......

All packed up

I love crossing things off my To Do list and tomorrow, when this parcel is handed over to the shenanigans of Australia Post, a big line will be ceremoniously drawn through the task that culminated in sticking down the flap of this very parcel...

names have been deleted to protect the innocent...

This whole thing started when Susan, of Canadian Abroad, decided to host her very first swap - a Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap (MCTS for short) - and I decided it'd be a good idea to join up, along with 50 or so more from across the globe.  

Susan, as swap mamma, provided a fabulous framework in which to participate and every one of this wonderful group of ladies (yep, all women, no blokes) embraced the spirit; providing support, adding suggestions and comments, and not all neccessarily to do with Christmas Runners either *smirk* !!

 This swap was just so much fun that my appetite is whetted to probably join another swap in the future - and I beleive Susan is planning another so I'll definately be on board for that.

So from being provided with my secret swap partners name, to checking out her likes and dislikes, to creating an inspiration mosaic for the one making a runner for me, to drawing, and practicing, and unpicking, and sewing, and quilting...

it's done - and it finished at about 14" x 50" (give or take an inch or 2)

The runner is quilters 100% cotton fabric, linen, perle thread, wool/cotton batting. 
The little ornaments are a felt birdy with perle thread stitching and sparkly eyes and a paper bauble

I really love how it came out and I really hope my partner does too - so now I get to stalk the postie til mine arrives......

Quilties v.1.2

Lucky for me that Sandie had a photo of my quilties...

The theme was buttons, so I had a think about their function and their form.

From the left:

"Boys will be boys" - this came from seeing the results of a wild night out - red wine, lipstick, unexplained tears and holes in the shirt - I obviously know some wild boys!  The front of this quiltie is an old business shirt and the back came from a suit.  The quiltie was raw-edge finished with lots of loose threads and general chaos.

"The Weed" - I had just come indoors from a day in my vegie patch, weeding - so weeds were definately on my mind.  I remembered that someone once told me that any plant can be deemed a weed if it grows unexpectedly, even the most beautiful of flowers - so after sewing  lots of flower shaped buttons and seed beads onto a 'crazy patch' green background, and filling in with straight stitching and rice stitch, I fashioned the big pink rosey shape from some ribbon (The weed).  This quiltie was zigzagged around the edge to finish.

"Snookered" - the noughts and crosses game became the focus here.  The background was hand pieced to create the 'board'.  A rusty washer, a found button and some bugle beads became the game pieces.  In this game, it's 'noughts' turn to play - but no matter where they place their piece, they can't win - they're effectively snookered.  I printed the definition of 'snooker' onto some tape and ironed it on the bottom left.

So that was my little bit of artistry..........and yesterday I received some artistry from other swappees:

The one on the left is from Sandy Rowe - she didn't give me details of a blog or an email address - but the 'Pink Ribbon' is definately dear to my heart, so thank you Sandy - the quilting on this little sweetie is beautifully done.

The one in the middle is by Marilou - the fun fabric is by Mary Englebreit and Marilou has added some special buttons which relate to the theme of "Well ain't you somethin'?"  She also added a crocheted border in red (my fave colour) - thank you Marilou, love it.

The one on the right is 'Flower Fairy' and was made by The Queen of Dreamsz.  This one incorporates a gorgeous ribbon flower with crocheted sparkly wings and lots of buttons - just spectacular.

All in all a very interesting exercise - and gives me plenty of material for my Diploma of Textiles starting next year.  Thanks Sandie for organising the swap - I had a lot of fun.

WIP Wednesday #9

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshley Pieced - thanks agin Lee - great job - and I love reviewing what others have got up to - keeps us honest!!

I'm trying to remember what I did this week - it's all a bit of a blur really - I do remember cleaning out the chook shed, and doing some hand sewing - we also bought a new computer so there''s been a bit of faffing about - and I know there's more faffing to occur - it's just finding the time....

So, without further ado:

I finished one more hexie

rotten photo - *sigh*

I finished my Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap plus a couple of ornaments - just needs to wrapped and posted on the due date..

I actually quilted a top that's been together for oooh, at least a couple of years - and in my UFO tub -  it was on my Winter Summer stitching list so apart from binding and a label, it's about done - and I've even cut out the binding....

*sigh* - another rotten photo - I'll take a more decent one when it's bound

I've got a couple of charity quilt tops to quilt, a commission I received this evening and another I'm discussing on Friday - so I'm going to be very busy!

Summary then, (cos I'm soooo tired - need to go to bed...)

Finished:

MCTS - woo hoo

Quilts in Progress:

Blanket Box Hexies - made another 1

Cut out patches for Block 53 of FWQA - not together as yet

 

Whirleygig II - quilted - now needs to be bound

No action at all:

Class Sampler quilt - all blocks completed

UFOUFN's:

Psychedelic tartan - who knows??
Double diamonds - still needs something......
Which way to go - needs quilting
Dancing with the stars - needs quilting
Kimono mini - needs binding
Sashiko qayg - needs finishing!
Red and white challenge - needs properly starting

Please click on Lee's "Freshley Pieced WIP wednesday" button on the right to see what others are up to .....

WIP Wednesday #8

I'm linking up with Lee of Freshley Pieced - thanks Lee

Seems like forever since the last WIP, but it really has only been a week.

Last wednesday evening I taught my first 'real' class at the local community house - it's a continuation of the classes I've been holding in my home but there was another 4 ladies who wanted to join in so it made more sense to move to a bigger premises and formalise the whole process a bit.

For the new ladies, I'm teaching them a basic sampler quilt I designed on Electric Quilt - so of course I had to road test both the blocks and my instructions.  I made all the blocks (12 in all) and wrote lesson plans and hand-outs for the first 2 sessions - this is one of the blocks - I can't quite put my hand on a graphic of the full quilt just at the minute...

I also got a couple of more Farmers Wife blocks completed

Bringing me to 52 - almost half-way

Got another couple of Hexies done - I now have 16 (no photo - next week!) and made a good start on my Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap - just waiting on some feedback from my seceret swap partner and then I can move on - still need to make a couple of tree ornaments to go with this but I know what I'm going to do and thats half the battle.

To summarise:

Finished:

None

Quilts in Progress:

2 more Farmers Wife blocks completed

Blanket Box Hexies - made another 2

Class Sampler quilt - all blocks completed

MCTS - top almost completed

No action at all:

none!!

UFOUFN's:

Psychedelic tartan - who knows??
Double diamonds - still needs something......
Which way to go - needs quilting
Dancing with the stars - needs quilting
Kimono mini - needs binding
Sashiko qayg - needs finishing!
Red and white challenge - needs properly starting
Whirleygig II - needs quilting

Please click on Lee's "Freshley Pieced WIP wednesday" button on the right to see what others are up to

Christmas is coming..

So I've been working on my Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap.

My secret partner liked my sketch - which I would really love to say I came up with all by myself - but, I didn't - whilst looking for inspiration, I found a book I'd had for at least 100 Years "A Passion for Patchwork" by Lise Bergene - and flicking through that I found a wonderful project I could adapt, based on my partner's likes and dislike - so win/win really.  I also found a few other things I'd like to make too...

And on saturday I pulled fabrics, heat 'n' bonded, and cut and sewed a little and made this mock up..

then I made a few churn dash blocks - these little cuties are 3" finished, and I'm working with 100% linen so I did question my sanity more than once...

I was sort of hoping after making the first one that I wouldn't really like how it looked against the stars etc....but, I loved it so had to make a few more!

That's it so far - hope you still like it partner.

Modern Christmas Table Runner Swap

You may have noticed a new button on the right - it's a swap I've joined, being hosted by the talented and very funny Susan of Canadian Abroad.

The idea is to make a table runner for another of the participants, in secret, which incorporates elements of their favourites - we've all added a mosaic in Flickr showing what we like.

Here's  mine - so hopefully there's enough here for my partner to get a sense of what I like - I'm pretty easy going so it shouldn't be too difficult......I love stars, wonky or otherwise, red & white (and a little Kaffe Fassett pop of colour theory) and a little hand quilting

When I started looking at the other participants, I must admit to quaking in my boots - there is some seriously talented ladies in the mix - so I can see some procrastination in my future - but don't worry Susan, I won't miss the deadlines!

There's still time to sign up if you'd like to join - you've got til the 2nd October - so jump on in and get your christmas mojo happening.

Trading quilties with Sandra Kaye

When I added my blog name to Lily's Quilts Small Blog Meet I looked at some other blogs listed there and came across Sandra Kaye.  Sandra makes fantastic and gorgeous little quilties and she's hosting a swap, so we can all get our hands on these little pieces of art - they're only 4" x 6" and can take any form you like - except they must incorporate buttons.  I'm getting out my button tin and my ideas journal (and my stamps, and my inks, and my crayons, and......) out as we speak......

The rules are pretty simple - go take a look and join in - the more the merrier......