More goodie swap sewing!

This week has not been good for sewing. I feel like I managed to get hardly anything done, a combination of work, kids and still feeling under the weather. Plus feeling quite lethargic about it all! But yesterday evening I decided I had had enough of feeling uninspired, sewing-wise, and knew that the only way to "cure" myself was to go and do a small, fun project. I've been mulling over my mug rug for Partner no 1 in the Goodie Swap for a few weeks now and after seeing Judith and Fi both turn Lee's great block tute into a mug rug, I decided that was the way to go. I really really love Lee's tute and this block is a strong contender for my month in Sew Bee Blissful. My partner's colour are a little different from the sort of palette I normally like but I just love how they go together.  I mixed in some solids as I had them in the right shades, and I used lots of fabrics in this one - Kate Spain (Fandango and Central Park) more Aviary II, Loulouthi and more! I felt it needed a neutral border so added on a strip of Kona Ash and think it finishes it off nicely although this is measuring up as a very,very big mug rug!! Oh well, I don't think my partner will mind.

After finishing binding it, I decided to break out my new Perle Cotton which I had in an Iris/purple variegated colourway and did a little hand quilting in the Ash border - a line of small stitches on the inside and longer stitches on the outside. I like the effect although I wish my stitches were more even!

So, partner no 1 is now done. I think and hope she will be pleased with her package when it arrives!

I moved on then to Partner No 2. Now, I feel I know partner no 2's taste reasonably well and she has been very active commenting in the Flickr group which is always a help. I I know exactly what I am doing for her mug rug although I won't get to it till later in the week. I've been mulling over her goodies and I know that she would probably like the needle case I made for partner no 1 too. But one of the things I love about this swap is the opportunity to do different things for different people and work with separate colour schemes. So I have been looking for an opportunity to use Ayumi's patchwork wristlet tutorial for a while and decided Partner 2 would like this.

I used Kona Ash to make my feature fabrics stand out more and I think it has a fresh clean look that I love! This is the back - don't you love those seahorses?

And this is part of the front - I'm afraid that one of the feature fabrics will just make it too obvious to my partner so I'm not showing the whole thing!

This is a really practical little pouch. It has a wrist strap (matching the interior lining) and would be perfect to hold a few small things if you don't want or need to bring your handbag out with you. Its lined with some Modern Meadow fabric, with a pocket made from Kona Ochre. The pocket is divided and easily holds some cards, notes and a lipstick. Plus your phone and keys would fit easily in there too.

So partner no 2 - I hope you like it! More on the way for you - I have another (little) goodie in mind for you as well as your mug rug. Keep watching :-)

PS. If you're looking for my Kona solid giveaway for 5 half metres of Kona cottons, pop over here to enter! It closes tomorrow evening so don't miss out!

Linking up to:

Skittles Quilt Top

In between the raindrops this morning I managed to get some pictures of my Skittles quilt top which I finished up this week. See that bit of clear sky? It was there for approximately 3 minutes and its gone again, the rain is back to pelting down :-( Seriously, its like November out there. Sorry this pic is so dark, its the best I could get. You'll get a better idea of the colours further down in the indoor pics!


It feels like I have been making this quilt top forever but in fact, its actually a very quick make. I just did bits and pieces of it here and there over a few months, but if you sat down to make it you'd have the top pieced in no time. I used Kate Conklin's pattern and it uses the "stack and slash" method which is very quick and lots of fun. It really suits a quilter like me who is looking for low stress quilting rather than needing to have pinpoint accuracy in blocks. It's also incredibly economic in terms of fabric usage - because of the way the blocks are constructed, you are slashing across big blocks rather than cutting squares/rectangles etc from fat quarters, so there is really suprisingly little waste. So, if you like this kind of look, which I do, I would definitely recommend checking out this pattern. It includes a second pattern along similar lines and measurements for both lap and baby size.

The first stack of blocks I "slashed", I made my cuts quite evenly - but after that, I made them really randomly, going in the same and then different directions and I love the randomness and unevenness of how they work:


I used some of the purple and blue fabrics from the Central Park line and am totally delighted with how they worked together. The original pattern is in a purple colourway too which I think influenced my choices here, but as soon as I saw those trees and the big flowers in Central Park, I knew they were made for this :-)

Next decision is how to quilt this one. I could outline quilt the blocks and handquilt around each fabric slash as in the original pattern. But I've never handquilted before so I would be a bit nervous about it. And I would need to source some perle cotton somewhere. Or I could FMQ it which I'm leaning towards as I love the texture. One way or the other, I still have to piece a backing for this one before I can cross that bridge so I'll keep mulling it over - but let me know if you have an opinion, as always!

Linking up to:

Wednesday WIP once again!

Where did that week go? It just slipped away, one leisurely day after another! So without further ado, here we go with the WIP report for this week.


Completed:

A few small, fun projects, including, just tonight, this Central Park wedge pincushion, lightly quilted from the scraps I had after cutting my lovely, yummy, scrummy half yards which arrived in the post today. I'm going to be including this in my scrappy giveaway tomorrow so stay tuned :-)

I also did this blanket for my friend's baby girl - its backed with lovely soft minky dot fabric and has a few of my fave fabrics in there.

And this little zipped bag with some scraps:

Work In Progress:

I'm surprising myself with the amount of projects I have on the go at the moment. The list is starting to freak me out ever so slightly, particularly since I have a commissioned quilt I need to start next week. I'm kind of wondering why I joined 2 quiltalongs this week - the Bottled Rainbows (finally!) which I am doing in a mini version - with smaller sized individual blocks as placemats. Here's my red block, I think I like it! Just need to figure out what to use to bind it and it'll be done.

 

I also joined the Crazy Scrappy quiltalong. I attempted my first block last night and really, its a good lesson in why you shouldn't sew late at night. I'm not that happy with the construction of this block but like the look of it so I'm going to leave it for the moment. I did it entirely from my small scrap basket and really, it would need some wider, longer scraps too. I'm looking forward to doing another and seeing how I get on!

Let me just say that I blame all you bloggy friends who are doing these quiltalongs and cajoled me/inspired me into them! When I fall down with exhaustion I'll blame you! You know who you are!

In other WIPs - I got my mini Dresden quilt basted and started to quilt it with a meandering FMQ which is looking interesting on the poly batting but didn't get far as the kids needed their dinner :-)  I'm thinking this will finish up as a wall hanging.

Finally, my backing and binding fabric arrived (with the Central Park) this morning so I'm hoping to get moving with the It's a Hoot quilt later in the week, I'm keen to get it finished in good time.

Started:

I cut my Central Park fabric as soon as it arrived. Isn't it just gorgeous? I love the cool shades and can't wait to get piecing with it. I'll be making Kate Conklin's Skittles pattern with it. So now I have two quilts in the cutting stage (also my Sherbet Pips Pinwheels).

And a little extra.......

So, I take it from all the comments on my last post that a giveaway is in order. Check back in tomorrow for your chance to win some of my lovely scraps, big and small and the little Central Park pincushion in the top photo!

I'll be linking this up to some great blogs including, as always,