A long overdue thank you!

Anyone out there still reading? I hope so, but I won't be surprised if not. I haven't posted in what seems like an age! Unfortunately the course of this pregnancy is not running very smoothly for me, (although thankfully baby is not affected by all the problems) and the last 5-6 weeks have been...well, difficult. To say the least. And sore, so very sore. With still another 6 weeks to go, I am on crutches with a lot of mobility problems due to physical complications of pregnancy.  So very little crafting being done in this house, and most of what is being achieved is small and simple projects with a lot of hand work.

I will have some baby makes to show you very soon - if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you will have seen some of what I've been working on - but in the meantime I want to post up some pics of the gorgeous bag I received from Kirsten in the Mouthy Stitches swap.

The bag arrived weeks ago and I absolutely adored it from the moment I opened the envelope - so much so that I started using it that day - and with all the other stuff going on, along with the fact that taking photos meant I had to empty my stuff out of it, I didn't get an opportunity to take the photos till recently.


Kirsten had made a fab sewing machine cover for me in a previous round of the Solids swap so when I saw her name on the envelope I was really excited! And I wasn't disappointed - here it is in all its glory!

A granny square pieced front using gorgeous grey linen as the background:

And a pieced feather back.

She used fab lining with her cute little label on the inside, and this is easily a reversible tote bag.

They lovely key fob which you can see in the top picture matches the lining .

So I want to say a huge thank you to Kirsten! This bag is used pretty much every single day and I love it to bits. And I'm sorry for waiting so long to show it off.

Quilted Tote Bag for Mouthy Stitches

The 2nd round of the Mouthy Stitches swap proved to be quite inspired!  Lovely swap mamas Cindy, Hadley and Susan picked a simple tote bag pattern which we all had to make to and it was so much fun. Such an interesting swap to take part in where everyone was following the same pattern.

Once I got my partner details I got down to a little bit of stalking. My mama chose well, because my partner's likes were quite close to my own.

I decided to go with a Drunkard's path pattern and a scrappy look and pulled out some of my brightest and prettiest scraps to work with. I played around quite a bit before settling on this layout which I mentally dubbed the "pacman" look - those incomplete circles really remind me of the game for some reason.

I then pondered how to quilt it, and what type of back to do. Eventually I decided to echo the circles on the back but to change it up a little, placing it within a scrappy square frame.

That decision about the back led me to the quilting decision for the back - echo quilting inside and outside the square, with some hand stitching around the circle. 


This in turn gave me my decision on the front quilting - I went with quilted circles travelling outward on the front.

When it came to putting it together, the dimensions worked out better than I could have hoped. The outer circles sat just on the corners on the front (its hard to see in the photo!), and the outer line of quilting on the back sat just on the back corners.

For the lining, I inserted a flush lined zip pocket (thanks again to The Bag Making Bible) using a strong teal fabric with contrast orange for the pocket lining. I carried the lining fabric through to the straps, to finish off the scrappy look for the exterior. All in all, I was pretty happy with this bag!

Last thing to be done was the little key fob. For this, I decided to do a mini circle in a circle and handquilt around. I found a scrap of one of my favourite prints and used a variegated perle cotton to finish it off.

The package is gone off in today's post and I'm hoping my partner will love it as much as I do....all that remains is to watch obsessively for the postman now to see what I get in return!

Swappy Good Fortune

Today, I got home from work to find a gorgeous package waiting for me. As soon as I saw the envelope, I knew it could only be my Mouthy Stitches zip pouch from my secret partner. (Because I have no fabric deliveries outstanding right now!) Then I had a look at the return address and when I say my heart jumped, I am not joking, because I recognised it. It was from the very talented Toni, and I have been lucky enough to be a recipient of Toni's handmade gorgeousness before in Pay It Forward.

Needless to say, that was the end of my restraint, and I ripped it open, racking my brains to see if I could remember what she had posted in the group pool - but failing. Then this fell out. Oh my!

Isn't it absolutely amazing? I can't tell you how much I love it. Seriously, I'm so lucky - this is right up my street. The bright rainbow colours, the beautiful modern fabrics, the hand quilting - its just gorgeous. I love the small details - the scissors in the central piece, the way she echoed the colours of the star points in the perle cotton hand quilting. So much work and attention to detail, its just beautiful.

Here's the back. I love the rainbow stripes of colour and the neutral hand quilting.

She lined it with more beautiful fabric. I forgot to take a picture of the zip ends, but let me assure you, like everything else about this pouch, they are just perfect. You can see then hand quilting really well here, isn't it lovely?

And here are the scraps that came with it. Toni read me so well, they are all so bright and wonderful.

This is a really good size pouch - it measures up at about 11.5" square and is perfect for storing my hand-quilting supplies which currently reside in an ugly box.

Yippee!!  I'm so happy right now. This was a great swap, so many beautiful pouches turned up in the group photo pool and so many talented peeps took part. Thanks again to Toni and to the wonderful swap mamas Hadley, Cindy and Susan

X and + Zip Pouch finish

 

Today I finished off the X and + zip pouch I have been working on for my partner in Mouthy Stitches. 

    

I used a hot pink zip in the pack as a feature, and inserted a lined zipped pocket into the outside of the pouch. I love how the zip looks against the linen and the green lining fabric.                                          

 

I also added a strip pieced from squares of fabric used on the front, and hand quilted along either side with perle cotton.

  

The lining is some Amy Butler fabric I have in my stash a long time, and it was just right for this project, adding a bit of zing to the inside of the pouch. 

I boxed the ends to give a flat bottom, and this pouch at approx 9" x 9.5" is perfect for holding handsewing supplies, a little hoop etc, it is nice and roomy. 

Despite all the things I love about it, I was disappointed with how my main zip turned out. I worked really hard to try and get the zip ends perfect, but with the fusible fleece and the extra layer for the pocket, it was really bulky and practically impossible to sew through (I broke a needle and bent another before trying a size 16!!). I ripped it back and redid it 4 times trying to get the zip ends just right but it wasn't to be, so I just finished it off. They look all squishy, not nice and neat and crisp like they should be. 

 

The question really is now whether its good enough to send off to a partner. I hate sending something not right. And yet there is lots to love about this pouch, and I never really notice the zip ends on a pouch when it is something I have in use. I'm torn really. If I don't send it, I have plenty I can use it for here so its not wasted. But its a shame to do everything right up to the very end and feel like you fell at the last hurdle. What do you think? Honest opinions please!!

P.S. If you're here for the Modern Mini Blog Hop, you'll find my mini quilt here

A discovery....

Over the weekend I have been doing a lot of thinking about the swaps that I'm currently in, Mouthy Stitches and For the Love of Solids (2). Oh - and not forgetting Doll Quilt Swap 12. (But the posting date for that is not till April so its not my main focus at the moment.) The main thing occupying my mind at the moment is zip pouches and solids. There are actually a lot of people taking part in both these great swaps, and keeping up with the progress pics is a full time job in itself! But it is very interesting being in both swaps at the same time, as ideas in one are informing my thoughts for the other and vice versa.

I have been playing around with ideas for a good while now for my partner in Mouthy Stitches. I was super lucky with the partner my swap mama assigned me, she is very talented and also really lovely and I SO want to make something she will love. I've been stalking her on Flickr and her blog and lots of ideas have been flitting through my head.

 

First up I did a mock up using a rainbow theme and natural linen. (please forgive the crappy indoor photo). This was kind of based on some of her mosaic ideas. I have to say that while I like this myself, it turned out a bit more blocky and with less movement than the idea I had in my head.  I haven't done anything else with this as I'm waiting for some more perle cotton to arrive to hand quilt it.

Then, I was browsing in the FTLOS group and saw a great mini quilt based on the Japanese x and + block. And I decided to try it out using some of these fabrics, using this tute :

And I just love how it turned out. I had seen these blocks on blogs, but never really was that into them. Until I made this. Swoooooon. I love it! I totally understand the attraction and this is definitely on my list of blocks to make a quilt from. Total discovery for me!!!

I thought about hand quilting this - I'm still thinking about that. Some of that perle cotton that is currently in the post should be the perfect green for this block. But, being me, I was too impatient, and I dug around in my thread bag, finding a variegated red and pink thread and decided to see how that worked.

I used fusible fleece for the first time that I got from Gone to Earth. I love the low loft but I think I kinda messed up when applying it, using an iron that was too hot and too much steam, as it wasn't as smooth as I anticipated when I was quilting it. Next time I will pay attention to the instructions!

However, luckily, it didn't reflect on the front and I am pretty happy with how the outline quilting turned out. Not perfect, but it makes me smile, and I hope it might make my partner smile too. I added some extra linen sashing around the block so that I can give the pouch a flat bottom without hiding some of the block on the bottom of the pouch.

I know this block is quite pink - and that some people are allergic to pink! But I love bright pinks, and I think that paired with the green here, it works nicely and is fresh and pretty. But we'll see what my partner thinks. I have plenty of time to run up something else if she doesn't like either of these options.

On to FTLOS and I have been doing a LOT of thinking about this one. I don't think my partner wants a mini quilt, and I am strongly tempted to do a bag for her. The question in my mind is tote bag or messenger bag? I found a few great tutes for messenger bags recently when looking for myself, and it just struck me today that I could do one for her too. But I'm not sure if the quilting cotton would be strong enough for the exterior. Do you think it would be? I could interface it and use fusible fleece to give it structure? Do you think it would work? Because I actually have a good plan for this and think it would look really great. But I don't want to do all that work and for it to be too lightweight at the end.

Opinions on both swap ideas gratefully received!

WIP Wednesday

I can't believe its Wednesday already, the days are just flying by! Here's what I've been up to this week.

Completed:

My Fresh Pinwheels baby boy quilt. I was really happy with this one, and a little bit sad to let it go!

 

In Progress:

I have a couple of projects in progress this week. One is my Ruby quilt. I am making this using Oh Franssons! Crazy 9 patch lattice pattern, but sizing it up a bit. This quilt is made in multiples of 9, and I had 42 pieces in the layer cake. I really need the 45 blocks to make it the size I want and was cursing myself until I remembers some large scraps I had leftover from my Bliss cushions. I dug out 3 and cut to 10" squares and they work perfectly with the palette of the Ruby.

 I love making these blocks and am flying through them, I have 36 out of the 45 done - 27 of them last night in my own version of Ruby Tuesday :-) and will get the rest finished today. I love how they are all different, and I love the movement in them. Even darling hubbie who was doubting the requirement for another sofa quilt in the living room is now converted! I'm hoping to get the quilt top assembled this week and need to order some more batting before I can then move it on.

I am planning on piecing the back of the Skittles quilt and basting it this week too. I have an Egyptian cotton sheet for the back, and I have a big panel of Saffron Craig fabric that I am planning to piece into the middle of it. The colours are similar to the front and I think it will be a nice feature on the back.

Then, the plan is to machine quilt along the block outlines, stitching in the ditch, and hand quilt the rest of the quilt, around each of the print fabric pieces. Its promising to be super cold this weekend here, so this is the perfect project to have on the sofa in front of the fire.

I am also making progress in my ideas for my partners in the For the Love of Solids Swap and the Mouthy Stitches swap. I have this lovely rainbow of solids for my FTLOS partner and am watching the response coming in on Flickr to see what she thinks!

And I have this option for my Mouthy Stitches partner, which I think will work, although I also have another idea in mind for her, so must do a pull for that too and see which she prefers.

Starting Out:

I am starting another quilt this week too - nothing like having lots to do. This is the long awaited quilt for my son D. D is mad about trains so I have a nice train print to feature heavily for him. We went through my fabric boxes last night and this is what we picked:

Nice, right? But he also picked these:

Now, they just don't go with the rest. He loves purple. He loves the letters. How am I going to do this. I'm thinking I will put them on the back. What do you think? It is his quilt, for him, but I won't be able to make it if I hate what I'm working with, I never can get projects finished if I don't love them.

Any advice?

I also signed up to the Doll Quilt Swap 12 - my first time doing this swap, there are some great guidelines there to challenge your creativity and I am looking forward to it.

I'm linking up to the talented ladies over at WIP Wednesday. See you there!