Last of the Goodie Swap Sewing

 

This morning I finished up the last items for Cindy's Goodie Swap. What a great swap this has been, so much fun! I just loved having 2 partners and had 2 great ones at that - both really active and easy to make for. I'll be putting all the lovely bits into the post tomorrow morning and crossing my fingers that the do not take as long as my last swap package to arrive!

So, partner no 2's items are all done now. I had a little debate with myself this morning as to whether to keep these as secret or whether to reveal all now. In the end, because I think there are 4 or 5 people who think that they are my partner no 2 (the colours seem very much in a lot of people's list) I decided I would reveal all and leave the prospective partners sweat it out to see whose it really is. Sorry girls!!

Last week you'll remember I started out with this little zip pouch for Partner no 2.

During the week I added this (ever so slightly wonky) mug rug to it - it has actually grown on me quite a bit the last few days and I think this is a mug rug for a serious tea or coffee drinker!

 

Then I decided to add a little something else to the mix - and covered some little buttons. Pretty, aren't they? (Please note that I know my floor looks dirty, its NOT, its just the way the light is hitting the scrapes from the kids toys. Seriously, lol!)

But then last night I was putting away the scraps and wanted a little hand sewing to do while I was watching a film, so I started messing around with them and this is what I ended up with! A little hand stitched hoop, along the lines of the circles mug rug I made for Felicity from Rachel's great tute. I used fusible woven interfacing on the back of the Kona Ash to give it a bit of stability and stitched away to my hearts content (while watching a film with my lovely hubbie after a lovely rosemantic dinner and a bottle of champagne to celebrate us meeting 12 years ago this weekend. Susan you would have been proud of me, I even managed to do potato gratin with the steak instead of chips!) Now, you might see a few wobbles in the stitching up close partner, but when you hang it on the wall, I think it will look quite pretty!

So partner no 2, here's your little package. I hope that you like it and I know you have suspicions but you'll just have to wait till the postman arrives to see if they are confirmed or not! Cindy, thanks for organising a great swap! After visiting the post office in the morning to see these off, I'll be watching every day to see what arrives for me!

PS. Ladies, I'll be posting the Summer Sewing wrap up post during the week (it got delayed due to all the QAL and swap stuff) so start getting your posts ready to link up!) I'm also linking this up to:

                

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:

Scrappy Rainbow Mug Rugs

Now that my swap partner Elaine has received my mug rug, I can finally reveal :-) Elaine's swap info told me she liked rainbow colours, light backgrounds and texture; a little bit of Flickr stalking later, I realised that she had lots of hexie projects in her favourites. Of course, being still in the honeymoon period with my Accuquilt Go! Baby (can it really be a honeymoon if there is no end in sight?) I had easy access to hexies so I decided that this was the way to go. Better still, I had recently received my rainbow charms (thanks to my QAL partner-in-quilting Jennifer) so it was really a no brainer.

I took out my Go! Baby hexie die and decided to use the medium size one. (If you're interested in receiving free patterns/the Accuquilt newsletter click here to sign up!). Five minues and I had all my hexies (I seriously love my Baby!) You'll all remember my first attempt at this mug rug - it suffered from over-trimming enthusiasm and I also wasn't totally happy with my machine piecing accuracy.

So I went back to basics and decided to recut (because, why wouldn't I? lol!!) to hand sew these babies next time round. Happily, I found perfect size paper hexie templates on this site - I printed off some sheets, cut them out and away I went, a few pleasant evenings on the sofa while I watched re-runs of The Sopranos (and yes, 10 years later it is still as good!).

My mind then turned to the back...for some reason, I had in my head that I wanted this to be a double sided mug rug, but I didn't have a fabric print that totally worked for the backing and I knew I wanted to do some simple echo quilting in the white space around the rainbow hexies, which was not going to work with a different design on the back.

In the end I decided to do a wonky rainbow log cabin block on the back. I tried to emulate a traditional log cabin block by keeping cool colours at one side and warms on the other and I used a linen/cotton mix to give a little extra texture to the sashing..

I got over the quilting issue by quilting each side onto its own bit of batting. I use Warm and White which is a nice, fine batting and putting the two sides together did not make it unduly bulky. I then bound using my Its a

Hoot dotty grey fabric which remains still my all time favourite binding fabric. Lastly, I needed to write my Haiku which was the theme for this swap, so I stuck to the rainbow theme for that, and then I made a little card with a row of rainbow flags (thank you Susan for the idea) to write it in.

Then yesterday, I received this package from JohannaBF all the way from Florida:

How cool is this? I couldn't belive my luck with this great package - two, TWO lovely mug rugs - one a hexie rainbow one (SWOON!!) and the other a wonky block with a fab embroidered owl (yes, I know you know they are my favourites!) in the centre. All the way from sunny Florida :-) Thanks so much Johanna :-)))

Wednesday WIP update

Another week gone, where does the time go? August is always a busy month, this year more than ever. Can't believe that my little boy is off to school next week. He is all kitted out with his uniform, his books, and his schoolbag. He looks so grown up with the uniform on! I am torn between excitement for him moving on to this new stage in his childhood and wanting to cry that he is growing up so quickly when I see him!

So here's the progress this week:

Completed this week:

I finished my mug rug for the Haiku themed scrappy mug rug swap and posted it off last Friday. I don't think my partner will receive for another few days, and I don't want to spoil the surprise, so here's a little sneak peak of the front:



And the back:


I must admit to shamelessly stealing the idea for this card from Susan who sent me a similar one with our little fabric swap a few weeks ago. I loved it so much, I've made a few versions for friends, and as I did a rainbow theme for this mug rug, I thought it fit in quite nicely. Inside the card was my (pretty amateurish) Haiku -
"Rainbow of colours
Like a smile after the rain
To brighten your day."

Which pretty much sums up my sentiments about this mug rug. I will reveal all later in the week.

I also finally sat down and pieced my Bee blocks for August - they're here. I really liked this double pinwheel block, once I got over the fear of messing up, and I even had enough leftovers to do 2 nice 6" blocks for the back for Jenna.

In Progress:

Besides the mug rug and the Bee blocks, this week was about two things for me - our Across the Sea QAL, and my solids swap item.

We are cutting the fabric for the quilt front this week for the QAL and next week, the fun really starts with the piecing. I really love the simplicity of the block and the way it lets the fabric shine through. Here's my trial block - I just love this print from Just Wing It!



I also made good progress on my For the Love of Solids swap.


My partner has liked some improv blocks showing up in the group pool so I have tried to piece some for her.


In addition to this first one which got a lot of comments at the weekend, I have pieced 2 more. This is going to be a mini quilt, with a Kona coal background. The 4th block element I can't show as I think my partner would realise immediately it was for her.






This is my first venture into improv piecing - I don't really know what I'm doing but I think it looks ok. Would love your feedback :-) I'm sorry about the pics which were taken indoors and the lighting isn't great. There are nine different shades of Kona blues in these blocks, and they do create contrast all by themselves, but I really like the pop of cerise/hot pink.

Last but not least, I'm guest blogging today over at Sara's fab blog Sew Sweetness about essential sewing supplies.


So if you are new to sewing and you want to know what you need in your sewing basket to get you started, head over right now and find out more!

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced where I know I will be in some super talented company, so head on over there and have a look!

Craft Fail: When at first you don't succeed.....

Listen to your body and your tired little mind and STOP!!

I kinda wish I had read that sentence a few hours ago to be honest. Let's just call this a cautionary tale in which a viable idea got destroyed because I couldn't just leave the sewing alone and go sit on the sofa!! Want to see my craft fail?

Well, it starts with this pretty little layout for my scrappy mug rug swap. Perfect little hexies thanks to the Go! Baby.



I'm pretty sure my partner likes this whole vibe, so decided to get sewing up the hexies last night. I machine pieced them, but didn't feel I did a great job - some of the seams are a little bulky and because I found turning on the corners a little tricky, I think some of my hexie shapes are not as perfect as I would like...eeek. That's without even mentioning the number of times I had to rip back the hexies.... I debated just starting over, but I hate giving up on a project.



I decided that the quilting might even out some of those problems so decided to press on tonight with the backing. See this nice, simple little backing?


Looks very straightforward, right? You would think so...but no. This was the 3rd attempt at making a backing on this tiny little mug rug. My brain was so tired after a rotten day at work that I couldn't figure out my measurements on the first. And the second. Then I messed up the cutting. I really should have thrown in the towel at that stage. But remeber that sentence back up there - you know, hating giving up on a project, you see, I just couldn't let it go. So I got this done at last and was happy with it...and got a rush of blood to the head, deciding (foolishly) to keep going.

I FMQ'd it (obviously, without pinning because it was so small, and you know, things were going so well for me at that stage ...) and I knew when I turned it over it wasn't good. So I decided to trim...to make it look better... and fell foul of the classic cutting-your-kids-hair trap (you've never done that? really? ) trimming off little bit after little bit to even it up and realising too late that I'd gone too far. Except here, there is no hairdressing equivalent of a quilter to fix my stupid mistake. The top hexie is too close to the edge for me to do a proper binding.......


And the back is crooked...but not crooked enough to make it look properly, intentionally wonky......


So its a bit fat fail for me... and back to the drawing board on the mug rug.

So, my wise friends, other than your virtual sympathy, could I have your opinions please. I have plenty of fabric to recut the hexies and start over. What do you think, will I give it another go? Should I handsew the hexies this time? Any other advice?

And is there anything I could do to retrieve this one? (Remember the whole never giving up business I mentioned? Lol!!) I do think its quite cute and if I could fix it a little bit I would happily keep and use myself despite its imperfections.

On another happier note....next Monday is my 1st year blogiversary and I have a really exciting project to announce that day!! It involves a good friend and lovely fabric and I hope you'll be as excited as I will be about it.... Plus I'll have a little follower giveaway later on in the week!

WIP Wednesday

It doesn't feel like a whole week has gone by since my last WIP post. I think with all the Blogger problems and the buzz from the Blogger's Quilt Festival, plus a mega busy weekend involving 3 separate parties for the kids (and me :-)) its just been a bit of a blur really. I don't feel like I got a lot achieved this week - a few small bits but in the overall scheme of things, very little. That's not just the busy week - its also a little of the burnout I always seem to struggle with in the week or two after a quilt finish. But I was thrilled to bits with all the lovely comments I received on my Hoot quilt, so thank you to everyone for taking the time to look and comment, I was made up by your reaction!

Completed this week:

I made two sets of this bunting for a friend's nephews - I like the blues and greens together.

I also ran up this little mug rug. I've seen quite a few circle quilts and mini quilts on blogs and have been wanting to try doing circles for a while now. I found the piecing a little tricky and its not the best piece of work I've ever done, particularly the binding which I rushed and am not too happy with;  but overall I do quite like the circles and the circular quilting effect, not to mention the fabric.  And cups of tea and biccies will no doubt cover the little flaws :-))

In Progress:

The Pinwheel Pips quilt top is coming along. I've decided on the layout and am waiting on some extra fabric to arrive for sashing.

My embroidery is almost done too - lots of people were interested in it last week after seeing the pattern picture, so here it is - my progress so far on it. Another night or two on the sofa should see it done. I've seen this pattern in a similar vein for sale in Aimee's Etsy shop and think I will buy it so I can put the two up together wherever I decide to hang them.

 Finally, I have set up a Flickr Group for the Summer Sewing project, for those of you who have joined up. You can find it here. Please post pics of your finished items so that we can keep track and encourage each other, and let us know when you have another one done! I am leaving the linky open for another week or two as I know a lot of people are still in Spring mode so please feel free to join up over the next week or two. (Is it just an Irish thing that 1st May is the first day of summer? I did wonder about this when I saw the Bloggers Quilt Festival called the Spring festival as May is definitely Summer here, in theory if not in weather!)

Ok, that's it for the week. I don't have the energy to list all the projects that are stalled (Crazy Scrappy QAL, Bottled Rainbows QAL) or waiting to be started, except to say that my little notebook is filling up rapidly with ideas and I have no clue where I am going to get the time to do them.

Happy Wednesday everyone and hop over to Lee's blog Freshly Pieced to check out what everyone else is up to!

WIP Wedesday #7

I've spent a lot of the last week in the car! Visiting my parents, away at a work conference, its been all go here. I still found some sewing time however, so here is my little progress report for the week.

Completed this week:

Actually, its been a pretty good week, in terms of finishes. I sewed like a woman possessed on Thursday night to get gifts finished for my little niece for her birthday:

  

 

I also managed to get a few small scappy pincushions done - this one with my Its a Hoot scraps:

 

 And this one with some nice Amy Butler scraps I had in my stash, both for some friends:

I also finished this cute little mug rug, after being inspired by all the lovely tutorials for Mug Rug Madness over at the lovely blog Two More Seconds.

 

Its not dissimilar to the wonky stripes one I made a few weeks ago, but I kept the strips quite straight and wonked up the quilting after seeing Jeni's tutorial. I'm really pleased with how it turned out apart from my mitred corners which did not go well (I might pick them back and redo, or I might just leave them!). I've had this fabric in my stash for a while now and it works really nicely as the backing.

  

I have another identical set of strips pieced that I might cut back a little in size and make a complimentary smaller one. I'm thinking that these might work nicely as a Mother's Day present for one of the kids' nanas!

Work in Progress:

I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment. I'm still at fabric layout stage for my Its A Hoot quilt blocks. Nothing to show you yet there, its packed up at the moment but I'm hoping to do more work on it tonight and get piecing the blocks.

I have some baby girl patchwork pram blankets to get done for some friends who had babies in the last few weeks - hopefully will get to finish them this weekend.

I'm working (slowly) at my Dresden plate block for the Lily's Quilts quiltalong. I have the blades pieced and pressed.

I read Lynne's post on piecing the inner circle yesterday and want to do this later in the week. But I want to add an additional inner circle in the brown fabric (like this)

and am not sure how I'm going to do it. I could piece it. But I'm more inclined to applique it on using a nice small zigzag stitch. Much easier and less work. Will it work nicely though or just look weird against the rest of it? I'd love some opinions on this one as I'm really not sure what to do. If its not going to look good, I will (maybe not very enthusiastically) go ahead and piece it - I'll have to do a bit of tutorial searching as piecing circles is not something I've done at all. But I do want it to have a nice finish so I'd appreciate advice from all of you experienced quilters out there :-)

On Hold:

The curtains have gone back in the box to my dismay. Must, must get them moving again!

The Cosmo bag is on a little break, I intend picking it up in a week or 2 again.

Thinking about:

I can't get the Bottled Rainbows QAL out of my head this last two weeks. Really, I so want to do this one but I don't have a) the time or b) the fabric to do it, and I can't justify going buying another FQ bundle for it. Any ideas? Maybe I could size up the blocks and do a few single blocks as placemats / mug rugs in the colours that I do have in my stash? What do you think?

I'm linking this up to Work In Progress Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced, go check out the great projects linked up there, I love seeing what everyone is working on each week! I'm also linking it to Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day: