Pretty Little Pincushions

We're almost at the end of the Scrappy Pincushion Swap run by the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland. And it has been fabulous fun! This was a smallish swap, with 19 participants, but it has been so much fun watching the pincushions pop up in the Flickr group.

My partner's information told me that she liked tiny paper piecing, hexagons, and loved combinations of different types of fabrics.

I started here, with some of my half inch hexies:

And when I had them pieced, I mulled over where to go next with it for a little while. Then, I got a little parcel of scraps in the post from Fiona, in return for some hexies I am cutting for her, and it included lots of linens. Perfect timing. I basted some more linen hexies in low volume neutrals, and pieced them around my little colourful flower. I added some hand stitching with perle cotton, and cut back to a hexagon shape.

I decided that the pincushion would look even nicer as a 3 dimensional piece, so I added sides, using the technique I used for this pincushion a few months ago. It's a little tricky, but gives a lovely finish. Some linen on the back, and I was done! It's all posted off now, and I hope my partner loves it.

Then, during the week, I got a fabulous parcel from Aideen. She made me a gorgeous pincushion, with pinks and aquas, paper piecing and hand stitching. Perfect :-) I'd never seen this type of piecing before - its called pineapple piecing. Isn't it amazing?

Needless to say, the chocolate is long gone and I will have lots of fun with those scraps. Thanks so much Aideen!

All in all, I think this was a great swap. I think everyone participating got to know some new people, myself included, and its great that our little community of modern quilters is expanding slowly but surely. It was my first time being Swap Mama in a swap, and while a little nerve wracking at times (I won't fully relax until everyone has received their pincushions!) it was also lots of fun.

I love swaps, I love how they challenge you creatively and push you to try new things when you are working to someone else's tastes. Anyone for a Christmas swap?

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Back in Swapping mode!

It seems to be absolutely ages since I took part in a swap....it is ages. I think its well over a year - maybe the Mouthy Stitches swap last year was the last one I did? Anyway, I've been thinking recently that it was time to pull myself together from an organisation point of view and brave up to working to deadlines again. I still get weeks where I get no sewing done, but most of the swaps have good lead time, so if I amend my normal habit of leaving things to the very last minute taking a relaxed approach to timelines to making early in the swap, I should manage.

So, of course, being me, I couldn't just do what normal people do and take part in one at a time. No, I've jumped, feet first, into 2 swaps, one of which involves a technique I have no idea how to do and have no experience with. And the other where I am the swap mama. Sensible, no? But, sure, that's the fun, right?

The first swap is a Scrappy Pincushion swap. I am Swap Mama for this one (nothing like a bit of extra pressure, right? lol) I am running it on behalf of the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland, and it is an Irish swap. We are making cute little pincushions. I've made/received pincushions in quite a few swaps and they make a great swap item, so small that you can experiment and try something new and if it doesn't work, you can abandon it and start over without having wasted a lot of time or fabric. And pincushions can be so cute - have a look at my inspiration mosaic - I would just love to own any of these!

If you're living in Ireland and want to participate in the Swap, there's still time to sign up. Pop over to this post on the MQG Ireland page, and join the Flickr group and you'll be in! If you're not a member of the MQG Ireland, please do consider joining. It is a fun group of peeps who connect and support each other, mostly online, and we have a lot of plans for the remainder of the year.

After I had set all that up, I was admiring Nicky's fabric stamping posts over on her blog and noticed she had set up a little swap for that too. Somehow, over the course of an email conversation with her, she cast some sort of a spell on me and I signed up for that too!

We have to make a stamp ourselves (eeek!!!), stamp some fabric, and make something small for our partner. She assures me it is easy enough. I'm not totally convinced but willing to give it a try. Must go source some supplies. So I spent a pleasant few hours browsing around Flickr looking for ideas for an inspiration mosaic, and at the end of it, I am quite excited about giving this stamping lark a go - loads of possibilities! Here's my mosaic. I think there's lots of cuteness in there - in fact, I struggled to whittle down my choices!

So wish me luck :-)

Ps - my mega giveaway for my 3 year blogiversary is here - open till Monday evening, be sure to enter to win lots of goodies!