Big Stitch Swap Round 2 - Sign-ups now open!

Cindy and I are hosting Round 2 of The Big Stitch swap and we would just love if you would join us!  The theme of the swap is that hand stitching of some variety is a significant contribution to the swapped item.  It can be embroidery, hand quilting, cross stitch...what ever you like.

What to make, what to make?  Well, our suggestions would be something along the scale of a doll quilt, tablet cover, embroidery hoop, messenger bag, zippy pouch, notebook cover, cushion/pillow cover or a tote bag.  You get the idea, something that allows enough space to incorporate a stitched motif, or handquilting design. But not too big.  The only guideline is that your hand stitching has to be a significant portion and focal point of the item's design.  

Want to join in?  The swap is open to 50 people including myself and Cindy. It will be hosted on Instagram, so you will need to have a public account there - sadly, we cannot accept quilters with private profiles as we will not be able to see your progress pics etc. If you want to join, hop over and fill out the entry form here.  We will then secretly assign partners.  Know that your partner is not necessarily making an item for you. While you are waiting for your partner assignment,  start thinking about an inspiration mosaic, which you will need to post on Instagram.

iPad cover made for me in the last Big Stitch Swap by Helen of Indianna Dreams

The swap timeline is as follows:

- Signups open today (24th February) and will close on 1st March or when we reach 50 participants.

- Partner assignments will be distributed by 9th March
- If you haven't already done your inspiration mosaic, you will need to have it posted by 11th March
- Posting dates are from 24th - 28th April, giving you 6 weeks to stalk your partner, make something lovely and parcel it up ready to send off.
- Swap extras are limited to cards/postcards and a small selection of scraps and/or notions (eg. buttons, zippers, beads etc) 

As usual, we ask that everyone actively participate on Instagram by posting inspiration mosaic, commenting on photos and posting WIP pics etc.   If you have any questions before you sign up, please do ask!  Better to ask before you sign up than after...it only makes our lives more difficult to find a substitute if you drop out.We are asking people to indicate what level of sewing skills they have so that we can match people as best as possible to someone of a similar level.

As always, can we ask you to please only sign up if you can commit to the swap deadlines. There is nothing more disappointing in a swap than your partner going awol and not receiving anything after you putting your heart and soul into making your item for someone else.

We do hope you join us!  This will be so very fun!

UPDATE: All 50 places on the swap are now taken!

A new swap...coming soon!

It's exciting times around here....Cindy and I are going to host another round of the lovely Big Stitch Swap in the next few weeks!

Loads of lovely friends joined us last time around in making small projects which featured hand stitching as a main focal point of the design. These were some of my favourite projects from that swap!

For this swap, the guideline is again that hand stitching of some variety is a significant contribution to the swapped item.  It can be embroidery, hand quilting, cross stitch...what ever you like. Projects will be along the scale of a iPad cover, Kindle cover, a zippy pouch, a fancy notebook cover or a tote bag.

We'll be posting details early next week so watch out because this will be a small swap with only 50 places...we hope you will join us!

Big Stitch Swap Package (gone in the post)

Today, I put my Big Stitch Swap package in the post. I hope my partner will like it.

I used a LiliPopo embroidery pattern on the front. I enlarged it a little so I could have a bigger finished pouch, suitable for hand sewing or knitting projects. This girl is very sweet, and though the pattern was straightforward, it took a little bit of work to get the look I wanted for her. I tried to make her sweet but a little quirky.

I was trying to figure out how to set her in a background, and I wanted something to give it a tiny bit of an edge, so as not to be too super sweet. From somewhere, I had the image of her standing on a rocky, pebbly beach. Happily, Trudi's class at the FQ Retreat covered pebble quilting, and despite my previous pre-FQR attempts at the technique leaving me ready to cry, after practising a little, I felt up to tackling it on this. It took quite a while, and a surprising amount of thread, but I was really pleased with how it turned out. The texture of the thread against the Essex linen is just so lovely, it feels great.

For the back, I spent quite a while thinking through various blocks before I landed on this one. I wanted something I could add handquilting detail to, something with clean lines and that would be striking against the linen. I was inspired by Camille Roskelley's Puddle Jumping pattern, but I drew this block out on Touchdraw so I could customise it to the size I wanted myself.

My colour palette was inspired by something I saw my partner say, and when I went digging around, I was delighted to find a scrap of Nordika that was perfect for fussy cutting for the centre.

I did dither about the hand quilting on this, initially when I finished it I thought it was a bit boxy looking where the corners of the blocks crossed over, it didn't look quite as I imagined. But when I came back to it the next day, I was happy, and I got a lot of positive feedback on IG and FB about it, so I relaxed a little :-)

I added a hot pink zipper for a pop of colour and I used a Vintage Happy print for the lining. I bought this print a good while ago, specifically for use as lining,and I love how it works. I did a divider pocket about half way down. The pouch measures just under 12" x 12", so it's a good size.

So my pouch was all done, and I just needed to pull out some scraps to include to finish off my package. It's gone in today's post and I really, really hope that my partner likes it.

If you like hand stitching, or embroidery, or just want to see what loveliness can be created with a simple needle and thread, pop over to the Flickr group and have a look as some of the gorgeous finished projects. Maybe we will see you in Round 2?

Christmas swapsies....

This last month, I have been Swap Mama for the MQG Ireland's Christmas swap.

My inspiration for this swap was sadly lacking the first few weeks of the swap window, what with the gallstones attacks and the surgery. But eventually, all the Christmassy spirit around started to make an impact on me, and my mind started turning over ideas. I went for a primarily hand pieced project as I couldn't tolerate much time at the machine. I had the idea of a little hexie Christmas wreath floating around in my head, but it took a while for the idea of a little tree in the centre to tie it together.

I had a little hexie factory going on beside me on the sofa last week. Basting and piecing hexies is a strangely soothing process and I really enjoyed it, even if I did eventually have to admit to myself that it was time for an eye test. Despite working as quickly as I could, it was slow going though.

 Swap posting opened on Monday, but on Monday evening I found myself at my machine, sewing desperately to piece the background blocks and secure the hexie wreaths.

Yesterday, I put the quilt top together. I had decided to use a penguin print for the central tree, as I knew my partner was partial to penguins.

I also had a small scrap of a Christmas tree fabric left which was perfect for another tree as it contained all the colours I used in the hexies.

With 2 lovely wintry aqua blue fabrics for the trees, I decided to stick with this theme and used another blue print for the 3rd tree.

As you can see, I machine pieced the hexies to the blocks. This was partly driven by time constraints, but also to give it a slightly raised effect, and to make sure that they were really secure as runners get so many turns in the washing machine, I didn't want to risk the piecing coming away anywhere.

I machine quilted 5 lines, 1/4" apart between the blocks and at either end. This dense little quilting block breaks up the runner blocks and I like how it contrasts against the hand quilting and the rest of the negative space which is unquilted. It was then time to embark on another West Wing marathon to get the hand quilting done. I outlined the trees in red perle cotton for contrast, and then outlined both sides of the hexies in a turquoise blue to tie in with the background fabrics for the trees. Honestly, the hand quilting took me most of yesterday afternoon and evening to finish. But it was totally worth it. The combination of the hexies, the hand quilting and the machine quilting gives it a nice, textural feel.

This morning, I bound it and all of a sudden, it was done! I used another aqua blue print for the binding and it gives the whole runner a really fresh, clean, wintry feel.

I've been posting lots of pictures on Instagram as I worked my way through this project, and getting loads of likes and comments, which was great, as I was worried originally that this simple little design might not work. I can't draw, and didn't have time to mock up a design on EQ7 so I was very much working on instinct here. But happily, the simplicity of the blocks and the pops of pretty Christmas fabric against the frosty Kona white just seem to work together, and the instantaneous feedback from my Instagram buddies really helped boost my confidence about the design.

All that remained was to make a little Christmas tree decoration to go with it - a pieced heart backed in felt.

And my package was ready to go!!

 

Today was the last posting day, and I got to the post office with literally 10 minutes to spare to catch the post - the closest I've ever come to missing a swap deadline! I haven't had a minute to catch up on who else has posted, and what is going on in the group so I must pop over there now and check everyone is doing ok!

Christmas swap sewing

I'm swap mama again for the MQG Ireland swap group, and we are in the middle of our Christmas swap. Swappers must make a table runner or table topper for their partner, as well as a little Christmas decoration.

I love taking part in swaps! This time around, having to go for surgery shortly after assigning swap partners was more than a little inconvenient, but being at home recovering has allowed me time to catch up a little, particularly as I decided to stick to hand piecing in the main for my design idea. Perfect for working on while sitting on the sofa taking it easy :-)

I played around with quite a few ideas before settling on the idea of a Christmas wreath made from hexies. And a little Christmas tree in the middle to finish it off :-) I really like how this is shaping up. I'm thinking 3 or 4 blocks side by side will look lovely.

After a bit of sewing this afternoon while rewatching The West Wing for the hundredth time, it's looking good so far. Next, it's back to basting the next lot of hexies for the 2nd wreath.

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!

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.

What the postman brought.....

The postman rang the doorbell both yesterday and today. I just love when he does that!

First up was the mini quilt my partner made for me in the swap between the Atlanta MQG and the Irish MQG. I was so thrilled when I opened the package - look what I got!!

Lennye read me absolutely right - I love the colourful prints against the solids, I love the hexie and I adore the dense quilting. It's just fab!

She also sent me 2 bars of gorgeous handmade soap, they are lovely :-)  I love the pieced back on this quilt and the label (which I have blurred, in case you're wondering!) It even has little corners so I can hang it - just need to decide where. Thanks so much Lennye, its lovely!

Then, today, another lovely package. 8 FQs of The Birds and the Bees from the lovely Julie - I have been swooning over this online and couldn't wait to get it into my hands. I have lots of ideas flying round in my head for this fabric, can't wait to cut into it!

Wonky Star Mini Quilt

Anyone got some sunshine where they are? Care to send it this way?  After the wettest June on record here and massive flooding in my village this week, I am completely and utterly depressed by the weather. But although talking about the rain is all anyone seems to do these days round here, its time for me to focus on some sewing fun.

When we kicked off the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland earlier this year, Cindy and Pam of the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild organised a mini quilt swap. It all seemed very far away back then in April, but last week I realised that I needed to get this project done and in the post early next week to be sure it would reach my partner on time.

I had lots of scope in this swap - my partner liked lots of the same design elements I did and after having a look through the Modern Blocks book for inspiration I decided on the "3 wishes" block, with stars inside stars. I changed up the measurements a little to bring this up to approx 17" square, which was very simple to do as wonky stars are so easy to work with. My partner likes blues and my FQ basket has a huge selection of blues, so I decided to stick with that. I was able to find prints incorporating other colours and different shades and values of blue and even though I had some doubts about sticking to one colour, I really liked how it turned out. It feels fresh against the white.

I particularly love the tiny star in the centre - this was made with teeny tiny 2" pieces and the block measures only 5" square (unfinished).

I thought about how to quilt it and decided to settle down with some perle cotton and outline the star shapes. I used big stitches, varying the thread colour around each star shape. I like the simplicity of it.

Its bound with some LouLouthi blue and all ready to be posted off early next week to my partner. I hope she will like it! Meanwhile, I must try to finish organising my fabrics for my month as Queen Bee in the new Modern Irish Bee, as they need to go in the post tomorrow. Hope you're having a nice (sunny) weekend!

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

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!