Swap Goodies

A few months ago when Stephanie, of Peas in a Pod, visited we made arrangements to do a private swap. I made her a cover for one of her sewing machines.

Her machine is much bigger than my Bernie. I had to put my camera bag underneath the cover so that it would stand up nice for a photo.

She made me a new pillow for my sewing room chair.

Click on the image to make it larger so you can see all the details. The star is English Paper Pieced and then appliqued on the background. Notice all the lovely hand stitching she did echoing the star. And the pompom fringe is so fun. On the back she put in a hidden zipper so I can take out the pillow form and wash it, if necessary.

Good swap partners always include extra goodies and Stephanie is a good swap partner!

The small circle on the right is a little tin which contains a tape measure. I sent her a fun tape measure too. The little "quilt happy" book on the left is a book of sticky lint remover sheets. I've never seen a book of lint remover sheets before. Every quilter needs a lint remover and these sheets work well! The spiral bound book is a journal. On the cover it says, "I am fairly certain that given a Cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world." How fun is that?! I love journals and use them. I am the secretary for my art group and this journal is going to be used to keep us organized.

Thank you so much Stephanie! I am so lucky to be able to call you my friend! Go visit Stephanie's blog to see the cover I made for her on the machine it is intended for as well as the extra goodies I sent her.

Disappearing Four Patch

My guild swap block for this month is the Disappearing Four Patch. I made one from scraps and it was so fun I dug out some charm squares and made a bunch more.

This is the first one I made using scraps.

I won some Sweet Divinity charm squares last year and then was given some scraps of Sweet Divinity too. I don't usually make a "collection quilt" but decided I wanted to try something new. So I cut up the scraps I had into 5" squares to add to the ones I won.

Here is how you make the block. You need four 5" squares, two pairs of two different fabrics. Sew them together into a four patch.

Now you need to cut your sewn block. Having one of those little rotating cutting mats helps so that you don't have to move your pieces until it's all cut. I don't have one of those mats so I put my blocks at the corner of my mat and move around the table to make all the cuts. I can do that now because my sewing room is so organized. :o) Measure 1" away from the center seam, vertically and on both sides, cut the block. Do the same in the horizontal direction. See photo below.

With these four cuts you have created a nine patch out of a four patch. Now rotate or switch the center vertical pieces and the center horizontal pieces. See photo below.

Then sew your pieces together as you would a nine patch.

Starting with 5" squares, you will end up with an 8.5" unfinished block or 8" finished.

I had enough squares to make 13 blocks.

Not a great picture since the fabrics are so light they almost disappear against my design wall, but you'll see more photos of this one soon. Since I won or was given all the Sweet Divinity fabric used so far, I didn't feel bad about ordering a yard of one of the prints for the border. I'm probably going to sash the blocks with a solid fabric and then border it with the print I ordered. I may make a couple more blocks using a solid and the border print, or I may just turn in 13th block with my first block for the swap at guild next month.

I believe in crediting my sources. The instructions we were given at guild came from Sally at SewWonderful. Hop over here to her blog to see the block she made.

I have no UFO Report this week. However, if you look at my UFO list in the right sidebar, I'm doing pretty well for the year. There are 15 projects on my list and I have busted 9 of them already. Yay me! To see what the other Little Green Quilters have accomplished this week, go over to Susan's blog, Blackberry Creek Home Arts.

12 x 12 Mini Quilt Swap

I received my 12 x 12 mini quilt from my partner today! Look how great it is!

Thank you Sherri! I LOVE it! I'm trying to figure out where I will hang it. Right now it is just hanging out on my design wall.

Check out the other goodies Sherri included.

The crocheted items are beautiful! I have recently started using these crocheted cloths for lite cleaning. Sherri's are much nicer than the ones I make. I only know one pattern, the one on the inside of the yarn package. After seeing these and inspecting them up close, I think I need to branch out a bit and try a new pattern.

Thank you again Sherri!

12 x 12 Mini Quilt Swap - finished

My swap quilt is finished and in the mail to it's owner. I hope she likes it! I sure had fun making it.

It looks a little crooked in the photo above, but I assure you that this is only due to my poor photography skills. The quilt is 12" square and is actually square.

Above is a side shot so you can see some of the quilting detail. This took an unexpectedly long time to quilt for its size. However, I did quilt it pretty tightly and in sections, trying to add more detail to the piece. In case you missed it, I blogged about my process in making this in this post.

12 x 12 Mini Quilt Swap

I made no progress on my UFO's this week. Continue reading to learn why.

I have been a follower of the 15 minutes play blog for a while. Recently Victoria proposed a group swap and I signed up. This week I have spent all of my sewing time playing with scraps for this swap.

The basic idea for the swap is to create a 12" by 12" mini quilt using only scraps. In December my guild had a scrap bag exchange. I was unable to attend the December meeting but was generously gifted a bag of scraps from one of our members who brought 6 grocery bags full of scraps for the exchange.

Over the weekend my son helped me sort the scraps. He ironed almost every piece in the bag! Here is the pile I used for my project.

Goldie held down the rest of the scraps and kept them in line while I sewed.

The still partially full grocery sack is next to Goldie on the ironing table. This bag was stuffed full of goodies!! There were lots of Asian prints so I pulled out some of these and started playing.

I made the flying geese unit and the log cabin unit. The other three were already pieced and just in the bag. They must not have worked out for whatever project my friend was using these Asian prints for. I just started playing and this is what I came up with.

Since this picture was taken I have quilted it, got the label sewn on and the binding sewn to the front. I am in the process of hand sewing the binding to the back. It will be ready to be mailed off to my swap partner next week.

Tote Bag Swap

Here are photos of the tote bag I made for the swap.

The inside with a pocket for ID, cash, chap stick, ...

Here are photos of the tote bag I received. It arrived today!

And the inside ...

The one I received has a pocket on the outside. It was fun to do the swap!

Just Passing Through

While finishing up my tote bag for the swap yesterday afternoon I spied this guy through my sewing room window in our neighbor's tree. Orioles pass through our area this time every year. Such pretty birds!

My tote bag is done but the street in front of the post office was blocked off when I went by this morning. The city is replacing water pipes and making a huge mess. One of those necessary projects that is not fun to do or have to live through having done. They probably didn't have the whole street blocked but I decided to just avoid the area for today and try again tomorrow.

I spent a few hours at my LQS this morning/afternoon with my art group. We had a blast! I'll post photos of my project soon.

Tote Bag Swap

I have done a little rearranging on the blog. On the top right there is a new button for a tote bag swap being coordinated by Brye Lynn from Sew, Stitch, Create. If you click on the image it will take you to Brye's blog with the details of the swap. I am participating. Why don't you join me? You've got over about a month to make one and get it in the mail to Brye. They don't take very long to make and you can use one of the patterns Brye suggestions or a similar one of your own. You know you need another tote bag!

I'll also do a plug for Brye's podcast, also called Sew, Stitch, Create. Search for it on iTunes or you can get to it from Brye's blog. Warning: These quilty podcasts are addicting! And really fun to listen to while sewing or commuting or doing housework.