Matters of a Swappy Nature and Some Scrappy Grannies

The follower clicker just turned over to 300!!  Woo hoo!  Thank you to Bianca for being the three hundredth follower and to everyone who has clicked that button over the last 13 or so months.  I can`t believe my eyes but thank you so so much.  Your visits, comments, input and advice make my day. Perhaps we need a giveaway.  I shall put my thinking cap on.

Anyway, yesterday was a squeely moment of excitement and nothing to do with being on a camel with Laura Jane!  I received a pouch from my partner in the Mouthy Stitches swap and it is a beauty!!

It was made by the lovely Ali of Very Berry Handmade and I love it so much.  When Ali was about to insert the zip she asked the Mouthy Stitches flikr group what colour we would like.  I plumped for purple and was very much in the minority as most people chose teal.  When I saw the update that a purple zip had been put in, I started to get very excited. I checked my mosaic and saw that I had included some Drunkard`s Path blocks as inspiration. I waited and crossed my fingers.

Yesterday, I was in the middle of lunch (chicken couscous cooked by my MIL if you must know) and the doorbell went. 3 packages - thank you postie! One was significantly fatter, came from England and was a `handmade gift`. I chobbled down the remains of lunch and tore the package open. I couldn`t believe my luck!  I love the design, my very favourite fabrics, the gorgeous hand-stitching, the wooden leaf zip pull - everything! 

Oh and the scraps! I will be able to use each and every one of these.

Ali even included generous pieces of her Liberty Lawn fabrics...see the front three on the left? Amazing. Ali couldn`t have read me better - she was an awesome partner. I couldn`t be happier - thank you so much Ali!  Thank you also to all the swap mamas - Susan, Hadley and Cindy for all their hard work in putting the swap together and making it such fun...and a particular thank you to Susan for pairing me up with Ali.

Turning to the For the Love of Solids 2 swap, international shipping has started and I need to get my package off.  It`s finished and ready to go.

I made a zip pouch to match the mini.  I had a reject block that I cut up and used with some Kona charcoal and a lovely olive green zip.

I was a rebel and broke the rules slightly by using the Downtown print for the lining.  I hope I`m not in too much trouble!

I had no trouble putting the zipper in...

...and here`s the back...

I use the variegated grey and black thread that was part of my FMQ prize from Rhonda.  I really hope my partner likes it.  It`s her style and in her colours...she`s been positive online so fingers crossed!

Lastly, there are some scrappy grannies in town.  Yesterday morning I needed some indulgent me me me sewing.  Having admired the granny blocks springing up over the blogosphere. I made these bunnies.

  

I`m using my scraps and the blocks are fun to make and quick too. I`m using my second camera at the moment as I can`t find my charger (grrrr) and so the colours aren`t great - they are brighter in person and not so pastel.

My mum arrives tomorrow, the sun is shining, there are blue skies and we have temps around 26 C (79F).  Life is good here.  Hope it is wherever you are!

Confucius Say...

..."she who drops her phone in the toilet in the morning will have bad day quilting."

And that`s exactly how it was on Monday hence my funk yesterday for which I`m sorry.

I would just like to say that the swaps I`m in are organised fabulously and the swap mamas are supportive, encouraging and super helpful.  My downer on swaps is all to do with the mysteries of the world postal `system` and my quilting inadequacies!

So on Monday, after an inauspicious start to the day, I spent the afternoon quilting my For the Love of Solids mini using a square spiral design within each wonky log cabin and some pale green thread.  I wasn`t loving it but I carried on.  That was my mistake.

As I came to the last wonky log cabin I ran.out.of.pale.green.thread.  Hence my funk yesterday as with no LQS to run to, I had to rip out all the quilting.  It took hours! I changed tack, got the painter`s tape out and quilted it using a taupe thread in an abstract straight line design.

...personally I like the back best.

I`ve tried my best and just hope my partner likes it...

...she`s a serial swapper and knows what she likes.  I have to make a small something to go with it and then it`s ready to be posted.

My big worry now is my Mouthy Stitches` pouch.  There is linen coming to me and it should have arrived by now and it`s this kind of thing that causes swap stress.  If it doesn`t arrive today then it`s Plan B...
 

It`s Beginning to Feel a Bit Like...

...Christmas!!

More fun post has arrived chez nous.  You`ll remember the terrible saga that was my Christmas tablerunner from the swap going missing. Well it hasn`t turned up sadly but I did find out who made it for me and that was the lovely Susan all the way away in Oz.  Susan made this amazing tablerunner for me.  Isn`t it stunning? Thank you so much Susan and being the eternal optimist I have a feeling it may one day turn up!

Well a few weeks ago, I was contacted via flikr by swap buddy, sweet Maggie in Salt Lake City enquiring as to whether my `runner had ever appeared.  When I said no, she said she was popping something in the post to me and it arrived!

A very cute tree mug rug, which Zaki has already claimed as his own.  Thank you Maggie - it means so much that someone who I have never met could think to do that. This won`t be put away for Christmas but will join my growing pile of mug rugs!

I`m still waiting on my linen so that I can get on with my pouch for the Mouthy Stitches` swap.  I`m not panicking yet as I know I can make it fairly quickly once it arrives. It is giving me time to get on with the mini quilt for the For the Love of Solids swap.  The top is finished. It will be 20 inches finished.

For the back, there will be one biggish wonky block against a white background. It should be completed over the weekend.

I shall leave you with a funny story.  I have to pick Zaki up from pre-school at 11.30 and the two and a half hours while he`s away are a whirlwind.  I`m not late to pick him up but I cut it fine.  This morning I collected him from the gate and I thought the gardian was looking at me strangely.  Zaki was his usual smiley self and it was only in the car that he asked why I had material hanging in my hair. I pulled from the top of my head a long strand of half inch thick Kona teal. Oh where have my groomed days disappeared to?

Don`t forget to check in tomorrow.  It`s my turn in Jennifer`s Modern Mini Challenge and I need your loving support!

Wiggle It Just a Little Bit...

This is a substance light post.  This is the diet crispbread of blog posts.  You should be able to tell that straight away from the title. 

Despite a lot of sewing in the last few days, I really have nothing I can show you.

There`s been a lot of wiggling going on here recently.

First up, I did some curvy wiggling with the orange strings that sweet Jennifer sent me.

 Then, having thankfully got a thumbs up from my For the Love of Solids swap partner, I wiggled up the mini quilt top.  Now I have a little breathing space to work out how I`m going to quilt it.

Only sneek peeks are allowed.

I also wiggled up a Union Jack mini quilt using Echo fabrics but it`s pretty lame. Sadly, Echo fabrics were harmed in the making of this improv.pieced mini quilt top.  Sorry.

...and I`ve also been wiggling for Jennifer`s Modern Mini Quilt Challenge but you`ll just have to wait until Friday to see what I`ve come up with.  I hope you`ve been following along with the blog hop as there`s loads of inspiration and if you come up with your own mini quilt or mug rug, you can join in the challenge and perhaps win some seriously amazing prizes.  Of course it`s the taking part that counts.  But there are some amazing prizes.  Just saying.  You can read all about it here.

Anyway, I hope I haven`t let that song settle in your brain so that you`re humming it all night! Hope you have all had a great weekend!

Getting My Head Straight

...or should that be wonky?

I have struggled today. I had a newsletter I had to write this morning for an American Women`s Association I`m a member of here and it took forever.  But job done.

I then pieced the blocks for the back of my pouch for the Mouthy Stitches swap.  I`m waiting for my linen to arrive before I can go any further but I`ll be ready to go once it arrives.

My partner`s mosaic showed pouches fairly simple in design.  There will be a star on the front and I`m going to do a little hand-stitching in perle but this is not a complicated design.

So I then moved on to playing with my solids for the For the Love of Solids swap.  My partner, while not chatty, is a serial swapper and loves improv. designs.  My improvisational designs so far? Um. Zilch.  While I`m playing, I`m not getting very happy with anything I`m producing and meanwhile my stack of solids is slowly evaporating and I`m left with this.

So I`m going wonky I think and I know my partner loves wonky log cabins...the wonkier and crazier the better. I`m still finding it hard to let go...

Thank you for all your anniversary wishes...we had a very low key day.  We had lunch a deux a trois at a place a few kilometers outside Marrakech.  The setting was beautiful and it was a great way to celebrate.

...and to cure me of my snow envy, we could eat lunch while gazing at these...

Fake it `til You Make It

That expression will be written on my tombstone no doubt.  Throughout life I`ve often found myself in situations where I`ve had to convince others that I know far more about something than I actually do!

As I`ve mentioned before, a couple of weeks ago I signed up for the Mouthy Stitches swap hosted by the lovelies, Susan, Hadley and Cindy.  It`s a zippered pouch swap.  Suffering from FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), I immediately signed up after receiving an early alarm call from Hadley to do so.  Bleary eyed, I headed over to `hers` and the rest is as they say, history.

The slight fly in the ointment was that I had never actually made a zippered pouch before.  I had put numerous zips in clothes (in my teens) but a pouch of the zippered variety was new territory.

Until today, that is.  I made what will be doubtless one of many practice pouches in the warm colourway of Lotta Jansdotter`s Echo. Not perfect by any means but it`s a pouch (well a wristlet to be exact) and there is a zip in it. Once I decide on a zip colour for my swap partner`s pouch, I need to get some coordinating thread - I don`t like the effect of the white thread on the yellow zip.

As I was making the patchwork panels (the front and back are mirror images of each other), it dawned on me how much brown was in the warm tones of the Echo prints, and I recalled a flikr discussion about how many people hated brown!  I wouldn`t necessarily want a brown quilt but I`ve always quite liked brown accessories.

The wristlet is quite capacious and holds all the essentials and will be handy for running to the shops or gym (ah, yes, I remember the gym...vaguely).

I used Ayumi`s tutorial here.  If I was to say it was plain sailing, then I would be lying.  The seam ripper did come out once or twice but it wasn`t so bad. Nothing to do with the instructions, which are excellent but my incompetence in following them. Now I need to try a pouch with covered end tabs.

There is awesome talent in this swap.  I have been assigned my partner and I know her to be super sweet.  I`m just hoping she is of a forgiving nature.  Just in case.

In the last week, I was overwhelmed to be asked to participate in a couple of really exciting things coming up soon.  They are a little hush hush at the moment but as soon as I receive the nod, you`ll be the first to know.  It`s also my blogaversary in a couple of days, so be sure to come back.  Just saying.

Home Sweet Home

Mouthy Stitches Inspiration Mosaic, a photo by Life`sRichPattern on Flickr.

Zaki and I are home. We arrived last night.  So sad to say goodbye to my mum but so happy to say hello to the hubster who we haven`t seen for 4 weeks. I think he had missed us. That will be mutual then.


Back to a routine.  Pre-school for Zaki and some sewing for me.  I have been MIA on and off the last few weeks and promise to be a more regular sewist, blogger, follower and commenter now that we`re home.


By the end of last year, I had sworn off swaps. Not because I didn`t enjoy them.  They are hugely fun and I have made great friends through them but anything involving deadlines is difficult with no LQS.  Everything has to be ordered online and that involves time uncertainty and money. It`s not really fair on my partner.


I never did receive my tablerunner in the Modern Christmas Tablerunner Swap.  It`s now 2 months since it would have been posted to me and being an optimist I remain hopeful that it will show up.  Perhaps in time for next Christmas!  I feel sorry for my partner as I know what it is like to wait for something you`ve made to arrive - my make and scraps in the Scrappy Swap took 6 weeks to make it to Australia.


So being off swaps, that means I wouldn`t sign up for any more right?  Well I have and the first is the Mouthy Stitches Swap - a pouch and a fat quarter of scraps swap. I don`t have to tell you that Susan, Hadley and Cindy are hosting this as most of you are in the swap.  What made me sign up?  Well I love the swap mamas and it`s already a party over at the flikr group. They want a chatty interactive group and I think they`ve got one.


I also signed up to the For Love of Solids Swap after I saw it on Susan`s blog.  Having seen the amazing makes in Round 1, I headed straight over to the group and saw that there was one spot left.  I wrote the quickest request to join and pressed the post button.  I sneaked in under the wire becoming the 100th member.  You can see my inspiration mosaic here. 


I have so much to tell you and so much to do but that will have to wait for another day. I left my camera`s memory card in England so I`ll have to get a new one before I can post any pictures!