Just a little snowman

I made this last weekend for a guild ornament swap.  So much fun.  Little paper pieced snowman with little tiny stippled quilting in the grey dots.  I used snaps for the eyes.  I think he is a little cross-eyed!

Pouch Swap... with the Victoria Modern Quilt Guild

The Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild swapped zippy pouches with the Victoria Modern Quilt Guild.  It was a heck of a lot of fun and we plan to make it an annual event.  Kari spoiled me rotten with this lovely Noodlehead wide open pouch.  The quilting rocks.  Just saying!  And then to top it all off, Kari crammed the pouch full of treats!  Fat quarters, charms, stitch ripper, pins, thread and their guild pin.  I also really like the sleeps with quilts button!  So much fun!

I am going to use this pouch tomorrow and stuff it with hand stitching that I can do when I visit our daughter over the next few days.  Thanks, Kari!

Ps.  I will still be posting even though I am off visiting!

Simple and Sweet Swap... another needle book

This is the second needle book in the last week.  This is the one that will be sent off to my secret swap partner in the Simple and Sweet Swap.  I used some scraps of Heath and a bunch of Kate Spain bits and pieces.  The felt is a lovely wool felt in a soft grey.  The wool felt makes beautiful needle book pages because the felt has lots of structure.  Nice.  I won't show you all the pages but know that every page is embellished.  That's the fun part!  Once again this is from the Nana and Company tutorial but I bound the edges on this one too and added the inside pocket. I made my own covered button for the closure.  I love making covered buttons!

Now I just have to add all the other bits and pieces and get this ready to mail!

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday.

Swap making...

I signed up for a couple of swaps on Flickr.  This is for the Sweet and Simple Swap where you swap 50 charm squares from your scrap stash and a sewn item.  My secret partner wanted a pouch so I played around the other day with this.  Lots of hand quilting around the scrappy star and then lots of machine quilting on the green dots.  I was able to dive into my solid scrap bin for the back of the pouch.    I am calling this a finish!

 the back...

And here are the charms that I have cut... There are a few more than 50 but I don't think anyone will mind!

Text Swap!

This is a very texty week.  I received this lovely bunch of charm squares from the all Canadian text fabric swap.  56 of them I think.  Oh man!  There are just so many lovelies in this bunch and I have no idea what the plan will be for them but it was just so much fun to be part of this swap.  Many thanks to Barb at the Quilting Barbie for organizing all of it.

I think this might be the start of something with some more all Canadian swaps to come.  With the price of postage, it just makes sense.  For these charm squares, the postage was only $2.20. Not too bad.  Rumour has it that low volume fabrics might be up next!

And why am I thinking this is a texty week?  This week at my guild meeting we will be swapping text fabric fat quarters!!!  Woo hoo!

Happy Tuesday!

FVMQG and VMQG Travel Swap

Back a month or so ago, I signed up for a swap with our sister guild in Vancouver.  It was to be a travel swap because some of the guild members will be going off to QuiltCon.  (so jealous!)  The idea was to make a travel related item that would take you about 6 to 8 hours of sewing.  I made Kalin a tote bag and stuffed in some extra goodies.  And Kalin made me this awesome sewing kit.  Oh man!  I am a lucky lady.  Just have a look at it all!

 When you open it all up there is a nifty little pouch right in the centre.  A place for scissors.  Little tricky pockets.  Needle/pin place.  Oh, and a needle book.  Wonderful fabric goodies!  Typewriter fabric!  That is Julia Rothman's fabric from Windham called Type!  Swoon!    And a place to put thread.  I love the fabric she made it out of.  Love the text fabric.  Love the colours.  It is a love fest all round!  Thank you so much Kalin!!!

Finish it up Friday...

Here is a finish!  This is a Market Square tote bag that I made with the pattern I won.  I won the pattern at Felicity's blog.  Yay!  This is a lovely tote designed by Nikki from The Girl Who Quilts.  That is a long story. Anyway.  I made the tote for a Travel Handmade Swap that the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild has going on with the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild.  My swap partner likes greys and pinks.  She also likes cute Japanese prints. Which is why I put the little cutesy Lecien print in the pocket.  CUTE!  That print also happens to have all sorts of travel references so it is like a pun in a pocket.  Or at least I thought so.  I do think I should have had the zipper tab on the left instead of the right but I think I can be forgiven on that one. I was most impressed with the zipper installation because it was awesome in its tidy completion!  For the base of the tote, the handles and the lining, I used some of my Marimeko decor weight fabric.  Sweet!  And for the contrast... Pure Style by Stof in the grey.  Love that fabric!  Love the grey.  Love the print.  Love the feel of the fabric.  It is just yummy.  I used a bit of multi grey pin dots for the contrast of the pocket.

All in all it is a great pattern.  Clear instructions.  Love the zipper.  And I hope my swap partner likes the bag.  I still need to tuck some goodies into that nice big outside pocket.  It has a seam down the centre for stability.  Good idea!  And this was one more thing off my list!

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday!

Working on some swap stuff...

I signed up for the Modern Scrappy Bits Swap awhile ago and the mail out dates are coming up in September.  I am ahead of the game because I go back to work on Monday and wanted to be super organized.  The whole idea behind the swap is to swap one small hand made item and then at least a fat quarter's worth of scraps.  I did a little Flickr stalking and happened to notice that my secret partner seems to like Mendocino.  Well... who doesn't?  I made a cutey patootie little needle book following this tutorial!

I have to say it was a lot of fun to make and I added some little bits to make it interesting inside too as the tutorial suggests.  I was tickled to find the vintage button that I used for the closure.  It was lurking in one of my button tins and when placed on the needle book, it looks as though the mermaid is holding it like a treasure.  Or at least I think so!

Then I started playing with scraps and making them look pretty too!  It was a lot of fun and I really hope my secret swap partner enjoys what I send her!

And this totally works as a "my precious" project!  Happy dance!!!