Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug Swap

 

I recently participated in the "Whimsical Woodland Mug Rug Swap" which was hosted by So Charming.

 

We were asked to create a mug rug for our swap partner and to include a few extra little goodies.  Unlike other swaps this one had a spending cap of USD10 (approximately AUD12 - AUD15) retail on the extras and all extras had to follow the theme of the swap.  I loved this idea.  I loved that we had a limit to stick to which meant that we had to be creative! 

 

All photos on Instagram were posted with the hashtags #whimsicalwoodlandmugrug  & #jensstitches  There are some amazing photos in this feed so please check them out when you have time to do so. 

 

Our partners are secret so we do not know who is making for us - at least we won't know until our parcel arrives.  And who we make for may not be the same person who is making for us.  Our dispatch deadline was 25 January for international posting, or 2 February for domestic parcels.

 

My swap partner was Louisa Watts @loubeelou76 who lives in Western Australia.  I was told that Louisa likes pink, green, and autumn colours.  Her favourite woodland creatures are: fox, squirrel, hedgehog & owl. 

 

This is Louisa's inspiration mosaic

Louisa's parcel of awesomeness:

  

This is what I sent to Louisa.

 

Louisa's mug rug was 3 owls sitting on a branch, and there is a 4th owl who is about to land on the right hand side.  I also made her a zippered pouch and a key fob.  All of the fabrics used were from my stash.  I only had to purchase the ribbon, a zip and I buy the key fob hardware in bulk.

The back of the mug rug

This year I am printing labels for all my swaps.

I included some stickers

A lovely hedgehog card made by my friend Libby at Willow Fox Designs.

 

I didn't know if Louisa was a tea or coffee drinker so I included both.

I also included some washi tape and a rogue charm square that I found lurking in my fabric stash.

I used the left over ribbon from the key fob & the zipper bag to wrap part of her present.

 

Louisa's gifts were wrapped in woodland themed wrapping paper.

This has been one of my favourite swaps so far this year.  I really liked the idea of having a spending cap because it forced us to be creative.  Instead of just buying "stuff" to fluff up the parcel, how could we best invest our money and make something wonderful for our partner.  It's amazing what you can make with ribbon, zips and fabric!

I love stalking my partners - purely to find out enough about them to personalise their gifts, and of course to check if and when the parcels arrive.  It gave me so much pleasure to read Louisa's comments when she received her parcel:

At the time of writing this post I am yet to receive my own Whimsical Woodlands Mug Rug parcel but when I do I will write a separate post about it.  I have no idea who my partner is but there are so many gorgeous creations posted on Instagram under this swap's hashtags!

Schnitzel & Boo Mini Quilt Swap (Round 3)

 

I recently participated in the "Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap" (round 3) which was hosted by Schnitzel & Boo.  As there were over 950 participants this year, we were divided into groups and I was in Nicole Young's group (@lillyellasworld).

 

This was a worldwide swap for people of all skill levels and our partners were kept secret (we did not know who was making for us - at least we wouldn't know until our parcel arrived - and the person who sends to us may not be the same person we are sending to).  The deadline for international shipping was 16 January or 23 January for domestic shipping.

 

All photos on Instagram were posted with the hashtags #schnitzelandboominiquiltswap  & #makeaquiltmakeafriend and #mofanicole (for Nicole's group)  There are some amazing photos in these feeds so please check them out when you have time to do so. 

 

When we registered for the swap we were required to complete a questionnaire about ourselves answering questions about our likes and dislikes and we were encouraged to post an inspiration mosaic board on Instagram to assist our swap buddy.

 

 

My swap partner was Fiona Tchan @fionamadeit who lives in New South Wales.  I was told that Fiona likes modern quilts, low volume fabrics and rainbow minis.  Her favourite colours are blue & green and yellow & grey.  There were a few other snippets of information a bit more personal in nature which I will not share on here.  We are encouraged to include a few extras in our parcels and one of the things that Fiona requested was sewing notions.

 

This is Fiona's inspiration mosaic

 

I noticed that most of the quilts that Fiona liked featured flying geese; so I decided to go with the rainbow theme and feature flying geese.  I chose to make "Right Round"  - a pattern by Janice Zellar Ryan of Better off Thread.  It is part Dresden, part New York Beauty and all geese (foundation paper pieced).  The quilt measured approximately 22" squared.

 

Choosing threads to applique the centre circle and to quilt with

Pin basting in preparation for quilting

Quilting time.  I stitched the ditch around all of the geese and sewed a circle echo around the background of the main circle

About to bury the threads

Completed - yet to be blocked.

The quilt label - printed on the computer.

Me holding the finished quilt.  We were asked to post a finished picture on Instagram so that our swap mamas could tick us off the list.

 Fiona's parcel of awesomeness:

  

This is the parcel of goodies that I sent to Fiona

 

A home made card featuring some Aunty Cookie fabric

 

a Quiltworx Quilt Dot badge in her favourite colours (not the best photo)

 

Sewing notions - a strawberry pin cushion and some Wonder Clips

Some Washi tape

A Key Fob in her favourite colours & a "Fiona" key chain

the back of the "Fiona" key chain

Some Lindt chocolate

And I made Fiona a Bruce crafty carrier in her favourite colours. 

One of the joys of participating in a quilt swap is the fun of stalking your partner and trying to personalise the gifts that you make for them to their style and taste.  Sometimes this can be challenging but I really enjoyed making these for Fiona.  It was an anxious wait once I had posted the parcel to see if and when it arrived, but it did, and she posted these:   

 

I have to admit I had a little giggle when I read her post.  I can imagine the mix up as we both have the same name - silly Mr Postman.

Since typing up this post my own Schnitzel & Boo parcel of awesomeness has arrived YAYNESS!!!  I will post about this separately.

They call me Bruce!

Meet Bruce...

 

No, not THAT Bruce, THIS Bruce,
 

 

Bruce is a funky little crafty carrier designed by the super dooper talented Australian designer - Jodie Carleton of Ric Rac.  Bruce has pockets back and front and enough room for a project or two.  He carries everything and you will never hear a word of complaint.  Every girl needs a Bruce in their lives! 

 


This is my personal Bruce.  He sits next to my chair and looks after my hand sewing equipment.

 


Here are some Tula Pink Bruces that I made for Ashleigh & Julie.

 


Bruce comes in many colours.  The pink Bruce was part of the prize for my "1000 Followers" giveaway & the orange Bruce was for Cassie.

 

This is the Bruce that I made for my Schnitzel & Boo swap partner.

 

Greenie the Bilby likes Bruce's buttons and often "minds" them for me whilst a Bruce is in construction.  He is especially fond of the green ones as they remind him of his Aunty Alison.



A ladder of Bruces!

 

Carol's Bruce

Go on, you know you want to make one too.  Bruce is an easy pattern to make.  He only uses 2 fat quarters, some interfacing, 55" of binding and a self covered button.  Just watch that Greenie the Bilby doesn't run off with the button, he's lightning fast!!

 

Click on the logo above to purchase the Bruce pattern

 

Cute Cups Quilt

Late last year I purchased the book "Quilty Fun" by Lori Holt with the intention of doing a sew-a-long with my friend Jess early in the new year.  Well December proved to be a busy month which spilled over into January and I was just a little bit stressed wondering how I would manage to get everything done; when Lori Holt posted the following invitation on Instagram:

 

 

 

I tagged Jess and asked her if she would rather do something smaller like this instead of the whole "Quilty Fun" quilt.  The next thing I knew, Jess had sorted through her scraps and started to sew it together already.  Time to get myself into gear.  I had been hoarding some red and white prints with the intention of making something schmancy for my kitchen - this seemed like a good excuse to use my special stash.  The prints I used were a lovely "Pam Kitty Picnic Red Recipe For Success" text fabric that I had purchased ages ago from Alison at The Cotton Factory, and I matched it up with some prints from "Weeds" by Me and My Sister for Moda.

 

The cups are made.

The sashing goes on.

 

My completed top.



I'm still rather inexperienced when it comes to actual quilting (no I still can't FMQ!), and when Jess posted a photo of hers with a lovely cross hatch quilt design I asked her how to do it.  I knew that I would be able to use my walking foot to quilt this design but instead of using tape to mark the lines I used a water erasable pen.  I stitched the ditch in red around the red border and used Aurifil in white for the cross hatch. I was surprised how quick and easy this method was!

 

My assistant - Snowy the Squirrel

 

Quilting

In next to no time it was quilted, bound and hung up in the kitchen.  I hadn't pre-measured the space I had in mind to hang it but thankfully it fitted perfectly.  It now hangs on the kitchen wall above my recipe book shelf. 

  

 

  

Overall this was such a quick and easy project and it surprised me actually.  Lately most of my work had been intricate foundation paper piecing and I guess I had forgotten how quick regular piecing is in comparison.  It took me a matter of hours to sew the top together and similar time to quilt it.  If I had of hand quilted it would have taken one or two nights to complete it. 

 

I'm pretty chuffed with how quickly this mini came together and how cool it looks hanging up in my kitchen, but what really impressed me was how sweet, kind and supportive Lori herself has been:

 

 

 

"Quilty Fun" by Lori Holt