More bitty blocks made...

Oh, the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap is up and running again.  This is round 3. 

More of the little blocks for swapping/making mini quilts-

Little red birds- some in the winter, some in the summer, just for fun.  The swappers got to pick which season they would get.  These go along with the other birds I made, for the bird theme for December's blocks.  The other ones were roundish/oval birds sitting on a wire, if you recall.  Rainbow colored. 

I'm really pleased with how both of the birds turned out.

January's blocks are for Whimsical/Woodland.  I made some flying squirrels.  I used a q-tip dipped in a weak water/bleach solution to fade out the tummies. 

The first photo is the most accurate, color-wise. 

We have flying squirrels here and see them occasionally, usually when some cheesy cat catches one under the bird feeder and drags it into the house.  My gosh, are they ever cute and soft and because of their excess "wing" skin, sort of sloppy/droopy/adorable!  I just want to keep them and hug on them and put one in my pocket, but the little buggers have been known to bite!  I wish they'd bite the cats so the cats would leave them alone.  They are so precious!

And the little hedgehog - he was so popular in the castle quilt that I thought a dozen people would like to have one of their own.  I know I wanted one!  I hated sending that mini quilt away!  He is also for the woodland/whimsical theme for January, 2011.  The swappers in the group got to pick which one they'd like, as the kites are all different.

So that's what I've been making- I'm also working on a swap mini for my young partner, Max.  I'm almost done with it, I'll post some sneak peeks next time! 

Furze Castle Kite Festival- the mini house quilt I made...

Furze Castle Kite Festival-

My partner has received the mini house quilt that I made for her, so now I can show it to you. It is so funny- she and I were both working on castles at the same time, but neither one of us knew it! How's that for being in-tune with each other?

Hedgehogs are also known as Furze-pigs, hence the name of the castle. A small moat surrounds the castle and it's guarded by man-eating, venomous manatees. OK, not really- but that sounded really tough, didn't it? There is a kite festival going on all the time and you can catch glimpses of the kites in and amongst the mushroom trees in Flyagaric Forest.

This quilt is 12" wide and 13" tall. I know, I can't quite seem to stay in the guidelines, but I needed that extra inch at the top. :)

The door flips down to expose the interior of the hedgies' living room. There's a fireplace, a comfy chair, a floor lamp and a clock. The door itself is held closed by hidden magnets and a metal piece inside the door. Chains, of course. :) A spiderweb in the upper window.

Close up of Mr. Manatee, one of my favorite features in the entire quilt. His face turned out even better than I had hoped since I botched it up initially. By making that 3D piece, it not only saved his face, it made it! His eyes and nostrils are 2 different sizes of seed beads. And blush always brings life to a critter, I've found.

I had a helper when I was working on the label. Nosey Parker doesn't seem too thrilled with it, does she?

The label. I was kind of stumped as to how to make a fun label for this. So I drew a little map of the area and tacked it down at the top. When you flip it up, you can see the personal info of who it was made for and by whom, where, when, etc.

Did you know that Nottingham was really known as Snottingham, originally? They eventually dropped the "S". And Flyagaric is another name for Amanita mushrooms. Hence the Flyagaric Forest. Hedgies love watermelon, so I gave them their own patch. And what castle doesn't have its own maze?

I added a festive bunting to the castle at the last minute, but I'm not sure I would keep it on there if this was mine. Karen is welcome to remove it if she'd like. It's almost too cluttery for me and you know how I love color! It spells out "go fly a kite". :)

Thanks for looking at my mini quilt.

And this is the mug rug I'm making for my swap partner in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap 2, Holiday Version. I'll be putting letters on the tags to spell something out, but can't show you that until later. I couldn't think of a good way to quilt the white parts, so I stitched gold snowflakes all over it, by machine.

Have a great weekend, everyone!