Mr. Manatee Comes to Visit..... and more bitty blocks!

 We did a special swap, Alphabitties.  My letter is M.  Some wanted blocks for children's quilts, others for a more mature audience, so I did 3 different ones.  Monkeys-

Mermaids in a margarita glass-

And Mr. Manatee, with seaweed M's.  The swappers got to pick which one they wanted.  I like them all, if I ever make the quilt up, it'll be hard to pick which one I use.  Since I didn't make me a monkey, though, that'll make it easier.  :)

 And earlier, we decided to do "Fairy Tales Gone Wild" where we each picked a fairy tale or fable and gave it an evil twist.  I decided to make Chicken Little.  I had seen a cartoon where a chunk of sky had fallen on the chicken and decided to use that for my block.  We are a group of 13, so I made 13 of 'em. 

I thought it was too subtle and wasn't sure it was going to please everyone, though, so I made up a Rapunzel block as a test, slightly taller, and the twist was armpit hair.  :)  So it's called "Ew, Rapunzel!"  Fortunately, everyone loved Chicken Little so I went that one.  I'm glad I didn't have to make 13 of the Rapunzels, as it turns out, because it took too long to make and used up a lot of my soft fuse material.  That translates to expensive.  :)  So I made 4 of them and will give them to my buddies that I owe a special block to, as a thank you.

 I can't wait to see what the others come up with for this swap, so far from sneak peeks, they're a riot. 

And a friend in CA, Marilyn aka Spiced Coffee, sent me a birthday package- a manatee with a Hawaiian shirt, he's so cute and soft and cuddly!  He's made from Minkie fabric and his name is Minkee!  I just love him, he's very kissable!  Thanks again, Marilyn!  Look at this FACE!

 Ready for a dip!  Oh, she included that cool water fabric, too, so he wouldn't dry up on the journey to my house!  What a pal.  She thinks of everything!

Yes, I had a birthday, May 22nd.  I turned 54.  Spent the day goofing off, sewing, talking on the phone, it was great.  We'd gone out for a nice lunch the day before, so I felt very special and happy.  :)  Spring birthdays are just lovely. 

I haven't been blogging, but I have been sewing!

 The Bitty Block Swap is still so much fun for me.  This month the themes are mod/retro/60's and April Showers Bring May Flowers.  I made lava lamps and funky old television sets with a test pattern on the screen for the mod/60's groups.  I was in 2 groups so I needed 2 sets of 12 blocks.  I usually make 16 though, so this month I actually made 64 of these little blocks and mailed most of them away.

 The funky shape and the rabbit ear antenna remind me so much of my childhood.  And the wire legs, seems like a lot of furniture had wrought iron in it back in the 60's.  I used scrapbooking brads for the knobs.

This is one of the ones I made for April Showers Brings May Flowers.  Little tulips holding umbrellas to protect themselves from the rain.  

 And I am particularly proud of this one as I think it's pretty clever- if you can read the tag it says "From April S." and obviously the bunch of flowers is delivered to May.  The flowers are tiny circles of fabric sewn down with a seed bead and the tag is paper, loosely tied on for a 3D effect.  The rainbow fabric gives the illusion of ground, grass and sky on the horizon.  I only wish there had been room for the red to show, too.  But 3.5" blocks aren't very forgiving like that!

 Remember when I showed you Alexander the Grape?  Well, here he is with all buddies.  The Carroty Kid, Beety Boop, Dr. Pepper, Lima Minelli, The Black Scallion, Billy the Kidney Bean, Melon-y Griffith, Ludwig von Beet-hoven, The Squash Buckler, Tina Turnip-er, The Grapeful Dead, Pablo Pea-casso, Alex and Abraham Linc-corn.  :)  Aren't they a fun bunch?  These were all from the spin-off swap we called Out of Our Gourds.  We had so much fun with these!  No, I haven't made a quilt out of them yet, but I'm going to.  I bought the perfect fabric for the back, but I can't remember the name of it, it's all funny veggies on an aqua background. Each one of these was made by a different person and she made 14 of them and mailed 13 of them away.

 I was also in a pouch swap, I made this (with a lot of help from my friend Marilyn/Spiced Coffee on Flickr as she sent me all the linen fabrics that I used, I didn't have any of my own.)  My partner liked it, as it reflected her tastes very well.  This is the back......

 This is it, closed.  It's triangular shaped at the bottom.  A hair elastic loops over an old mother of pearl button while a snap holds it closed.

 And the lining, a cotton fabric.

And I made a mug rug for the newest swap for my partner.  I haven't sent it yet, so I can't say anything about her.  :)  She's going to like it, though, it's right up her alley. 

 The back has my flickr icon on it for a label.  No words, it's speaking for itself.  :)

Other than sewing, not much new around here.  My husband is off fishing in Colorado and house-sitting for our friends Mike and Iku, taking care of their 2 dogs while I'm here taking care of our 3 and the 5 cats, too.  Our 28th wedding anniversary was yesterday, so we'll go out for a nice dinner at a local Japanese Steakhouse when he's home, which will be soon. Yes, we got married on a Friday the 13th, because for some reason, he was OK with that, but not April 1st, like I wanted.  lol  Goofy men.  The years have flown by, though, and neither of us can believe it's been so long.  I picked a great guy to marry, so Mom was right, practice makes perfect!  :)

Finished Swap Quilt, Swap Til You Drop, or STUD, as it's known...

 This is what I was talking about yesterday- I made a small quilt for my parter, Cindy, who made that fab Nosey Parker pirate quilt for me.  Cindy's favorite things were - 

So I made her this-

 The label rolls up and goes into the little rum bottle and hangs from a small hook on the back of the binding. 

 Since one of her favorite things is her cat, Took, I incorporated him (slightly tanner than his usual color) and his favorite things into the quilt, too....

 He's snoozing in the sunshine, dreaming of canned cat food, his litter box, his favorite scratching post and his MOM...  Most of which he has, right there on his island, the biggest litter box in the world, but all he really wants is his Mom... 

 So he's floating her off a message for her to send the boat to come and get him, 

that he's ready to go home now.  The boat is on the way, Cindy was missing her littlest of boys!

And I added a few little things to her package.  It's been delivered and well received, apparently the whole family likes it.  :)  And that makes me really happy!

 

 This was a fun swap and a challenging quilt.  It measures 9" x 12" and it was a bit fiddly to work on.  I messed up the first cat I did, so the whole thing nearly went into the trash after 2 days of working on it, but my husband convinced me it could be saved, so I spent about 3 hours picking out 5000 little stitches and I redid the cat and added the towel and it made a huge difference in this quilt.  There are a couple of things I would do differently if I was doing another one like this, like I'd leave off the seagull because I don't think it's adding much to it, but otherwise, I'm pretty happy overall. 

Doll Quilt Swap 10- Received and Sent and more!

 I received a most wonderful doll quilt from the DQS 10 swap!  Louise, aka lululollylegs,  lives in Melbourne Australia.  She made and sent to me a fabulous flamingo quilt with 3D feathers and it is just the most wonderful thing ever!  Each of those feathers was made individually, carefully placed and then layered onto the bird and sewn down by hand.  The entire thing is hand quilted with the most perfect of stitches and if you click on her link, you can see the details better than my photos show you.  The quilting in the water around the flamingo's leg is just incredible and so fun!

 Look how well it goes with our stuff on the verandah!

 And she sent me wonderful extras, too! Aboriginal art playing cards, Australian fabrics that are just divine, and a great note.  

 The back of the quilt is gorgeous and she made a fun label for it, too.  Love her drawing of a flamingo!  I have a real thing for flamingo and actually go by that name at several message boards (which she didn't know) so this quilt is just super-extra-special to me.  Thank you so much, Louise!  You are a sweet lady and I am thrilled that you made this for me!  I can't leave it on the verandah all the time as I don't want it to get dirty, but I will hang it here occasionally when we have company over, so I can show it off!  The rest of the time, it'll be upstairs in my work room area so I can see it all the time!  Thank you so much, again!

And now I can show you what I sent to my partner in the swap, Monika, in Germany.  This is the complete Rainbow Village.  The houses and the rainbow are removable so she can move them around, rearrange them, etc.  The sun spells out her name, an idea that I got from my friend Pam at uberstitch.  She did that on a small quilt for another friend and I asked her if I might use her idea on this quilt and she very graciously didn't mind. 

 

Close up of the sun-

And here is the entire package of what I sent Monika- one of my patterns, some text fabric, some house fabric (which is like the back of the quilt) some perle cotton thread in variegated colors, a snail tape measure and some tiny metal tags that say "made with love".  Since I was sending it so far away, I went to a box store and purchased THE most perfect box!  It was 20" long and 6" wide and 6" deep, so I was able to loosely roll the quilt and place it in the box, along with all the other stuff, too, with room to spare.  That was so much better than tightly rolling it and shoving it into a tube!  This way I could include some extras without damaging anything.

I had a lot of fun making this quilt for Monika and NO stress, because I consider her to be my friend already and it's so much easier making things for people you know as opposed to making for a "stranger".  She sent me the nicest thank you note, too, so I'm really happy that she likes it.

And- I was in a STUD swap- that stands for Swap Til You Drop- my first time in this swap.  The theme for this month was "My Favorite Things" and I told my partner, Cindy aka CASharp,  that my favorite things were bright colors, tropical, my white cat Nosey Parker, pirates, and the beach.  (I think those were the 5.)  Rules are- you must use at least 2 of the things in the quilt.  Well!  I think she used all 5!  

She made this wonderful pirate cat quilt, titled "Arrrr, I Be Nosey Parker!"  lol  LOOK at how cute this is!  The cat is soft and fuzzy as she used Minkee for it, wow!  And she's wearing a blinged out eye-patch over her beautiful green eye.  There's even a treasure chest pinned on!  How adorable this is!

I love everything about this, even the back is gorgeous!   The quilting is a great split leaf philodendron, my favorite tropical leaf!  It measures a nice 18" x 18".  Love that patchwork border, too!

And she sent SO much loot with this- a wonderful quilted snap bag, a tiny quilted pincushion, matching pins, a flamingo bookmark, and....

... a mug rug that spells out my nickname, Sooz, in Scrabble tiles!  :)  How fab is that?!  Cute little hula dancers, huh? Love all this stuff and her fabrics are so fun!

I am such a lucky girl.  Cindy really spoiled me.  Thanks so much, Cindy!  

Of course, I made something for her, too.  Her favorite things are sunshine, clear bright colors, laughter, her little cat Tookie and blue skies.  I can't wait to show you what I made for her!  She might get it today, so I'll show you soon.  Stay tuned.  And thanks for looking at all my show and tell stuff! 

I have the nicest friends, they send me amazing things they've made....

 For the pincushion swap, my friend Jo , who lives in Scotland, made me the most amazing treasure chest!  I didn't know that she was making this for me, but I was very hopeful when I saw her sketch and the plan and then in really short order, the pincushion in progress!  This lady doesn't mess around, she gets an idea and just goes with it!  I was getting more and more excited about it when she threw out some info that had me convinced that this was NOT for me, after all, and I was so disappointed.  So imagine my thrill when I opened a box and found this pincushion inside! As you can see, I like pirate things, another friend made me this quilt last year.

The pincushion even came with it's own map!  It's stitched and burned and is just adorable.  Jo also included some great pieces of fabric, parrot pins and mini teacup pincushion, too.  WHAT a fabulous package, I am over the moon with it all!

 Look at all the booty in the treasure chest!  And there's a felt needle holder, too.  It's got it all.  The workmanship is amazing, all the handstitching, just so time-consuming and I am so flattered that she did all this for ME!  Wow.  What a nice, talented lady Jo is!  Thank you so much, Jo!

 I also received a wonderful mug rug in our swap, from my friend Sudi-Laura.  She and I have made things for each other before, placemats, so we are a good match, too.  I love this mug rug, all the colors of the rainbow, which everyone knows I love and my nickname and a great black and white binding along with perfect sewing- another big hit!  Thank you, Sudi-Laura, aka isaacsmama!

 And, I am so spoiled- 2 of my swappy friends sent me mug rugs just because I had admired them so loudly!  Spiced Coffee sent me one that commemorates the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rabbit.  Isn't it great?  I have in on my desk, it looks wonderful in the office.  See how it goes with the rug (that needs to be vacuumed)?  Perfect!  I love it, and she sent me more of the cool fabric and some hula girl fabric, too!  I feel so rich!  Look at the embroidered bun-bun!

 And, I received this from my buddy, Kimmie- because I threatened to cry if it didn't come to me!  lol  (That worked great, I'll use that line again!)  Seriously, Kimmie and I goof around a lot together on Flickr, pretending that we don't like each other, but I think it's obvious now- she can't help it, she loves me.  :)    She also sent me a great snap bag and a cool, bright tin full of stick-on shapes, very fun package to open! 

I just have to say that I appreciate everything that people send to me, I'm just not very good at blogging about it in a timely fashion!  I have more to show, too, something I can drink copious amounts of wine out of!  :)  I'll save that for another day, though.  Thanks to all my swappy buddies, you're all so good to me and I know it!

Rainbow Village, the doll quilt....

I don't know what I would do without all my helpers.  Godzilla, aka Nosey Parker, wants to rid those houses of their antenna.  Monster!  I have been locking this quilt up for weeks to keep it safe at night!

I managed to finish it, though, finally, with a little time to spare.  I can't show you what is under the sun in case my partner is peeking in.  *wavies, hi there!* It spells something out, though, I'll show you after it's been received because it's a really cool effect and I copied it from my friend, Pam/Uberstitch, with her blessing.

Anyhoo, Rainbow Village.  It's not dull or boring, it's just as vibrant, I'm afraid, as it appears.  In retrospect, maybe it's too vibrant, but it's done and it is what it is.  I hope my partner doesn't get sick of it too soon.  I matched the binding to all the fabrics on the sides of the quilt, as nothing I had in my stash was auditioning quite right. 

The houses all have little metal plates sewn to the back and on the back of the quilt are little pockets with very strong magnets in them.  That makes the houses removable and interchangeable, so she can rearrange her houses any way she wants them.

In the pond- a small, subtle fountain. A vintage button plays the part of the sprayer.  Tulle netting tones down the white of the fishie fabric.

A rather ordinary label, name blocked out to protect the surprise.  I love the tiny house fabric for the backing.  I was lucky enough to stumble across that online a while back and knew it would come in handy!

I think she's going to like this, at least I hope she does.  I did have fun making it.  It turned out almost exactly like I had pictured it in my head and in the sketch, with a few changes. 

Castle Teacup Pincushion, for swap....

I was lucky enough to get a really fun partner in the Scrappy Pincushion Swap at Flickr.  I decided to make her a castle in a teacup.  :)   I had a teacup pattern that I got from Jodie at Vintage Ric Rac and used that as a starting point.  I drew this sketch for inspiration and everyone seemed to think I should go for it, so I did. 

After a couple of blunders which I won't subject you to here, but can be seen in my Flickr photostream (think pornographic!  eek)  this is what I ended up with.  Wisteria Castle.

The roof comes off and so does the tower, so you could actually put it back together like this short, stubby version.  :)

Under the false floor are small polished stones to give it weight and stability. Please note the manacles on the dungeon wall!  See the tiny lock on the door? 

Find the tiny key under the tiny mat!  The door flips down over the moat, but that's purely decorative.

Details of the wisteria on the castle tower.

The flag needed a Coat of Arms.  :)

And EVERY castle needs a faerie princess, right?  She is a pin-topper.

I hope you like it, I had so much fun making it.  The castle tower is a heavy cardboard tube and I wrapped the fabric around it and sewed it down, then glued the excess at the top and bottom into the tube.  I made a puffy bit for the actual pincushion part and glued that into the tube from underneath.  I got some great advice from a fellow Flickrer when I botched my first roof attempt and with her help, I am 100% happy with the new roof and the whole thing, actually.  I wanted to keep this, very badly, but the horrible kittens had their eyes on it and I knew it would be safer in some other household. 

Hellooooo, Gravey!