Bunches o' Bitties! And a great swap all finished up!

Lots of bitties to show off, since it's been so long....

This is for my friend in Brazil, Sil, she chose doors and windows for her month in the bee swap- I made her a little tree trunk gnome house, the doors open up to reveal the occupant.

And her other one is a taller block, a screen door that opens on to a nice beach.

In the bitty block swap, we did chickens one month- these are mine, everyone got to choose their color. 

 And one month, we did bees- this is my bee. 

 And in the interest of keeping it real and showing what a dumb butt I can be- I give you this- a perfect example of how reliant I have become on spell-check!  I made this block for the Sept banner for my perpetual calendar and after making it and writing the words on the test and giving myself a big fat red A+, I realized the next DAY that I had spelled "committee" incorrectly!  I showed this to my husband and we both
had the best laugh we'd had in a while!

 I ended up remaking the tiny notebook so no one would be able to rub my nose in it forever.  And then, I ended up putting the tiny pencil right over where the mistake would have been, anyway.  Geez.  I hope you're laughing at me, I know I would be if it was YOU!

Then, Ruthie picked Harry Potter for her bee month- I made her Luna Lovegood's SpectreSpecs....

 ...and Harry's cupboard room, under the stairs.  This pattern is from fandom in stitches, a great site full of fun free paper-piecing quilt patterns.  I shrunk it down to fit a 3.5" block.

 And I made the door 3D.

 And I received this wonderful package of goodies in our swap- FLiRTS- a quilted tote bag made by Julie, jgmehlin at Flickr.  She went crazy making me the most wonderful things in the whole swap!  Tote bag, sketch book with quilted cover, tissue holder, a piece of manatee fabric, just so much great stuff!  Thanks, Julie!

I love both sides of the bag!  Little cats are all over the place!

 The top zips shut.

 Inside, my initials!  No, I'm not into S & M!   And pockets, 4 of them!

 Sketchbook with pencil!

 The bag hadn't been out of the package for 10 seconds when Bizbee jumped into it!

 And this is what I made for the same swap, for my friend Kimmie.  She wanted a sewing machine cover really badly, and loves Wizard of Oz.  So my friend Jennifer thought I should adapt the Sew Out Loud block by badskirt amy block and make it a ruby slipper instead of a boot, a brilliant idea on her part, and that's what I did.  And I love how it turned out.  We had found some great pin fabric in TX in January and we knew that this would be the perfect use for it. 

 Pockets on both sides- in the rainbow spectrum.

 And the little electrical cord attaches to scissors and they store in the purple pocket. 

Kimmie really likes it and it fits her machine so all is right with the world of quilting and swapping.  :)

Thank you all for the nice words about my mother.  I was over there this morning and gave her a shower, she now has a really cool sliding chair/bench that sits half in the tub and half in the bathroom, making bathing so much safer, it even has a seatbelt.  My brother and her caregiver Nancy were both there, too, so we all had a nice visit after the shower, while Mum napped.  We kind of wore her out.  

Sorry for the marathon post and million photos! I think I'm caught up now, so I won't put you thru this again!

More swap results, another new mug rug, a bitty or 2 and who knows what else...

 I decided to make one more mug rug to see if my partner in the swap liked this one better than any of the others.  Some red/aqua, linen, thread painting/sketching...... kind of simple, not too fussy and I had to photograph it under the only red/yellow tulip that bloomed.  :)  I think I'll be sending this one away, along with the "wake up world" clock.

 And I received my mug rug!  Made by Nannette/nanotchka, it's the most beautiful butterfly/flower mug rug!  Made with the most amazing hand-dyed fabrics and so much talent, I purely love this mug rug and she had to know it, too, because I commented on all her photos as she was making it!  I got so excited to see her name on the envelope that it came in, along with all the neat loot, too!  (Shell buttons, pieces of the dyed fabrics, a nice note and some Chenille It {which she used on her quilt that is on the cover of the new issue of Quiltmania! Yes, Nann is quite famous now!})

 Check out all the details!  LOVE THIS!  It's going up on the wall, no way could I ever actually use it! My photos aren't doing it justice for some reason, it's very vibrant!

 I joined my first bee- it's for bitty blocks, we have a limited number of members and each member has a month where they determine what their theme is and we all make that person 2 blocks.  The first month is Marilyn's and she requested "bees" and things that go with bees.  So I found a wonderful source for new patterns  and she had one for a paper-pieced hive, and I shrunk it down to a 3" block and made it yesterday.  It wasn't as hard to do as I thought it would be, but I'm glad I only had to do one of them.  :)  If I had to make this 11 more times, I'd freak!  lol

 A few embroidered details....

At the Bitty Block Committee, we're going to do a side-swap with the theme of Alice in Wonderland.  One of my blocks will be Alice playing flamingo croquet.  Hopefully I can make this work!  In side swaps, we occasionally relax the rules so we can make taller blocks, this one will be 3.5" x 5.5".  Hopefully I can make it work!  My other block is going to be wild, crazy mushrooms.  I had to go to the library to get the book because I had never read it.  I'm glad I didn't read it as a child, it's very odd.  The Wizard of Oz movie freaked me out, I'm not sure Alice wouldn't have, too.

My FLiQS partner got my Wheel of Fortune quilt and now I can tell you, it went to the UK, to my friend, Jo- aka sewjo2009!  I loved making it for her, she's a real sweetheart of a lady. 

My lilacs are blooming like crazy, there are so many butterflies on it, I'll go get some photos to share.  The aroma is fabulous!

Enjoy your day!  It's a sunny one here!