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. 

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!

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!