Long time, no post, lots of photos!

 We had a new round of pincushions in our FLiPS swap, this is the one I made for my partner, craktpot/Teri...

 It's a little caravan/trailer and I used a tutorial from The Quilted Fish      

to start it off and then made some changes.  I altered the shape just a little, then

 I added a rear bumper and a license plate and "tail lights" and made the door so it could open, it's now a needle holder. 

 The little hitch thing on the front is actually a small pair of scissors that slides into a 

pocket and supports the trailer.  Car not included.  LOL

 The scissors work, just slide them out of the wire wrap.

 It even has a tiny TV antenna for those lonely nights at the campground.  ;)

 I received this wonderful rainbow turkey pincushion from my partner, andrcarl!  She also included a beautiful coordinating dishtowel that she crocheted for me.  Love that, too.

 One of my pincushion bebes didn't receive the pincushion that was sent to her, so I made her this one, totally copying it from one made by Little Miss Shabby.  I changed it slightly- made it taller, added ground walnut shells, etc, but it's so not original by me, but she liked it.  :)

In the mug rug swap, I made and sent off this one, which started with a bitty block...

... and this one- my partner liked "Kitschy" things....

 And I received this one from Jan/Stampqnjlr, isn't it cute?

 The Bitty Block Bee Queen is my friend Kimmie, and she loves The Wizard of Oz. 

 I made her this Horse of a Different Color... heavily inspired from a photo of an embroidered horse.  I used embroidery floss in 8 or 10 colors for the tail and mane.

 

...and the Medal of Courage.   This little medal was a real challenge, because it's so small, about the size of a half-dollar, maybe.  It's 3D and hangs loose from the ribbon. 

 The month before, the theme was sewing so I made a large fabric button and put it on 

sewing themed print fabric, and a steam iron.

 Did some bitties for winter and some for aliens...

 And some pelicans for a bird theme....

 And Medusas for the Fantasy theme....

 And Bizbee made a full and complete recovery from his illness and is doing great, but breaking things a lot and acting like a one-man demolition derby!  We love him madly.  :)  On a sadder note, we lost Shanzie Fyne, our last remaining collie, in early November to an enlarged heart.  Poor silly thing, we miss her.  She'd had lots of physical ailments in her 8 year life span, but she was a dear dog and lots of fun.

And now I think we're all caught up!  Phew.  If you read all this and looked at all the photos, give yourself a reward, you earned it!

A mini quilt swap....

I made this for a new friend in Canada, Liz. We are both in the Mini QT swap at Flickr and were partnered up for the month of July in the beach/underwater catagory. It was a great match-up- we have a lot in common and like so many of the very same things. She received it yesterday so I can post photos of it now. And she likes it, yay, that's always nice!

It's a mermaid looking thru the imaginary porthole on a submarine. :) Just imagine the shock the submariners would be in if they saw this for real! Hence the ship name- USS Mirage. My husband, the sailor, needed to remind me that REAL subs don't have portholes. Well, duh! (OK, I didn't really know that, but I pretended I did.) lol I sewed the bottom half of way too many snaps onto the circle to imitate hardware and then I snapped the top part onto them, so the stitching is hidden pretty much.

Close up of her face. I used Kaffe Fassett fabrics for her hair and shell-top, they just seemed so perfect with the coloring and pattern in them. I used some eyelash yarn for her seaweed headband and stitched some seed beads onto it for a bit of glitz. Also, some beaded bracelets for that fun 3D effect. She's wearing a shell top because she's going to a home with a teenage boy in it. :) I didn't want her to get ogled or cause any problems.

I had this fish fabric and just loved it so I used it for the back. I failed to consider how the binding would look with it, though! Ugh. Oh, well. At least the front looks good. I'm pretty sure this is the first round quiltie I've ever done.... it was fun. It's an original design and you'd believe that if you saw my trash basket full of rejected sketches!

Now, I wait for what Liz has made for me, I'm so excited. This week has been so fun between receiving fabulous things and sending things out to be received. I'm loving these swaps and we are keeping the post office solvent, I'm sure of it!