Placemat swap is over- again!

The placemat quilt swap is over, again. This time, my partner was Julie and she made me TWO fabulous placemats and a set of matching coasters! They are just wonderful and so colorful. We decided to both make wonky, liberated placemats out of Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

Here are the two she sent me- I wasn't expecting two, that was a shocker! How generous of her!

And this is the back of them-

I'm really pleased with these, they suit our kitchen/dining area just beautifully! Thanks so much to Julie! I love 'em!

And this in the ONE I sent her- I feel like a cheapskate! I did send her 2 fat quarters of KF fabric, I hope that counts for a little something! This is the front-

And this is the back- the leaves are the label and they snap off so when you lay it on the table with the other side up, there won't be 2 lumpy spots. The funky birds are taken from an image I found online.
Edit- I was just informed that the bird image is from the work of http://mrsmoenpatterns.blogspot.com/2010/02/funky-fowl-pattern.html 

I need to go check her stuff out, I like her quirky style!

The solid color is a shot cotton and it's soooo pretty! Made by weaving hot pink and turquoise threads together, it changes color and it's just too cool.

I had fun making this, and making it reversible MAYBE makes up for it not being 2 placemats. That sneaky Julie! lol Another successful swap, yay!

New swaps to sneak a peek at, kitter cats and poached eggs, too!

I haven't shown you too much of Gravey, she's not as photogenic as Nosey Parker and I never seem to have a camera handy when she's doing something cute. ! They are getting along really well, though, playing, sleeping, exploring, all together but separately sometimes, too.

I love these kind of shots, where she's puzzling over something, it's such a cute look!

We are very pleased at how NP has accepted her. They sleep slammed up against me and try to cook me every night. It's great when I'm first in bed and cold, but dang, they're hot little heaters! I wake up around 2 AM just melting.

I'm in the Mini QT swap again and this time the theme is "houses". I have a really fun partner, Fun and Comfort Quilts, a really talented lady named Karen, and she and I like the same kind of whimsical, fun stuff, fortunately! I can't show you much, but here is a peek at part of what will be in it. The whole thing is only 12" square, max. This is just a tiny part of that.

And I'm in the last placemat swap that Sarah is going to run. I did the last one, too, remember the beach houses on stilts? Well, this time, my partner, Julie, and I are doing liberated (wonky) placemats using Kaffe Fassett fabrics, which are the colored fabrics in this photo.

This is just a sneak of one side, I'm making the other side today.

It's going to be appliqued, I think.

I've done a few other things this last week, too, but I can't show you just yet. Mysterious, huh? Not a really big deal, though, it's nothing major, just a couple of surprises in the mail.

And I don't think I showed my new egg poachers- little silicon cups that float in boiling water, you cover it so they steam from the top, too and then you pop them out and voila! Poached eggs, aren't they cute?

Blurry shot, sorry, it's not your eyes! I like the little dome of egg that you get. I found the cups at Bed, Bath and Beyond, on sale for $6 for the set of 2. What a great price! We love poached eggs.

The placemat swap is over--- I couldn't be happier!

Not that it's over, silly, I couldn't be any happier with the placemat I received from my partner, Isaacsmama, aka Sudi- Laura! Look at what she made for me and I think you'll agree- it's all fabulous and wonderful and very much "me".

Not only did she make me a wonderful placemat, she also made a matching, lined napkin and sent me some wonderful coffee and a chocolate bar that was so delish, I think it lasted about an hour in this house! Mmmm. Good stuff!

The placemat- look at this! So many pieces of fabric went into this little beauty and I like all of 'me! This was a lot of work!

You can really see the quilting more when you look at the pretty back.

And the tiny details- I have a crab and a bucket and shovel, I really can't wait to hit the beach in a couple of weeks, I am now primed!

Sudi-Laura and I have a mutual love of the beach and so we were PERFECT partners, I think, and we both came away very happy. I would do this swap again in a heartbeat. Thanks, SL! I love my goodies!

Psychotic Seagulls and a Message in a Bottle...

Some people make quilts using Flying Geese and then others of us have to do Psychotic Seagulls. They're made the same way, sewing 2 squares onto a rectangle, on the diagonal, but when you're making a beachy placemat, geese just didn't seem fitting. And the effect you get is different, too, as you end up with chevrons or arrows in bright colors, instead of a colored triangle surrounded by white or some other solid. Where the one in the link is a blue triangle with white below it, mine would be blue with blue below it, making the arrow. The process is exactly the same, though. In retrospect, I could have done them a different way, faster and easier, but this started out differently and evolved as it went along and turned out OK. Next time I think I would just sew strips together into a long row of piano keys and then cut them on an angle and piece the 2 rows together down the middle, forming the chevron that way.

Anyway, this is the placemat I made for the swap at Flickr. I sent it to Sudi-Laura and she received it yesterday which means I can show it to you. I had so much fun making it, I tried new things and they came out well, I think. The flying geese/seagulls were new for me but very easy to do. Only problem is that the strips of them are very unstable as to staying straight and I ended up with a placemat that doesn't want to lie down really flat, it has a couple of little waves in it. Hence the term- psychotic seagulls. Psychedelic would work, too.

I free-pieced the houses and the tree trunk and figured out a way to keep the cabana flaps open all the time. That was all a little tricky due to water/sand/sky horizons needing to match up. I have to give credit to Lynne, of The Patchery Menagerie for house and tree help, she taught me how to do them. I machine appliqued the fronds. And I did a little hand embroidery for the flying seagulls and the cabana flag, because it was all looking a little drab. :)

I did some hand applique on the back- the bottle and sand covering it.

And when you tug on the cork- out comes the label. This part was SO fun for me, I love doing quirky, odd things like this. And I just adore hidey-holes, and I think this qualifies as such!

Inspector #7 was doing a great job, too!

All in all, I am really pleased with how it came out and I think Sudi-Laura is, too. It was a little hard to send it away, but I know I can make another if I decide to. And I knew it was going to a great new home! Enjoy it, Sudi-Laura! Think of your beach when you see it or use it. xox

My husband was helpful in the making as I kept running ideas by him and asking advice about the bottle/label construction. And he said an emphatic yes to the bit of black separating the houses from the bright colored seagulls- and he was so right! Thanks, honey! You have good taste in more than just wives. (Well, wife- you didn't choose so well the first time, now, did you?) lol

Have a great weekend, everybody! Make something fun. I was kind of sad when this got finished up, it was a great weekend project!