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!

Doll Quilt Beginnings.... Mug Rug Ending ............. and something to keep!

 Murphy helped me pick out fabrics!  He voted against both of those blues, in the end.  I think he didn't like them being brighter than his blue eyes.  :)

 I'm going to make a village with a snow-capped purple mountain backdrop.  It's going to be a rainbow village, with the blue sky on top, going down to purples, then red, orange and yellow houses on a green grass yard with a small pond with a fountain.  There will be some things in the sky, probably a sun and a cloud or two and maybe a curving line of flying geese, in a rainbow of colors, that will get smaller as it gets farther away.  (For those of you who don't quilt, flying geese are triangles of fabric.)  I'm making the houses right now, that's my today project, getting them done. 

 It feels good to have gotten started on this and I hope my partner will like it.

 This is what I'm sending to my mug rug partner- 2 mug rugs, a scrap of hedgehog fabric, a chocolate bar, 2 cocoa mixes and 2 postcards of our area.  I think she'll be pleased. 

And here is something I made to keep.  3 birds on a wire, with butterflies.  I hung it on the wall in my craft room, inside the ironing board cabinet.  I'll see it a lot there.  :) I found the bird image on clipart so I don't have a pattern to sell or provide.

Fantastical Flight for Max.....

 This is the mini quilt I made for my partner for the Mini QT swap- it's called "Fantastical Flight" and it's totally taken from the artwork of  Cecelia Rebora.  I changed a few minor things and added a couple of things in hopes of not offending the artist too much, but when I saw this, I knew I had to do it in fabric for Max.  It just seemed like him!  We had been chatting about dragons and he likes space flight and Star Wars and red and black and this was too perfect.  I added a moon and changed the wing and the houses just a bit, but there's no way I can take credit for more than the actual putting it together.  :)

 The back- it's aMAZ(e)ing!  LOL

 I used glow-in-the-dark filament on the front between the moon and the dragon's tail to spell out his name in french knots.  They don't shine as nicely as I had hoped they would, in the dark, but they are there if he looks fast when he turns out his light at night!

I had fun making this for my new friend, Max.  And I certainly love what he made me, see the earlier post of yesterday for that.  :)