Get Ready...

To peek into the creative spaces of some talented people! That's right starting Monday - for the next few weeks Shruti of 13 Woodhouse Road will be hosting a Sewing Spaces Focus. Throughout that time she'll have guest posts from many crafty people with a focus each week on a specific portion of their sewing space. 

What does your sewing space look like? Do you love it? If you could, what would you change about it? Maybe seeing how other crafters keep their space will inspire us to change a thing or two (or not).

Simple Dish Mat

 Today I whipped this up. So simple, so satisfying, and yet very useful! I used two fat quarters of Dulce fabric, given to me by my aunt for Christmas last year (awesome!!!), and a dish towel I got at walmart for a buck (since I don't have any old enough to be scrapped).

It's basically a 12" square bordered with a coordinating fabric. I was going to make mine 16" square, but my dish towel was a bit more narrow. I used the "pillowcase method" to bind it (aka the Birthing Method ---now that makes me laugh every time!). Simple, easy, start-finish (pics included) = half an hour! Maybe enough nap time left for a nice hot shower? lol. (tutorial here if you need one)

And FINALLY it was sunny enough to get some decent pics of my Scrappy Pincushion that I received from the swap. Ok so it was only two days ago that I received it, but still it seems like I've been holding out forever with this! I love it so much!!! It was made by Jennifer (greeneyedsilversmith on Flickr). She used my fav colors, green, grey, and purple. And she added some sweet little hand stitching in the middle there. It's already in use and I love the weight that the crushed walnut/lizard litter gives! It really is awesome!

One Thing One Week Challenge

Amy over there at Amy's Creative Side is hosting her One Thing One Week Challenge again. Last week when she posted about it I committed to doing this:

I”m going to get started on quilting my neice’s cancer quilt. And finalize my projects for the two swaps I have ending soon. Oh maybe I can be superwoman and get it all done?

Yep I can be superwoman I have finished up/gathered up my swap things, and completely finished free motion quilting Rosemarie's quilt!!! I can't believe it either. I have pictures to prove! :)



Scrappy Pincushion Swap - ready to send!



Scrappy Mug Rug Swap



And finally, here's the quilting all done on Rosemarie's Quilt.

As my regular readers have heard, this quilt is a compilation quilt made with blocks from people all over the world. It was organized via a flickr group, and is being made for my niece Rosemarie who is 4 years old and has been battling Neuroblastoma, a form of childhood cancer for the past three years. She's a strong girl and we're hoping and praying for a cure. This month is childhood cancer awareness month, are you aware that each day 7 children die of cancer (yesterday one of them was a cancer crusades friend of my sister's). As you're getting out of bed this morning, the parents of some 40,000 kids are facing yet another day of treatment...of wondering, hoping, and fearing. Will this work? Will there be serious complications if it does?Did I make the right choice? FORTY THOUSAND kids who don't get to be kids today, they have to be cancer warriors instead. For them--conquer childhood cancer.

Today to help conquer childhood cancer, Chili's restaurants are donating every dollar they make to St. Jude's Research Hospital, to research for a cure to childhood cancer. Today Chili's will donate more money to find a cure than the American cancer society will. Will you help them? You've gotta eat right? Go eat at chili's and while your at it, hug your kids.

Gold is the new pink. I wear gold for Rosemarie (she's here in this video, wearing her super girl outfit). She really is my hero, she fights cancer every day.

My daughter, Allie playing with Rosemarie on our recent visit.

**Added to Fabric Tuesday, over at Quitstory. Go check them out - lots of creativity there!!

DQS9 Recieved, More Mug Rugs, etc...

Can you believe it? I finally received my DQS9 quilt from my swap partner! No it didn't actually take a long time to get to me, I've just been stalking my post man ever since I sent mine (which was on the early side of the send dates). Here it is:

It came from Karen (flickr: Enola05) and it's spectacular! I really love it!!!!! It's hanging on my living room wall right now (until I get some hooks in my sewing room wall!) Did I mention that I love it? That Yellow binding really makes the whole thing pop!

***

Mug Rugs: I can't seem to get enough! This time I've tried the quilt as you go method. I really enjoyed it. I'm not willing to do a whole quilt this way right now, but I loved the fun of it!

My two swaps this month (Pincushion Swap  and Mug Rug Swap) are wrapping up... nearing the "mail by date"... So I'm about to go off to personalise these up with some embroidery etc. More pictures will come. I also have made a couple more pincushions playing around for the Pincushion Swap that will be pictured later.

Speaking of swaps... on a whim last night I decided to see if I'd be accepted into the {Urban} HOME Goods Swap. To even join this group on flickr you have to be "approved". Kinda nerve wracking if you ask me, but I did get the approval today so that's cool... maybe I'll be invited to swap the next round?! I've totally been drooling over every single thing that has been sent in that swap!

Fabric Tuesday!!

It's Tuesday again, and over at Quiltstory they're having Fabric Tuesday! Go ahead and check it out.

Here's my fabric Tuesday! This week I received my swap partners for the Mug Rug Swap, and the Scrappy Pincushion Swap. So I've gotten to work a bit on both. I'm really addicted to making these tiny quilt mug rugs if you didn't notice. For the most part, mine finish at about 5" x 7" - 7" x  9". Yes that's large enough for a big mug and a cookie or two (and so you can still enjoy all that quilting! Also a great size for framing if one should want to.

Here's my first pic...

Some of the hand stitching added... not done yet...

Another one, totally out of my normal realm... off-white and tiny flowers. Cute. That AMH Little folks was just begging to be added.

Two little tiny chicks for the pincushion swap.

The chickies are made with a pattern from AMH's book "Handmade Beginnings" (Henny Penny & Chicks pattern), but I added a gusset to the chicks so they'd stand flat. Since the wings are made from the soft side of Velcro I decided just for the pic, to sew together two scraps of the other side of Velcro to stick them together... instant PEEPS! lol. How cool? They measure just under 2" tall. Probably not too useful as pincushions, but cute!

Fabric Tuesday!!

 Of course it's Tuesday, and that means that Quilt Story is hosting "Fabric Tuesday" Here's my fabric project:

A new pincushion - I wanted to try making a tiny star... after seeing some great ones on flickr here, here, and here. And I just so happened to have soem triangles around from the scraps given to me by my great aunt Let me tell you, much of the fabric scraps from her are... well old reproduction fabrics. This green polkadot one caught my eye (I definately have a dress that has the same green polkadots)... so I trimmed them down and ended up with this. The whole thing (flat) measures just under three inches. I love it! A little bit of hand stitching, and a little tag of my fav Anna Maria Horner print. Perfection.

I can't stop making these mug rugs.

Here's front & back of my newest one. Yes, it's my third one. Here are my other two. They're inspired by the mug rugs in this flickr swap group - signups just closed and we should be getting our partners names this week!

Swaps starting soon!

Ever since joining the DQS at the beginning of the summer, I've been hanging around a couple other flickr groups, waiting for them to start another round of swapping. Two of these start up very soon. First, the Scrappy Pincushion Swap, which stops taking names at 6:00pm today (eek that's ten minutes from now!), will be announcing who's in this round/who their (secret) partners will be by Sept 5th... and swaps will be mailed out by the first of October. Pretty cool. I really hope I get in. :) These swaps are fun.

Next I started stalking the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap as soon as ms. flossy blossoms started it up. I believe for this one, everyone who signs up is in. For this one sign ups end the 31st, we'll have our partners by the 4th, and will send our swaps out by Oct 1st. Apparently Eminem is going to swap too... lol (at my excitement that I was the only "E" named swapper, suspiciously Eminem and the Easter Bunny decided to join... tricky ones them).

Why swaps? Well the community is great (a lot of the ladies from these swaps are also in the DQS), and it's really quite inspiring to see their creativity. Swapping makes me think more, try harder, push my boundaries, learn new things...etc. Pretty fun. Not to mention that these two new swaps (providing I get in) will be pretty quick once I decide what to make - since each project can be finished within a single nap time. :) Much more to come!

Also ---- My DQS9 partner, Rebecca, received her package in the mail this week! :) She loved it! And I'm glad!

Mod Bento Block Swap

The giveaway post is here.

As the Doll Quilt Swap 9 winds down (yep I just finished the quilt yesterday), I've been thinking about joining another swap or two. I'm not really sold on the whole "quilting bee" although I think I'd learn a lot, I don't really have the fabric or postage to be doing that sort of huge project. I like the idea of doll quilt swaps because I like the finished product... neet and tidy. I've decided to join the Scrappy Pincushion Swap, which not only inspired me to make these,

but it is also hosted by the same people as the Doll Quilt Swap (lots of the swappers are the same too). The scrappy pincushion swap starts up as the DQS9 winds down, which is perfect!

Then I started looking for other swaps... and a friend from the DQS9 swap told me about the Mod Bento Block Swap. It's a pretty cool setup. You make as many mod bento blocks as you'd like to recieve, then send them to the swap mama with a self addressed prepaid envelope, and she'll send you that many blocks from the ones other people send in! I like that there's really no rules other than fabric choice (which is right in my comfort zone), and date of sending (which is two weeks from now - perfect).

So yesterday I set out to give it a try! We're using Film in the Fridge's tutorial, which is awesome! Here is the block I made yesterday, and the two I made today! I've been taking extra care to measure/cut/sew/trim meticulously... and mine actually ended up at the prescribed 16" square! Pretty awesome!

100th post coming up soon!

DQS9 close up - hand quilting
Originally uploaded by emedoodle

I'm thinking of doing a little giveaway... although, well, lets be truthful, I only have about 20 readers... and some of those are my family. lol. So I'm going to think about that, and hopefully decide before I hit the 100th post (I'm at 97 now I think)... We'll see.

I just whipped up some little pincushions - possibly to give away for my 100th... maybe plus some bits of fabric + some other goodies. :) Take a look: