Yesterday was my lucky day . . .

because this is what I received in the mail from my partner in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap!!!

This awesome, modern mug rug was made for me by Jessica (a.k.a. Quilt Happie on Flickr.) I saw it in our group photo pool a few weeks ago and loved it, and I was so surprised to receive it in the mail yesterday! Jessica also made me a wonderful little hexie-shaped needle book and included two of her favorite recipes and some delish dark chocolate in the package. (There's a tutorial here for the needle book if you're interested.)

Thank you Jessica for making my day! Your mug rug makes me smile every time I see it :-)

Happy sewing,
Mary

Doll Quilt Swap - Received!

Look at what Jessica made for me!

| Front |

| Back (in gorgeous Tanya Whelan Fabric from the Dolce collection!) |

| Pretty hand-quilted bird detail on front |

| And the same detail on the back |

| Plus some extras . . . additional fabric from the quilt back AND a hand made card! |

Thanks so much Jessica! This is hanging in my sewing room where I can see it every day!

Happy sewing,
Mary

Tissue Box Cover for Amy

As a part of my swap with Amy I made her this reversible tissue box cover for her newly remodeled bathroom.  You can see pictures of their gorgeous new bathroom here.

I used the Pink Penguin Reversible Tissue Box Cover tutorial for the overall construction and Beki Lambert's applique design from Stitch Magazine for the design on the front.

Below is the back of the tissue box cover.  This simple strip of patchwork is intended to mimic the strip of green tile on Amy's bathroom wall.

And this is the reverse side.  I decided to make this one pretty simple since the other side is so busy!  I used my favorite grey Flora and Fauna print and appliqued an "F" in Kona Coal on the front for Amy's last initial.

Amy and I also swapped scraps, but of course I forgot to take a picture of the scraps I sent.  Oh well!  Hopefully Amy will enjoy all of her new modern scraps too!

Happy sewing,

Mary

DQS9 - Finished and in the mail!

After dragging my feet for at least a week, I forced myself to mail this doll quilt to its new owner today.  I think it's probably a good sign when you pour enough of yourself into a swap item that you don't want to let it go!  

If you're not familiar with the Doll Quilt Swap, all partners are secretly assigned so none of us knows who is sewing for us.  I'm anxious for my partner to receive her quilt because I think she'll like it!

When I gave you guys a sneak peek of this project, I was stressing about hiding my starting/stopping threads for the quilting.  You all had some AMAZING advice (thank you!) but in the end I decided to not stress about the backstitching showing and just go for it.  If you look closely you can probably see it in the picture, but I just decided it wasn't the end of the world.

My design was inspired by this gorgeous quilt on Flickr and I used solids because I know that my partner likes them.  I have to say that now I'm kind of hooked on solids too!  I used Kona Stone, Kona White, and 14 colors from my Kona Starter Pack.

I'm really happy with the way this quilt turned out.  Mr. PinSewPress likes it so much he asked me to make another one for us to keep.  When I can work up the motivation, I just might do that!  Someone on Flickr mentioned that this would make a great table topper with a vase in the middle, and I completely agree!  I think we just might "need" one of these for our kitchen table.

Here's hoping my package makes it to it's secret location safe and sound.  It's always a little nerve-wracking when your hard work is in-transit!

Next up . . . I finally finished the "man quilt!"  Pictures and a blog post coming soon!

Happy sewing,
Mary

The whole school of fish!

Remember when I was lamenting that I didn't have any super adorable goldfish in bags?

When I published that post back in July, I was mostly hoping someone would take pity on me and send me one teeny tiny goldfish.

However, I got much more than I expected!

When my blog friend Amy and I agreed to do a fun one-on-one swap, she said she wanted to make something for me based on one of my previous posts.

Just look at this amazing mini quilt she made for me!

I can't even tell you how much I adore this little quilt.  I just love Amy's version of the goldfish in bags!  The bags are linocut prints that Amy hand-carves on linoleum blocks from her own original designs.  The fish are hand painted with freezer paper stencils.  (If you'd like some of Amy's original goldfish in bags, she has some of her prints for sale in her shop.  And if you're curious about the linocut process, Amy did a great post about it here.)

I also adore the colors on this mini, all the great Make Life prints (one of my very favorite fabric lines!) and the great mix of hand quilting and machine quilting.  This mini is hanging in my sewing room and I love looking at it every time I go in there!

Amy also sent me this great handmade card, also with a linocut print.  This one is just perfect for a beach girl like myself!

(I haven't finished my end of the swap yet . . . but I'll be done by the end of the month!)

My goldfish luck didn't end there . . . almost as if they had coordinated it, I got this package in the mail on the very same day - a surprise from Mr. Pin.Sew.Press!

We have a policy of not getting each other birthday or Christmas presents.  Instead we like to give each other little surprises throughout the year.

Let me tell you, this was a huge surprise!  I had actually made peace with the fact that I'd never own these little guys, and I can't believe my husband went to the trouble of tracking these down! 

I'm happy to report that all my new fish are getting along nicely.

Thank you so much Amy and Mr. Pin.Sew.Press. for making my day!  I promise to take good care of my new pets :-)

Happy sewing,

Mary

P.S. - I think Blogger hates me . . . I can't get rid of all those extra spaces in the middle!  What's the deal?

WIP - Doll Quilt Swap

After much agonizing, I finally came up with a design I like for my first round of the Doll Quilt Swap.  I can't even tell you how much time I've spent scouring my partner's Flickr favorites and blog, but I think my "research" has paid off.  I'm pretty sure this is right up her ally.

Here's sneak peek of the progress I'm making.  I've had so much fun making my first all-solids quilt.  I used Kona Stone and Kona White as well as 14 colors from my Kona Starter Pack.  This little quilt is about 22" square, but I'd love to make a larger version of this someday, maybe as a baby quilt or a throw.

I still have to quilt the center, but one thing that's holding me back is that I need to learn how to hide my starting/stopping threads.  I usually just backstitch at the start and finish of my quilting lines, but on this project that doesn't look too good with the white thread showing against the stone colored fabric.  Any advice or links to a tutorial would be greatly appreciated!  I frequently hear bloggers talking about "pulling their threads through" or "hiding their threads" but I have no idea how to do this.  I still have so much to learn!


Happy sewing!
Mary

Modern Siggy Swap Blocks

Well hello there blog friends!

After an unintentional "sewing fast" of two and half weeks, I'm back in the game!  

This weekend I whipped up 101 Modern Siggy Blocks for the Modern Siggy Swap

In case you're not familiar with this swap, here's the deal:  Each participant makes 101 blocks, complete with their name, city, and state signed on them.  We all ship our blocks to a central location where they're redistributed and then we each receive 100 different blocks back in the mail (1 block goes to a charity quilt), each made by a different person.  Then, of course, we each piece our blocks together to create a quilt that represents 100 different quilters from around the world.  

Pretty cool, huh? 

I used an Arcadia Honey Bun (only $12 on Etsy!) for my blocks, and I'm really loving the colors in this line.  Too bad it's out of print!

I used a black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point for my signatures and I think it worked pretty well.  I found it easier to print my letters instead of trying to sign them in cursive.  I used some light starch when I pressed my fabric, but it was still a little tricky to write on!

Writing my information over and over again 101 times became a little mundane.  I had a bit of an "oooops" while signing late at night . . .

Ha ha, Myrtle Ely!  That would be quite the granny quilting name, huh?  (I'm pretty sure she lives in Mary Beach . . . )  I might just have to use this name if I'm ever trying to pass for three times my age.  You never know when you might need an alias.


Happy Sewing!
Myrtle
Mary

I heart potholders!

Try not to be too jealous . . . but look what I got in the mail last weekend!

Amy of During Quiet Time made me these awesome potholders for the Potholder Pass Round 2, and she also sent some adorable mini potholders for Lauren to use!

Lauren loves her new potholders -

but I love mine more :-)

You can read more about these awesome potholders and my sad tale of lost mail here.

Next, here's what I've been working on the Potholder Pass Round 3:

These were inspired by the amazing Winter Rainbow quilt by Faith at Fresh Lemons.  If you haven't seen this quilt yet, you have to check it out!

I've admired this quilt for a while, and when I discovered that this quilt was also a "fave" of my secret partner on Flickr, I was instantly inspired!  I made the potholder on the right first, pulling out stacks and stacks of fabric and sewing together little strips to make the blocks.  I love how it turned out, but it took a LOT of work, so I made the potholder on the left a bit simpler.  I think they make a great pair!

I wanted to keep up with all the other cool ladies in the Potholder Pass and try my hand at adding grommets.  (Everyone else is doing it!!!)  Unfortunately the actual installation has been a little harder than expected.  I've been hammering away on my grommet tool and can't seem to get the darn thing to bend and play nice!

Here's the back, and as you can see my sad, sad grommets aren't fully installed yet.

I think it's time to swallow my pride and ask the husband for help!

Am I just a huge wimp, or has anyone else out there had trouble with their grommets?

Happy sewing!
Mary

Modern Siggy Swap Round #2

Come on and join in the fun!

Details can be found here.

You have until the end of the week to sign up!

WIP Wednesday

Happy Cinco de Mayo, sewing friends!

Being the wild girl that I am, I celebrated with a little sewing :-)

Here's what I've been working on . . .

potholders for the Potholder Pass 3 -







I can't even tell you how excited I am about these potholders. My secret partner requested "bright and modern," which is right up my ally! I just need to hand sew the binding to the back and these fun potholders will be done.


Next is a work in progress that's been sitting around since December -





Sad but true, this table runner has been sitting like this since Christmas! Everything but the binding is done. What's even more pitiful is that I've been using this on my dresser for at least a month . . . with no binding on it! (Can you tell that's my least favorite part?)


Looks like I need to hunker down and have a little binding party tonight. (Yup, that's how I roll!)


Have yourselves a happy Cinco de Mayo!
Mary

Potholder Pass Round THREE!!!

So I found out yesterday that there will be yet another round of the fabulous Potholder Pass!  Hooray!

If you're interested, check it out here.  You have until the end of April to sign up, and we'll be sewing in May.  It's loads of fun and I hope you'll join in!

And now that my package has been delivered I'm pleased to reveal my secret partner who I sewed these potholders for in Round 2:

It's Lydia, of Layne James Embroidery and Designs!  She has a great blog, and and an awesome shop too.

It was really fun to sew for Lydia, and I was almost laughing when I first checked out her blog because we have so much in common - we're close in age, married our high school sweethearts, stay at home with our two-year-olds, live in the southeast, and sew for sanity!  She was assigned to me randomly, so I thought that was a pretty funny coincidence.  It was fun to meet her through this swap.

Now I'm just watching my mailbox (patiently!!!) and waiting to see what's headed my way.  This is a blind swap, so I have no idea who's sewing for me.  It could be anyone, anywhere!  Fun!

Mary