Pretty stuff in the mail

  

Recently I was lucky enough to be partnered up with Sandra of Made in Hem on a Swap-bot swap.  The theme was 'sew something nice' and boy did she excel in that department!!  Not only did I get this very awesome mini quilt, but we also checked out each other's blogs and had a chance to get to know each other a bit, and it's always nice to add a new blog friend from the other side of the world!

Isn't it beautiful?! You can just see my big toe down the bottom to get an idea of what size it is. 
I probably also should have ironed it before taking photos but I was too excited!

All my favourite things - trees, leaves, woodland creatures, clouds, rain - I love it!

San has sewn over woolen fibres to create the trunk and the grass, I would never have thought of doing that and how she did it so straight and neat is beyond me!

The quilt is partially machine sewn with the details being hand embroidered

I am really lucky to have scored Sandra for a swap partner for this one, I'd like to say I made my partner something just as fantastic but I would most definitely be lying.  

This was what my partner got

And the big question, what to do with my mini quilt?  Well, I'm thinking a big cushion.  It'll need a nice thick fabric so I'm thinking a black denim, to complement the black piping around the edges.  Now I just need to plan a trip to the shops to get some more fabric (oh, what a pity).

If you want to check out how San put together my quilt, check out her blog post about it here.

 

Ta-dah!

A while ago, I posted about beginning this project which I couldn't show you in it's finished form because it was for a private swap I was doing with a very lovely girl I met on blogland, Christie of Describe Happy.  Well, it arrived at her place the other day so it has got me out of my blogging funk and got me posting!

 I saw this pattern on Ravelry for the mushroom (although mine turned out a bit more toadstool-ish), which I recently joined (you can find me here) and thought it was just so adorable.  Christie and I originally bonded over our love of all things forest and mushroomy so I thought this would be perfect.

I started off doing a square base for the pot rest part but it really wasn't working for me so I unravelled and found a pattern for a circle done in spirals.  Much neater looking!  Unfortunately I didn't do an especially good job of centring my mushroom on the base and some of my french knots are a little bit iffy but overall I was really pleased with the result.  Pleased enough that I plan to make another one for my kitchen but with a blue background. 

I attached some brown felt to the back with possibly the neatest blanket stitching I've ever managed to do and it was all finished.  Lovely!

Our swap started off with Christie seeing these pincushions I had made on my blog and commenting that she thought they were cute so I offered to make one for her.  They are only itsy bitsy pin cushions so I sent her two.

 

Swapping Loveliness

  
I've been making new bloggy friends lately.  One of them is Christie at Describe Happy.  We decided to do a little swap, 'a pincushion and a surprise' and my package arrived yesterday.  It was a Big and Lovely surprise!!

 Look at my beautiful mushroom pincushion!! It even stands up all by itself! I said to Christie that I can't quilt for the life of me (she is a great quilter) so now I'm lucky enough to have some pretty quilted things.

 And a matching fabric basket - OHH! It's so cute and in just the perfect colours for me.  Now to decide what to put in it??

And if that's not enough, look at these three fabulous fat quarters she sent me, and a stunning packet of cards, I really love the patterns on all of them!

I feel so spoilt, nothing better than receiving wonderful goodies in the mail!! My package to Christie hasn't been sent off yet, lets blame an annoyingly inconvenient hospital stay, but any day now! I'm off to do some more of it now!  Thankfully she is completely relaxed and super friendly and said seeing as we didn't ever set a deadline, it doesn't matter when it arrives because it won't be late.  I like her way of thinking! (But I'm still going to get cracking)

Thank you so much Christie!