2018 Cotton Robin

Once again this year I was able to participate in the 2018 Cotton Robin hosted by Julie Waldman.  The final reveals were posted a couple months back, but I love sharing the pieces I worked on here.
Each participant makes a center block (~10x10ish), then subsequent participants add a first border, a second border, and then quilting and finishing.  I always have fun with it- it's a lovely small set of projects that don't feel overwhelming.  The challenge is always to come up with something that complements the previous work.

Here was the first center block I received, and then the border I added to it.

Here was the second piece I received, a block + 1 border to which I attached the second border:

Here's the third one which I quilted and finished.  I didn't take a picture of it before quilting, but you can get the idea.  It was filled with especially lovely piecing.

Finally, here's the center block I made, and the lovely quilt I got back.

You can see previous years of this round robin here:  2017, 2015.  Thanks to Julie for hosting.  I love seeing what everyone else makes.

2017 Cotton Robin

I just realized that this has been sitting in my drafts folder, unpublished, for months!  I thought I'd go ahead and post it, since this is such a fun thing to participate in and I think Julie might do it again this year.



Once again this year I participated in the 2017 Cotton Robin, hosted by Julie Waldman.  Since all the final quilts have been shared, I'm going to go ahead and post the ones I worked on here.  It was tons of fun, and usually gives me just the bit of piecing I need to get me through another year.  For this round robin, you send of a center block about 9x9" and then it gets passed to three subsequent people, two of which sequentially add borders, then the third person quilts and binds it.


This was my center block, not actually pieced but appliqued, and I enjoyed getting to use a few fun scraps.

This was the first block I received, such a fun bird! And you can see the border I added in the next shot.

This was the second block I received, with one border already added.  You can see the second border I added below.  Fun houses!

 And this was the final quilt I received.  I forgot to take a picture before I quilted it, but I'm sure you get the idea.  I tried to make a few secondary patterns in the quilting like stars, and strawberries.  In the dark red border on the right, I quilted the word YUM!, but it's really hard to see.  It was fun to quilt though!!

And then just recently I got mine back.  I love it, and it's always great to see what other people are inspired to do based on your original block.  I love that everyone jumped on the bright colors; I love the little pieced girl (so fabulous!), I love the triangle piecing that echos my triangles in the center, and I love the bright hand quilting. 

Mine block was pretty abstract, so I had no idea what to expect.  It turned out great!  Thanks so much to Julie for organizing this again, it's always such a blast!

Embroidery Swap

I signed up for an instagram swap called #Bigstitchswap2 being hosted by the lovely Sarah and Cindy of FairyFace Designs and Fluffy Sheep Quilting, respectively.  I've had an instagram account for a while, but I never posted anything, so this was a fun chance to get to use it more.

The swap was for a small piece featuring some amount of hand stitching.  Some people were making pouches, or mini-quilts, or journal covers, etc.  I decided to do a clock, and because I've been on a hand embroidery kick lately, I decided to do some more of that.  Recently, Mary Corbet (of Needle'N Thread) had a sale on her fabulous PDF embroidery books and I picked up her monogram alphabet book.  It's really fabulous, it has great stitch pictures and descriptions as well as instructions for making the letters and suggestions for switching up stitches.  If you're at all interested in embroidery, her website is great.

Anyway, using it as a guide, I stitched up the following for my partner.  I started on the J, then decided it needed a bird, so I stitched that in.  Don't worry about the blue marker in the bird closeup, it's that water-erasable marker and is gone now.  Afterward I pieced the letter into a background, embroidered a clock face and some accent stems, and wrapped the whole thing around a set of 8x10 canvas-covered stretcher bars.  The last step was putting the clockwork in.

I had a fun time working on this, and hope my partner enjoys it!

Cotton Robin

I've always wanted to participate in a round robin swap so this year when I saw the call for Julie's Cotton Robin, I signed up right away.  We each made a center block and then Julie sent them to two additional participants to add borders and one final participant who quilted and bound it.  It was super fun to work on other people's pieces, and now that we're all finished I can share mine.

I love it!  Thanks so much to the ladies who worked on it.  My center block was improv-pieced gold and pink, and the lovely pieced borders complement it very well.  I feel like it's pink and gold (my sparkly 4-yr old shining through) but with a more grown up feel.

Here it is on my wall of minis, I love the way they look up there!

Thanks so much to Julie for hosting and organizing, I know it's a ton of work.  I definitely recommend that you click over to her Cotton Robin blog to see all the other fabulous minis from this round.

Swap Parcel: Recieved

A little while back I shared the stitchery I made for the Places swap at &Stitches, and today I'm back to share the lovely parcel sent to me by my partner Emily.  In addition to her piece, she sent me a really nice long letter telling me all about the place she depicted as well as other areas where she lives.  It's really wonderful to hear about a new place from someone to whom it's so important.

She currently lives in Brighton, on the southern coast of England and says:  "...but in the end I went with somewhere out of town a bit and more in the countryside: The South Downs, or more specifically the Seven Sisters.  The South Downs are a collection of chalk hills which extend all the way to Brighton (I can see them from my house) but depicted in my embroidery are specifically the chalk cliffs on the coast that make up the Seven Sisters.  In the foreground also depicted are the coastguards' cottages.  I chose this scene in the end not only because of their fame and beauty, but also because I feel a scene depicting nature is more connected to who I am and what I like to draw/embroider."

I looked up some pictures of the Seven Sisters, and it looks like an absolutely gorgeous place to live.  How wonderful to have that as a view.  No wonder Emily wanted to embroider it and share it with me.  I was super impressed with her tiny even stitches and ability to capture the feel of the place.

One final coincidence:  I just finished a quilt based on the seven sisters quilt block, so it's especially fun that she embroidered the real Seven Sisters for me!

Thank you so much Emily, you were a great swap partner!

Tote Bag Swap

Hi guys!  Today I wanted to share a bag (actually two) that I recently made as the tote bag swap being hosted by Lia's Handmades.  The theme for this round was nature, and my partner requested something classic looking with no batiks.  I thought it was the perfect opportunity to use some of my precious Tula Pink fabric and the coordinating tree embroidery pattern from Urban Threads.  I made up my own pattern for the bag, but the idea for the criss-cross triangular front pockets came from Bonnie over at Fishsticks Designs.  She was my partner in another swap and made me a bag with that triangular pocket and I loved it so much I put it on this bag!

Here's the front.  The main body is actually navy, but I'm still getting used to my new camera and am having some difficulties.

And the back, both main panels are quilted, and I wanted to include a bit of coordinating patchwork as well.

Inside is a zipper pocket, and the top features an inset zipper closure. I've never done one of those before and just sort of made it up as I went along.  I think it turned out ok- in any case it opens and closes and all the raw edges are hidden!

And here are a few extra goodies I sent along with it.

I liked the bag so much I made a coordinating one for me.  I think it's going to be my IQF Houston bag.  It's a bit bigger than a purse (with room for purchases!) but not huge, and has nice padded straps for a long day of carrying.

And now, I really have to get back to quilting.  But I really hope my still-secret partner likes the bag!

Hand printed Fabric Swap 3

Quick check in today, I hope everyone is finally having spring weather (still on the cusp here, lots of icy storms earlier in the week) and doing lots of crafty sewing and quilting.  I've been working sparingly this week so don't have much progress to show.  However, I did want to share the lovely hand printed fabric I received from my circle in the Handprinted Fabric Swap III.

My partners were Ginevra, Jessica, Chloe, and Suzanne, and just look at the lovelies they sent my way!  Don't worry they're all square, I just can't take a proper picture right now with everything else that's on my design wall.  I can't wait to figure out what to do with all these wonderful fabrics!

Covert Robin Swap Revisited

Last week I shared the things I made for my partner in the Covert Robin Swap, and today I wanted to show the lovely things that recently came in my mail.  My wonderful covert robin swap partner turned out to be Bonnie Ferguson of Fish Sticks Designs.  She has tons of adorable clothing patterns for your littles, I'm especially fond of the shortall/overall pattern and may have to get it to make for Anna.

Anyway, she sent me this lovely super large tote bag- it's simultaneously soft and sturdy and feels like the perfect size for the beach.  Alas, I don't get much to the beach, so I've decided to use it for my large upcoming crochet project.  I love the angled pocket detailing on the front, and the wonderful spring colors.

She made a wonderful little card pouch and key fob that clip inside it (I've wanted one of these key fobs forever and this one is already on my keys) and sent along some tasty extras.

Thanks Bonnie for being such a great partner!  P.S.  The chocolate was really really good.