A sneak peek……

As I mentioned yesterday another one of the swaps that I have been involved in is the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap. This swap was a special Christmas round where we had named rather than secret partners.

Because of everything else that has been going on I have to admit that I wasn’t able to make exactly what I had originally planned having stalked my partner but I think I still came up with something fun.

You will notice there is a hand appliqued design with a machine quilted background. I used lots of glittery fabrics as they always remind me of Christmas.

You may have spotted who the main character on the mug rug is………

Hopefully my partner will receive their package soon and then I can show you the whole thing!

New Year Catch Up 3

Before Christmas I was in another swap….the St.Nicholas Swap. The idea for this swap was to make a small gift for a fellow sewer. You may recall I made a mug rug, canister wrapper and some decorations for NikiBlueEyes. Niki wrote to me to tell me how much she loved her little package which I was really pleased about as you never know whether other people will appreciate your crafting!

I received a package from DaveandSusi which contained some beautiful little Christmas themed houses. I really love the little embellishments that she made…they added some individuality.

Front of the little houses.....

I love the bakery window it is just so cute.

Back of the houses......

 Even the back of the houses are cute. Susi must have put a lot of work in stitching these for me and I really appreciate it.

I also received some delicious chocolate (which is all eaten up) and an owl postcard which Cupcake Princess appears to have squirreled away somewhere as she liked it so much.

If you want to check out the other items people made/received check the group out on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/swap_nicholas/

I’m looking forward to taking part in some more swaps this year as it is great to take part in a group activity and meet other sewers……..of course it is also great to get a parcel to open up at the end!!

New Year Catch Up 2

Before Christmas I mentioned that Cupcake Princes and myself were making gifts for my niece and nephew but I didn’t get a chance to share the finished items. Unfortunately I also didn’t manage to get good photos of the finished items before giving them as gifts so instead I am sharing photos of the finished items with their new owners!!

First of all you may recall that I made a Russian doll wall hanging for my niece. The wall hanging was made using a drawing that Cupcake Princess did plus fabrics that she chose……thankfully her cousin loved it!

Russian Doll wall hanging delivered to its new owner

Our second gift was a pirate game for my nephew. We bought some pirate fabric a few months ago which we turned into a pirate board game with matching game pieces and bags for storage. Cupcake Princess wrote out all the game rules and game cards so it was a big project!!

Pirate game board

Bags for the game board and pieces

We played it over New Year and had great fun going around the board and falling foul of the pirate tricks!!

Playing the pirate game.....

The children had a great time with all their gifts as you would expect BUT they also had great fun helping me make mince pies. It’s amazing how enthusiastically children throw themselves into cooking activities. We had a great little production line of cutters, fillers, brushers and snippers. What’s even better is they all tasted delicious at the end.

The mince pie makers.......

13 more sewing days to go…

I have had a terrible thought today…only 13 more days of sewing left (after today) until Christmas. I still have so many unfinished gifts to work through and some I haven’t even started!

I’ve tried to get my head into gear and get on with working through my list of projects. Here is what I know I have to make so far:

6 stockings

1 quilt for my mum to give as a gift

1 bag for my mum friend

1 fabric game board for my nephew

1 wall hanging for my niece

2 book bags for friends

6  place mats and coasters

The good news is I have started work on the stockings and 1 is finished:

Traditionally coloured stocking

I have also finished quilting the Russian doll wall hanging for my niece. It is quilted and bound…..the only thing I may do is embroider her name on.

Hopefully I will have more finished projects to show you tomorrow.

Fresh & Funky Christmas blocks

I have been catching up on some outstanding projects….the first of which is the November blocks for the Fresh & Funky Quilting Bee.

Me & Ma wants to make some Christmas quilts for her children and provided us with an excellent gallery of photos for inspiration : http://www.flickr.com/photos/meandma/galleries/72157625303986222/ . Take a look if you are wanting to make a Christmas themed quilt there are some great blocks in there.

I made three blocks as I was on a bit of a roll and was worried that because of the weather other blocks wouldn’t get to their destination….cant let some of the children miss out on a quilt!!!

A present block........

A tree block.......

Do you like the little hand appliqued star on the top of the tree???

The elf and the reindeer house....

I couldn’t resist making a little elf for the block and I needed something to go with it …I thought a reindeer house seeemed appropriate.

We’ve reached the North Pole!

Hurray! After a year I have finally finished my Welcome to the North Pole wall hanging. I made the wall hanging using blocks from Piece O’Cake designs Welcome to the North Pole pattern book.

I have really enjoyed this pattern but due to all the applique needed it did take a long time….and I have had some very sore fingers.

I’m so pleased with how it came out….I really hope that people think my final embellishments have enhanced the wall hanging…I went for a bit of bling!!!

Welcome to the North Pole!!!

 I added some quilting and small beads to the snow to try and give it the sparkly look of snow drifts at night. Unfortunately its hard to capture it in a picture but you do get a little twinkle from the beads.

Santas house and the candy shop

 

 

The skating shop

Some Christmas magic......

St.Nicolas swap items ready to fly away…..

I have finally finished my items for the St.Nicolas swap. I have been prevaricating for the last month on what to make/send away for the St.Nicholas swap. I tried out a few ideas but settled on a modern feel and made some coordinating items in a combination of turquoise, bright pink and yellowy green (sounds horrid but it is ok!!).

My main item is a mug rug made from some Michael Miller fabric. I cut out and appliqued the tree and numbers before doing some free motion quilting. It is a bigger size than normal as I thought it could be used to leave out a drink and nibbles for santa and rudolph!!

Mug rug

Storage tin wrapper

Coasters

 

Tree ornaments

The tin is filled with the items above plus a few other bits and bobs that I chucked in such as clips, felt animals and some nibbles.

Everything is now wrapped and ready to fly away to my partner……..assuming it can get past the snow. What do you think of the fab Cath Kidston christmas tissue paper….I couldn’t resist it!

All wrapped up and ready to go

Little bundles of Xmas joy……

As you may recall I joined a Christmas ornament swap a few weeks ago. For the swap I needed to make three ornaments and send one to each of my three secret partners.

I have had such dilemmas deciding what to make ….partly because I was a bit intimidated by all the amazing ornaments that other members of the swap were making ( http://www.flickr.com/groups/1533113@N23/ ).

I needed to have the ornaments in the post by the 1st December so the pressure has been on to finish the sewing – at the weekend I made a big push and got them finished.

They were all wrapped up and sent on their merry way this morning….I really hope my partners like them!

 

Wrapped and ready to go....

No.1 - A cute dangly bird.

No.2 Modern xmas tree

 

No.3 The reindeer house

 

Rooting around in the sewing cupboard…

This afternoon I was rooting around in my craft/sewing cupboard looking for some fabric and I came across some sandwich bags full of part finished Christmas projects from a couple of years ago! Much to my amazement I found some fabrics I had cut out to make some bags and fused pieces to make ornaments/centre panels for bags. The bags were a bit boring really but the applique’s are so perfect for my various swaps and Christmas I will just have to use them.

The problem is that now I feel the pressure to spend my evenings doing all the sewing…I just hope I can complete it all in the time that I have….I’ll keep you updated.

 

Fused ready to applique....

 

 

Ornaments

 

 

Presents from Santa…

I have been so busy working on Christmas projects. For my Fresh & Funky quilting bee November block I need to make a Christmas block. I have been looking through my Flickr favourites for some inspiration and have been doing some experimenting…..

 

Block 1 - A wonky Christmas star

 

Some presents for the tree

 

Christmas trees.

 

 

Santa (with a goatie beard!)

Finally I have stitched all the elements into a little Christmas scene….

 

Presents from Santa.....

 

Now I need to decide whether to just quilt, embellish and add some binding OR I could turn it into something more elaborate…decisions…decisions!!