FTLOS - Somebody Loves Me!

Wow. I'm kind of a jerk! I'm sorry! I received the most amazing package last month and I haven't even shared it with you! I guess I've just been super selfish keeping it all to myself. lol. ;) And really, that is exactly what I've been doing. mostly.

Let me explain, usually when I receive an awesome package, or any package, I open it with the excitement of a 4 year old on Christmas morning, look at it, admire it, hug it, stroke it, heehee - not really usually er...  Anyway, and then I put it in a pile so that when I get my camera out to do my little photo shoot of whatever, it's easy to grab and take pictures of it too. Well, this little package of goodness never made it into that pile. It went straight to work! Being used and enjoyed and loved! I never remember to take pictures of it all because it is busy doing other things.

Well, I finally remembered and made a special occasion just for these sweet swap items. Want to see??? :)

The amazing Lisa aka Sixmunchkins made me some FAN.TAS.TIC items:

a sewing machine cover:

isn't this such an amazing design?! I love it! :)

It's longer on the ends, which is fantastic! I can fold it down to give my machine a little extra protection from our overly dusty apartment. And I love that it's open on the sides so I can still leave my sewing table thing on.

it's it awesome! It matches my mug rug perfectly. And check this out...

she put my name on it!!! WOOOO! That is awesome! :)


Check out this detail! Her stitching is amazing! I only wish I could make something look that good. I love it!

I have REALLY been needing one of these! It's perfect!

She also added in a little zipper pouch. Cute!

I have been using it to keep my extra, larger, sewing feet in it. It works great. 

Did you see the fabric inside? One of my favorites. I LOVE bikes! :)

AND she made me this awesome bag!

check it out! More bikes! She loves me. :D cheese!

I love the pom-pom string she used. so fun. 

I use this all the time for the props for our Sunday School class, among other things. It's the perfect size. :)

I seriously am so amazed at her generosity! And SO grateful! Thank you Lisa!!! :) I hope I didn't offend you by not posting about this sooner. Just know that all of it is being loved and getting lots of use. :) I mean, that's what we all hope for with our swap items, right?! Well Lisa, you are at the top of the line! ;)

For The Love Of Solids - Finished & Sent! :)

My items for this swap are well on their way to their new home! It is always sweet sorrow sending out packages. But worth it! :)

My project for this was the longest in the making, but boy am I glad that I started it when I did. I definitely hit a "star burnout", but with nice break in the middle I recovered and even though I still had a lot of stars to make to finish it up, I would still love to make more. :) These wonky stars are some of my favorite blocks to make. :)

I made a wall hanging for my partner, in her requested colors. For some reason I was really questioning myself while making this. Even until right before I put the binding on it, I wasn't sure if I should scrap it and start over with something else. But when all was said and done I decided I was really happy about it and sent it off. I really do hope she likes it! If not I'd be happy to make up my other idea that I had for her. Sometimes it's so hard making something for someone else! Especially someone you don't know at all. :) But it's worth it! I always push myself a lot harder making something for someone else than I do making projects for myself.

To go along with it I made a simple pouch. I really LOVE this pouch and want to make 100 more! ;)

the back

the front

I used Kona ash, and the mosaic is made from some of the scraps from the wall hanging.

I used a glue stick to hold the pieces down, and then put fray check around all the edges after they were sewn down. I really love how this turned out and think I will use this technique more often!!

for the lining I used some Half Moon scissors. Yum! :)

It finishes at 9" by 9". 

the mini finished up at 18.5" x 18.5". Made from all Konas.

I used Kona Chartreuse for the back.

and a purple for the binding... I'll have to look and see what color I used. I can't remember right now.

Thinking about this makes me feel like I'm in a college art class critique session. lol. But I have to say that when I started with this design, and nesting the stars like I did, the thing that I really liked about it, was the negative space that it created.

the four squares with the weird shapes between them. Those are what stand out to me more than the stars (well, except that the stars are really bold). I wanted to emphasis that design, and thus my decision for quilting inside the negative space only. I don't know if I achieved my emphasis as much as I would have liked, but I'm happy with how it turned out. :)

Thank you for coming. Class is now out of session. lol.

The design on the back didn't turn out quite as cool as I thought it would have, but oh well. it's just the back. :)

I added hanging corners in all the corners since there really isn't an up on this thing.

I sure hope you like it partner!! I had a swell time making it for you!


Happy Monday everyone! Stay tuned for the start of the Giveaway Week! The first post will be up later today!! For my birthday weekend I decided to take the weekend off from the computer and sewing... so I didn't get anything ready. lol. :) So excited for this though!! :)

linking up to Skip to My Lou, Canoe Ridge Creations Modern Monday, 

Peaceful Life, Sew Many Ways, Party with My Peeps, and Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday.

What do you think?

Should I go with this?

yes, I know I still need more points on the bottom blue star, but besides that. ???

FTLOS - Round 2, Take 2

I've finally started on my project for my partner. She's kind of hit and miss with her comments, so I'm not sure if she really likes what her mosaic suggests? or if she'd rather have something more colorful and bright? or what???

Anyway, I did end up changing my mosaic around. I decided that if I got something for my home, I'd want something that fit in a little better... rather than being a bit to bright. Here is my second mosaic for the group. (My first is here - which I do still love also. It's just so hard to choose sometimes.)

And here is what I have started on for my partner... (I still need to do some cutting)

Nothing has been sewn yet. Just testing the waters. The edges will finish like the left side and the top. I'm thinking I could do some quilting to emphasis the grey squares a little? I don't know.


Maybe add some blue to fill in some of the holes?

I like the one on the far right.

Now I guess it's just time to wait and see if she comments. :)

p.s. did I mention that I finished up my Christmas present AND another project?! Wahoo! :) January was productive after all! ;)

For the Love of Solids - Round 2!

This Swap was my ultimate favorite swap so far! So of course I couldn't resist joining Round 2! (Hurry! There are still openings... head over and join!) :)  I'm so excited!

I created my mosaic and then realized that I need to add about 100 more colors to it. There are too many great colors out there... ug. Oh well. ;)

I'm not adding 100, but here are 4 that I also love!!! :)

As for what item I would love to receive, I need a sewing machine cover, a laptop case would be nice, or an awesome wall hanging to hang downstairs. :) I also need a new purse, and of course I love bags, so of course that would be appreciated. ;) Really anything would be awesome! I loved what I received last time, and I'm pretty easy to please. :)

Guess I need to hurry and finish up my other projects!!! :) - this will give me good motivation to hurry and get them done. :)

Happy Day!

FTLOS awesomeness!

This is what I first put as my title:

For the Love of Solids {a modern swap} Round 1 complete!

But that's really long, and kind of boring. :)

I was kind of hit and miss during this swap... there were a LOT of pictures, so I kind of just picked ones that really stood out to me in one way or another to comment on and every time I look at the group pics I find more that I really like and that I missed before... but overall it was a blast! I received my package on Thursday of last week and it was FANTASTIC!!

I actually received it from Leigh - leedle deedle quilts, who in my do. Good Stitches circle is the ring leader (I don't know what the official title is). :) Which is cool. :) I love what she made for me!

I had asked for a huge beach bag that all of our towels will fit in for when we go to the poole, or the beach, or whatever, and let me tell you, that this is AWESOME!

Check out the huge pockets on the front and back as well

I love the design and colors of it too. I think I need to find more reasons to use this, especially since summer is over. (Can't wait until next year!)

She also sent along some cute potholders, which I have been thinking that I need some new ones. :)

and some cute fabric!

Thank you Leigh!! :)

Now onto what I made...

Can I just tell you that I haven't enjoyed sewing anything for a while as much as I've enjoyed sewing my two projects?! I truly had a blast putting these together, and I didn't drudge one part of it, not even ironing! And that is saying a lot! :)

Going backwards, I made this pillow:

and this little zip-itself coin purse!

and starting over:

 After I sewed the first set of pieces together for the blocks, I hung up the strings in my window to keep them from getting tangled, and they looked so fun just blowing around in the light breeze that I kind of went picture crazy taking pics of them! :)

and then... I finally decided that I should make a pillow and not send my partner some random squares sewn together as a banner. That is NOT what she asked for. ;)

So here it is. The pictures didn't turn out quite like I hoped, but it was so much fun and I hope she likes it! I was really intimidated to sew something for her because she is AMAZING! But when she commented on my draft picture that she thought it would be beautiful, I was able to relax a little, and I love it! (I used this quilt tutorial I can't find it. But I know I have it on another post. I'll find it and update ths... and after the fact someone pointed out that this is a disappearing 9-patch. duh. That could have saved me a lot of time. Don't hold me to it, but I'm going to post up how I would do it differently if I were to do this again in a 2 tone project... like for my bed spread?)

For the zip-itself coin purse I used this tutorial. I realized after my first attempt that she was totally talking about hand stitching it and not machine sewing it. lol. Anyway, I also didn't really like the ribbon I was trying to use, so I started over and decided to use fabric strips, and still machine sew it, except this time I knew what I was doing. I think I just might post my alterations a little later - because I like to remember those kinds of things, and then if anyone would also like them, awesome. :)

So, here it is!

My zipper was longer, and I was planning on cutting it shorter, but to get the right shape I needed to keep it's original length, which meant my fabric was too short, but I actually am glad because I like the little color change right on the end. :)


So fun!

I also threw in a couple more zippers - I know she loves red and white, so there you go. As well as the bunting of two rows that I was planning on putting on the back of the pillow, but in the end I decided that I liked it better without them. So now she can hang them in her window, or use them in some other matchy-matchy- project. Or whatever. :)


I sure hope she likes them!

p.s. I think this must be Neil's favorite project too. Whenever I've brought up anything asking him what pattern I should do for this or that, he just tells me to do it just like this, and with the pink and orange... even our bed spread. :) (If I made this for our room, it would be blue and green though. ;) )