My first "swap"

I have long wanted to participate in a crafty swap. The lovely Donna from Kindred Crafters directed me to the { Urban } HOME Goods modern swap which is being hosted Kerri (sewdeerlyloved) and Heather (a la mode fabric). I am pretty excited to be exchanging something for my home with other crafty types.

Here is the mosaic that I posted to inspire my swap partner:

1. Detail of "Spot On" Circle Quilt, 2. four little fabric buckets, 3. you totally don't gnome me!, 4. Hexagon pillow, 5. soft house street, 6. 6.365, 7. pillows, 8. Colorful Crafting with Jen: Rickie's Sashiko Pillow, 9. Engagement Gift - 4, 10. The End Result, 11. 'Strawberry Sundae' wall art, 12. "Hand Stitched" Embroidery SWAP, 13. Practice for The Pillow Talk Swap - ROUND 2, 14. Linen Zippered Bag, 15. button hole, 16. Union Jack Pillow with Liberty prints, 17. London, England, 18. sewing machine cover front, 19. Tea Cozy, 20. Untitled, 21. AMH Quilt, 22. Good Folks Quilt: Back, 23. Little House, 24. Half Square Triangle Quilt - no binding

I can't wait to share the hand-made crafty love and to show you what I receive and what I make. I really love the idea of putting together an "inspiration" mosaic. It should be good fun to try to guess at something that a total stranger will love.

There is still time to share in the swap. The registration deadline is March 22nd. Hurry and get in on the crafty-swap goodness!

EeEEEE - look what was waiting for me at home today!

I quickly tore into the package to reveal:


Check out the sweet little gnome faces!:


I will probably drop these little gnome friends into the wash fairly quickly to make sure that they don't fade on me. There has been some talk on Flickr that the fabrics aren't as colourfast as they ought to be....although it sounds like this isn't true for all colours (luckily!).

The Spoonflower colours are lovely and bright (YUM!), but the fabric is not nearly as soft as Heather Ross's fabric from Free Spirit.

They do however, have lovely gnomes and mushrooms which I was not lucky enough to purchase on their first run. Don't you just love the selvage edges of the fabric?

I had to laugh...while I was snapping pictures (under my bad dining room light because I just can't wait until daylight tomorrow morning!), my son shoved his truck onto the table. "Here Mommy" he said "Take a picture of my backhoe so that you will have a really pretty picture!".

OK Evan. Here is a "really pretty picture". Lovely Heather Ross fabrics and my son's favourite "Mighty Machine". True loveliness!

Too early to be excited?

(source)

I believe that I have mentioned before...I llllllooooooooove me some hand stitching. Isn't it exciting that Alicia Paulson (Posie Gets Cozy herself) is releasing an embroidery book this summer?

Smarch.

I have never been a big fan of March. Generally it is the loooooongest month. It is the month when you think winter should end, but it doesn't - generally. This month it has been bEEEeautiful! Sunny and warm and lovely.

Unfortunately, it has been a rough month in our house where the weather has not been adequately enjoyed. We spent the first week sick (again! How can that even be possible???) and just when we were on the mend our daycare provider had a serious fall. This means that we have been trying to cover full time work and full time daycare duties. MAN - it makes you really appreciate just how great our daycare provider really is (she is going to be fine BTW!).

At any rate...we are nearly out of March (SSSssmarch), our least favourite month of the year and into lovely April! C'mon April! 3 cheers for Spring! Hooray, Hoora, Yippee!

The new "schedule" has severely limited my actual crafting time, but I do have a completed project to share. It is a lovely zig-zag quilt that was started many moons ago. I had completed the top quite some time ago and it sat unfinished while I hemmed and hawed over the back. Just my usual dither until simple inspiration hits (or at least until my indecisiveness is set aside and I proceed with the project exactly how I had first planned to before indecision took hold).

This quilt is lovely and cheerful and bright - exactly everything that Spring should be!

Without further ado, I am excited to show you the finished quilt:

Back:

Close up of the back:

I don't always name my quilts, but I have decided to call this one Spring Zig, March Zag.

Bunting goodness

I have been wanting to make some bunting for my son's room for quite some time...and here it is finished and on the walls:



Cute, non?

The entire house (well nearly!) was painted this beige colour when we moved in. It was not offensive, but lately I am finding it dull, dull, dull (and then dull some more). It could be that there has been very little natural light, but it could also be that the beige is dull.

Don't these cheery little flags go a good way in brightening up the room? I suppose that I could just bite the bullet and repaint the room....but I haven't! In the meanwhile, this bunting makes the room cheery enough for a three year old again.

There is even a bit of his favourite fabric (Tot Town by Michael Miller). Yes...I had only very small scraps left so I had to add some solid in to streeeeeeeetch the Tot Town scraps far enough for 2 flags.



You may recognize that I have used this fabric before for the boy in quilt format. He insists on using the "back" as the top, because he can look a the large piece of construction machine fabric. Hmph.


He has a point though...it is nice to look at such bright colours!