little house in the woods

Here is the project I made for Allegory's hoop-la-la swap. I was going to wait until I received mine and blog about both at once, but if it's headed from overseas it could be a while yet and I'd like to post this fall-themed project before the snow hits!

My partner was Cori, who blogs over at Let's Eat Grandpa. She's an editor and a ninja and incredibly creative, go check her out (but come right back, or else!). I got started back when the leaves were just beginning to change color, which inspired me to pull this scrap piece of Fall Trees in terracotta, a Bella print by Windham Fabrics.

From there I grabbed a few scraps and some embroidery floss and posted this picture to the Flickr group for feedback. Cori said she loved my idea of a little house in the woods, which was good news because I had had my heart set on it by that point! I did raw-edge applique, attaching the pieces with a washable glue stick before stitching them down by machine.

I used fusible interfacing on all of the pieces, including the background, to lessen the transparency of the fabrics and to give it a more stable feel. There's also a layer of batting on the back. Then I added some bits of embroidery here and there just to pull it all together.

There's a liberated feel to it, what with the frayed edges and wonky stitching and all. I figured it would look fine in the end, and while there are trouble spots (think right there in the trunk between the bottom limbs on the tree to the right... ick!) I really love how it turned out.

I finished it off by hot-gluing some yellow duck cloth to the back and orange ric rac around the outside. Then I wrote on the back with one of those ink pens meant for fabric. Finding my hot glue gun was quite an ordeal, it hadn't been used in years and was in the very last place I looked (ha, isn't it always?!).

It actually hurt a little to part with this, I was very much in love with it by the time I was done! I actually entertained the thought of making another one for myself, but there isn't enough left of the tree fabric for me to do that, what a bummer. Here's hoping Cori finds a nice spot for it in her home, I'm sure she will!

I'm linking up with Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday, go have a look around!

my sailor mouth

A few weeks ago my dad read the blog post I wrote about roadtrip stitching and wasn't impressed by my use of the "S" word. Oops. Who knew he might read my little ole blog about quilting? Go figure. "It isn't necessary," he says.
 

True, but in the case of Allegory's Sailor Mouth Swap it kind of is. We all had secret partners and were supposed to make one big item displaying some kind of obscenity, as well as a little something extra thrown in to sweeten the deal. My partner likes 1930's prints so I dug mine out and finally tackled an envelope closure pillow cover like I've wanted to try for so long now. Easy as pie!
 

I forgot to take a nice close up of the embroidery when I was done, but here's one I posted to instagram while I was working on it. I printed the words out, taped the paper to the window and traced them onto Moda quilter's muslin using a blue chalk pencil. Then embroidered using brown and pink pearl cotton.
 

The little extra was this pincushion I made using the left over strips from my granny square mug rug. While the pincushion is cute, I'd say the best part about the above photo is my fingernails! I've quite possibly kicked the nail biting habit, I swear those things used to be so awful I would specifically try not to show them in photographs on the blog. This is majorly big... seriously! We'll see how long I can keep it up :D
 

As for what my swap partner sent me, I couldn't have been more pleased! Lucy made a fabulously embroidered Johnny Cash hoop for me to hang in my sewing room, along with a rad pouch which has the most perfect stitching on it. I rarely have my shit together, so maybe this will help! She even threw in some scraps and a pincushion, the over-achiever!

I'm pretty sure Megan is starting back up with {sew} modern monday today, (fingers crossed!) so I'll be linking up with her in the morning. Whoo hoo! Also Sew Happy Geek and Plum and June.

And Dad, if you're reading this, apologies for the foul language. But the soft and delicate fabrics and stitching cancel out the crudeness, wouldn't you say? ;P

A mini gift!

By some freakish stroke of luck I managed to click on a post by Jen (Jen of all trades) within seconds of her posting it. The title "purging" caught my eye and I couldn't not see what she was talking about.

Turns out she was on a mission to get rid of things that were cluttering up her space, this little mini quilt being one of those things. I loved it. I wasted no time in claiming it as mine! It arrived a few days later and is now hanging on my office wall at work.

Eventually when I get my sewing room back it'll be hung up in there, a cute little reminder of how awesomely talented and generous my blogland buddies are. Thanks so much, Jen!