pouch, pincushion and scrap swap - sent!

Hey there, look what I made! Kris of Duke Says Sew What and I decided to do a little pouch, pincushion and scrap swap and here's what I came up with.

For the pincushion I made another teeny tiny granny square, although this one is teenier still, those little squares measuring in at a half inch each and the overall cushion at 2.75 inches. Oh how I love tiny things! I've got one in the works for Nicole of Bold Goods (See? I haven't forgotten!) too, just as soon as I can stuff it and stitch it closed.

In my last post, I mentioned wanting to try raw-edge appliqué on my Hoop-la-la swap project. Having never done it before, I decided to Kris's pouch as a guinea pig, trying two different methods just to see what would happen.

I used geometric print quilting cottons and yellow duck cloth for both, but the one with the diagonal lines felt right to me at the time and was bigger, so I went forward with that one. Although I do plan on playing with the second version after I get my Hoop-la-la project done... which needs to happen tonight because the deadline for sendoff is tomorrow... eek!

I used cotton batting and washed and dried before construction so it would have that crinkled look. The dense, straight line quilting and frayed edges ended up creating a pretty nifty texture, I thought. You can't really get the full effect from these photos, which are a wee bit over-saturated. At any rate, I stuffed it with scraps from my bin, that black and white dot print in the first photo is what I used to line the thing, although I didn't seem to get any pictures of that before I mailed it off. Whoops!

Would it be fun if I started a Pouch, Pincushion and Scrap Swap group on Flickr? Would anyone be interested in joining in on such a thing? Maybe around ten-ish people, secret partners, rules and deadlines, etc. Small scale, nothing insanely complicated or time consuming. Could be fun I think. Let me know! EDIT: hitting the pause button on this until after the holidays, we all have way too much on our plates until then!

*I'm linking this post up with Amanda over at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday! I finished my Hoop-la-la project today but won't be able to blog about it (crazy busy weekend ahead!) so while I would have liked to link that, I'll link this instead!*

Sent from my iPhone

itty bitty grannies - a mini quilt

I'd been doing very well at resisting the urge to join in on all the granny square hoopla, started by Jolene (Blue Elephant Stitches). Find her awesome tutorial here. I loved everything about this block but knew I shouldn't start a new project when I have so many going already. Then Katy (Monkey Do) offered up an alternative strip piecing tutorial and I caved.

I wanted to do something quick and easy, just to get granny-squaring out of my system, so I pulled out some scraps left over from my 1930s quilt and pieced some itty bitty 3.5 inch blocks. I decided four was enough for me and made a little mini quilt, just for fun. It begged to be hand-quilted, so I gave that a go. This mini finished at about 8 inches square.

Nothing about this thing is perfect, obviously. I was pretty careless with all of it, just playing and experimenting and whatnot. The quilting stitches are uneven, and perhaps overdone. I put the sashing together all weird-like. The center of each side sucks in towards the middle, probably since the blocks are on the bias and the sashing is not. Is that why? Let me know if you have any insight.

Oh, and then there's that one block I accidentally trimmed the seam allowance off of. After a bit of cursing I decided to add some pink and call it good. It works for me. I like it. A lot.

Here's a look at the backside.

So, all in all I think this little guy is cute as a button and worthy of lounging about on my desk at work. Maybe I'll even set a coffee mug on it from time to time :D

Linking up with Megan's {sew} Modern Monday, Jenna's Manic Monday, and Elizabeth's Little Quilt Monday and Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday.