Sunday, March 4, 2012

Beautiful things have come my way

My Mouthy Stitches pouch, loaded with cashmere!

Tiina (Cottilello on flickr) sent me this beautiful little zippered pouch - my pouch from the Mouthy Stitches swap! The lining is a wonderful shot cotton orange. As it is the perfect size for carrying my knitting projects, I immediately put a project which is using a wonderful ball of cashmere and silk yarn inside - perfect.

Mouthy Stitches swap - wrapping

She wrapped this in the most wonderful fabric (does anyone know it?), I am going to have fun using it. And look at that ribbon, it is no secret that this package came all the way from the UK.

Mouthy Stitches swap - the package for me

Here is the package unwrapped. Even the perfect card, I love lavender and have many lavender plants growing at my summer cottage. Isn't that pouch beautiful - wonderful patchwork in some of my favourite Kaffe Fassets prints, beautiful quilting and it stands up by itself! Even a cute zipper pull.

The entire package for me - Mouthy Stitches swap

And here are all the scraps laid out, she really send a great selection. And there are tiny charms that say Handmade with Love" that I can use on gifts. And I am pretty sure that little blue and red print at the front is some very special prized Liberty cotton, which is my all time favourite fabric ever!

Mouthy Stitches has been a wonderful swap, I wonder what the next round will be?

Bee a {modern} Swapper - Beautiful pincushion for me

This beautiful rainbow pincushion also came to me late last week. It is from Lisa who blogs at A Day in the Life of Raising Six Munchkins. I received this as part of Bee a {modern} Swapper which is a group aimed at being both a quilting bee and a swapping group. The pincushion swap was the first event, and now we are making blocks.

Pincushion and little tray - for pin cushion swap

I sent that cathedral windows pincushion and tray off to my secret partner in that swap, I hope she likes them. I actually traded that lovely wooden button out for an even nicer vintage one but forgot to take a photograph of it. I used Kim at My Go-Go Life's tutorial for the cathedral windows pincushion which is here.

Finally, Mr. Random Number generator has spoken and the winner of the Leap Day Superior Threads Giveaway spools of thread is Alisa who blogs at Making More with Less.

Although I have not been able to respond to each of the comments on the giveaway, I was thrilled with the response and have enjoyed reading each comment. I have learned that most people quilt with neutral thread colours, white, ecru, natural, light grey. Some try to blend the quilting thread to the colour of the quilt, while a few are moving toward experimenting with colourful thread. Lately I have been working hard to see thread as a design element and making choices with that in mind - which still means that neutrals are going to be one of my top choices, but hopefully not all the time.

Across the Sea QAL quilt top

I am off to enjoy the day. I am having fun with all these swaps but today I am hoping to get back to the Rhonda at Quilter in the Gap's Finish-A-Long. I plan to start quilting my Across the Sea QAL quilt. It is all basted and ready to go and I have new grey variegated thread to use (yup, I bought more of Superior's King Tut last week).

Best,

Leanne


16 comments:

CapitolaQuilter said...

Both sent and received items are all wonderful. I want to drop everything and make the cathedral window pincushion - thanks for the link and inspiration.

Katy Cameron said...

Ooh, love the pouch you got, and those pincushions are both fab - I gave my mum one of those cathedral windows ones for Christmas and she says she's still looking for the perfect pins for it - oy!

Looking forward to seeing your ATS quilt finished :o)

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

Well you know it has been a pleasure having you in the swap, and I am so happy you scored a great pouch too.

Love your pinnie and tray, and can't wait to see your AtS finished xxx

Poppyprint said...

Yippee!!! What lovely gifts, both that you received and that you sent. Beautiful job on the cathedral windows pinnie and tray! Just saw that Hadley received your gorgeous pouch (you are so cheeky sending her those brown scraps).

Debbie said...

wow - what awesome swaps all around! Good luck on the finish - same thing going on at my house!

Sarah said...

Glad you got a good 'un :-)

Judith, Belfast said...

Oh what a beautiful pouch you got L! It was a swap so full of talent wasn't it? Love seeing your Across the Seas quilt again. Jxo

Katie said...

Ohhhh you lucky girl, that's a gorgeous pouch!
I'm sure your secret partner will love the pincushion & tray, they are both so cute!

Letterpress said...

Very very cool pouch from your swap. I loved seeing all the treasures that you received--like a little Christmas in March!

Wonderful quilt, and I can hardly wait to see it all quilted up with your King Tut. I, too, had a great time reading all the comments from all my commenters.

Elizabeth E.
opquilt.com

Marg said...

Oooh you received a lovely pouch and so many goodies too!
I forget when I am making something for my partner that I will get some thing lovely in return too. You did well with your lovely gifts.

Marg said...

Oooh you received a lovely pouch and so many goodies too!
I forget when I am making something for my partner that I will get some thing lovely in return too. You did well with your lovely gifts.

Nikki said...

Your pouch is lovely and the scraps look great too. Love the fabric the pouch was wrapped in. I've seen it somewhere recently but can't remember exactly where.

Your tray and cathedral window pincushion are gorgeous. I need to make one of those pin cushions now, it's stunning.

Lucy | Charm About You said...

Beautiful!! The pouch is gorgeous and both pin cushions look amazing :)
Can't wait to see your ATS quilted!

Rhonda the Rambler said...

Cannot wait to see how you quilt your Across the see. Love your pouch (I love your birdies she precut and your owl scraps). I also think your pincushion is adorable - both the one you made and the one you received.

Nikki said...

Me again, just remembered where i saw the labels fabric, it's by Red Rooster part of their Dressmakers collection.

www.randomthoughtsdoordi.com said...

Lucky you...the pouch is beautiful and all the stuff in it. Wow! And then the rest of your things this week, beautiful. Looking forward to seeing your Across the Seas quilt finished.