12 pillow talk swap, round 9.

I finished up my pillow for my partner in the Pillow Talk Swap last night!

I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out!  Although someone mentioned that it looked like molecules and now that's all I see.  Hopefully my partner likes chemistry! :)

I'll be packing this up with some other goodies and shipping it off to it's new home this afternoon!

p.s.  This also serves as a sneak peek of our new bedroom!  Still a work in progress but it's coming along nicely.

8 sewing progress.

I was feeling a little uninspired last week as far as blogging was concerned, so it was nice to take a little break!  It definitely helped, and I find myself looking forward to posting this week!  Just because I wasn't blogging doesn't mean I wasn't sewing though; I actually made a decent amount of progress on things.

I finished making hexagons for my PTS9 pillow and started joining them together!  I should be able to finish the rest pretty quickly.

I also made some progress on this Simply Color Ombre quilt!  It's all pieced, but I have some work left to do before I can quilt it.

I finished two more days of my Kawaii Winter Wonderland sampler!  Looking forward to later this week when I'll have time to work on this again!  I've really been enjoying seeing all the samplers pop up on Instagram (use hashtag #kawaiiwintersampler to add your photos)!

Here's my sampler so far!  I'm omitting the kawaii faces on the ornaments and such.  I think they're really cute but I think I'll be happier with it in my own house without all the extra eyes :)

In other exciting news... today is move-in day!  We're finally moving our stuff back into our bedroom tonight!  It's been 11 months since I've slept in there, so I am very excited about this!  It will feel good to have things back to normal again, and in a much prettier version of our bedroom!  Pictures to come soon :)

17 feathers.

This was the view from my cutting table this weekend, while I spent Saturday making a few of these gorgeous feather blocks from Anna Maria Horner's free pattern.

I've officially used up every last bit of my Chicopee FQ bundle (available at Pink Castle Fabrics and Stash Fabrics).  All that's left are the selvages, which I continue to save with no use in mind.  I think I'm going to have to buy another bundle soon, I don't think I'm done sewing with these pretty prints just yet.

I spent last night putting three of the six feathers that I made to use, making a knitting needle roll for a friend!  The needle roll is based off of one that I received from my friend Amanda!  I think she should make a pattern for it, don't you? :)  I used a black Sew Classics linen from Joann's as the background, and I love the way it turned out.

Since I didn't have any Chicopee left, I used a few random scraps and prints I had in my stash to make the inside.

 The prints coordinate really well with the feathers without being too matchy matchy.

Hopefully my friend will get a lot of use out of this needle roll!  I'm already plotting what to do with the rest of my feathers!

10 the prettiest swap package.

I had a different post planned for today until this gorgeous package arrived in my mailbox!  All of the hosts of do.Good Stitches decided we should do a private swap together this summer.  My friend Mary-Catherine put together the prettiest swap package for me so I just had to share it today.

I had met Mary-Catherine at Sewing Summit last year, and she is seriously an awesome person.  I was very excited to see her name on the return label as I love basically everything she makes!  This package was no exception!

I had suggested a mini quilt in my preferences, and received this beautiful Arkansas Traveler mini.  The colors match perfectly with our home!  Here it is on the wall in the kitchen.  I think it may have to stay in this room.

Mary-Catherine sent along some fun extras as well, I don't think I've ever received a package that felt more "me".  A journal with great typography on the front, shiny pink scissors in a blue leather case, some rainbow perle cottons along with some green ones, pretty fabric, mints, and a little bunny pin!  I love it all so much, right down to the ombre ribbon she had wrapped around the package!

If you're interested in swaps, there are tons of fun ones to join on flickr.  I have had really great luck in swaps and have honestly loved everything I've ever received!  I do think swaps between friends are the best kind though, and I really loved swapping with my do.Good Stitches friends!  Thank you so much Mary-Catherine for the beautiful package!

5 typewriter ipad case.

I hope you all had a nice weekend!  I spent most of my weekend quilting my triangle quilt and sewing up this iPad case for my partner in a swap.

My partner seems to love Melody's typewriters (seriously, who doesn't?!) so I had to add one to the outside of this case!  I was inspired by Amber's awesome cases, of course.

I used some faux suede fabric for the top panel, a Lecien Color Basics print for the outside and inner pocket lining, and some Modern Whimsy Circles for the lining.  The green matches perfectly with the heart on the typewriter print!

I used Faith's tutorial for the case with a few slight modifications.  I highly recommend the tutorial!  I would recommend adding an extra 1/4" or so to the measurements if you plan to use batting or thicker interfacing (I used canvas as my interfacing here) and you happen to have a 1st generation iPad.  Mine fits rather snugly inside.

I really hope my partner likes this case!  I've got some extra goodies to put together and then I'll ship this off to her.

7 PTS8 received.

I received my pillow from the Pillow Talk Swap last week from Ellie of Craft Sew Create! It is absolutely beautiful, and I could not be any happier with it.

I had mentioned that I wanted to use it in my sewing room, so Ellie decided to make some pretty spools out of FMF and Annie's Farm Stand fabrics.

 Even the back is really cute with the adorable covered buttons!

As if the pillow wasn't enough, she sent along some wonderful extras as well.  A charm pack of Loulouthi, some Aurifil thread and some cute stationary and notepads.

I was definitely spoiled this round!

 Thank you Ellie for being such an amazing swap partner!

27 diamond jewels.

I finished my pillow for the Pillow Talk Swap today!  

This pillow has been in progress for the last month or so.  I drew up my own jewel and diamond shapes in Illustrator to create this pattern, and used English paper piecing to create the fabric shapes.  Then I joined the shapes together and removed the papers, and stitched it down to the front of my pillow.

An extra row of quilting around the shapes finished off the front.

 I used one of my favorite Lotta Jansdotter prints for the back.

 I bound the pillow in a black pin dot to add some more contrast.

 This one is ready to be shipped off to my partner!

I've been thinking of making a pattern for this pillow and the diamond jewel shapes... so let me know if you have any interest in that!  Of course the diamond jewels could be used to make a quilt or something else as well.

12 happy mail.

Today I received the most beautiful mini quilt from my friend Jen of mj & co.

I met Jen through Instagram, and got to know her when I offered to help her pretty up her blog a bit.  In return, she offered to make a mini for me to hang in my sewing room!  I made the most random mosaic of inspiration ever, and somehow she translated my love of scrappy improv, wonky stars, Melody Miller typewriters, and Good Folks into this gorgeous work of art!

Oh yes, and we can't forget the straight line quilting!  I also love the text prints thrown in there!

Jen labeled the back using this cute notebook fabric.

And did a little FMQ outline around the details of the typewriter!  I just love that heart!

This has already made it's way up onto the wall, and it makes me smile every time I look in that direction!

I am so grateful for all the work Jen put into this mini quilt for me!  It is absoultely perfect.  And did I mention how great it is that we can find new friendships in something like Instagram?  Love that!  Thank you Jen for making my day today!!

10 a pretty little pouch for me.

As soon as I got back from mailing my PLP swap package yesterday, I found my own pretty little pouch in my mailbox from ambernoel!

Isn't it beautiful?  I love the gorgeous star she made, the fabric choices (herringbone!  FMF seeds!), the background fabric she chose, the colors, everything!  I also love the green zipper she chose.  I'd never put all of these colors together on my own, but they look so pretty here!

Here's a closeup of the star on the front, isn't it the prettiest?  I love that she made one of the points in the middle out of a different (but similar) fabric.

 She put some scraps inside of the pouch for me too.  How cute are those little matryoshka dolls?!

Thank you so much for the gorgeous pouch Amber!  I can't wait to fill it with some embroidery supplies for stitching on the go!

9 mini making.

I made a little mini quilt for my partner in the Pretty {little} Pouch swap last night.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute (the last day to ship is today).

I used a Premier Prints home dec print for the backing since my partner said she likes linen and this print has sort of a linen look to it.

I quilted it with straight lines on the diagnonal.  I've been practicing adding my logo with free motion quilting, it's still not perfect but it's getting better!

I'm linking this little mini up to Amy's Mini Quilt Party!

Here's the whole swap package together.  I used the backside of the denim that was used for the pouch as the sashing for the mini so they kind of coordinate without matching perfectly.

I added in some vintage trims, fabric scraps and zippers, and it's headed off to my partner today!

12 chevron clutch.

I stitched up a little chevron clutch yesterday for my partner in the Pretty {little} Pouch swap.

It's made of a purple-ish denim from JoAnn that I got forever ago, with the Premier Prints Zigzag in Ash in the middle.  I lined it in Lizzy House's Illusion in Orange from 1001 Peeps.

 I added interfacing and a layer of batting to give it some shape, and straight line quilted along the sides.  The gussets were added to give it a little depth.

A shiny black button on the front finished it off.  It came together pretty quickly considering I had drawn up the pattern in Illustrator just 10 minutes before.

This little clutch will be headed off to my partner soon!