The Urban Home Goods Swap--Round 2!

The spoils of swaps! Many thanks to all of the folks who participated in this round of the UHG swap. It really is amazing to page through and see all of the goodies created by this talented group!

I received my swap WAY early. Darci was just too fast! Can I please explain to you how much I adore this bag? Linen, Momo's Wonderland, AND those fab red bamboo handles? Killing me! I use it as my new book bag for work--and I get tons of compliments on it! The Flea Market Fancy pincushion? Almost too cute to use--ALMOST! It's become a sweet little staple to make handsewing hexies even more enjoyable. Darci, I cannot thank you enough!!



For my own part, I hemmed and hawed. I stacked and restacked fabric. My partner's color choices screamed autumn, and boy, was I ever ready for something that spoke to cooler temps! She (being Mary, aka Sewing Geek, of October Eight) had asked for a small throw that worked with her new living room colors of green, spice, and dark brown.


Ultimately, what I came up with was a Birthday Cake throw, using another pattern from Elizabeth of OhFransson!. Love that lady!

That would be my hubby modeling it for me. The whole quilt was pieced from my stash. Mary has similar taste in color and designers, so once I got started, it just flew. For me, that's saying a lot, since I typically sew at the speed of molasses in January. From cutting to sewing the binding, I think it took me maybe a week? As I said, fast! I really love this pattern, and can definitely see me using it again in the future.

PS--don't forget to stop back next week--there will be a bunch of give-aways here all through the month of October. Help me celebrate my birth-month in style!

Oh, what a mess!!

My husband thought he was being funny the other day. A friend asked where I was, so he took a picture of my stash, and said "Well, my guess is she's in here. Somewhere..."



Heh. The man has a point. What a mess! Pretty, though.

Anyone want to share the method to their stash madness??

Unplanned absences?

Wow. Where the heck has September gone? I've been busy, honest! Swaps, bees, and lots of planning for upcoming projects. We've had the strangest weather the past few weeks here in CT. Hot and humid, cold and almost frosty, more thunderstorms in these early days of autumn than we had the whole hot summer. Very bizarre. Those few chilly nights, though, have been enough to put me into hibernation mode--all I want to do after work is sleep! Though that could be because those warm, humid nights in between keep me awake! As my mother would say, sometimes, you just can't win for losing.

In any case, I can share a few things with you while I'm caffeinated enough (I hope!) to string together coherent sentences.

I'm caught up on my bees...

August for Coast to Coast Block Party, for Bibi:


Bibi sent us some of her amazingly gorgeous scraps (serious scrap envy over here!) and had us use Elizabeth's Map of the States tutorial to make up her block. It was a great learning experience--I've been an admirer of the technique for awhile, so it was great to try it out on a smaller scale. Bibi was definitely smart to spread the love on this one, to get enough 9" blocks for a quilt for her little guy--it was labor intensive. Definitely worth it, though, I think.

Also for the C2C Block Party bee, for Wendy's September block, she asked for house blocks. I chose to freestyle, so there's a little wonk to it. I still get a kick out of the stripey door!



And for my Beehiver Angela, a simple square-in-a-square block, which she'll put together as a bento block quilt once she has everything back!



Stay tuned--I have swap pictures queued up from the Urban Home Goods Round 2, and starting in October, there will be give-aways! (It's my birthday month, and really, I can't help but share the love!!)