Isn’t it lovely? This was my little patchwork swap treat from my partner Clara (who has no blog). A little quilted zipper pouch done with some beautiful fabrics. And she sent me a big stack of patchwork squares. Here are just some of my favorite ones (the little black and white drawn vegetable print is fantastic–anyone know where it’s from?).

I sent out my little package today. I made a patchwork needlebook that turned out a little too big, so I hope my partner has lots of needles to store!

And of course she got a big stack of scraps as well. I hope she likes it (I’ll tell you who she is as soon as she gets it).

That’s it I’m afraid. I’m worn out from 2 whiny babies who don’t seem to need sleep.

I was lucky enough to be a part of the lovely “pay it forward” giveaway on Life in Yonder’s blog. If you haven’t heard of this little crafty exchange, the rules are as follows:

“I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week… but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.”

So please leave a comment and play along! I don’t know what I will make yet, but it seems I always have good ideas after Christmas is over (and the pressure off). It could be a little toy like the elephant I made for a new baby, or a little patchwork piece, or maybe one of those art quilts I’ve been meaning to get to. Who knows? That’s part of the fun. And if you are visiting via whipup, welcome! It was such an honor to have a one of my soft toys pictured on their wonderful site. If you stick around I might just have some pictures of Jack Sprat and his plump wife tomorrow. I finished them this morning!

These little babies are for the embroidered button swap that Ms. Greetingarts is hosting. This was my first idea and I’m very happy with how they turned out. I’m fairly new to the whole embroidery thing and I wanted to try something that was a little more detailed–something closer to drawing. I used the backstitch for the hands and the split stitch for the chopsticks. It sure as hell wasn’t easy. I pulled out a lot of stitches, but by the time I got to the fourth button I was on a roll. For the smaller buttons, which are a little under an inch across, I traced the design and for the bigger ones, which are just over an inch, I simply looked at the picture and embroidered freehand. This second method really worked well for me, though by the time I got to the last button (in last row on the left) I got cocky and thought I didn’t even have to look at the picture–bad idea. It’s pretty wonky, but oh well; I was hoping the little egg I embroidered would make up for it, but then it didn’t really turn out looking like an egg–more like a strange yellow piece of food, so I just put my needle down at that point. There are a couple of more picture of the buttons on my flickr account, if you’d like to see. This will be my first swap and I am ridiculously excited. We were only supposed to make 5, but that would mean making an incomplete set. Then you wouldn’t know how to use your chopsticks and we can’t have that.