Jackpot!

After every swap I participate in I say that I won’t do it again; but I always do. The last swap I joined was the Schnitzel & Boo mini quilt swap and you may remember the half circles I cut and started appliquéing. I can now reveal that I made this quilt, which I named ‘Over the Hills and Far Away’ for Amy. I met Amy at the Fat Quarterly Retreat 2012 and 2013 and it was just lovely to make something for someone I really, really like.

Over the Hills and Far AwayI sent her the mini with some extras but none of these were recorded here at Shark’s Dinner. That’s right, I was so excited about sending the package that I never took a photograph. Blogger of the year? Don’t think so…

Over the Hills and Far Away

The design of this mini was something I cooked up for a big quilt. I was going to do the backgrounds in greens and yellows and do the half circles in light blue. The fabric pull has been sitting in my cupboard for two years now but the quilt still hasn’t been made.

Anyway, let me show you now what I received in this swap and you will understand why I keep joining these swaps again and again. This one is a stunner and I feel like the luckiest girl around. Alison is one talented lady!

Tea with Kate Spain

As always, the photo bomber had to have his say too. I love everything about this mini: the colours, the fabric, the beautiful execution. I mean just look at the details:Tea with Kate Spain

The cake looks good enough to eat, doesn’t it? And look at the blackberries.Tea with Kate Spain

Tea, anyone? I’d love a tea pot like that. The FMQ is just incredible too.

Tea with Kate Spain

Little Miss Bossy-Boots tried to get me to hang it in her bedroom but I denied her the pleasure and have hung it in the sewing/craft room instead. I really would have loved to have it in the kitchen but I have no walls I can hang it on. So it’s joined the other minis on the wall and I love looking at it and being inspired by it. There were some extras too, a cute pink ribbon and some 3D stickers for card making but Little Miss Bossy-Boots got her little hands on those before I had a chance to take pictures (Hmm, I’m sensing a theme here). I definitely hit the jackpot here.

PS Oops, I’ve done it again. Sandy, aka Curly Boy, is organising a swap and I’ve signed up. If you’d like to join too, hop on over to his blog and fill out the form. You’ve got three days to do so!

 

Hurty Finger

That’s what I have after appliquéing many green half circles onto the background without a thimble. I’ve finally gone to find my thimble and am continuing the task with more pleasure. Only six more to go and then I’m finished.

I had to sew together two strips just to see whether it would really look the way I imagined it.

Green

It does.

A Little Bit of Green

I have signed up for another swap despite vowing never to enter a swap ever again after the last one’s disappointment*. Anyway, I couldn’t resist the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap and signed up. My partner likes green so I’ve hunted down almost every green scrap I own (ok, who am I kidding, about half of them) and have cut half circles in three different sizes. 40 different fabrics have been used and I still have more if I need them. I’ve always known that I like greens but didn’t realise that I had quite that many different ones.

40 half circles

Now all I have to do is appliqué them onto the low volume background. I may be a while.

 

*I wasn’t in the least disappointed in what I received; oh, no, I absolutely love the mini I received and enjoy looking at it every day as it’s hanging on my sewing room wall. No, it was the fact that after sitting for hours hand sewing and really putting my heart in it my partner didn’t even say ‘thank you’ or let me know that the parcel had arrived.