Swaps Goodies

Today I got my fall swap package in the mail.  I sent my partner, Kim, this fall table runner, some Halloween candy, and a wristlet key fob I made.

 

The leaf fabric has a linen look I really like.

Today the mail lady Donna drove up our road and delivered these goodies Esther is modeling in the photo…a cute pumpkin bag, a tabletopper, a Halloween mug rug and new mug, and candy.  You can’t see the chocolate pretzels because Esther has already eaten them all! 

Thank you, Kim!  Everything is lovely!

I also mailed out my block for my Block Swap Adventure partner Linda yesterday.  I never took a photo of the complete block, but here is the sneak peek.  She asked for bright colors.

I really wish I had taken a photo of the whole block.  It is by far the best one I’ve made for BSA and I think it turned out really nicely.  My points were all in the right place and not cut off for once!

Here are the three blocks I’ve received so far along with two I made myself. 

I plan to make a quilt for my brother-in-law in civil war repro type fabric once I amass enough blocks.

In the doghouse…

I guess my husband thought he was in trouble at home.  He brought these lovelies home on Friday, complete with a funny card.   Can you believe they actually make this card?

Truth is, my husband wasn’t in the doghouse.  We’ve just be plagued by colds and lack of sleep, so I’ve been a bit crabby.  We got out all our Halloween decorations today which improved everyone’s moods.  Esther was thrilled to hang bats and spiders on our front porch.  We don’t happen to have a mantle above our fireplace, so our piano is where I put a lot of our holiday stuff.

See those pumpkins in the bowl?  My mom and dad had a reunion yesterday and used a ton of mini pumpkins for decorations.  Trouble was, my mom wrote all over them with permanent marker.  So the girls and I spray painted a few with metallic paint we had in the garage and put glitter on a few of them. 

The fabric in the tablerunner is Pumpkins Gone Wild.  It is definitely my favorite fall fabric line of all time.   I have made several tablerunners either for swaps or gifts recently.

All sorts of swaps

I have officially entered into a few swaps lately—the Pink Stitches fall swap and the Block Swap Adventure—and then several informal swaps with blog and Etsy friends.

Just recently, the proprietress of Needle Little Balance swapped some fabric with me.  I sent her some mostly blue floral fabrics in exchange for some fabric she picked up on a holiday in France.   She also sent some goodies immediately snatched up by my two older daughters, some stickers and the cutest little sheep keychains that Esther promptly told me she “loved.”

Two of my closest friends were over the house the other day, oohing and aahing over the fabric.  It is very pretty, and I love the polka dots!

And, I received a package from Australia from Kat of Mumma's Time to Create.  It had a great assortment of some of the Aussie DS Quilts prints and other pretties:

I was on Flickr a few weeks ago looking for fabric that coordinates with a line of fabric my daughter Bea adores, Hanky Panky by Ro Gregg.  I happen to have some of it in my stash, but I was looking for any other pieces and lo and behold, I found a person with a blog and contacted her, hoping to purchase anything she had leftover, even scraps, just to have a few other prints to choose from.  She graciously sent me these fabrics from Canada for free!  Thank you, Jocey!

Finally, sometimes I sell leftover fabric on my Etsy shop.  A nice lady from WildOliveKids contacted me looking to buy some yardage of a DS Quilts fat quarter I had listed.  I ran out to my Joanns to get some yardage for her, and asked her to swap a dress from her shop for Bea for this Christmas…so this should be on its way to Bea’s closet next week:

I’d love to learn to sew garments, but my personal feeling is “too many quilts, too little time,” so maybe when I have grandkids…