Myrtle the Turtle

Meet Myrtle* - this amazing little creature arrived at my house yesterday. When I signed up for the pincushion swap, I would never have imagined that I could have received such a perfect pressie, in all my favourite colours!

Christy from Little Betty Designs has crocheted an absolute masterpiece for me. I'm sure everyone knows how much I truly appreciate the art and skill of crochet, because I've failed miserably at trying to learn it myself.

I don't think I want to stick pins in Myrtle just yet in case she is ruined. I think she'll be joining the gaggle of merry critters that live in my bookshelf instead.

Christy also sent me a lovely little crochet brooch - the perfect accessory for autumn. Thanks so much Christy and Kate!

* When my siblings and I were very little, we had a babysitter named Myrtle, so of course we called her 'Myrtle the Turtle' (nothing else rhymes with Myrtle - right?)..... as soon as I saw my little turtle, I just knew she was a Myrtle.

SwapPIN'

I'm late, I'm late.... for a very important date!

After all the busy-ness of last week, I only managed to finish my pin cushion on the weekend, so I'll be on the doorstep of the post office first thing thismorning to send it on its way.

I'm doing the 'big reveal' early, as I'm quite sure that my swapee has absolutely no inkling that I was her swapper.

After stumbling at my first gung-ho attempt at this, I decided to tone down my crazy patchwork with a bit of soothing green. It was still missing a little something.... so some extra random stitching was required to get it over the line. In the end, it's a very super simple, little pin pillow design.

I've packaged up with some little pins and yummy chocolate. I hope my swap partner likes it!


A huge huge thankyou must go out to Kate who put in so much time and effort to organise such a wonderful (and rather gi-normous) swap.

Gung Ho

It's the way that I approach most things day to day.

I don't think about things too much.
I don't plan very far in advance.
I live in the moment.
I go with the flow.
I just DO.

Of course GUNG HO is not always the most successful way to do things. Case in point above.

In between some other projects, I decided that I would make a start on my pincushion swap. I'm not a patchworker or a quilter, but I thought it would be a fun project to make up a little patchwork of fabric scraps, to then use as the basis of my pincushion.

But then I remembered that I was supposed be creating something in a style that my swap partner would like..... and so I skidded to a complete HALT!

Whoops - it looks like I'm starting over.

Swapsies

All of my swap parcels have now been received so I can post some photos......

Here are the pincushions that I made for Fi and Michelle.... they ended up being a little larger than I originally intended......

This is the apron that I made for Hollie as a thankyou for the gorgeous beret that she knitted for me and the Hokey Resin Hairclips.

I also made a little matching potholder.....

Channelling or Coincidence?

Do you ever have one of those days where a really strange coincidence happens and it's just unexplainable........???

I decided to go through the stash lastnight to pick out some fabric for The Great Pants Challenge. I emailed Sherrin to get a couple of tips on fabric selection because I truly had no idea what I was doing......(thanks for those great tips and photos Sherrin).

I decided on corduroy because I knew that I had some in the stash from a recent shopping expedition..... and because Sherrin showed me how to match up the grain!

I recently joined up for a little pincushion swap with Fi and Michelle.... and in todays mail is this beautiful little pincushion from Michelle. It has my favourite colours, favourite print (floral of course), and corduroy (one of my fave fabrics)! The photo doesn't show it but on the front, the grain of the corduroy is perfectly horizontal, but on the back it's perfectly vertical...fab detail!
Thanks so much Michelle...I love it!

....and now for the freaky bit....this is the corduroy fabric that I pulled out the stash lastnight and left on my kitchen bench for today......

......only to discover that it's only big enough to make half a pair of pants (drats)!