Crafty Goodness Swap = Happiness!

Today was my first official day of school. I got home after a day of teacher workshops and meetings to find swap mail. I joined the Crafty Goodness Swap over at the Magical Bean this summer. As a matter of fact, I just mailed my package out yesterday. It has a ways to travel but I'll try to post some pictures of what I sent later. When this package arrived today, I knew it was from the Crafty Goodness Swap and couldn't wait to see what was in it. Nature Girl was my official package opener. She was excited when she found this sweet owl book. It turned out to be a little cookbook with hand written recipe cards and more blank cards that can be filled out and attached to the pages in the book. Nature Girl called it as her very own since I have one she says. She was very happy and can't wait to add more recipes. Nature Girl got the recipe book but that's okay because look what I got. . . .

This amazing little quilt was made by Maria from Maria's Secret Garden. I just about screamed when I saw this! Maria chose these special photos from our blog and created this amazing keepsake quilt. I can't even begin to express how much this means to me. I immediately hung it up in the hall where I can see it and enjoy it everyday. Thank you so much Maria!! You put a lot of thought and energy into it and created something so special for us! We really LOVE it!

Of course Nature Girl got into the picture. Life wouldn't be the same without that sweet little face!

Show and Tell - Better Late Than Never

Here are some swap show and tells that are very late. Of course a bit late is better than never. So bear with me as I share some of the amazing things I've received over the last month or so.


Rosina made me the most amazing stationary wrap for the Gratitude Swap hosted by One Crafty Mumma. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this! Rosina was so creative to think this one up. I love sewing with felt. There is so much you can do with it. Thank you Rosina!!!

This is the inside of the gratitude wrap and the beautiful fall leaf bowl and acorn spreader Rosina set to me. I love them!

I can't forget this beautiful owl quilt Lori sent me for the September Mini quilt swap. The theme was owls and mushrooms. Isn't it brilliant! I love it. I have an owl theme in my resource room at school so he's hanging in my classroom. Thank you Lori, it's perfect! You can see the mini quilt I made for Lori here.


Christy from Mama Said Sew sent us a surprise package. Nature Girl got a book about an orange cat and stickers. She loves orange cats and wants Santa to bring a real orange cat for Christmas. Christy also sent an applique quilt magazine for me. I want to try making one of the quilts featured in this magazine for Nature Girl. At 4 and a half she has begun to out grow her little down comforters she's used since she was a baby. While I know she'll never give up her "Puffy" it would be nice to make a quilt that will actually cover her toes. Puffy's getting a little short! Thanks for the surprise mail Christy, we really enjoyed it!


Sarah from A Spoonful of Sugar sent a thank package to Nature Girl. We mailed Sarah a Sacajawea coin for her upcoming school project. Sarah sent these cute cookie cutters as a thank you.As you can see the adorable cookie cutters are Australian animals. There is a kookaburra, platypus, echidna, frilled neck lizard, kangaroo and a koala. We enjoyed talking about and looking up information on the animals. Now we just need to make some cookies now so we can use the cookie cutters! Thank you Sarah and Lisa!

I hope I didn't forget anyone. Thank you for the lovely swap gifts and surprises!!! My apologies for being late in posting my swap goodies. School has taken up a huge chuck of my life so blogging and crafting has taken a back seat for a bit. This trend is sure to continue for the next few months or longer.

Book Swap update and Swap mail

Crayon toes! So this is what Nature Girl is doing while she waits for the sign ups for our One Good Book Swap to end this Thursday. We have about 30 kids signed up right now. I hope to get sign ups closed and partner info sent out Thursday night. My grandmother is leaving rehab on Wednesday after having hip surgery for the second time in a week. It's a long story but we're glad she's finally on the mend. Nature Girl and I are heading to VT to spend the weekend with my Gram and get her settled in at home again. The plan is to have partner info sent out before I leave for VT but that might not happen till I get back on Sunday.
Nature Girl got a surprise package from Susan. Susan hosted the Strawberry swap at her blog Chickenfoot. Nature Girl was excited to get this surprise package.

Here she is laying on the cute monkey pillowcase Susan sent. the monkeys are holding fruit, ho cute?! Nature Girl insists she wants to use this as a blanket for her legs and climbs in the pillowcase like a sleeping bag! Silly girl! Susan also sent a cat stamp and a pretty little strawberry in the package. Thanks for the strawberry surprises Susan, she loves them!
These strawberry goodies came from Carrie. Carrie sent lots of strawberry goodness in this package! Nature Girl claimed the pink strawberry and we've eaten the strawberry candy. Yummy! She also like to pass out the coasters at the table when we eat dinner. Like some restaurants have coasters on the table, she feels we should use them for our meals. I don't mind, they're very cute! Thanks Carrie!I received this pretty little mini quilt as art of the Miniature Booty Swap 2. I love polka dots! My partner also sent along some goodies for Nature Girl too. Thank you for the beautiful quilt and goodies for Nature Girl. There are so many generous and kind bloggers out there! Thank you for making us smile!

First Day of Preschool

Nature Girl had her first day of preschool today. She wore a pretty white dress and went off to preschool with no problem. Really, she's a pro now after attending preschool last year. She didn't even mind that I was working and couldn't bring her. MB our friend and neighbor has been taking great care of Nature Girl for us and does the drop off and pick up at preschool three mornings a week. We couldn't ask for a better daycare situation for Nature Girl! She has handled the transition of me going back to work very well. It makes it much easier for me to work knowing she's happy and having fun with her friends at MB's house.

MB took these first day of school pictures for us. Wasn't that sweet?!! Thanks MB it makes it seem like I was there! The kids are lining up and walking like ducks to meet their parents at the end of the session.

She's growing up so fast! The time has flown by. This year it's four year old preschool, next year kindergarten and then in the blink of an eye college! But I'm not ready to think about that yet!


Yesterday I came home from school to find two packages. Did I tell you I love coming home to swap mail? Well I do, especially when it looks like this mini quilt! Isn't it gorgeous?!! Wendy made this beautiful mini quilt for me as part of DQS4. I love the color combinations, the fabrics and the quilting! I haven't been able to take a picture yet since I brought it to school to show some teachers who quilt and forgot it on my desk so I borrowed this picture from Wendy's blog. Funny thing is it looks like the picture I would have taken. Doesn't that look like my table that's in all of the pictures on my blog?!! Sorry, I digress. . .thank you Wendy for the gorgeous mini quilt and the Moda fabric squares. I can't wait to sew again!

Swaps and Thank Yous

It's been more than a week since I posted and we've had quite a few swap goodies waiting to be shared with you. I'll warn you now this is a long post. But hang on till the end for a fun swap announcement.I won a give away over at Life is a Musical. The talented Beth created what she calls "ugly bags" using fabric she got at a yard sale. I was thrilled to win one and I don't think it's the least bit ugly! Beth created this ugly bag to be used as a reusable shopping bag but I've been using it as a tote for all of my IEPs and special ed paperwork that I'm lugging around now that I'm teaching again. It's a big bag and I've filled it with paperwork. Beth was kind enough to send along a surprise for Nature Girl. She created a Nemo crayon roll with an elastic closure. It's perfect for Nature Girl who can't tie yet. Thank you Beth! Nature Girl has been enjoying drawing and coloring pictures this week.


I've been back at school but it was nice to come home to swap mail this week. When we received our August Mini Quilt package there was a sticker of a bird on the card. Nature Girl thought the sticker was for her and peeled it off the card and included it in this drawing.


It's a flower family. I'm the biggest flower, Nature Girl is the middle flower and her dad is the littlest flower. This picture is so cute . . . it just makes me smile!


This is the mini quilt that Ros made for me. Isn't it cute! The August mini quilt theme was hand stitched. She printed the picture on a special fabric using an inkjet printer then hand stitched the quilt. It turned out great! It's such a sweet picture and I love the stitched frame around the picture. Thanks Ros!
My mini quilts are temporarily hanging on my quilt line which is too full at the moment. I'm awaiting the arrival of my mini quilts from the Miniature Booty Swap 2 and DQS4 and then will find a permanent home for all of my mini quilts.

This is the mini quilt I made for Ros. It's all hand stitched and quilted minus the worm. I hand stitched one worm but I lost him and needed to make a second one so I cheated and machine stitched the second worm. I still haven't found the first little lost wormy. He must be crawling around here someplace. This is the back of the mini quilt. I made a pocket for the worm so Ros could take the worm out if she doesn't like wormy apples. Lol! I think he's cute!


Tracy sent us these goodies for the Russian Doll Swap. The doll is so sweet and she has three little dollies in her pocket that are actually finger puppets. Nature Girl claimed the pink one as her own. Tracy also included some lovely ribbons for me and goodies for Nature Girl. Tracy has a great blog sharing her animals, crafts and construction of her environmentally friendly home in Scotland. It's very interesting so go take a peek.


Nature Girl took this photo of her goodies. The cat in the basket wasn't part of the swap but she got it on a trip to a carnival with her Grandma and Papa this week so it had to be included in the photo. Notice the pink russian doll finger puppet tucked in the basket behind the cat. I love the little pouch with her name stitched on it. It came stuffed with beads for making a necklace or bracelet. Thank you Tracy!

This is the quilt I made for Lisa in the Miniature Booty Swap 2. I was so excited about this because for the first time I actually had mitered corners. I think I'm finally catching on to the binding thing. Yeah for me!
Lastly I wanted let you know I'm going to be hosting my first swap. I've had several people ask me about the swaps Nature Girl has participated in so I decided to host a swap for kids. More details to follow later this week so make sure you come back to check it out and sign up.

Swapping Updates and Thank yous!

We've had a great summer when it comes to swaps! I've been busy finishing up swap goodies and sending them off. We participated in the Mee Crafty kid swap this summer. We were partnered with Ali and her boys for the swap. The boys are dinosaur fans so we put together dinosaur themed goodies for them. We sent tee shirts, felt dino finger puppets, dino eggs, dino softies and cherry Twizzlers because they're Nature Girl's favorite! I used Clair Garland's pattern to create a stencil for the dino tee shirts but opted to design and create my own dino softies. I like the stegosaurus softie the best! Ali and Boys blogged about their goodies here. The pictures they took are very cute! Thanks to Ali and boys for a great swap! We had a lot of fun with this swap and it was our first international package. We blogged about the goodies from the swap here.

After a summer of fun adventures with us Adventure Bunny was sent off wearing her new costume and accessories. You can see Adventure Bunny at her new home here.

When you send a swap package out you get one in return. Adventure Bunny arrived at her new home the same day Nature Girl's new swap friend arrived here. Daffodil the bunny has since been renamed Daffodil Love Bunny and is seen here enjoying some ice tea. Nature Girl isn't usually allowed to sit on our table so she was excited that she could for the picture!


Daffodil arrived with a photo scrapbook detailing her summer adventures before arriving at our house. Daffodil has enjoyed lots of snuggles, ice tea and a trip to daycare since she came to live with us. You can see more about Daffodil in this blog post. This swap was through the Little People Swap blog. Thank you to Karah and kids!


I participate in the Miniature Quilt Swap. Each month you sign up and create a miniature quilt between 6 and 12 inches for your partner. I made this one for my July partner Solihubb. I received this beautiful mini quilt this week from her. Thank you Solidia, I love it!!! It's going to be hung up next to my desk at school.
This is the back of the quilt. The fabric is soooo cute! Nature Girl was trying to steal my mini quilt because she loved the fabric! No such luck, I'm keeping it!!

What I've been up to....

Word Girl, 2. July Birdhouse mini quilt, 3. Katys felt bird quilt2, 4. Katys quilt package, 5. Needlebooks, 6. Satin spider apron, 7. Halloween Apron, 8. Ghost apron, 9. Friendly Frankenstein apron, 10. Halloween aprons 2008, 11. Sewing kit bag, 12. sewing kit swap, 13. Felt Frankenstein & Ghost Pins, 14. Birdhouse quilt top, 15. Tooth pillow

Here are some of the projects I've been working on in July. The ghost/ frankenstein apron and Word Girl costume are staying here with us, but most of the other things have already been sent on to their new homes. See. . .even though I haven't posted much this month I have been busy crafting! I have a tutorial for the tooth pillow. You can download the Tooth Pillow pdf here.

Goodies

I missed my quilt guild meeting last week while we were on vacation. I had a friend bring the raffle gift, the gift for my secret pal and my block for the swap. This is what I received from my secret pal. The fabric is Michael Miller and the appliqué book and kit are perfect since I need to learn to appliqué in August. It's the theme for the August mini quilt swap and I already have my idea. I just need to to learn how to do it, so the book will come in handy! I sent the cherry note book and a cherry needlebook for my secret pal. I hope she didn't feel totally jipped! I'll have to come up with something better for my secret pal in August.

The block on the left is the block I received in the swap and the one on the right is one I made. I've been making two blocks, one for the swap and one for myself so I can see how much I've learned. I kept the wonkiest 9 patch block for myself and sent the better one for the swap.

Saturday morning we headed to our favorite thrift store. We haven't been in 5 or 6 weeks, so we were excited to go. It was a good trip! We found more kids books because you can never have enough, especially when you're a teacher. Nature Girl found a Dr. Suess flash light shaped like the fish from the Cat in the Hat. She was pretty cute wearing her felt Cat in the Hat hat and playing with her flashlight. I didn't take a picture of that but I did get a picture of my goodies.
I found a prim crow shutter, an appliqué quilt kit, some green corduroy and this frog fabric. It's on a roll and looks like it's a wallpaper border but it's actually a roll of fabric. I'd guess there is about 4 yards of the frog fabric. I thought it was cute. I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate it into a mini quilt. Any ideas? I was thinking it might look good with a strip of frogs across the top and bottom with some blue that looks like water for a pond in the center. I guess it could always be used for borders around a quilt.

A Few Quilts

I received this fabulous mini quilt from Beth for the June Mini Quilt Swap. I love the fabrics and the color combination. And this is my first hand quilted quilt. I love it!

This was my idea for the DQS4 swap but I'm not sure it's going to work. I wanted to include a house a tree and a bird in the quilt. I also added a sun and a mini quilt which will eventually look like it's hanging on a clothesline between the house and tree once I quilt it. I pieced everything together as I went but I think I need a lot more practice with piecing. It doesn't lay perfectly flat despite pressing as I went. The top of the tree really seems to pucker and I'm not sure I'll be able to quilt it with out it bunching. I was thinking of sewing around the edge of the tree and stuffing the pink portion a bit to take up some of the excess space. I guess the obvious thing to do is take a quilting class on piecing but that would require too much time right now. I could also learn to appliqué on the designs I suppose but it's too late for this one. Does anyone have any suggestions for better piecing with out puckering?

This was another attempt at piecing. I made the mini bird quilt for the May Mini Quilt Swap and thought I'd try it on a larger scale. The blue fabric ended up being a bit stretchy and really puckers up in spots so again I'm not sure I'll be able to quilt this one either. I had planned to add green and white polka dot leaves to the branches and wings on the birds. I also debated on adding a sun in the top left corner which made me think of Bob Marley's song Three little birds. You know: "Rise up this mornin', smiled with the risin' sun, three little birds pitch by my doorstep singin' sweet songs, of melodies pure and true, sayin', "This is my message to you-ou-ou:" Singin': "Don't worry 'bout a thing 'Cause every little thing gonna be all right." It's a great song but really I'm one bird short and I'm not sure this experiment in piecing will work. I should just learn the basics but instead I like to wing it and see what I can do. Sometimes it works and some times it doesn't.
I hope you are all having a great 4th of July weekend!

A Quilt and an Award

A Quilt:
This is the quilt top my quilt guild is making for the fall raffle. I volunteered to help sew the blocks together so Thursday I spent a few hours sewing with two other guild members. I was a little bit nervous about putting the quilt together since I'm very new to quilting. There was no need to be nervous, it was a good experience! We were able to get the top done. Each member who chose to participate made two blocks for the quilt. Since the quilt will be raffled off in the fall we used batiks in fall colors. The money raised from the raffle will be used to purchase new sewing machines for the local high school. They are in desperate need of working machines!


An Award:
I was excited to be awarded the Arte Y Pico award by Lisa at Spoonful of Sugar. Lisa and Sarah have a wonderful blog filled with crafty inspiration and yummy cupcakes, so go check it out. The Arte Y Pico is awarded to blogs that you consider deserving due to their creativity, design, interesting material and for their contributions to the blogging community. If you receive the Arte Y Pico you in turn bestow it on five blogs.
So I bestow the Arte Y Pico to these wonderful blogs.

• Im a ginger monkey: Katy has wonderful crafty goodness on her blog. I love her little character softies and her mini quilts. Katy's creations make the blogosphere a better place and children(and adults) around the world happy.
  
• One Crafty Mumma: Mel has a large variety of crafts on her blog. She has gorgeous scrapbook layouts, knitting, recipes and kid craft inspiration. We love Mel's microwave puffy paint recipe. Mel's children even blog their activities there.
• Attitude Changes Everything: Pattie has an inspiring blog that demonstrates how attitude changes everything. Having a positive attitude makes a difference! Her posts are inspiring and she includes quilty goodness too.
• Jovaliquilts: Cheri has a blog filled with quilting inspiration. She makes fabulous word quilts and quilts for Project Linus. What I love about Cheri is that she likes to encourage and help new bloggers. She's been a great help to me. Thanks Cheri!
• Yarni Gras!: Val at Yarni Gras creates beautiful aprons that inspire me. She also crochets and creates softies. Her daughter is a young artist with a blog worth checking out too. Curly Girl Arts.
  

These are five blog I really enjoy reading. I think they're worthy of the Arte Y Pico award so go check them out. And don't forget to check out Lisa's blog. Thanks for bestowing the award on my blog!



Arte Y Pico Rules:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each awardee has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award: http://arteypico.blogspot.com/
5. Display these rule

Rainy Day Sewing

It's been rainy here. So rainy in fact that we've sprouted mushrooms on our lawn. They're not desirable on a lawn but aren't they cute? Nature Girl really wanted pictures of them. As I grabbed the camera and headed out the door she said "Mommy take four, five, six, a hundred pictures." I didn't take a hundred but I took a few for her. They're so cute!

I finally started to sew the quilt for Nature Girl using the flamingo fabric Nancy sent. I decided to use one flamingo fabric on one side and the other fabric on the backside. I wanted to use fabrics that I already had. It seemed like a good idea at the time but I've used the fabrics I have that match and I don't know what else to add to make it bigger. I think it might have to remain a doll quilt.Using the scraps from the borders I sewed this kite quilt for Nature Girl's room. She wanted to turn on the fan so she could fly it. I explained it was just a decoration for her room. Orange and pink are her favorite colors and her room is painted with flowers, grass and a sun. This kite is will be perfect for her room, even if it doesn't really fly.

Squealing with Delight

As my husband headed out to check the mail this afternoon I told him to bring back a package with an apron in it. He came back from the mailbox with just a JoAnn Fabrics flyer. I was disappointed but thought maybe my apron from the summer fun apron swap would come tomorrow instead. Tonight my husband went to get the lawn mower out of the garage and came back with a package. The mail carrier left it by the garage. It was addressed to Nature Girl & I. We opened it to find two aprons. One for Nature Girl and one for me. Eeeeeeeeeeeeee! (This is me squealing with delight!) Afton sent the most beautiful aprons for us! Nature Girl was thrilled to have one of her own and I'm totally in love with mine! Yes, I'm wearing it right now even though I'm not in the kitchen and it's after 9:30 pm. I can't help it, I love it!!! Thank you Afton!

My apron is reversible. It's the stripe pattern on the back. It has the cutest U shaped pocket that ties in the center and has rick rack trim around it. My hand is covering the pocket in the picture so you'll have to trust me that it's cute.
I didn't plan the matching shirts but I did pick out our clothes today. I wasn't even aware that we matched until we were at the garden shop and the cashier pointed it out. We really match with our tee shirts and matching aprons.
I had my quilt guild meeting tonight. The potluck was delicious and the block swap was lots of fun. I used one of the pastel log cabin blocks I had sewn yesterday for the swap. This is the new block I got in the swap. Next month's block is a nine patch.

The fabric wrapped gift was this chocolate can filled with Lindt chocolates. The guild does a raffle each month. Tickets are a dollar each and the winner gets that month's prize. Then the next month the winner brings a new prize and the raffle is held again. It's lots of fun and the guild makes a little money. Since I won, I have to decide what to bring for the prize next month. Of course I also have to decide what to make with the blue fabric that was wrapped around the can.