Swappy stuff

Heart ornament swap.
Covered notebook swap. (Not my best work; I was in too much of a hurry to get this done before leaving on vacation.)
Home Sweet Home quilt square swap.
Home Sweet Home quilt square swap.

Baby quilt

I made this a couple of years ago and when I came across it in my quilt stash, I realized I'd never taken a photo of it. It was a kit that I purchased at The Quilt Asylum in McKinney, TX.

Echo quilted around hearts and stitched in the ditch, all by machine.

Cards

Machine sewn handmade greeting cards, for a swap.

Rose fabric, black lace, black eyelash trim, antiqued paper, all machine sewn to card stock. A bit frou-frou; I hope my swap partner likes it.
Animal print paper, black cotton fabric, faux leather fabric, all stitched to card stock. Lettering done by hand with black gel pen. I think this card could have used a bit more "dressing up," but I couldn't figure out what else to do with it, and I was afraid that anything else I added would look wrong, so I decided to err on the side of caution.(To complicate matters, my swap partner lives in Germany, so I didn't want to load up either card with a lot of English text! "RAWR" seems rather universal. ha ha)

Easy quilt block

Bright Hopes quilt block, made for a swap. Done in sapphire blues in keeping with the birthstone for this month.

Star ornaments again

Having abandoned my original design plan, I read through some quilting books over the weekend and came up with a better idea.

In The Quilter's Catalog, I saw Sue Benner's "Wild and Crazy Fused Ornaments" project. Her ornaments incorporated bits of fused silk, but I took a simpler route and used glittery quilting cottons, red on one side and green on the other. They are quilted and edged with gold metallic thread.

I kind of like the no-frills look of these, but using a more elaborate print or silks would definitely make them pop a bit more.

Embellished reusable bag swap

I actually came up with the idea for this swap! The challenge is to take a ready-made bag (I bought this one at Joann's for $1) and embellish it in any way you like. My partner's favorite colors are purple and green, so I used fabrics in those colors to make quilt blocks to cover the Joann's logo on each side.

Log cabin block with stacked buttons at the block center:

Irish chain block with a string of beads at the center (I should have used a darker purple fabric for better contrast in this block):And a couple of note cards to send along with the bag, just for fun. These are soooo easy to make, and they're a great way to use up little scraps of fabric.

Lovebird

I love this wee birdie. He's only about 4 inches tall. :) His front is a little pocket to hold love notes.

Tutorial at MollyChicken.