Hi everyone..how are we all?
Ok, time for a little show and tell...I FINALLY finished my project for Mel's gratitude swap and it has safely arrived at the home of Tamar so I can now share the images here on the blog with you all.
Firstly, let me set the scene.
I saw the swap announced on Mel's blog ages ago and thought WHAT A GREAT IDEA and hey, heaps of time left before the mailing deadline. No worries. Plenty of time.
My 'swapee' Tamar had requested something pink/blingy/pearly. I had visions of pink satin fabric with pearl encrusted embroidered detail, all lovely and glamorous and sparkly and bling-y. Well let me tell you, the fabric in my head DOESN'T exist in real life in ANY of the fabric stores I visited.
And after searching frantically, and the deadline looming I started to panic. Not to mention I didn't really have a clue how to sew the damn thing. And then time ticked on and the deadline came and went - ooops.
Enter my lifesaver Janelle.
She pulled together the most delightful fabric wrap thingy for her own swap partner and she very kindly whipped up some instructions plus gave me a crash course in adding binding to a project. And off I went...stitching madly.
Here's the fabric wrap itself (yeah, i ditched the pearl/pink/bling idea and went with some pink and aqua fabrics).
Now, please take special note cause this thing took me forever! And it's all quilted, with little pockets inside, a place for a couple of pens and that binding is handstitched I'll have you know!!! And do patchworkers REALLY hand bind entire massive quilts!!!!!!!!!!!!! I SO admire them!!
So once the fabric wrap thingy (isn't Janelle a clever designer!!)was finished it was time to fill 'er up!
Inside I clipped some handstitched tags made from kraft cardstock and featuring simple handstitched designs.
And then I made four note cards with envelopes. Each design different ..
A glittery wing tipped butterfly..
and a few other designs..
and finally
And then I added in a writing pen, an address book and a few chocolate/jelly bean goodies and sent it on to it's new owner. No photo of the entire bundle :( I was so excited about getting it into the post finally that I forgot to take a photo of the whole thing.
Now, exciting news..a little birdie told me that this fabric wrap thingy (hopefully sporting a much more commercial and suitable name) may soon be released out there in patchwork land as a brand new Janelle Wind pattern design.
And chances of it making an appearance in a workshop at the @Home site are possible too - stay tuned..lots of talk going on behind the scenes at the moment...yay.
