Urban Home Goods Swap

Once again, I took part in the Urban Home Goods Swap (hosted on flickr). As the name suggests, it is a blind swap involving any hand made goodies for the home.

For round one I was fortunate enough to receive some gorgeous place mats made by Isa of Denmark. Would you believe, for round 2 I received even more goodies from Isa! This time she created some super sweet pot holders made from a mix of linen and blues, as well as a large quilted tea cosy. Isa sews so beautifully, and her choice in fabrics is spot on. Thanks Isa!


I had a tough time trying to work out what to make for my secret partner. In the end, I went with a Space Invaders cross stitch hoop.


I googled Space Invaders to find some images, and found plenty of screen shots to use as a guide. I drew up the different game components on some graph paper, and got stuck into the cross stitching!


I spent way more time on it than I expected, but I love the results!

I also threw in a crochet heart garland (so hard to photograph a garland or bunting, don't you think?). Hopefully my partner likes it all!

Sewing Machine Cover

Here it is - the sewing machine cover I made for Nova as part of the Urban Home Goods Swap.

I was inspired, of course, by the Denyse Schmidt Single Girl quilt pattern, but opted to make my own version of the circle that was small enough to fit on the cover.

When Ollie saw a photo of this yesterday, he called out "My O! My O!". I now have to make him something with the 'O' for Ollie on it :)

Urban Home Goods Received

I'm feeling very fortunate at the moment. Look at what I received in the post last week!

Four beautifully made place mats and a moleskin journal with gorgeous fabrics stitched to the front. Perfect for a quilt journal, me thinks. I can write down my ideas for new quilts, with block layouts and measurements, etc. Perfect.
This was all made for me by a talented crafter from Denmark, Isa. Thank you, Isa! I love them.

The goodies I made for my swap partner were posted late (but I used Express Post, so hopefully that makes up for it!), so I won't show you any pics til they've received it. Hate to ruin the surprise :)

(crappy photos taken on my phone)

Circle work

I'm really pleased with how my circle turned out (inspired, of course, by the circles in Denyse Schmidt's Single Girl Quilt).

I hope my swap partner likes it too!
The circle was easy enough to make, with no hiccups to speak of, but my mathematical skills failed me miserably when it can time to sash the block in more linen. I trimmed it an inch smaller than I needed it to be, and crookedly too! There was a good half inch difference in the two ends. Disgraceful! Not sure what I was thinking. All fixed now, and I hope to have it finished by the end of the day.

Wish me luck!

Oh, and PS: I've signed up to my sewing circle under my Ravelry name, LadyJo. Hopefully it turns out to be as useful a resource as Ravelry. I'm off to check it out again now. See you there?

new beginnings

Despite having a room filled with unfinished sewing, knitting and crochet projects, I started a couple of new things.

The first project is still on paper (albeit freezer paper), but hopefully I will start cutting into some fabric for it today. It's a bit of a sneak peak at what I'm making for my partner for the {Urban} Home Goods swap.

The other project I've recently started is some hexagon flowers for a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. They are quite addictive, so I've churned out many more than I thought I would since Saturday. I'm wishing now that I'd kept some of Miss J's dresses from when she was little so I could add pieces of them ...