The biggest needle book in the world

A while ago, I participated in the Scrappy Swap, run by Kat (Diary of a Flutter.Kat), with able assistance from Karen (Sew Peachey).  It was my first swap, and a really great one to start with.  The idea was to swap a FQ of scraps, a small handmade item and a small local item. 

My swap partner said her favourite colour was orange, so this was my initial fabric pull for the small handmade item:

I decided that the third print from the left had a bit much white in it to give the kind of rainbow effect that I wanted, so I used it as the lining of the needle book I made.

Umm, I'm not sure if you can tell from the scale of my embroidery scissors on the needle book, but it is the biggest needle book in the world.  Like 6 inches square.  That's what happens when you make things up as you go along, people.  Its also pretty floppy, because I only interfaced the exterior and not the lining.  On the plus side, you can fit a lot of stuff in the middle of it.  I know, I stuffed all my scraps and another FQ of fabric (my local item) into it before sending!

But, also this happens.  Improv piecing.  Sort of - the lines were all straight and ruled and I had an idea of where I was going with it.  Comments from my swap partner lead me to orange scraps and Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in black - it wasn't what I initially intended, but it worked so well!  I put another border of the same background fabric around this before it was finished, so the proportions worked a bit better.

I'm sorry this is such a crummy picture.  It was taken at night, with my phone, and then instagrammed.  I did take pictures of the exterior in daylight at the same time as I took the photo of the lining inside, but I don't have them any more.  I'm quite gutted, because I was pretty pleased with how this turned out (even with its enormousness and other imperfections), and wanted to show it off.

And what did I get in return?  Well, the person I made for also made for me.  Bree (My Crafty Crap) made me this super lovely needle book with teeny tiny EPP hexagons, and yellow, and hand stitching, and gnomes!  I love it, and I'm also looking forward to not losing all my needles anymore.

Bree also sent me some super lovely scraps, a cute little card case and a keyring from her home state (which was snapped up by an American-sports-mad guy).

All in all, this was a great experience, and I look forward to my next swap.  Have you had any swapping experiences lately, and how did they go?

Blogtoberfest - the last day

Phew!  We have reached the end of October, and I am very happy that I managed to meet my goal of posting every day for the month of October.  In fact, this post will be #36 for October - more than double the number of posts I had done previously!

I'm glad I decided to participate in this exercise - I found having a set goal (and an end in sight) really helpful.  I don't plan to continue posting every day.  I have, however, decided to set myself a few goals for the blog for the next few months:

• I would like to blog three times a week - I am thinking Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  If I have more to say, I will certainly blog more often, but otherwise, I think three days a week is manageable.

• I want to write a couple of tutorials.  One, a skills tutorial, for something I have done a lot of times and think maybe I have some tips that would be useful to others.  I know that seeing other bloggers' methods for doing things has helped me get started on projects I was otherwise intimidated by.  The other, a tutorial on how to make something I have designed myself, that doesn't require any special tools (other than the usual rotary cutter, mat, and straight ruler), and that uses fabric efficiently.  Yeah, gotta design that thing first...

• I have enjoyed getting to know more people out there in the quilt blogging world.  Thanks so much to everyone who has left me a comment - some of you feel like friends already (I think you know who you are).  I want to keep up with that, so will be looking to participate in more swaps, quilt-alongs, etc.  I am currently participating in the Scrappy Swap and am enjoying how active and positive the group is.

This is my selection of fabric for the handmade item for the Scrappy Swap.  I have started sewing, but I can't show what I have made yet, as it would totally give my partner away at this point.

Does anyone else set goals for their blog?  If you are happy to share, I would love to hear them.