Phew, perpetual motion and now some rest????

I think I'm in for a busy several weeks  months. I just finished with my Sewn Spaces Swap and sent, and my partner received, (and really liked) her sewing machine cover. It was for Marjory Peck at Pecks Pieces. She has christened it Stephanie's Garden and she added the 2 little flower pins I also made for her to the cover which I think is brilliant. I was thinking she would wear them, but as long as something is wearing them, I am good! Head on over to her blog and see what she said. You can even see my cover in it's new home.  With all that behind me and with another swap staring me in the face, I began my Goodie Bag Swap. It's a bag (the Bag part of the swap name) for a secret partner (that you get to find cool things about) and a "zip-lock" bag of fabric scraps (the Goodie part of the Swap name). You sign up for your bag "level", I chose the "expert" level (anyone surprised??? anyone???) and off you go. I couldn't find "the bag" I had in mind, so, I made my life more difficult, made my own pattern. This is what I have to show for it so far.

Goodie Bag Swap in progress

There will be more later on this project- that's all you get for now. And in the midst of it all, my almost 13 year old, who sews herself, who I dragged along to my Quilting Guild Meeting last Saturday, asked me to make a Mug Rug for her. I guess I've been talking up my Mug Rug from Susan Phillips, and using it every day. So, I dropped everything nicely cleared everything off my sewing table, and, because it's almost her birthday, and, because she likes cupcakes, made her this.......

The stitching says, "You are  my favorite cupcake"

And then I started thinking, if we do something for her birthday, it would be nice to have" a little something" for the young ladies that attend- I started making these.

I mean if my daughter liked her Mug Rug, her friends will probably like one too..... all this in the midst of receiving the fabric from my Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge partner.....

The fabric from my partner is on the right (4 purples of different hues). I added the left stack of fabric and the green Farmdale by Alexander Henry

I chose the Dare-to-be-Different Quilt Pattern by Karrie Winters, featured in the current edition of Stitch Magazine, and I started by cutting all the fabric into strips (2.5 inches wide) with the following changes: (left to right)

1. I kept the Deep purples, deep purple

2. Mid tone purples are also the same

3. Pale purples are now pale blues

4. The dare to be Different Red is Turquoise

5. The pale grey background is Alexander Henry's Farmdale in a lovely green print

This quilt will be going to Romania and given I cannot keep light colored anything clean, I figured that having a darker color in the background would be prudent. I will strip piece the back in mostly solids using the turquoise again, a dark solid purple and whatever is left from the Farmdale. 

I did also have a bit of time to post some things I have been working on at Jenna's Sew Happy Geek blog and she was nice enough to recognize me (again)- Jenna- thanks!! Guess what she featured (I'll give you a hint- it's featured prominently in this post)........ some of the Mug Rugs I've been working on. Fancy THAT!!!!! 

Off to sew my projects in waiting. Wish me luck.