Bee Sewcial Swap

A time or two before, the members of Bee Sewcial @beesewcial have had a celebratory secret swap, as a fun way to gather together online, and we enjoyed our latest last week. I had gotten Felicity's @felicityquilts name to make a gift for, and I made her a Pop Open Pouch, pattern by Aneela Hoey.

This is one of my favorite pouches to make, and I was so happy with the fabrics (and that zip!) I was able to find in my stash for it.

 

And yes, I put it in a hand-made lined drawstring bag, using the tutorial by @sotakhandmade.

Leanne @shecanquilt made me a gift - a lovely patchwork bullet journal sleeve, complete with journal and a pretty pen slipped into the back zipper pocket. The patchwork was done with beautiful Essex linens, and the lining our own Bee Sewcial fabric designed by our former beemate, Kari Yates.

I love it, and it will definitely be put to good use! 

Bee Sewcial Holiday Swap

Bee Sewcial had a fun holiday gathering over zoom this week, where we swapped handmade items we'd sent to each other in the weeks leading up to our 'party.' Let's just say, it was a very good swap!

From Karen @capitolaquilter, I received the most beautiful quilted bucket. I adore her fabric choices - the lining and cuff one of my favorite fabrics ever.

The bucket is machine-quilted, and then along the top, Karen did some lovely hand-stitching.

The construction of the bottom intrigued me!

Lucky for us, Karen has written a tutorial for this darling Beginner Friendly Quilted Bucket Tutorial! I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

Aren't handmade gifts just so precious?

Meanwhile, I was assigned to make something for Stephanie @spontaneousthreads. I made her a large Split Pouch, using the pattern from Carolyn Friedlander, with an Essex Yarn Dyed Metallic for the exterior, and for the lining, a long-stashed Suzuko Koseki fabric. 

Just for fun, I made a tiny pincushion and needle book from the quilted pouch scraps. 

And a new touch was to use leather for the zipper tabs.

I quilted the outer fabric onto Soft and Stable with Aurifil 28wt [Wine], and I really enjoyed the contrast, with a zipper to match

Both the snaps and the made bias tape on the interior were in black, to coordinate with the black in the lining print.

The zipper pull was made from leather lacing, and I added a checkerboard label from Sarah Hearts to the pincushion, just another black and white detail.

Well that was a lot of fun. I love the gift Karen made me, Stephanie seems plenty happy with the gift I made her, and we had a very enjoyable zoom. I'm grateful for creative friends, that's for sure.

Exchanging Whispers

When I had received all my swap blocks from my Bee Sewcial mates, it took me a bit to decide what to do with them - each 5-6", low-volume with a pop of color.

What I finally decided on was a loose smattering of blocks surrounded with randomly-placed low-volume scraps. I set out to make something that sounded fun to puzzle together, and something I personally would enjoy cuddling up with, as this one - a gift of sorts from the entire bee - was definitely one to keep for myself.

As I pieced, I inserted just a few striped strips for a bit of added interest. Otherwise, I pieced sections to fit as I went.

For quilting, I braved it and free-motion quilted, using a half-dozen basic patterns, choosing as I went what would go in my self-defined sections.

As with my recent Colorless quilt, I found this very low-volume quilt with its dense quilting difficult to photograph. Even when the light seemed right, everything seemed to blur together. Interesting phenomenon.

Finishing at 46" x 48", this one was fun to make and a notable memento of a really special group of women.

This project was on my Q3 Finish-A-Long list! Linking up with Finish It Up Friday, Scraptastic Tuesday, and 2016 FAL Q3 Finishes Link-Up.