Teal Mini Swap

Confession: I got sucked into swaps as of late. It is highly addictive. Buyer beware.

The month of September brought the Teal Mini Swap. This is a fun event organized by Beth Helfter of EvaPaige Quilt Designs to raise awareness and money for ovarian cancer research. Teal ribbons represent ovarian cancer (hence the name). 

Each participant paid $15, most of which went to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. Everyone received a piece of the challenge fabric, which was donated by Blank Fabrics.

We had a month to make a mini quilt or a mug rug for our swap partner, and we had to somehow incorporate the challenge fabric. Here is the mug rug I made for my partner, Jenny.

I happened to have a little kit hanging around with this pattern and fabric from Sew Lux. I thought this was the perfect time to use it, so I just swapped out the background fabric in the kit for the challenge fabric. It was really fun to make! 

I love the mug rug I received from my partner. She called it tumbling spools, and it's even quilted to look like thread. It lives right next to my sewing machine. Thanks Jenny!

The Teal Mini Swap is an annual event, so join the Facebook group. There is also an informational page here. I hope to see you there next year! 

September Stitch Tease

Hello! It's been too long...

I have only one excuse, and I think it's rather spectacular: Mr. Sexy Pants and I welcomed our own tiny human into the world in May! Needless to say, blogging has not been high on the priority list these past four months. Now it's time to play a little catch up. 

September marked the kick off of a new round of the Stitch Tease Bee. First up was Nicky from the UK. She gave us an awesome color palette and asked for any blocks inspired by Islamic art. She provided a great Pinterest board for ideas. Here are the fabrics I pulled based on Nicky's beautiful color palette, but I only used a few of them. 

I was really nervous to make these blocks; typically I like more direction and less freedom with bee blocks. In these cases I get nervous that they might not like what I make. As it happens, I'm quite happy with how mine turned out this time around. These are two paper piecing patterns that I drafted myself. 

I love how a very simple geometric block (such as the one that makes up one-quarter of this 2nd block for Nicky) can make such interesting designs when multiplied and placed together. I'm anxious to see this one done with more colors  to see how different shapes within the block can be emphasized. 

In the spirit of catching up, I must also include the blocks I made for our Stitch Tease Bee founder, Di back in June. She asked for intersection blocks made from a tutorial by Film in the Fridge. These were fun and fast to make, and I also loved her color palette. This will be a gorgeous quilt. 

We took a couple months off this summer, which was especially convenient for me after having the babe. I'm very excited that we've started up again, though. I look forward to making these blocks every month.