Scrappy {Hoop} Swap - Love Wins

Back in October, when I signed up to my first swap - the Scrappy {Hoop} swap - I really didn’t know what to expect.  I was deeply touched that people would take time to craft a thing of loveliness and then send it to someone they may not know (or indeed ever meet) out there in that boundary-laden, physical world of ours.  

I knew I wanted to join in.  I like anything that embraces and exploits the lack of geographical boundary here in the Blogolopolis.  

And frankly, who wouldn’t want to get involved when something like this arrives, from jennirc, all those boundaries away, in Texas?

thank you Jenni.

At this point it may not be entirely cool to admit that I’ve never really subscribed to all that “It’s better to give than to receive” stuff.  I know I should, and in many ways I do ... ish.  But, I’m so happy I took part and I genuinely zoomed in on the pleasure I had from making the hoop for my partner.

Whoa! **insert sound of stylus screeching across vinyl**  

Was I mad?

Opening up that Priority Mail envelope, ripping through that beautiful rainbow stripey tissue paper, prising open that ziploc bag and revealing something that had been made with great thought just for me … ?

... Blissful.

So now I've moved along to 

“It’s really great to receive if you have given”

 ...  we're making progress ... 

Love Wings

My Creative Space #11

I’ve been off work all week with this dratted migraine/gastro virus, so sadly my space has not been very creative.  I’ve only left the house to go to the doctor, so plans have gone a little awry …






Have I posted my giveaway cushion? 
Nope












 

Have I posted my Scrappy {Hoop} Swap?
Nope














Have I posted my Pay it Forward giveaway?
Nope













Have I sat in bed and sewn a little birdie pincushion?
Yup










Ho Hum – thanks for popping by ... you can dock with the creative space mothership here 

- I feel another little sleep coming on …  see you in a day or two …

Scrappy {Hoop} Swap - sneak peek 2 - {Blogtoberfest #25}

 

… so this is where we left off …

… bit more of a reveal

• The bird is cut from Alexander Henry “Willow Wren” birds
• The branch is cut from Michael Miller “Bird Swing”
• The leaves are the Donkey tails from another Alexander Henry fabric

The “Are we there yet?” is from Michael Miller’s ‘Dysfunctional Family’ 
I thought it reflected our little crafting circle !

Sunday afternoon – no time for a nap!

… finished-ish front

I think my awful embroidery just doesn’t do it justice. The pieces were way too fiddly for my big sausage fingers, and the weave on the linen way too big to be able to take small enough stitches without fraying everything dreadfully. 

… but we said scrappy, right?

I’ll do a full reveal later in the week

It’s growing on me … hope my partner will feel the same way!

I’m not going to jazz up the hoop, I think au naturel goes with the linen

What do you think?  Be honest!

Scrappy {Hoop} Swap – sneak peek {Blogtoberfest #24}

I’m so excited to be taking part in my first ever hoop swap … it’s organised by the brilliant & amazingly organised Kerri @ sewdeerlyloved/lovelylittlehandmades & Heather @ alamode.  

There are so many gorgeous hoops and mosaics on the flickr group (you really should go and have a look!) … that I thought I’d better get my @ss in gear and put some time in for my partner.

… fussy cut … discard … fussy cut … discard 

-- repeat until thoroughly demotivated --

 
 

I had a really hard time keeping things simple – at one point my raw enthusiasm made me attempt several different projects at once, all on the same poor piece of fabric.

Then … I feel slightly queasy even typing this … I was forced to admit … [in this case] 

Less is More. 

There’ll be other hoops to swap.  I don’t need to put everything in now. 

So, I gulped hard and pulled out 3 or 4 fabrics I thought would work best with the base  (a fantastic heavy linen I bought over 10 years ago at Capsicum - a wonderful shop in Amsterdam).  Then I searched for some suitable selvage snips to write a message for the back of the hoop, and got to work.

It all came together quite well and then I had a bit of a bondaweb nightmare - I’d already cut the teeny tiny little fabric pieces ) but all was just about ok in the end.  It's going to start fraying just as soon as I start embroidering, but hey - it says {Scrappy} right?

There’s still some embellishment to do, but it’s pretty much there now

… stay tuned … 

My Creative Space #8 {Blogtoberfest #14}

This week my creative space is a bit

secret squirrel pic from here

... because I'm all signed up for the Scrappy {Hoops} Swap* and I'm finishing off my Rainy Saturday in Brighton giveaway (you've still got until 2pm Friday - irrespective of time zones - and I'll draw the winner Saturday morning UK time)

*I will be giving you [my secret squirrel swap partner] a tantalising little peek over the weekend though ... heh heh heh ;-)

I've had such a busy week at work + all the other stuff, that I have a serious amount of catching up to do; I've probably sewn a total of 1 hr this week - marking sucks!

Hurry on over to Kirsty's for some much more public creative spaces though ...