♪♫Two Swans A'Swimming

♪♫ One marbled fabric, and a colorful-ul bag of beads ♪♫♪

These lovelies are from my Sparkly Chicken friend, Jacqui.  She made the swans for me for a "receiver's choice swap" that we're doing and included the lovely piece of hand-marbled fabric and the beads.  I think they're great!

And I have a mystery:  What do this,

 this,

and this have in common?  Bwahahaha!

More Swap Blocks Received

I have received two more blocks from the swap in which I am participating.

This cool kitty is from my friend, Candy.  She said that it's a portrait of her own cat.  I love the colors and the expression on her face.

These robins are from Cheryl in Wyoming.  I know that her spring is probably not a lot warmer than our spring here in Wisconsin, so I appreciate the hope that the robins bring.

Cheryl also sent along this adorable chick for a birthday present for me.  I love the fabric she used -- sooo cute!

Swap Blocks

These are the blocks I sent out.

The theme for this was "Mexican fiesta."  I went for a Mexican tile look. I used my own hand-dyes for this.

I designed it in EQ7 and played around with the colors until I was happy.  It was tricky, but not impossible to piece -- the corners are like Lemoyne stars.



I have always loved Mexican tiles -- someday I want to live in a house that has stairs with tiles set into the risers.

I had a little fun setting this block into virtual quilts.

This is just a plain straight set with borders.  I absolutely love these colors.

This is the same block set on point.

This is the original block set on point alternated with the same block in a different colorway.  I think I like this one the best.

And one more with alternate colorways.  I like the way the red lines connect with the red "tiles."

This block was for a teapot theme -- I thought about making a bunch of tea cups, but when I found this fabric, I knew it just had to be a teapot.The colors were supposed to be blue, white, yellow, and green.   I used bits of my own hand-dyed fabrics for the background, spout, lid, handle and base.  The main part of the pot was fussy cut from some Jason Yenter Camelot fabric.

When Pigs Fly Into My Mailbox

I have been participating in a block swap with my Sparkly Chicken friends.  Yesterday, my first block arrived in the mail.  A pig on point!  With wings!  Made from bright pink hand-dyes!

(Please forgive the thready mess on my design wall.)

It's a Fat Cat design.  And it came with this adorable embroidered hippo.  My friend, Beth, who lives in South Africa and blogs here made the pig and sent the hippo.



The story that came with it is "A Hippo Swallowed a Girl."  There is lots more information about it here at Tambani Textiles.

For January, the block I sent out was supposed to have a beach theme.  So what is better than an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini?





Only trouble was, I had envisioned a red bikini with yellow dots and couldn't find anything in my stash of dots and spots like that.  Which is really surprising because I've been collecting spots and polka dots for years.

  So I took some red with white polka dots and colored them yellow with Tsukineko inks.  Then I fused the pieces onto the beach background and stitched around the edges.


This month, my mission was a "Happy House" block.  the colors were supposed to be blues, yellows, greens and purples.

I took a house block from EQ7 and played around with it until I was happy and made this:

I used some of the fabric from the flour-resist experiments for the front walk.  And because it was for a Sparkly Chicken friend, I had to add some chicks and chickens.