Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Teal Mini Swap Blog Hop



Did you know there was a mini or mug rug swap to raise funds for ovarian cancer?  Did you know it raised over $2000 this year, doubled the participation of last year, and included quilters from 46 states? 
I want to give a shout out to thank fellow Island Batiks Ambassador Linda Pearl at One Quilting Circle who shared the info and link on the Ambassador Facebook page.  (Stop and check out her blog post, she's giving away fabric).  A few of the Ambassadors decided to participate, and I do hope you follow Eva Page to get info about the swap for next year.  

Beth of Eva Paige Quilt Designs created this swap.   For a small donation, you receive info about your swap partner and a piece of teal fabric from Blank Quilting.  The fabric must be used, in some way, in the piece you make, and you can add any other fabrics you wish.  

In my case, my partner, Diane Austin, also loves purples, blues, and teal, and was happy with either a mini quilt or a mug rug.  I did a little Facebook sleuthing and discovered she also was a member of the Vintage Sewing Machine Group, and Quiltville's page (Bonnie Hunter).  So, since I'm an Island Batik Ambassador, I picked some of my favorite colors from my IB stash to mix with the teal I was given.  Some even came from the newest box; colors and designs that will preview at Market in a few weeks!  They won't be in stores until January.  What a tease!!

I'm also prepping for a blog hop for the You Can Quilt book.


You'll hear more about this great book from me on Friday, but I LOVED the Circle of Geese block (see the top center photo in the above button?  Isn't it cool??)  I'm fairly new to foundation piecing, so I decided to do this block with a frame of awesome Island Batik teal and purple paisley from the Meadow collection for a mini quilt.  As I was working on the piecing (on my Featherweight), I saw a few papers I had printed featuring Bonnie Hunter's Wild and Goosey blocks, and decided to use that for a mug rug size, with leftovers from the Circle block.  These became Foundation Pieced blocks #4 and 5 (if you count the 4 squares in the Circle block as 1 project).  I also crocheted a spool pin doily for a vintage machine.  I love using them on my machines.  (The doily replaces the red felt disc, protects the top of the machine and allows the thread to feed evenly, and just looks adorable.)  I used a purple and white cotton string/yarn.  

Diane and I have been in contact, and both of us had outside challenges.  I greatly appreciated her patience with me, because my project was not ready to mail by the deadline, but she should have it by now.  I had a slew of custom orders lately, and was dealing with my own cataract surgery (I should get the new contact lens today, and then I'll be seeing great in both eyes.  Without the lens, my left is 20/400, which is what I've been dealing with since September 3rd.)  And my father's stroke.  I went to NY for only 3 days and ended up staying 6 because he was released from Rehab, and once I got there, realized I had left the background fabric in PA.  Although I had the rest of the pieces to work on this, I couldn't do anything without the background!  And yes, I do travel with my machine and projects.  Luckily, Dad's doing fairly well, and is home recovering.  He should be back to full strength soon.  
Circle of Geese with teal and Island Batik fabrics.  

With the matching mug rug.

For more photos of the minis and mug rugs sent, please visit the Teal Mini Swap 2015 group page. And sign up to follow the page, so you can participate next year.  The swap coincides with September's Ovarian Cancer awareness month. 


Thanks so much for visiting!  If you're new to my blog, please sign up for emails (on the right side) and come back on Friday for a chance to win some Island Batik fabric.  And if you can, please follow my Facebook page, Mary Mack Made Mine.  I'm almost at 325, and will be giving away a prize for my followers soon!  DO sign up for the Teal Mini Swap next year! You'll be glad you did.

Maryellen

2 comments:

MissPat said...

That's Eva Paige (not page) and you should all check her out. She is a hoot with a terrific sense of humor and a laid-back attitude.
Maryellen, I hope your run of challenges is over and you can get back to normal (whatever that may be) soon.

Leila said...

Beautiful! The Circle of Geese block was the one that got me motivated to learn how to foundation paper piece. It is always a winner.