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I have aqua and red on the brain today – and I will admit freely that I was a little naughty in order to have this. You see, someone dropped out of the swap after I’d already allocated everyone partners. I’d intentionally kept myself out of the spreadsheet in case that happened. So I inserted myself in the Table Runner/Wall Hanging Swap. Then I paired myself up with Shanna, my good friend from Fiber of All Sorts.

I know that sounds awful – and it kinda was because I knew what kind of beautiful designs she’s capable of. But I also didn’t want to give a stranger the pressure of making a wall hanging for the Swap Mama. I figured it’d make anyone but Shanna really nervous. (It might have made her nervous, too, but she never complained. Thank you Shanna!)

So here she is, in all her beauty:

It’s HUGE!!! That orange thing is the size of a chocolate bar. I LOVE IT!!! We are taking the painted picture in the living room down and putting this up – this isn’t a quilt, it’s a work of art. It’s so beautiful I nearly cried when I opened it up. And she also got me very thoughtful extras:

She knows how much I love birds and sent me a whole yard of this Michael Miller bird fabric. I’ve decided I’m gonna make a big sample handbag out of it, so I can carry all my stuff to class in it and use it all the time. Plus the fat quarter of Ruby by Bonnie and Camille is partly being used in a charm pack handbag pattern I’m writing, and I’m gonna stash the rest because it’s so pretty. She got me sweeties and a fabulous Clover seam ripper. Talk about spoiling me!

And I have an aqua and red finish of my own. You guys know I had surgery on my right arm. So when I was well enough to start sewing again, I decided to make an easy lap quilt just for me. My mum had brought my FQ Bundle of Sugar and Spice by the Quilted Fish over from the States back in March and I’ve been smiling at it ever since. So I decided to use it:

I think I started with 42 9″ (You’d need 10.5 Fat Quarters) squares and made HSTs. It’s a bit random which is how I like it. I did super easy quilting by stitching in the ditch and then stitching 1/4″ away from the diagonal lines in red and aqua thread:

Which makes it very soft. I pieced the back using whatever scraps I had on hand:

And made sure I pieced in my quilt tag – if you want some quilt tags like mine, check out this post. .

I love my quilt tags – 50 years from now, my grandkids will know who made this quilt, when, and why (after I write it on in fabric pen, of course!)

I’m pretty happy with it. It’s living on the couch right now, but I’m thinking I’ll take it up to my bed soon.

Oh hey, if you’re in the UK and looking for Xmas pressies for your family to give to you, Mandy of www.SimplySolids.co.uk has a MASSIVE pre-cut sale on right now:

I already ordered a Terrain Jelly Roll for the Outlaws to give me, plus some sale fabric for backing and some Kona Snow for my Hometown layer cake quilt.

Off to get hair highlights to disguise the grey. See you tomorrow! As always, I’d love to speak to you on Twitter in the meantime! 🙂
 © J C Excell, 2011