Mail Goodies

Feb. Fat Quarter Swap from Lilypadsis
Originally uploaded by Kellie C.

Received this package in the mail today from the Flickr Fat Quarter Swap!

This is a fun Flickr swap that goes on each and every month. Basically, you are assigned a parter for whom you purchase three fat quarters and a little gift of some sort. It's a fun way to add to your FQ stash with fabrics you might not normally pick up.

I've received some really cute stuff...like this package from Lilypadsis

and this one

and this one

and this one

And here's the last package I mailed out. I loved this floral feedsack repro fabric so much I bought two yards of it in yellow/purple.

If you'd like to join in, I'm sure the March swap sign ups will begin soon!(I like that you can sign up each month...or opt out any time) Head over to the Flickr Fat Quarter Fabric Swap page and sign up, why don'tcha!

Mail Goodies and a Much Needed Clean-Up

Received some goodies in the mail lately! Got this cute fabric tray and ribbons from Steph who held a giveaway on her blog. SO cute! Perfect for holding all my little pieces of ribbon! My January Flickr Fat Quarter Swap from Basketblessed arrived. I am so in love with the cupcake fabric and pink ribbon!And on to the much needed clean up. I will admit that can stand a little mess and chaos, but this was getting ridiculous! We have designated one of our rooms as Mark's ebay, my crafty/sewing space. My crafty/sewing space looked like this on Friday. YIKES! No wonder I haven't been in much of a sewing mood lately!Mark's stores his ebay things in the walk in closet. And a LOT of it ends up on and in the computer cabinet too, but I won't mention that. ahem. Anyway, the closet looked like this...Trust me it was WAY worse than it looks in the picture. There's another wall and a cubby hole in the closet that you can't see which was crammed(nearly to the ceiling) full of more junk! We could step one foot into the closet and that was it. DIGGING had to occur to find anything. We sent three boxes full to Goodwill and had two giant bags full of trash. In addition to all of Mark's ebay stuff, more of my sewing stuff was crammed in the closet in along with what was piled up on the floor by the sewing table. It took till Sunday afternoon, but we finally got it in better shape. Most of my sewing things are now stored in the closet! I'd love to get a big black bookshelf for the sewing room so that I can have all my fabrics out where I can see them and sorted by colors! But for now, the ones that are for specific projects or are heavyweight fabric are stored in the now-roomy closet and the things I'm using for aprons & my current quilting projects are in the wicker baskets. Aaaah. So much better. And maybe Mark can list all of this stuff now that he can see it and get to it! ...and once he does I can COMPLETELY take over the closet with my sewing supplies...MMWA HA HA!

Now that it is done, let's hope we can keep it from turning into Clutter Central again!

Here is a teeny tiny sampling of weird & wacky things that were piled up in the ebay closet! Some have been listed, others sent away, many many more await their fate.
These three stuffed animals were trapped in there...but they ARE NOT headed for ebay. They are some of our toys from way back.
OK, so I'm off to the sew right now! I'm attempting to teach myself how to sew a French seam...oooh la la!

My First FQ Swap

I joined a FQ swap on Flickr. I was assigned a swap partner and we each were to send three FQ and a gift of some sort. Once received, you snap a photo and share your goodies in the flickr gallery. Sounded like fun to me!

The August swap was my first and my partner was Lori. After reading through her likes and dislikes, I settled on patriotic and cats for a theme. I found some cute red and blue FQ at Jo-Ann Fabrics to send along with a cat notepad. I also sent along a set of two dishtowels on which I had embroidered some WWII Victory patterns that just happened to have cats on them. The photo is posted here. It was fun trying to decide on what to send. Then of course I worried that she wouldn't like it...but she did! Yay! Except once I received her package, I kinda felt like I should go out and shop and send her more stuff!

I got THIS from Lori... Have you ever seen the like? It's fantastic! WAY more goodies than I ever expected! And the fat quarters? Gorgeous. Love the colors and patterns, especially the circle print! You've got to get a good look at it...click on the photo for a closer view! Can't wait to use them, but at the same time I'm going to hate to cut into these, they're so stinkin' cute! Along with the fun and happy FQ she sent:

1. A set of critter tea lights! So cute!
   
2. A pink patchwork handmade bag that is absolutely darling! Love, love, LOVE it!
3. A fun mulit-colored ribbon trim.
4. A pattern for making a bag from FQ.
   
5. Some super cute fabric flowers w/tiny button centers in wonderful colors.
6. A pack of heart shaped buttons which I didn't find till after I'd taken the photo(there was sooo much stuff in the box that I missed them!)
7. A magnet w/ladies sewing that reads "Friendship"
   
8. The most adorable button bouquet...never would have thought of that in a million years! I will be borrowing this idea for later gifting.
   

I love it all...the more I dug through the box the more shocked I was! What? There's MORE!? Woo Hoo! Everything was wrapped and packaged so nicely...it was a treat just opening the box and pulling stuff out! I can't gush enough! Now I've never met my swap partner Lori but she's mighty generous, thoughtful and she's obviously a lot of fun to pick out such a happy bundle of goodies. She really made my day!