Friday, January 11, 2013

Friday Finish - Secret Santa

I actually finished this project last week, but it was in transit interstate to my lovely fellow Wombat, Lara, so I couldn't show it off it until now.

As regular readers know, I'm in a paper piecing bee called Wombat Stew. In December, we opted to make secret Santa presents instead of swapping blocks, and I was allocated Lara.

A few of Lara's favourite quilty thing include selvedges, rainbows and hexagons - we are total kindred spirits in that department. So after a quick stalk of her Pinterest, I came up with a plan for a small wall quilt.



 Some block detail:


And a rainbow stripe back:



I had so much fun making this, picking out my favourite prints, playing with my selvedges, doing my favourite type of quilting, testing my new perle cottons.... it was all fun and games up to the binding, which gave me grief due to the cranky sewing machine phenomenon, but it got done.

I am so happy with how it turned out, there were a few moments when I wanted to keep it for myself. But I know it's gone to a very good home and is most loved - it is always more special when handmade gifts are well received.

In addition to one handmade item, we put in little bits and pieces too.

I broke out my Silhouette cutter to make her this sign and a paper tea set - no idea what she might be able to do with that, but Lara loves teapots and red, so it fits :).



I also sent along a set of quilt row markers I've made, I found this idea on Pinterest a while ago and they're a great alternative to scribbling on tape or scraps of paper to mark your rows.


And some Japanese character tape, another thing Lara likes.


I also sent a little roll of scraps, but this is kind of cheating, because they were Lara's scraps for her bee block - Lara is in both my bees and was queen in December and January, so I popped both her bee blocks in the parcel too.

I wrapped everything up individually because opening it is part of the fun.

And when I took it to the post office, there was my Secret Santa present from the lovely Gemma waiting for me! It would appear my photos of this are on my phone, so I'm stealing a pic from Gemma's post here.

Oh my God, when I opened my parcel I was totally smitten. How amazing is this?

flying geese cushion cover

You may have already seem this cushion, floating around the interwebs on places like Aurifil's Facebook and Twitter feeds!!! - and it is totally worthy of the attention. The fabric selection and piecing is beautiful and the quilting is sublime. It is just so beautiful and I am so very in love.

The only problem is that it makes the rest of my couch cushions look very shabby indeed... so I need to get on the task of making more cushions.

Linking up to TGIFF  at From Blank Pages, and Crazy Mom Quilts.


7 comments:

  1. Ahhhhhhhh - so you're the lucky recipient of Gemma's gorgeous cushion!?!?! So jealous!

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  2. The wall hanging is beautiful :) And I really love the back too!

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  3. Really pretty! I like to read/visit your stew mates as well. You such a great bunch down there!

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  4. What a fun package you put together!!! I bet she loved opening each little treasure and you are lucky to have received Gemma's pillow too!

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  5. I love the back almost as much as the front - it's beautiful! The hexies are adorable.

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  6. Love that you managed to combine so many of Lara's favourite things into one little quilt! It looks so fab!!

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  7. Hello, Jane, Dear! I've come to your blog from the blog of one of my sweet commenters ~ you know how that goes ~ :) ~ Now following you!
    So nice to "meet" you!
    Hugs,
    Anne

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