Mail!

That stunning pillow, Happy Circles, came to me from one of my favourite quilters, Aylin (Nilya 2011 on flickr), who lives in Berlin, for the first round Modern Quilted Pillow Swap, which has now changed its name to X-Factor Pillows. I love it and I use it every day as I relax on my bed and read the internet. It is even more stunning in real life.



Aylin is a wonderful quilter and participates in many flickr swaps where we have been partners before. A while back I sent her a little mug rug that folks seem to like. So with the pillow, she sent me this wonderful little mini quilt. I am taking it with me today to hang at my office next to my desk.  Thank you Aylin, I love both of these!

When these two beauties arrived at my house towards the end of August I was still out of town and when I returned I have been thrown in to an incredible work schedule and have not had time to share them properly here before.



The second round of the swap ended a couple of weeks ago - and this is a swap that you cannot share your own work until after all the voting is done. So there is Angles, a red/pink pillow/grey/Liberty pillow that I made. Using the grey print instead of a solid was my big challenge. It is quilted with bright red Aurafil thread. Guess what, Aylin picked it, it has arrived safely in Germany and looks great on her sofa.



And in that round, this lovely pillow, which has great quilting and text and wonderful fabric including puppies, came to me from Lee who blogs at May Chappell. It will look beautiful on my sofa, although the light in the living room is so bad that it is almost impossible to take a good photo there. Thank you Lee, I love it!



These charms are flying off to Sarah in the Shetland Isles for the Japanese Charm Swap. She let me sneak into the swap and I promised to send my charms early. Well, they were delayed in the mail and only arrived Thursday afternoon. I pressed, cut, counted and packaged them and got them off on Friday (although missed the mail cut off so they are on a plane on Monday morning I think). I hope this amazing fabric - Live Life French Bakery by Suzuko Koseki - will make up for the fact that my charms are likely to be arriving last of all.



A short time ago, my friend Lynne from Lily's Quilts asked if I wanted to play with some of the Oakshott Lipari fabrics - these are shot cottons with black as one of the woven threads - and of course I said "yes please". I am a huge fan of shot cottons, you have seen them used here before. They arrived Thursday too, and they are wonderful. Thank you Lynne and Michael Oakshott.



If you put them under a light, look at their shine! I am thinking about what to make - these rich jewel tones sure remind me of Christmas decorations and so maybe something for the holidays is appropriate.

I hope you have been enjoying your weekend, I had a lovely late lunch yesterday (after working the morning) with my friend Marianne from The Quilting Edge and today I have yet more work, but maybe tonight I can sew a little too.

Best,

Leanne