Some sewing!

We had a "holiday week" and it's fall break for the community college, which my art teacher seemed to think meant we would get lots done on our final projects.

Well, for me, it meant I got in a few full days of work! And then we traveled to Ohio for Thanksgiving this year, so there wasn't much time to work on my project...

But traveling means handsewing, so I finished my English Paper Pieced pincushion:

This one is the size of an orange, rather than the first one that was grapefruit sized. I used this tutorial to make it, with some favorite scraps from my scrap bins. (Remember! 5/8" inch sides, and if you email me, I have a pdf of the templates I can send you). Once again I didn't have enough polyfil, but luckily my relatives had a bag of polyfil on hand, so I could supplement.

Yesterday I took a break from my endless final project for my art class (which you can see if you follow me on instagram, I'm sure I will post it one day here as well!) and tried my hand at the pattern I've chosen to make for my partner in the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap. It's Mini Spools by Camille Roskelley/ Thimble Blossoms.

The pieces here are pretty tiny, and I had a few moments of doubt, but it turned out pretty cute. I still have to decide on a background and a spool fabric for the swap, but I'm pretty well decided on my fabrics for the "thread" part.

I used some scraps from my grey scrap bin for the "thread" here. I was thinking that I could use the block next time we had a guild mug rug swap, but maybe the Salt Water with Christmas fabric is a bit too odd?

But at least I know my sewing machine works, after two weeks at the shop.