Paying it Forward

I survived this weekend's birthday celebrations, the rain, the thunder and the kids!! Thank you all so much for your kind birthday wishes, my boy had a blast.

I even managed to cram some sewing in and made three little gifts for my friends who in turn will pay it forward.

First up is Julianna, she told me she would like a potholder. I'd been wanting to try this potholder from Suzuko Koseki's latest book Natural Patchwork, so I decided to make one for her.

This type of binding was new to me, you just wrap scraps of fabric around the edges and sew them on.  I really enjoyed experimenting with this as it was trickier than I thought at first and you get a less 'clean' result than with normal binding. I so enjoy this type of messy patchwork, it's very liberating!
I imagine that with use this potholder may get some lovely stains for Julianna to patch up again and again. I can only dream of the kinds of wonderfulness in design that may bring!

Shannon said she loves zippered pouches, her favourites showed a love of blue and orange ..oh so tricky for me!!
So I settled on this little zippered coin purse in lovely Ruby Star Rising and Kokka prints.

It's perhaps a little more muted than what I've seen in your faves Shannon, but I hope this still fits the bill!

Suzanne said she would like anything so I thought she might enjoy a set of patchwork coasters. The inspiration for these also came from Suzuko Koseki's book.

As with the potholder I hope these coasters will get stained and patched up by Suzanne over time. Even though this design is quite different from Julianna's potholder I still think the coasters would look just as lovely all patched up!

All three will be in the post tomorrow.
I'm so looking forward to see how these lovely ladies will be paying it forward!!

x Leila

Lets start with coin purses

I've been unable to take photo's for what seems like ages! It's difficult to decide what to show you first. Rather than bombarding you with a ton of photo's I'm going to do a few posts and try and get back up to speed ok?

First off I received the most gorgeous coin purse from the uber talented Kerry in the pretty little pouch swap.

I definitely got the long end in this swap, I couldn't possibly love a purse more than I love this one!

Kerry also sent me this beautiful pincushion as part of the 'pay it forward' game. It's now my turn to pay it forward to three of you. So if you would like to play along leave me a comment on this post. I'll pick the first three to reply and send you a little something. All you have to do is in turn pay it forward by sending a little pretty handmade something to three of your readers within a year's time. Simple enough right?

I made a little framed coin purse myself as well. I think it turned out pretty decent for a first attempt. I first made a couple test patterns out of left over scraps before deciding on the final shape and size.

This one will be winding it's way to a friend....shhh it's a surprise!

It's good to be back! Thanks so much for sticking around :-) Don't forget to comment if you would like to take part in paying it forward.

x Leila