Gifties For and From

I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating when a friend is such a good friend. Carla and I met through our blogs more than a year ago. Since our first face-to-face meeting, we have remained fast friends. Whether we attend a KCMQG meeting, visit a quilt shop, go on a day long retreat, or meet for lunch, whenever I'm in Kansas City it's nice to spend time her.

Anticipating that we'd meet sometime around Christmas, both of us did as blogging quilter-friends do. We made something. We waited until the recipient received it. Then we blogged about it.

Carla made, waited, and blogged here about the gift she gave me. It's this "Dumpling," a charming, zippered pouch.

She explained that this Ty Pennington print was as close to palms trees (one of my favs) as she could find in her stash. I love it! The bird print side is so Carla. And who doesn't love lime green and gray?

The inside is especially pretty with a fabric print of life-related words. 

Without the package of Werther's chocolate-covered caramels inside With all the traveling I do, the Dumpling will be perfect for a few toiletry items. Thank you, Carla!

 

It turns out that Carla and I saw and liked these these Dumplings simultaneously! I too made several of them after seeing them here on Doris' blog. Dumplings are from this tutorial by Keyka Lou. The pattern is in two sizes, but I made only the larger, easy one. Whichever size you make, you need a 14" zipper. Dumb me... I bought zippers for $1.99 each, less a couple of 40 percent off coupons from Joann's, and afterward learned about these colorful zippers at a much better price.

That VW Bug fabric is from a precious, small amount I have left from ten years ago, when I purchased several yards at Wal-Mart. Being a VW Bug owner, this fabric is as dear to me as my car. Did you know that my Bug was a surprise college graduation gift from my husband? My graduation and the car arrived in April, 2000. The Bug has 71,000 miles on it and I've enjoyed every one of them. If you're ever a passenger in my car I'll ask you to sign the guest book I keep in the glove compartment. In the 12 years I've had my Bug, I've had more than 80 passengers including an Iowa state representative, and celebrity quilters Erma Gail Hatcher, Harriet Hargrave and Sandi Cummings, among others. Can you tell I was once program co-chair for the Des Moines Area Quilters Guild? Ahh, but I digress...

Granddaughter Celina received the Dumpling with the VW Bug print.

Each Dumpling I made has a different fusible interfacing because I kept trying to find one with the right amount of stiffness. Pellon's "heavy" interfacing was too light and a suit weight interfacing was too heavy. A piece of extra heavy interfacing I unearthed was just right. Though I gave away each of these Dumplings, none of them went to Carla.

So it's my turn to say I made, waited and am blogging about what I gave her.

I came across this little cutie called a Snappy Coin Purse. Carla received the one in the middle with the typewriter letters print.

Just a little hand sewing is needed to join each of the corners into a box shape.

Snappy Coin Purse from the back

Isn't in wonderful how accessible and darling these patterns are? I appreciate every idea and tutorial that I might make... and that I might also receive! Linda