England Swings

A friend recently popped in with fat quarters of every print in the new line of fabric, England Swings, by Rebekah Merkle. I was so excited to see them in person! Here is the blue collection - don't you think they're lovely? The pop of orange and yellow amidst the blues is so refreshing.

Each of us are going to sew a patchwork purse for ourselves from this line, hers from the reds, mine from the blues. There's a tutorial here at Mad Quilter for this charm square pattern. Here's the initial layout for my bag - I can't wait to finish it! Although looking at it now I see two squares that I'd like to rip out and switch. The striped fabric in the photo above is for the lining.

I was starting to think all new designer fabrics were going to feature aqua! Seriously, there are so many beautiful designs out there, but so few that could be used for boys, older boys especially. I can find plenty of cutesy animals and such, but what 8 yr old boy wants something like that? I appreciated the ideas over at Made by Rae's Celebrate the Boy 2011 posts. Good fabric ideas there, along with a lot of other boy-themed projects, but mostly geared toward the younger guys. The England Swing line offers some solid dots and stripes that I think could be manly enough for my guys along with lots of other choices for my girl.

There's been some knitting in the works too. This week I finished this cabled hat, which will end up being a baby gift soon. It's too big for a newborn, maybe more in the 6-18 month range, depending on baby's head. This project made me realize I really don't like knitting cables. A few are ok, but every 2 rounds is too much for me.