Try and Try Again

This month I signed up for my first swap ever.  This is in keeping with some of the advice I received during my giveaway in order to get more out of blogging.  So when I stumbled across the Rapid and Tiny Zakka Swap group on Flickr during the sign-up period for July, I recognized the opportunity and immediately joined up.

After filling out a little questionnaire about my likes and dislikes (I found this difficult) I received one from my swap partner at the beginning of July.  She basically likes a ton of cool things (retro, 80s, pop culture, color, woodland whimsy, adorableness, felt, etc...I mean, too many to mention but awesome ones) but I was stumped anyway.  Eventually I came up with this:

Needlebook #1, cover

Needlebook #1, inside

 I used a couple of patterns/tuorials for this one.  First, the overall quilt/page/pocket design is from here (although I deviated in size) and the embroidered sewing machine detail is from Makoto's Cross-Stitch Super Collection. Finally, the spool and sewing machine blocks are a free pattern from here.  This was my first paper-pieced block ever and it was fun!  The thing was, although I learned a ton doing it, I really didn't think it ended up A) Tiny or B) Rapid; it's actually kind of bulky and loose.  Also it's GIANT.  Almost 7 inches square.  It's cute, but it wouldn't be very practical for on-the-go projects...



So I started over.

Needlebook #2

If you've wandered around the blog, you might have seen another one of these hexagon needlebooks.  This is the kind I made for my mom on Mother's Day and the kind I use myself, all of the time.  It's compact, portable and gets the job done.  This is what I'm sending to my swap partner.  I hope she wouldn't rather have the giant one.

In any case, I'm mailing it out tomorrow.

Edit: If you'd like to see the needle book I received, it's on Flickr here.

And I signed up today for the August RATZ swap: Name Tags.