A new look

Maybe it had to do with changing my hairstyle (see photo in the sidebar) but recently I felt I needed to change the look of the creative swaps blog. You are not imagining things!! I felt too "squished" writing in the old center format template, and so I opted for a stretch template here very similar to my Creative Lenna Blog. I've made the colours different for each blog and I hope that helps! Let me know what you think by leaving a comment. Thanks! Yours, Lenna

White Quilties! Myfanwy Hart

All the way from Hampshire, UK, we have received 4 lovely shades of white Quilties from Myfanwy (pronounced MerVANwe). I did not figure out until today that Myfanwy has her own family business and website to boot! Both are called Sassa Lynne and she supplies textile artists with threads, yarn twists, viscose, scarf packs, silk pods and more! Myfanwy has also studied for a City and Guilds qualification in Embroidery. She included yarn twists in her quiltie packs for the recipients and for me. In lieu of postage she asked me if she could include a bunch of yarn twists and threads instead, which she did, to my delight!

What fun. Myfanwy Quilties are a bit diffent, which I like, and for her signature she hand wrote on the back of each Quiltie. Thank you!

Thank you for voting!

I had two polls up on the swaps blog, so you could vote on new swap ideas -- they closed for voting yesterday. These polls were open for a little over a week and I am so amazed and pleased with the number of votes received. We ended with 75 votes in the first poll and 55 in the second!! Wow. Thanks for taking the time to let me know what you were interested in! I have a much better idea now of what art swap ideas you are excited about and I have also learned a lot more about some other popular swap ideas that I was uneducated about! I never would have come up with the idea for a Row House (altered house swap) unless one of you had suggested it! : ) Here's a link to Kathy Wasilewski's blog if you haven't heard of a Row House swap either and are curious to see if it's something you'd like to participate in.

If you missed the closing tally on the swap ideas voting, the results are posted below. I have combined the 2 polls for these results; so these are both my swap ideas & your swap ideas. The percentages vary because the second poll had fewer votes than the first!

• small hand made books > 41 votes - 53% (highest)
• itty bitty colages (3"x3") > 38 votes - 50% (2nd highest)
• canvas collage (largest=9x12) > 25 votes - 32%
• "shades of" Quilties (6x6) > 34 - 44% (3rd highest)
• A charm swap > 20 votes - 36%
• Star Ornaments > 17 votes- 20%
• ribbon swap > 11 vote - 20%
• Anything fabric+Alpha Stamps > 13 votes - 23%
• A row house swap > 26 votes - 47% (4th highest)
• 5x5 page swap (paper) >19 votes - 34%
• Pendant Flag swap > 12 votes - 23%

I will add all this info to my own thoughts and ideas and announce new swaps due in August and beyond, a few weeks from now. As always, if you have any ideas for swaps you can send them to me at anytime.

thanks again! yours creatively, lenna

Altered by Design ATC swap: Frieda Oxenham

Mmmmmmm! What a delicious treat was waiting for me in my mailbox just the other day. Frieda Oxenham from Peebleshire, in Scotland UK, has sent in 6 wonderful and colorful felted ATCs for our Altered by Design 'Angel, Fairies and Divas' swap! Frieda is an award winning quilter and her mixed media artwork is always amazing! I am so happy to have her in this swap.

Frieda wrote about how she created these ATCs on her blog. I'm sure you would enjoy reading it. Frieda has mixed paper collage images from Altered by Design with felting, fabric, hand stitching, bond-a-web and beading! Below are more scans of Frieda's swap art, click on any of them for more detail. Thank you, dear Frieda!!!

Shades of Spring/ Brown + Blue Quilties ::: Anne St. Louis

We have our first arrivals for the Shades of Spring/Brown + Blue Quilties!! Anne St Louis from Calgary, Canada sent in 2 sets of four Quilties for our swap due July 19th.

Anne wrote to me, "I know these aren't due until July, but the first day of spring was such an inspiration, I just couldn't stop making these. I tried to create each page slightly different from each other."

You have done a great job, Anne, and it is really fun to see this color-combo in person!
















Anne also made a special hostess gift for me - thank you, Anne! In keeping with the spring & nature theme of this swap, Anne decorated a mini tin for me. It's beautiful! I willl share it with you here, remember you can click on any photo for greater detail.

White Quilties! Mary Zimany

We have even more Shades of White Quilties! This beautiful set is from Mary Zimany in Cornwall, CT. Mary is a student and also a friend of mine : ) Mary has created 5 beautifully textured quilties that make you want to touch them! I am enjoying how the "white" theme is encouraging you to branch out & try more texture in your work. I am so pleased Mary created an extra quiltie! Thanks, Mary.

I also love the ingenious way Mary has wrapped each quiltie up . . . she sewed together a simple wax paper bag to fit each quiltie! Click on any photo for more detail. Mary also labeled the back of her quiltie by printing her info onto a transparency sheet and sewing it on to the back of each quiltie --this looks really great!



Here's a close up of Mary's Quilties . . . .

White Quilties! Janice Perkin

Janice Perkin, from Fearnhead, Warrington, UK has sent in 4 lovely white quilties for our shades of white quiltie swap. It's so lovely to have you participating from across the pond, Janice! These quilties are all a little bit different from each other. Very nicely stitched, with lace, buttons & trims added too. Also, Janice so kindly added some beautiful silk scraps to her package as a hostess gift for me : ) which I can't wait to use!


I love how Janice added her info to each quiltie. She created a pocket from a bit of a crocheted piece, then snuck a tag inside the pocket; a great idea! Thanks so much, Janice.









Your quilties are wonderful!!

250 posts!

No packages to upload today, just a note. This post marks 250 posts for the creative swaps blog - so amazing! My first post here was written April 22nd, 2007, just about one year ago - read it here if you like. I want to thank you for coming along on this wonderful ride with me. It's lots of work sometimes, but oh so worth it, don't you think? I love seeing your inspiring creations on the blog here. Wonderful!

I have a poll up on the sidebar of the blog (http://creativeswaps.blogspot.com/) for you to vote on future swap ideas. The poll is running and will be up until April 15th, 2008, so be sure to check off the swaps you are interested in before then. There are two separate polls: The first poll has MY swap ideas and the second poll has the ideas that swap participants sent in to me. Vote in both polls to let me know what you might like to work on in the future. I will gather all the votes when the poll closes and that will help me to decide what we'll be doing August - December. Thanks for your feedback! (note: see the results here)

The 6x6 Quilties swaps are very popular & both are closed to join. The Shades of White Quilties are due in my hands by April 26th and I have received about half of all the entries so far - really beautiful! The Shades of Spring - Brown & Robin's Egg Blue Quiltie swap is also closed to join and due in my hands July 19th. I have a couple of people on a waiting list for that swap, so if your situation changes and you'd like to drop that swap, please let me know asap.

The open swaps as of 04/07/08 are:

Altered by Design's Angel, Fairy & Diva ATC swap due May 24th --

and the Alpha Stamps Grimm Fairy Tale 5x5 collage swap due June 28th. I hope you'll join us if you are not signed up already! Email me if you are interested in joining and you'd like to see if there is still room, and receive all the details. See you in the mail! Yours creatively, Lenna

White Quilties! Kate North

I have received 5 lovely, lovely white quilties from Kate North, across the pond in Surrey, UK. Thanks so much for making an extra one for me, Kate . . . your quilties are so textural and quite unusual! What a treat I get to keep one for myself!

Kate does a lot of traditional quilting -I know because she has been an on-line student of mine, but I consider these particular quilties very "arty" with all the texture and the feathers. I love them! Kate has even incorporated paper into her quilties. Look for the more off-white sections. . . click on any photo for more detail.

Kate blogged about making her white quilties on her own blog. Go here to Kate's blog if you'd like to read her post and check out her other fiber art.




Kate labeled her white quilties by writing on a piece of paper & sewing the paper to the back of her quilties - see below:

And here are ALL of the quilties with the photo taken at an angle so you can see all the texture. : ) definitely click on this one for the larger photo!

White Quilties! Patricia Schweitzer

Patricia Schweitzer from Mount Sterling, KY sent in 4 gorgeous White Quilties for our swap -oh my! She has used some of my favorite Tallulah's fabric images from Alpha Stamps -not a requirement, but certainly appreciated by me! Patricia used collage sheet images in fabric from the Paris Showgirls #2 sheet- which looks so lovely with the shades of white theme.

Here are some more views of what Patricia has created for our swap -

For a hostess gift, Patricia created a 'Love Pod' for me out of Sculpty and powdered pigments, see below. It's beautiful! Patricia wrote to me and told me, "Love Pods are intended to embody a sense of safety and comfort." Thank you, Patricia. Click on any photo for a close-up look.

White Quilties! Susanne Wiebe

Susanne Wiebe from Victoria, BC sent in 2 sets of 4 Shades of White Quilties for our swap --and she made an aditional one for me - thanks so much, Susanne! Susanne's Quilties are just beautiful, I think you'll agree . . .



Click on any photo for a closer look at all the lace & textures.

Susanne hand wrote her info with a permanent pen on the back of her quilties; I think this is a lovely touch.

Wow! Simply beautiful, Susanne!

White Quilties! Sharon McGreevey

From Sharon McGreevey in Durham, NC we have receieved 4 beautiful 'quilted lily' Shades of White Quilties for our swap. Sharon attached her name & email via a round tag -a great idea! I love seeing all the variations on the Quilties for this swap . . .

Thanks, Sharon!
Click on any photo for more details.

White Quilties! Beverley Teichrob

From Beverley Teichrob in Victoria, BC we have received TWO sets of white Quilties . . . plus, Beverley created an extra quiltie for me!! When I was speaking with Beverley via email, she told me she was going to create 3 sets of white quilties; 2 sets of 4 to send in for the swap and one set of 4 that she would keep to put together with the others thst she receives in trade via our swap! Beverley wrote, "We've just painted our small powder room a dark colour, and a "shades of white" art hanging should look great in there...12 of them to make a square, reflected in a new large round mirror."

Isn't that a great idea? One to tuck away if you are still making quilties for this swap (due here in my hands 4/26/08) or if you are involved in the Shades of Spring Quilties swap due July 19th . . . the July Quilties swap is closed now, but I am taking names on a waiting list in case someone has to drop out - you could take their place!



Click on any photo for greater detail. Beautiful!


For the back of her Quilties, Beverly printed her info and a psalm that is important to her onto fabric and then attached this piece to the back of each Quiltie.



Thank you, Beverley!

White Quilties! Martha Franklin

From Martha Franklin in Rustburg, VA we have received 4 white Quilties for the swap and an extra one for me - thanks so much, Martha! Here's a sampling of Martha's work, click on any photo for more resolution.

Martha enclosed a business card for each Quiltie.

These are so full of texture & so pretty. Click on this photo to see them up close! Thanks, Martha!