Urban Home Good(y) goody gum drops!

You've probably been seeing all of the yummy packages people have been unveiling on their blogs this week as the most recent round of the Urban Home Goods swap wrapped up and little boxes of love made their way across the country—across the globe, really. The whole process of stalking someone's Flickr favs, inspiration mosaics, and blogs and then coming up with a vision of what to make is a ton o' fun and something I am so grateful to be a part of. This group inspires me in so many ways.

This time around, I got the lovely miss Meg Norrell as my secret partner—a self-described irreverent quilting librarian who loves blue, linen patchwork paired with brights, and decorates in spa-like colors.

Yeah, I scratched my head at first.

And then again.

And then some more.

And then it hit me. Love hexies!

I had grand plans to somehow turn these Love lovelies into a Taxi Tote from Anna Maria Horner's Seams to Me—kinda like the one here.

After seeing all of my hexies laid out and realizing that I just wasn't feeling like the Taxi Tote was going to be dazzling enough, I started to think about making my own pattern for a little handbag.

That night, the gigantic Chicago blizzard hit and after spending the next day shoveling, I was too tired (or lazy) to come up with something on my own.

And then it hit me.

That lining I'd mis-cut for that cute little purse more than a year ago . . . that'd be perfect! You know (no, you don't know . . . I never blogged it), the one that was supposed to be for the large sized purse I had already cut the outside for but then cut out the lining in the wrong size? Still, I had a vision . . . and it was perfect.

Only, it was bright pink.

And Meg doesn't like pink.

But, I thought, "It's so perfect!"

And, so. That was it. I decided to throw Meg's preference for blue over pink right out the window and I rolled with it.

And there she sat.

And sat.

And sat.

Until I could wrap my head around what else to make for my lovely partner. My lovely, irreverent librarian, blue-loving swap partner. The one who'd just posted in a discussion group that she wanted a purse with a LONG handle.

Crap.

How's that for irreverent?

So, after some more blog and Flickr stalking and telling myself I really needed to get my second item right, I settled on my other item for Meg. A pair of funny (or so I hoped) potholders.

After mulling over all the irreverent possibilities and debating the merits of "damn hot" vs. "hot damn" or "hot. damn.", I whipped out some type and went to transferring it to some scraps of linen.

(Now, let me stop right there. I must pause to tell you how amazing, wonderful, spectacular, splendid, and perfect the Sulky Iron-On Transfer Pen is . . . if you like to embroider and want really clean transfers of your images . . . run out NOW and get one (or 8) of these amazing pens. Do it. You will not regret it!)

OK. Moving on.

I must say, though, that while the transfer was perfect, my stitching was not. I really struggled with color choice and readability. In the end, though, I had to tell myself—repeatedly—that these were going to be potholders. The stress of perfecting this project was really out of proportion to the end use of the product.

And so I stitched on.

And then, voila! I was finished!

And last week I was thrilled to find out that this fun little package made it's way safely to Meg and that she seems to enjoy her goodies as much as I enjoyed making them.

 And I am so glad to be able to post something to Canoe Ridge Creation's {Sew} Modern Mondays again! Come check out all of the other modern lovelies!