May Tuck Swap

After last months group, we had reached the point where everyone had taken a turn to host group. But we didn't want to stop meeting, so we all decided to do another round of swapping tucks. I joined the group after their last tuck swap so this is my first time swapping tucks, where as the rest of them, it will be the 2nd time for most of them.

I've had a few people ask me what a tuck is. I'm not sure, but after seeing some, I guess you would call it a very small decorative pillow. Given my dislike of sewing, I wasn't sure what I would think of the group swapping tucks again. But I love getting together with them, so I decided to give it a try.

Each month has a theme and we create our tuck based off of that. Then we have a list of how to exchange them. For example, this month, I gave mine to Trina and received one from Sarah. Next month I'll trade with other people. Its fun to see every one's tuck.

If sewing isn't enough to make me feel like an oddball, everyone else in the group is very big into Primitive decor. Really, all that means for me, is I need to coffee stain the tucks to give them an antiqued look. Or you can use tea, or vanilla, etc. One girl turned hers into a rice bag; before filling it with rice, she mixed a few drops of lemon oil into the rice. It smelt so good!

The group is supposed to meet the first week of the month, so we decided to base our themes off of each month. Since May doesn't have any major holidays, we decided to go with a spring theme.

Of course I put mine off until the last minute. On Saturday, I realized I had only FOUR days to get mine done. I had tossed a few ideas around in my head, but never decided what to do.  Finally I decided to go through my stamps for inspiration. When I found a stamp with an umbrella and goulashes, I thought that would be a cute spring theme.

I used one of the stamp sets to stamp out "April Showers" onto a piece of paper. Then I held the paper up to a window and held the fabric over it so I could trace it lightly in pencil.

For the goulashes and umbrella, I stamped those images on paper and then used them as a pattern to cut out the fabric. Then I used the blanket stitch to sew them onto the fabric.

I LOVE how it all turned out. Then I coffee stained it, and didn't love it quite as much. But I don't want to be know as the one who never coffee stains her stuff. I still loved it, but if I were to have kept it, I wouldn't have coffee stained it.

After I was done, I was so proud of it. Then I looked at the calendar and realized... group meets on MAY 1st. No April Showers then. I kept telling myself it was ok, but then I just kept stressing over it.

A few hours later, I couldn't live with myself. So I went back to my stamps and created another one.

Usually you just make one tuck to give away and recieve one tuck in return. But I decided that who ever got my tuck would be extra lucky because they would get two. :) I gave mine to Trina this time and she seemed excited. This is her first time in the group too, so like me, she is basically starting from scratch. She told me, "Now I only need 10 more and then I'm set for the year."

I'm sure no one else does it (wink wink), but as soon as we got there, I started trying to get sneak peeks of every one's tuck. That of course led to, "Oh, I hope I get that one." I was happy when I got one of those I had that thought about. I received Sarah's tuck and LOVE it.

Now to start thinking about my next tuck. Psh, I'll probably put it off for three weeks, but they weren't that hard to put together so I'm not worried.