The Ugly Duckling Challenge - Part 2

Yesterday I shared the Ugly Duckling Challenge project I made for our quilt guild exchange (click here to see more) and today I'm sharing the Ugly Duckling Turned Beautiful Swan project that I received. Luckily, my mom drew my name so I was doubly blessed - a pretty, functional gift and a gift made by my mom!

Mom gathered ideas from several sites to design an armchair caddie and I LOVE it! One of the sites she used as a guide was the same site I found my Ugly Duckling pattern. Lillyella has an armchair caddie called the Mini Maker Station. 

She did a great job of turning this Ugly Duckling fabric with monkeys on it into a beautiful Swan. She did it by fussy cutting just the green background and using the little pieces in the pieced half-square triangles. She did put a piece of the fabric for the lining of the thread catcher so you can peek inside to see the original fabric. This had to be the ugliest of all the Ugly Duckling fabrics brought for the challenge. I bought this piece as a back-up choice for a backing for my first grandson's baby quilt. Luckily, I found something better after this purchase! 

One of my favorite things about the caddie mom made is that she used a vintage appliqued placemat and napkin on the pockets on each side and on the pincushion. This embroidered flower on the placemat was where the napkin slipped in! Mom used it to hold a little pair of scissors. So creative!

Mom said she had to order the binding clips to find them in colors that matched the caddie. She also hunted to find pastel pearl-head pins to match the little pin cushion. And she tucked a vintage green seam ripper under the pin cushion and color coordinated the spool of thread. Now that's going the extra mile!

I can't wait to bind a quilt (one of my least favorite things) just to use my new caddie. Thank you mom for such a special gift!

~Sharla

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