Sweet pouch swap finished and latest projects

I've received my sew sweet pouch swaps from my partner!
Ros at Sew delicious held a swap and I made a pouch to look like a book that went off to Evi in Tasmania. (Second picture).
My pouch hadn't arrived so I asked Ros to help. My original partner had been delayed due to personal circumstances and was yet to finish my pouch.
As a kind gesture and to thank me for my patience Ros organised a pouch to be sent to me and I received this beautiful red pouch with postcards and chocolates inside from a lady named Ruth! She has used decorative stitch which you know I'm a sucker for! And red! Love.
Today I received my original partner's pouch which is made of hand sewn hexies in a warm rich shade of neutrals with a bar of lindt chocolate inside mmm. Thank you Perri from Goondiwindi :-)
Thank you to Ros for hosting the swap. Swaps are a good way to stretch your skill set and even sew with fabrics you wouldn't normally choose, and meet other sewing friends. I recommend everyone tries them.
This is my third time swapping but it won't be my last!

Ten minute block with cathedral roll

Ten minute block with cathedral roll centre. Can you believe that all these seams are straight except the simple top stitching?

I found the process on youtube from Suzanne McNeill's of Design originals.

She uses layer cake pieces which are 10in squares. I cut some 8 inch squares because that was the widest point of these two scrap fabrics I had, and it turned out like the large one above.

I liked that block, but wanted to increase the size of the centre, comparitively.
I made the small one with a 5 inch centre (because I'm thinking of making a quilt using this process with a rainbow charm pack in my stash!) and the outer squares are 3in ea.

I calculate that you need to make your centre square no larger than twice the length of you outer/smaller squares minus seam.
So if your outer squares are 3in.... 3+3-0.25-0.25-0.25-0.25= then 5 is the largest your centre square can be.

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Seeing as there are four 1/4 inch seams, that makes 1 inch, so the easy way to calculate it is 3x2 -1=5 is the largest your centre square can be.

Here's Suzanne McNeill's video.

If you make one from seeing my blog, please email it to me at cass@cassthecoolest.com !