Christmas through the year

Sorry I messed up the Tuesday Treasures link. Click here to go there.

After seeing Allie's lovely little basket I had to make one too. I found six blocks that had come in a scrap bag I bought recently and I had a matching yellow fabric and it went together really quick. I have put the other couple of things I have made in the basket and put it in the cupboard safely.

I also  made a couple of churndash blocks to send to Christine. She is in Brisbane so these should get to her in a day or two. She wants to make a quilt for a good friend's husband who has been very ill. She has asked people to help by sending one block by 10th June.
Hope these colours are OK :)

Happy Sewing,
Val

Crazy Quilting Friday

I know, I know, it's Sunday but I forgot about my crazy block. So here it is.

I have 4 all up now!
So what! you say.
Well I have just discovered crazy blocks and I love them. I was thrilled to discover that there was a crazy block club called Crazy Quilting Friday that would help motivate me to make enough for a quilt eventually. So this is my first week to be involved. Hopefully it gets easier to remember :)

You can see who is making blocks over at Quilting Fiesta.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Bag Makeover

I managed to get a bit of sewing done today. I took my old tote bag and made it into a knitting bag or as my husband suggested a thief proof shopping bag :)

I sewed the corners a bit deeper to lessen the height then added the draw string top. I cut a 30cm (12 inch) strip width of fabric, folded it lengthwise and interfaced half. I made buttonholes for the draw string and stitched a casing then sewed gathering rows along the raw edge. I gathered the strip onto the bag so I could open it right up easily with the extra width. I stitched two lengths of brown ribbon together,  I got them off things I bought, and the new length just fit nicely.

Opens right up because the drawstring strip is a bit wider than the bag.

I popped onto the computer about lunch time with the intention of visiting all the blogs in my sidebar and leave comments. Strangely, I visited Chasing Cottons, the first in the list and checked out the tutorial on how to put numbers onto comments. Then I thought I should visit my new follower  Jenni and just loved the quilt on her header. I looked about a bit then visited some of the blogs on her list. The second one I looked at, Bejewelled quilts by Barb,  had a pieced cat pattern she was giving away and also 8 cats made up that she didn't want anymore. If you like cats you should have a look. She will email the pattern if you ask but she will do a draw for the made cats. Probably tomorrow.

Well, needless to say I didn't get very far down my blog list. I hope I get a bit further this time.

Happy Sewing,
Val

Salute to the Sun

I was sick yesterday and the night before. Unfortunately I think it was the highly refined crumpets :(
So when nothing to post, post a kitty.

Edit - forgot to say I am good today :)
Happy Sewing,
Val

1 Xmas item a month

I couldn't believe it was the 25th already!
I had been planning to make a little hanging heart decoration. Every time I used the computer the book lay next to me open at the picture and I kept thinking "Plenty of time". Lucky I picked something quick and easy :)
I made this one into a lavender sachet to hang in the wardrobe.

I also made a phone pouch out of selvedges and put it in 'My Designs' page with a tutorial pdf. But this is for me, not a gift.

Happy Scrapping,
Val

Tickled Pink Tuesday and Tuesday Treasures Double Up

I have another teapot and cup to show today. I just don't know why I bought it except that the dragonfly looked cute. It is a Franz creation. I used it twice and put it away because it just felt too delicate. Dragged it out today and had to search everywhere for the saucer. Funnily enough it didn't feel as delicate anymore. It pours well and the cup handle fits my fingers nicely. It doesn't seem to bad now. I think it only seems delicate because it is just a bit unstable feeling. The base of the teapot is quite small and there is no really flat part of the saucer for the cup. I will use this set a bit more now :)
The tea set wasn't going to be my actual treasure today (but I think it deserves that status now). My real treasure for today is fussing with breakfast and setting it out nicely and sitting in my nice sunny room to savour my tea and toast and look at the pleasant scenery. I just feel so lucky that I can do this at 8:30 in the morning and not have to rush out somewhere.

Breakfast today is soy and linseed toast with a few drops of rice oil instead of butter (for some reason I can't enjoy dry toast) topped with Rose's blood orange marmalade and good old Vegemite. My tea is an organic black tea bag from Aldi.

I am  feeling tickled pink because my husband and I seem to have finally got back on the diet wagon since we fell off at Christmas. We have started writing down the kJ value of everything we eat. This seems to be the only way to keep it under control.
toast - 915kJ
jam - 150kJ
vegemite - 40kJ
oil - about 100kJ
Total = 1205kJ

Lunch and dinner is a large chicken leg, carrot, beans and gravy - 1500kJ each
I usually have a smoothie for afternoon tea but since breakfast and dinner are quite high I will have to have a small bowl of cereal with rice milk to get my calcium dose. ( dairy products don't agree with me). 5000kJ for the day. I drink hot water with a squeeze of lemon juice for inbetweens.
I do go on a bit sometimes :)

Head on over to Melody's House on the Side of the Hill to link up to other treasure posts.
Allie-oops and Polka Dots and Rick Rack will have what is Tickling them when the calender rolls over to Tuesday in their neck of the woods.

Happy Days,
Val

Monday's Show and Tell

A couple of things today. Firstly The Pincushion Sewalong has moved along to DeeDee. This is what I did with Fiona's pincushion.

Then there are the butcher birds. Our neighbour usually feeds them on her back balcony but she has gone away for a few weeks. They figure I am a bit of a softy so they come and look in my kitchen window and back door. Sometimes they sing beautifully. I fed them a few cat bickies this day.
They are not actually cute birds I suppose. They have a nasty hook at the end of their beak for killing little animals and they have a reputation for swooping during nesting season. These ones are quite friendly all the time and I have never actually seen them kill anything.

I was ironing the interfacing onto the back of the second border of my Christmas quilt and smiled at the sorry state of my ironing cloth. It is a piece of lawn. It used to be twice as wide but I hacked off half to line something then I ironed an applique paper piece upside down and when the paper fell off I had to cut out the gluey section. I think it is time for a new cloth :)

Then there are the kitty pictures. Kitty swooped into the spare room as soon as I opened the door and made herself comfortable on my pile of acrylic wadding. Her little black tail is cute.

You can see the Easter left overs waiting to go in the cupboard.

And lastly, I have seen a few posts about feedsacks and couldn't understand why they would be made out of quilting fabric. I finally had to find out. I found a lovely story at this site:
http://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/feedsacks.htm

Sandy at Cookies and Cream Crafts hosts Monday Show and Tell. So pop over and see what others have to show and join in.
Happy Quilting,
Val

Fiona's pincushion

If you are looking for my FNSI post it is here.

I don't think I can do any more swap or share work. It is ridiculous I know, but I have had a headache for a week because I hadn't finished my bit on this pincushion. I felt pinned down by the external deadline and I wanted to do other things like my selvedge tote and I felt guilty because I wasn't doing the pincushion.
When I was working on the pincushions I was enjoying it. I loved trying to design something that fitted and then stitching it so it looked the way I wanted so I assure you they are all stitched with love and care. I had just forgotten why I had to retire in the first place. My ability to handle stress is greatly diminished and this is very obvious to me after being retired for a while. Appointments and deadlines and events cause me to tense up noticeably because in between I am quite relaxed unlike when I was working. I guess I was just stressed all the time then, sometimes worse than others.
Any way, enough moaning. I have a teaser for Fiona. She has to guess what I put on her pincushion before I show it all.

No pressure Fiona. I will show it all tomorrow anyway :)

May your sewing be stress free,
Val

Friday Night Sew In

I didn't sign up for FNSI this month because I forgot basically. I made crazy blocks for a while ( I have 4 now) and then I discovered 'selvedge projects'. I had lots of lovely selvedges from my latest fabrics. I cut off a 1 inch strip which is only a bit more than I would normally cut off and throw away. I got such satisfaction out of sewing together my own fabric. I stitched the selvedge strips onto the non-glue side of some interfacing cut to the tote bag pattern. When covered I ironed it onto a piece of cotton wadding cut to the same size. I interfaced the lining and inserted a base piece of stiffer bag wadding. I made the pussy cats from the catnip quilt pattern. I just reduced the cat face on the copier.


Don't you just love this fabric!

Here is the finished article. It is slightly different colours on each side.

My posts don't seem complete without a pussy cat photo :) Stumpy loves his tummy tickled.

Click on the FNSI button down the right hand side bar to see who signed up and visit some to see what they made. Edit - It seems I am not as late as I thought so I signed up.

Happy Scrap Sewing,
Val

Monday's Show and Tell

I have a winner! Vanessa R of Whirling Butterfly. Congratulations Vanessa.

I also have two more lovely followers that brings me up to 50.

I have been playing with my scraps and have made three crazy blocks. I like the crazy block concept. It is quite therapeutic to sort and iron the scraps. I made three different coloured piles from a bag of scraps that I bought - pink, brown and green. Then I made some 7 inch squares of wadding by zig zagging the edges together of my wadding scraps. I sorted the pink pile into small, medium and large pieces and started sewing. By the second block I was starting to get the hang of how the pieces should go together. It takes quite a lot of thought and concentration.

I came into my sun room to use the laptop and found my trusty friend on the princess cushion. Usually Kitty is on the cushion looking like a princess.

Yesterday Blacky was on my breakfast chair so I pulled up a chair for her and moved her over. She still had some lovely sun.

Sandy at Cookies and Cream hosts Monday's Show and Tell. You can join in with Mr Linky.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Another bag!

Some of you may know I am making a Christmas quilt for mum's birthday. Sort of an easy to put up Christmas decoration. I picked up another craft book from the Lifeline shop and found a pattern for a quilt bag to give and store a gift quilt in. Cool I thought and started to whip one up for the Christmas quilt. I used pieces of the fabrics in the quilt and I love the sentiment square on the front. Just like a wrapping and card in one. I noticed the one in the book had alternate dark and light squares so I tried to do that with the fabrics I had. I am busy stitching the front square now.

This is the back

The squares are 3 1/2 inches

This square is cut down to 9 1/2 inches after stitching

There were some cute labels too.

Issue No. 2

I thought the bag for a quilt idea was good but Nova has taken it a step further with a pillow-bag-quilt. Have a look at her blog.  She also had a good idea to wrap up a little shopping bag. I know it is obvious to do this but I didn't think of it. I just role my bag up and squish it in the handbag. So I might put the extra strap on it now.

Make sure you enter my giveaway here. It closes midday Monday Brisbane time. I lost a few comments but put them back in their right place. I have the auto emails so I know who enters but I didn't want the positions to get mucked up.

Also have a look at my photo of the confluence of planets the other morning. I think the photo is pretty good, if I say so myself :)

Happy Quilting,
Val

Planet Alignment

I took this photo on the fireworks setting and propped the camera on the binoculars on the fence. When I held it I got a really cool heart beat line with the star light. Mars is a tiny speck above the tallest tree.

5:30 am Brisbane

Happy star gazing,
Val

Tickled Pink Tuesday and Tuesday Treasures Double Up

Hi everyone, I am very excited about the new fabric that has just arrived. Look how fat the parcel is!

Now I mentioned to a few friends that I was going to have a giveaway. Today I am going to give some of my fabric treasure away. I bought lots of different pieces to go towards my Nanna's Farm project. It has lots of little squares and lots of applique and I think it suggests using about 30 different fabrics so I still have to get some more. (This giveaway has been drawn Mon 16th May)

The giveaway is for my friends who visit and encourage me with nice comments. I really enjoy being part of the blog community. However, everyone is welcome to enter. I often visit sites once just to enter their giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment. I will choose a winner randomly. Just one winner but they can choose what cut they would like. The choices are:
4 fat quarters of these fabrics -

OR 8 fat eighths of these fabrics -

OR 14 21/2" strips of these fabrics -

I am tickled pink to be having a giveaway!
I will do the draw next Monday afternoon Brisbane time. There is no need to blog about the giveaway just quietly let your friends know if you like and I will make sure my friends know.

Head on over to Melody's House on the Side of the Hill to link up to other treasure posts.
Allie-oops and Polka Dots and Rick Rack will have what is Tickling them when the calender rolls over to Tuesday in their neck of the woods.
The giveaway has been drawn Mon 16th May
Happy Days,
Val

Pincushion update

I received Sheila's pincushion the other day and very quickly worked out what I would do on it. It already had some whimsical looking things and I liked the idea of a pumpkin. Instead of the usual crow I added an Australian magpie. I still need to add a few bits to Sandi's pincushion. It is coming together nicely. Here is Sheila's. After I chose the pumpkin I thought it looked a bit like spring, summer, autumn.

Happy Stitching,
Val

Some Mail

I got a lovely parcel of charm squares yesterday in the mail from my friend Suz of Patchwork and Play . I was lucky enough to win her giveaway the other day. As well I got a great patchwork projects book in the mail from my friend Jude at My Quilt Creations . It was also a win from her giveaway. I love all the cute projects like pot holders and lavender sachets. When I uploaded the fabric pics I found one of Stumpy I took while I was in my sunny room yesterday.

I love the little wren card.

I have been working on the quilt for my mum. I am up to the outer border applique now. I have also been doing my star quilt and working on Sandi's pincushion. The pincushion is pretty fiddly so I have to stop often to rest my eyes a bit. I think it is looking good. There is a country fence and a kangaroo so far.
This morning I downloaded some nice stitchery drawings from Stitch, Stitch, Stitch. They were baby type things but I only downloaded the teapot page and the lady bug page.

Happy Sewing,
Val

Tickled Pink Tuesday and Tuesday Treasures Double Up

Pets are wonderful family and friends. We can't help treating them like people because most days they act like people! My little cats like to follow me around as I move from the kitchen to the lounge room to the sewing room. I always seem to have at least one of them in the room with me. We have started having three on the bed as it cools off. They get a bit peeved if I shut the door. Tommy meows constantly and even scrabbles on the door. He reminds me of Simon's Cat. In the morning when he gets on the bed he marches right up to my face and stares at me then reaches out his paw and taps me on the face or shoulder asking for his breakfast.
If Kitty finds the door shut at night she goes outside and claws on the window screen.
In winter my back parlour is their favourite place during the day. I like to sit in there and read or have a nap.
Here they are in my parlour. Blacky is a bit of a loner so she is on the lounge in the lounge room.

Blacky on the lounge.

Blacky is my daughter's cat. She came from the pet shop 19 years ago.

Kitty prefers my good cushion to the cat blanket.

Kitty was a stray that my husband found at a car yard one day about 16 years ago. He spent hours trying to catch her. He just had to bring her home cause she had a stumpy tail like my Stumpy. Stumpy is a pet shop baby that I bought for myself.

Stumpy likes the chair. I made a double sided cushion cover so I can flip it
over if I want to sit there.

Tommy has a special pillow under the other chair. He will sleep on the tiles if he gets too warm.
Tommy is the kitten of a stray that came by and stayed.

You can just see them all here. Isn't my room lovely!

Head on over to Melody's House on the Side of the Hill to link up to other treasure posts.
Allie-oops and Polka Dots and Rick Rack will have what is Tickling them when the calender rolls over to Tuesday in their neck of the woods.

Happy Families,
Val