Wicked!

What a fabulous wicked blog hop.
Thank you to Madame Samm for another awesome hop and to Wendy at Why Knot Kwilt for all her organisation.

I love to make a scene. Well that's true but let me rephrase. I love to sew scenes.
I looked up all sorts of Halloween ideas and created a spooky scene with felt and fabric and stitchery.

It is a 12 1/2 inch block size.

If you like it please download the PDF pattern to keep.

I love visiting the blogs that have give aways so it is only fair that I have one myself.

 I will draw it on 1st November 12 pm Brisbane time.
The draw is now closed

Make sure you look up all the hoppees for today. You can see the whole schedule here

Friday, October 26th

In Stitches & Seams

Sew.Darn.Quilt

Quilt Monster In My Closet

Lieselfriends-Di... Handnäher

The Learning Curve Quilts And Such

Qreative Quilts And Quests

Sew Many Yarns

Annieoak Designs

Searching Out Simple

Sheila's Quilt World

Val Spiers Sews - this is me

Robin - That Other Blog

Happy Quilting,

Val

Brisbane Quilt and Craft Show

I had a lovely time at the show with my mum on Thursday. I planned to spend up to $50 on stuff but went over a bit and had to put a couple of things on eftpos. There were just too many wonderful things. I collected a few more ribbons for my stash and some cute washi tapes and a tiny quilt stand.

Ribbons on the little quilt stand

Then I got some owl earring charms and a cat pendant charm and cute little handbag zipper pull charms.

Washi tape owls and cat. Forgot to put the zipper pulls out.

Finally I got what I went for and that was a a couple of sets of handbag handles and  two little purse frames. At $13 all up I can play around with them and not feel that I have to justify $16 handles by making the perfect bag to go with them.

The quilts were amazing. The best in show quilt was beautifully hand sewn and hand quilted.

Quilt by Joanne Johnson

There were quite a few that I really liked. Here are just a couple.

The Applique on this one by Kathy Adams was just perfect.

I loved the colour and design of this one by Marilyn Thompson

Happy Quilting,
Val

A Tuesday Treasure

A day late on my side of the world but so what! I felt the need to share my excitement. I just received my parcel of 100% wool felt pieces from the lovely Material Evidence Shop on Etsy. I have bought several lots of felt over time and they are just perfect.
This time I decided I needed a selection of colours for future imaginings. I didn't want colour to limit my ideas. She had on offer a bundle of 4 x 6 inch pieces, one of each of 60 colours. As well as the bundle she included a colour chart so I will always know what needs to be topped up.

I have two projects on the go using the felt - my wicked hop block and a cute pincushion. I will post pictures of these when they are finished.

Melody at The House on the side of the Hill hosts Tuesday Treasures. Be sure to have a look at what treasures others have.

Happy Quilting,
Val

mug mats and weeks 39 and 40

I soooo love doing my aerobic exercise. I run. I walk. I jump. I have managed to increase the time to about 50 mins of interval style where you do high intensity for 1 or 2 or 3 minutes then walk for 2 or 3 mins to get the heart rate back a bit then high intensity again. It is very doable.

I have been drawing up a storm using the pictures I have pinned or seen in magazines and I have decided to make a quilt from 12 inch blocks of random design both applique and pieced. I have finished block 1 this week. I copied this lovely design from mamacjt 's blog.

I wanted to get some new skinny folders to file my old drawings a bit more user friendly rather than in the big fat ring binders I have now. They are too hard to pick up and flick through. I also wanted a 12 inch album to store my new drawings. I ended up getting two snap load albums from Aldi for $5 each. They are normally $20 at Lincraft. I have been using my stash of 12 inch scrap booking papers that I have had for maybe 10 years to make the designs into 12 inch blocks. The papers are the ones you get 100 for $15 from Big W. Perfect for quilting designs.

I have been carrying my brekkie outside each morning with my tray. To stop things sliding around I need a tray mat. I have been folding in the edges of my fancy tea towels to use as mats. I don't use them as tea towels because they never get seen then. I had an urge to sew so I  took one of the tea towels and cut it into a mat. I even appliqued a tea pot on the back side and I have enough tea towel left to make a tea pot cover.

I couldn't help myself and just happened to start sewing selevedges together again. They make great kitchen counter mats because spills don't show up. An applique was needed of course so a mug with marsh mallows and a cup of coffee were applied and voila another nice mat to make my tea on. The owl is going on the cat quilt instead of the parrot DD2 didn't like.

I tidied up the sewing table a bit and put all the small UFO's into folders in a hanging file box. I then started putting steps required to finish them in my Errands app so I can do a little bit if I am looking for something to do and then tick it off so I know exactly what is required next time I am looking for something to do.

The folders were left over from my teacher days. This is my half finished tote bag.

Finally I redid my workout routine folder, putting it into a ring binder instead of a display folder. I have quite a few pages now and with the ring binder I can place the current routine in the front of the folder. The routines are made up of some printed out ones from Pinterest and various websites as well as photocopies of routines from my Oxygen or Shape magazines. Having the folder makes it much easier to actually do the exercise rather than looking for, then looking through the magazine or website.

Leslie Maxwell is my inspiration. She is 55 in the photo.

Happy Quilting,
Val