February North Pole QAL

What a fun quilt this is. I worked hard on two more of my 12 inch blocks and now have three sewn together. I have a couple more trees to put on then I will put on the wadding and do a bit of outline quilting maybe and a few swirls in the snowy sky. I will also add some hand stitched simple snow flakes in Pearl cotton No 5.
I am feeling decidedly weary but every visible part of the house is clean all at the same moment in time. Even after all the days we have spent cleaning and tidying we both spent another 3 hours this morning. Anyway, I have just taken a few snaps with my iPad of the blocks on my sewing table.

I have decided that I will write the house and shop names on with fabric pen. I am not very good at small writing in embroidery.
I know some of the group have done a bit more this month. Please put a link to your post in the linky below. This makes it easier for everyone to check out our progress.
Happy Quilting,
Val

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Christmas house

I have managed to make a felt decoration to put away for Christmas in between all the cleaning of the house and boxing up my home. It is so weird in the house with just the furniture. The only personal items I can see are some treasures I have left in my display cabinets. After the agent takes the photos I am definitely putting my tea things back out in the kitchen.

I so love my felts and I couldn't resist the gingerbread house that I found on Pinterest. It is a free pattern at Craft Ideas
I did it in thin felt so I will have to prop it up a bit with some cardboard inside.

I have been adding progress posts on my Summertime quilt blog. It is a wonderful felt quilt. I posted some house pictures on my housework blog. The routine has suffered a bit with the extra packing up and some maintenance required to make the house perfect. I will be falling back on the routine to keep things looking great til we sell.

I am definitely going to start a new free stitchery BOM called Adventure found at Pretty P and Mamma B Designs

We have another sewer joining the North Pole QAL. Donna has just got the book and is keen to start. When I looked at Donna's blog I saw that she is crazy about BOM's and she is making some wonderful quilts. She has a thing for Christmas quilts too. Check out her blog.

A big thanks to Narelle of Pins and Whiskers for hosting 1 Xmas Item a Month. It is like a Christmas sew along and really helps me to focus.

I have just been thinking...
I tend to use my computer a lot:

• I have been using Google plus just to make a quick post about something I think my blog friends might be interested in. 
• I have been using my quilt diary blogs to post about every little bit of progress I am making with my quilts this year. 
• I use my housework blog to make me feel good about the work I put in to make my place clean and comfortable. 
• I use the right side bar to remind myself of things that I must buy or must make.
• I use Pinterest to collect 5 lifetimes worth of things I want to make.
• I also use my 'save image' a lot on my ipad to collect pictures of finished items and ideas to save in 'Photos' in lots of 'albums'. A bit like my own Pinterest but I don't need the links.
• Paypal also gets a bit of a beating and I just love internet banking.
• I use Flickr to store most of my blog photos. Even with the free version where you can't see all your photos they still show up on my blog posts because the link still works. I recently took the free upgrade to Pro for three months that they offered as a Christmas present and will probably pay to continue it. I have uploaded lots of photos of my possessions to keep safe for insurance purposes in private sets and will most likely upload all my photos to store online as well as keep a backup on DVD.
• I am considering buying a drawing tablet so I won't need to have visual diaries for my designs.   Shelf space is hard to find.
• I have just thought that I really need to scan all the design bits and pieces I have into the computer. I have trouble working out which folder to put things in. Then I can't find them later and just forget about them. It would be much easier to have a nice written list of categories for folders on my computer and it is also possible to search for files at the click of a button. Would I be game enough to throw away all my paper pages then? I will definitely have to think about that before I do it :)

Time for a computer break now.
Happy Quilting,
Val

Getting Things Done

The cat quilt has been coming together nicely but it has now come to a screaming halt since I need more wadding and I have spent all my pocket money on other stuff.

I spray basted the 1st border strips to the wadding. I was supposed to do it in one wide piece but I forgot and cut strips.

The I sewed across all the strips in one inch lines.

Then cut them apart and stitched two together to fit down one side. Measured it up and sewed them all on. I pressed the seams open as I went.

Next it was the second border. I spray basted on two strips then quilted in a cross hatch pattern across both strips at once. I cut them apart and sewed them on. Then did the same with the other two strips.

Two borders done. Now I need to do the wide writing fabric border but I need more wadding.

The next wider border will make it fit a king size bed.

I drew up a design for my February mini quilt block. You can see it in my Mini Quilt Diary.
I have also finished the teapot block in my felt applique quilt. You can see my progress in my Summertime Quilt Diary. Not a lot of progress with Nanna's Farm but I have cut out some flowers for rows 3 and 5. I am keeping a progress diary for that too. There are also links to my three Quilt Diary blogs in my left side bar.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Another new project!

As you all know it is impossible to walk past a cute project and even though it was in the very expensive Magic Patch quilt book I just had to do it which meant buying the book.
There are actually several cute wool projects I plan to make after the bag.

It didn't always look like this. After carefully sewing all the squares together, I cut the lining , sewed it on and started the running stitch on the squares. Why doesn't it fold up right, I thought. It took me ages to realise that I had sewn the squares together in the wrong shape. It had to be unpicked and fixed. Luckily I had only done a few of the running stitch squares so I just undid the lining on the other end, unpicked the offending squares and across the centre so I could fit them in the right place. I am so glad it looks fixed.

Because it was now a different shape I had t cut off some bits of the lining and add bits on the end. You can see where I put the extra bits.

I ran out of brown thread for the running stitch so it is not quite finished. I can't afford the thread til next fortnight because I spent all last fortnight's pocket money on DMC stranded floss.

One of every colour plus the variegated ones.  From Cross stitch World online. Can't wait to get them all sorted.

Happy Quilting,
Val

FNWF - Sand Pipers wall hanging.

Just a bit behind on FNWF

These oyster catchers are so cute wandering along the shore. I fell in love with the pattern when I saw it online at the Centre Diamond store and I determined that I would buy the kit and make it as a gift for my mum.
This shop is in Cannon Beach, Oregon a lovely seaside tourist town on the west coast of North America.

When I got it out and started to put it together I also started remembering our trip over the mountains to the beach. It had snowed on the mountains the night before and was raining now. We were there in early March 2012 so the weather was pretty cold.

On the way over the mountains from Portland we stopped at an old logging camp turned into a restaurant called Camp 18. Not very inviting at first but inside it was lovely and cosy.
They make the biggest tea buns you have seen and they go great with hot chocolate.

It was all made of timber and had lots of great carvings.

They even had resident kitties.

The weather was a bit better as we came down to the coast and the scenery was quite spectacular.

I finished up the applique stitching and then the quilting on Friday and did the eyes on Saturday morning. I now just have to do the binding and a hanging sleeve but I need to buy some more fabric for that.

I had a lovely time on Friday Night with Friends. I am sure if you were actually here you would have had to put up with looking at lots more photos :)

Be sure to visit Cheryll to see the list of everyone who joined in.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Little Finishes

I just had an urge to make something Valentine's related. I don't really decorate for it but I needed a new mug rug to replace the Christmas one on the little side table in the lounge room.

I have been surfing the web for mug rug designs as usual and thought maybe I should make one. I used a design with rows of squares set on an angle to use up some scraps. I had lots of 2 1/2 inch squares and strips to use so I picked out some pinkish ones and a few things I like such as cats, gardens and Paris fashions to add in. Several of the fabrics are the ones that I used in my very first sew along when I started blogging. It was a table topper called February Hearts and it is still hanging on the back of my lounge chair. The lovely host was Robyn at Daisy Quilts.

I thought a heart was in order so I used a scrap of that great purple I used in the latest needle book to make a fused on heart.

I also discovered a lovely scrappy journal cover idea that had me scrabbling through my scrap box and I found a little bag with some tiny nine patch block pieces and magnets. Ages ago I had made a tiny nine patch fridge magnet like one I had seen on a blog. I sewed a few more bits together and made another one. This time I put a slit in the back ( I used the slit and turn method) and slipped the magnet inside. It is just strong enough to hold a sheet of paper.

To make the tiny squares I sewed 6 1 inch strips together to make a tube then sliced off 1 inch sections. You then unpick the tube in successive seams to get the squares staggered. Each tube section makes two 3 square strips. Sew three together to make 9 squares.
I put interfacing on the backing fabric and pre cut a little slit. Put wadding on the nine patch then sewed the back onto the front all the way around just like my coasters. I made the slit bigger and turned it. I then slipped the magnet inside and stitched it up.
The magnet is a piece of one of those flexible business fridge magnets everyone collects on the fridge.

Strips, tube sections, putting the magnet in.

The one on the right is the latest one. I think it shows some improvement in my skills :)
The cross stitch heart is my first go at a covered button magnet. I really need to do it with linen rather that Aida.

Happy Quilting,
Val