A Bit More Piecing on "I Love My Cat"

It looks so much better with more pieces laid out. I have finished the 4 sides. I can't do the other two cats until I get my roll of fusible applique paper. I bought it online on Fishpond and it is coming from the UK. It worked out cheaper than buying it from an Australian seller.

I plan to make it a bit bigger with some borders.

It will look something like this. The rectangles in the last border will be made from the same fabrics in the quilt as much as possible.

I will put it aside for now while I wait for the applique paper. In the mean time I will be making some Splendid Sampler blocks.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Friday Night Sew In - I Love My Cat Quilt

I have been working on this one for a while. Since I was sorting all my scraps for the Splendid Sampler I decided to do a bit of this quilt as I went. (Just before posting I checked the post I did of the first of the cat blocks. I can't believe it was this time last year that I started this!)

I don't know what I was thinking when I put that dark blue check as part of a back ground block but it will end up blending in I think.

I carefully worked out where the dark, medium and light fabrics were placed and tried to stick to that layout even though my colours are completely different to the photo I am working from. I am sticking to red, green and brown.

I have matched the strengths of the fabrics to the design in the instructions. Where there is dark blue I have put a strong red. Then there are some light greens in mine and some medium red, green and brown.

Adding some applique hearts

I have done the top and bottom and a few of the in between bits.

I have just laid out the sides. I shuffled things around a bit until the patterns fit together OK. I tried to stick to the order of dark and medium and light as best I could from the photo. The dark strips are reds only with the light and medium being greens and browns.
I wasn't perfectly happy with this layout. I thought it looked a bit dark. I found some lighter left overs from the top and bottom that I have since substituted in. It made a big difference just putting in a few lighter strips.

I didn't do all this on Friday night. Luckily I don't have to juggle much with my sewing so this is how

far I have gotten over 4 days.

I hope everyone had a successful night. A big thank you to Wendy for hosting Friday Night Sew-In.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Stumpy gets very tired watching me work.

Cross Stitch, Applique and a Fun New magazine

I was certainly in a cross stitch mood recently. After doing the cup outline piece I stitched up this cute little cat in a mug design. It is all over Pinterest along with others from a set.

I inadvertently did the outline stitches in 2 threads instead of 1 but I am still happy with it.
I will be making this one into another tea mat using my scraps.

I have been busy this last week going through all my craft room boxes. I have managed to move quite a lot of the store for later boxes so there is much more room for my using now boxes. Things are looking much better. At the same time I have sorted and ironed all my scraps ready to start the Splendid Sampler and I have also filled another floss box. The floss skeins are down to the last bag or two now.

As a bit of a cross over project I have combined doll clothes with applique and thread sketching. I have a thing for pictures out of fabric or thread. They just call out to me.

This cute little A-line skirt is being modelled by one of my Australian Girl dolls. The 18" A-line skirt pattern is already on my facebook page as a free pattern and this 20" size skirt will be up soon, also free and including the pumpkin applique design. The applique will fit just as well on the 18" skirt.
If you like doll clothes then check out my Doll Designs blog and my Etsy Shop.

On Friday I discovered Daphne's Diary in the newsagent. The colours and designs and layout was irresistible. I have limited my magazine reading to library magazines on Zinnio for a few years now so it felt good to buy a lovely magazine in the flesh.

Once a magazineaholic always an addict. The first thing I did when I got home was to look up back issues. The only ones I could find in Australia were the two previous editions. It has been going for 3 or 4 years in Europe but I am sure it hasn't been here long. I am not prepared to pay for back issues from the Netherlands but I did pay $14.99 for each of the back issues on eBay. The newsagent one cost me $10.95 anyway so I thought the price was bearable. I can't wait to get them.

You can cut out these shapes...

...and create a necklace picture.

You can read about designers.

You can read nice stories and get craft ideas.

The back cover is a lovely sheet of paper with no text.

Hope you are having a wonderful crafty weekend,

Val

I Love Teapots and Tea Cosies

Rather than get out my old tea cosies (most of them are stored in a box in the cupboard), I decided to knit a new one.

Some nubbly yarn scraps and some fluffy yarn left overs.

I used a cosy as a guide as well as a tea pot. There is always a bit of trial and error getting the fit right. I undid the first attempt after about 4 rows because it was obviously too big.

I combined the fluffy and nubbly yarn every 4th row. I ran out of nubbly yarn at the top so I had to make the top part all fluffy. I made holes around the top for the ribbon but the fluffiness made it impossible to see where they were so the ribbon just got threaded through best as possible using a big needle.

It is stocking stitch for the first 6 rows with smaller needles then the rest is stocking stitch with needles 1 whole size larger. I used 7mm and 8mm needles. The top is shaped by knitting 2 tog all the way across. After knitting 2 sides I put them on one 7mm needle.

I did knit 2 purl 2 ribbing across both sides so the top is done in one piece. I did about 8 rows with the holes around the 4th row.

I added some beads.

I love the way the bottom curls up a bit.

This one fits 3 or 4 of my medium tea pots.

Happy Crafting and Quilting,

Val

I Love Cross Stitch

There are just too many cross stitch charts for a whole life time let alone my sunset years. I chose a simple design to add to my tea mat. The outline images are just so clever. I know this is a cup of coffee but I just liked the design. Unfortunately I have no idea where this design came from. I only have it in my screen shots with no details. It is from a long time ago too so I couldn't find it online anywhere. There are lots of similar things around.

I sat outside in the good light to do this one. There are a few bits that I fudged but not enough to redo the stitches. I am neatish but not perfect with my cross stitch. It is just fun to see the image magically appear.

I used a whisper weft type iron on woven backing after stitching it to seal the thread ends.

I had some decommissioned towels in the craft room that I used to make the back of the mat.

I did some free motion random stitching plus a few black lines of stitching.

I didn't make the mat to any specific measurement but it fits quite nicely on my tea tray.

I put the cross stitch off centre so I can still see it when I put my pot and cup on top.

Happy Crafting and Quilting,
Val

A little Cross Stitch Bookmark

I started this cute bookmark ages ago. I had an urge to do some cross stitch so I pulled it out and finished it off. The design is one of the hundreds of cross stitch charts that I have downloaded from the internet. I can't even find the original chart image I have so many.

I only had to do the border. I had forgotten pretty much everything I learnt about cross stitch so the stitches are a bit haphazard on the border. Never mind. I think it is a great addition to my bookmark collection.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Planner Pages with a Quilting Theme

I love designing and I have just started designing some printable planner pages for my Kikki K large planner. I had a look around the internet and didn't find many planner pages decorated with a sewing or patchwork theme.

There are a few planners for quilters that have project trackers or swap list pages but they don't have decorations on them.

I love to colour in and I have found it very satisfying to colour in the flying geese. It is fun to watch the page come alive as you move around the border.

I am steadily publishing the flying geese themed pages in my Etsy shop. 

You can find a free sample on my Organising Blog.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Some Patchwork and Homespun for Free at Your Online Library

I bought mum a thermolactyl fleece blanket for Mother's Day. I wanted to put a little label on it and decided to use a small block.

I have been watching the Splendid Sampler from the side lines and saw this cute scrappy star by Corey Yoder and thought it would be perfect.

I spend a lot of time on my Doll Clothes blog and my other various themed blogs. See them listed in the side bar.

Did you know that Homespun magazine is available for free as an e-zine from your library online.

I love reading it on my tablet using the Zinnio app. Many of the articles, ads and projects have live links for convenient browsing.

You can also register for free on the Homespun web page and download the project patterns as PDFs for free. I have been collecting the Foxy Village blocks. I make a folder for each block and take screen shots of the instructions from the magazine to go with the pattern PDF.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val