Sunday into Monday Show and Tell

Someone was doing a string bag which reminded me that I wanted to do one too. (Edit - Of course, it was Creative Kate) I had a pattern in the knitting desk calendar that DD1 bought me for Christmas and some cotton blended with acrylic to knit it out of. I am making it fairly small but it is very stretchy.

I just had to make the Lazy Lemon Pie from Bev's blog . I made a half quantity and put it into single serves. I put things in the jug in no particular order since you just mix it all together. I popped out and picked a couple of lemons then juiced them in the electric juicer on the other counter. I put the filled dishes in the oven and turned around to see the lemon juice sitting in the juicer. I pulled out the dishes and divied up the juice and stirred each dish with a spoon.
Can't believe I nearly had Lazy Pie :D
(Edit - They taste and feel delicious. Good job DH doesn't like them much :)

I wanted to make a little album of my Morpeth trip so I made a crazy block cover for it. I used Keynote to make slides and printed them off 2 to a page and cut them in half to make my album pages. I called it a mission because on the day if I thought of it as a mission I didn't feel so nervous about the trip. I tend to stress out whenever I do something new. I had never done a plane day trip before and was worried about getting back to the airport on time. I had never hired a car before or driven in and out of an airport before so I was stressed about that too. I found that if I pretended to be on a mission like Mrs Pollifax - If she can do it, I can do it - I felt adventurous rather than nervous. I know Mrs Pollifax isn't a real person but what the heck, it seemed to work :)

I used my teapot fabric for the inside

Not quite finished

I haven't quite finished the album. I will punch two holes in the pages and use a needle to thread a ribbon in the covers to tie it together.

Today I thought I might just go through every blog I follow and leave a comment. I follow quite a few more than I have included in my side bar so I thought it might be nice to visit them all and remember why I followed them in the first place or maybe even strike them off the list.
I will be linking up with Monday Show and Tell on Sandy's blog tomorrow.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Monday's Show and Tell

I have really enjoyed trying to do the stitchery with Helen. It is not all that different to reading it in a book but I think Helen makes it sound easy and also look easy. I wanted to practice so I found the lovely kit that I won along with lots of other things in the June Christmas Through the Year with Allie. I was sticking the big pins (also part of the prize) in my regular pin cushion and I could see that I needed a cushion just for these pins. Luckily Stitched Sunday was up to satin stitch so I could make a fair effort with that. There was a lot of backstitch in this piece and I was very pleased with how it turned out. It will make a decent sized pin cushion for the large pins.
Stitched Sunday and Christmas Through the Year are in the right side bar.

Sandy from Cookies and Cream Craft hosts Monday's Show and Tell. Pop on over and join in.


Happy Quilting and Stitching,
Val

Monday's Show and Tell

I was very excited to receive a parcel of selvedges in the mail this morning. Lyn of http://bluebirdquilts-lyn.blogspot.com/ very kindly sent me her selvedges from her hexies and she also put in a lovely reel of silver grey silk thread. I can't wait to get upstairs and sew something with them. They would be perfect for a zippy bag or the outside of a wallet style keeper.
Thank you so much Lyn. I love them.

Sandy from Cookies and Cream Craft hosts Monday's Show and Tell. Pop on over and join in.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Monday's Show and Tell

Not much patchwork happening here but my daughter came to visit and took these lovely photos out the back this morning.

 

If you click on this one to enlarge it you can see the individual droplets

Sandy at Cookies and Cream hosts Monday's Show and Tell. Sandy has has a daily surprise happening for July and a bloggiversary give away.

Happy Sewing,
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

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

Monday's Show and Tell

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter. It is a nice time for family to get together.
This week I have chosen my front door to show. I was cleaning it the other day and it still makes me happy to look at it.
Not long after we moved here we did some renovating and the door company had some beautiful stained glass doors on display. Before we moved here I had been making things with applique Australian animals on them and thought that the designs would lend themselves well to making a stained glass window. So I drew up a design and had the door people make me a custom door. It was difficult to photograph.
We also had some inside doors made with Cooktown orchids and cockatoos but we have made more changes and they are in the garage to use again later.

 

 

 

Probably a few too many pictures, but I do love them.

And here are the cute egg cups I bought for Easter.

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 Appliqueing,
Val

Monday's Show and Tell

I have been making a few more tea towels. This time with pumpkin pie and chocolate cake. I used my silicone mat. It really makes it easy to put the bits together. Here is the cake ready to put on the tea towel.

I also got Sandi's pincushion in the mail today. I looks great and it feels really nice too. All soft and blankety :)

The weather here today is perfect autumn weather. Just a few clouds gathering and a balmy breeze. There is supposed to be a storm this afternoon. A few weeks ago I took a few pictures on my walk up the road. About 500m down my street then turn right into this street and down to the creek.

Then up the hill and around the corner to the top.

This is looking back down my valley towards my house. You can't see it. It is past the white roof pretty much in the centre..

Hop on over to Cookies and Cream Craft to see what others have to show. Why not grab the Show and Tell button and join in each week.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Monday's Show and Tell

 
I have the cutest little cat on my desk. I mean the calendar :)
I bought him as a souvenier at a huge garden shop at the top of the stairs to the Notre Dame Metro stop. I look at it every day and remember my visit to Paris last year. They also had cute little bird houses for sale.
Come with me to Paris :)

I climbed to the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Those spiral stair cases are perfect for panic attacks. They are quite confined and I hated not being able to see the bottom or the top. It felt like it would go on forever. Enough of that though. It spooks me thinking about it. I climbed every tower I found this time. Won't be doing that next time.

I loved Paris. I had tea at little cafes and wandered the streets fascinated by all the little fashion shops that seemed to be everywhere. The first little cafe I went to had teapots for decoration - Le Jardin de The - very French.

The buildings all have flats above them and seem really dull til I happened upon one set of big double doors that was open. Behind was the most magical courtyard. I realised that lots of the buildings must have these hidden courtyards. 

I visited Montmartre and had tea in the artists square. The table was an artwork itself.

That's my cup still on the table.

On the way up I passed a patissiere with the biggest biscuits I have ever seen. They were bigger than my hand.

It was the beginning of April and all the trees were starting to blossom. Ah! Paris in the Spring!

Make sure you visit Sandy at Cookies and Cream Craft to join in Monday's Show and Tell.
Happy Sewing,
Val

Monday's Show and Tell

Lately I have been trying to think of original things to make.

My drawing skills are limited so I will copy shapes  like folded leaves or pumpkin shape from other sources. I even traced leaves from a tree in my garden for my tea cosy. But I could only do flat and uninteresting. I will have another go at the tea cosy design. I am saving pictures for my Being Creative post later. Same with my tea towel.

But I did make an easter thing all by myself and I think it is rather cute. As you can see it is a little egg purse. The curves were a bit tricky and I had to hand stitch the lining in but it is all mine. I haven't googled yet to see if someone else has one. Later maybe. I need some time to feel pleased with myself :)

If you pop over to Cookies and Cream Craft you can see who else has show and tell.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Monday's Show and Tell

I made this bag more than a year ago I suppose. I loved the pansy fabric and I went to quite a lot of trouble but I just haven't been able to use it. It tends to clash with everything I have. Now that I have dragged it out to take photos I am determined to find something or buy something to wear it with because I still love the pansies.

It has a magnetic purse clasp ...

... a zipper pocket and phone pocket...

... and outside pockets on each side.

I saw something similar on the www and just copied it for myself.

The spider is from Dreamworld and has sat on this lounge in my sun room for quite a few years. I have to put it under something when my eldest daughter visits cause she says it gives her the creeps. I think he is pretty cute.

If you pop over to Cookies and Cream Craft you can see who else has show and tell.

Happy Quilting,
Val