Little Christmas bits 10 and 11

No wonder I get behind in my posting. I got up at 6am and have just spent an hour looking and pinning in Pinterest. I only went there to get the link for the pouch pattern.

Two projects today for catchup. The one more tonight. Hopefully.

The felt snow globe turned out really nice. I just traced the photo from my Christmas Ideas Pinterest.  I can't provide patterns when I have just copied them from someone else but they are easy to trace. The original is from the flickr photostream of Priscila Cunha Arte & Mimos . She has some nice felt things in her photostream.

I have some plastic stuffing beads (thank you Fiona) and I just add a spoonful or two before closing the stitching for the backing. It makes the felt hang nicely.

This little pouch pattern was easy to follow. It was free from Stitchin' the Night Away  .

I used 8 ply for the pink one then found some silky bamboo yarn more like 4 ply for the gold one and a 3.50 hook.

I plan to hang them on the tree.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,

Val

Christmas Little bits 5

I am having fun trying to make something every day. Posting every day is a bit harder. No.6 will be this evening.

Yesterday I made the cutest tea cup. I love miniature things! This one is made with 8ply wool and trimmed with gold looking embroidery floss. The first one I made I trimmed with a different colour 8ply wool and it looked a bit wonky. The floss gives a very neat finish. Another cute thing for the Christmas tree.

This is a free crochet pattern from Just Jen Knit s & Stitches. She has other free patterns too.

Since I am posting so often this month I don't expect you to comment on every post. Maybe you can pin this page or just click g+1

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Cute fleece fabric

Went into Brisbane for a lovely lunch with my mum and my two daughters. I took the opportunity to visit Lincraft for their half price sale. I decided I wanted some polar fleece to back my Debbie Mumm sampler and I found a cute owl pattern. While looking I found a beautiful coral fleece (much softer than polar fleece) with a Christmas pattern. They were both $6.99 a metre and I bought 3m of each. I think I will use the Christmas one to back my Welcome to the North Pole quilt.

I also couldn't resist a nice tea box from The Tea Centre.

On Saturday I am going to Aldi bright and early to buy a down jacket for $49.99. It has duck down in it. I saw a duck down jacket reduced to $200 at Kathmandu and the goose down jacket was $500. I guess the Aldi jacket is quite a bargain. I have wanted a down jacket for a while because they are warm, light and squash into a small space. It will be perfect for holidays involving plain trips. Mum and I have started saving up for the Australian Sewing Guild trip to Sydney next July. It will be great for that.
I finished a knitted dog for DD1. Sadly I forgot to take a picture of the finished article. I have now started a cat for DD2. She tried to knit her own but got thoroughly confused so I have borrowed her book Best in Show - knit your own cat, to help her out.

I completed my first crochet square from my new book. I made it first with a 5.50 hook but it was just too loose and open. I pulled it undone and did it again with a size 4.00 hook and it looks just right.

Happy Quilting,
Val

QAG Quilt Exhibition

Mum, my daughter and I had a lovely time looking at all the historical quilts. There were some unusual ones like the one made out of scrap fabric one lady's sister brought home from her job at the shirt and pyjama factory. It was all stripes like men's pyjamas. There were some amazing examples of hand quilting that looked impossibly neat and intricate and a set of four poster curtains all done in clam shells. The most interesting one was done by female convicts expected to maintain industrious feminine arts while on the ship to Van Dieman's Land but my favourite item was a set with tiny scissors and a matching tiny sheath. They should definitely have had replica scissors for sale in the shop. I love tiny things.

After much perusing of the items on offer for sale I bought a crochet book with lots of pretty square patterns and motifs.

For lunch we had the Patchwork Platter consisting of a delicious hot potato and mushroom tart, finger sandwiches and  two sweets. It came with a glass of sparkling white wine. We got the entry and the platter for $30. I highly recommend this activity as a pleasant morning out if you can get into Brisbane.

I have turned off comments so I just have a diary to share. 

I am not incommunicardo since I am still on Google+ and Facebook and Flikr just reeling blogger in a bit.

I am happy for anyone to plus 1 my posts or share them.

Happy Quilting,

Val

Country Cottage Quilting SAL and the rest.

I just love a good sew along and I am a sucker for a good BoM so I have quite a lot on the go. I seem to be fitting things in quite well so far. I have even made some extras like the fox and my crochet gloves.
I am determined to finish all my May obligations before the end of May and earlier if possible. As soon as the new owl came out I whipped him up ready to sew. My sewing machine is making some complaining noises so the sewing will have to wait a bit.

I got another block from "Summertime" glued down ready to sew and I will try to get a couple more ready. I am making a square wall hanging from 9 blocks.

I got the April Adventure block out and put it onto a little bag pattern. I will put the May block of cute post cards onto a zippy purse.

I spent some time working on my much overdue photo album from my trip last year. It is fun to look at the photos and remember stuff.

I like to use the iPad in bed just before I get up so I made some fingerless gloves to keep me warm.

I am making the needle book from Country Cottage Quilts with Shirley from Colours of a Butterfly. We are warming up to make the quilt with the watering cans on it. We will be posting some progress every two weeks. I did a bit of cutting and sticking to get started.

That's it for another week. I feel much better about blogging once a week. I seem to have more time for visiting and commenting on other blogs.

I am linking up with Applique Thursday.

If you are not ready for Google+ you can comment from my Facebook or Flickr.

Val Spiers on Facebook

Val Spiers on Flickr

Happy Quilting,
Val

1 Xmas item a month

Feeling a bit lazy today so just a short post to display my newest Christmas tree decorations for the 1 Xmas Item a Month Club. This is hosted by Narelle at Nell's Notions. Why not see what others are doing and maybe join in with the linky.

Happy Crocheting,
Val

Easter

The day has dawned just perfect here. There is no breeze, it is warm (25) and the birds are singing.

Kitty enjoys the winter sun

Speaking of birds, I have just about finished 3 little birds. I am going to make them all into brooches. Should be able to finish that this morning. I can't think of anywhere to hang the little things so the hanger comes off and a pin goes on. I made them two rows smaller than the tutorial (see right side bar) so they would be cute size. I might make some Christmas coloured ones for the Christmas tree later.

The table is set up with the owl gift boxes and chocolate rabbit penny rug as a centre piecce. My paper flowers are on the cafe table. You can just see the egg cups peeping over the top of one of the owls. It is generally a low chocolate day with mini Lindt bunnies all round from us and something small from the rest of the family.

I hope you all have a happy and peaceful Easter,
Val

Works in Progress

I have been keeping busy the last few days. I have started my block keeper. The piecing is inspired by Henrietta Whiskers but the applique is a big fat pumpkin that I got from Wee Folk Art.

I started a hand bag tote that I am hoping my mum will like.

It was inspired by this bag in a Homespun specialty magazine. I am going to put daisies along the top using machine stitched needle turn. I think the DVD that showed me how to do that came with this magazine.

I managed to finish two pairs of arm warmers for the other daughter. One pair longish and one short pair. I will be including a water melon slice brooch. Not the slice in the picture. One a fraction smaller. I have to sew the two sides together and put the pin on.

Hope you are having a great weekend.
Happy sewing,
Val

FNSI and catchup

This is just the top. I will finish it today.

Hi everyone.
I can't believe how hard it was not to make contact with you all in blogger land.  I checked my mail a couple of times but I had promised myself a break from typing (a laptop on a desk is not good for the forearms) and I wanted to rest my eyes a bit. Sewing is pretty intense on the eyes as well. I am typing with the laptop on my lap this morning. I guess that is the way it was meant to be used.

It is always nice to get new followers so welcome to Maryellen, Tarnyia and Donna. I hope you visit often and don't forget that even better then followers are comments. I love making contact with people.

I showed you my teacup fabric the other day and I have been busy making my table cloth. It is not completely finished but I have done the top and have the back ready to sew. At first I was thinking of a check binding but it didn't seem right  and I thought that table cloths don't have binding they have borders. I decided to include a narrow border in the top and the back and sew it right sides together and turn it.

I added borders top and bottom then the sides like a patchwork block.

I found a great pattern for crochet arm warmers on Julia Crossland's blog and made myself a pair. I decided to adjust the pattern a bit by decreasing either side of the seam each four rows ( from 41 trebles to 33 at the finger end ) and I moved the thumb hole slightly further from the seam line. I am making some for my daughters and have finished one more arm. I am going to make myself a short pair as well. I used Big W Shawn Sheep Stirling pure wool 8 ply.  50g of each colour should be enough. (I used some left over balls). I bought some Panda for the daugters' cause it is very soft.

I said I was going to look at the hills in my time off. It is a very pleasant view. I spent some time outside reading my crochet magazine and crocheting.

I was looking out my kitchen window and could see a big red blob in the swamp gum. At first I thought it was a bird but then I realized it was the first flowers. It is a lovely tree with big gum nuts and big flowers in a lovely shade of pink.

Such a pretty tree. It is Western Australian.

I can't believe how pretty my pincushion looks with the flowers Fiona added. You can have a look on Fiona's blog. I still haven't got Deedee's in the post yet. Should be here this week though. Now it is a bit of breakfast then back to checking around the blogs and replying to comments.

 Happy Quilting ( and blogging) :)
 Val

Aaargh! Still no sewing machine.

Still no sewing machine so I made a cake.

 and an orange segment.

Plenty of time for browsing

Wee Folk Art had a lovely idea for a felt bracelet

I loved the triangle chicken at Talin's Corner so I looked up a triangular pyramid pattern and came up with a cute zipped purse. I added the tutorial to my Great Tutorials by Others list in the side bar.There is a cute sewing roll on the same site to hold bits and pieces when you go to workshops.
Talin also had some great bag and purse tutorials.

I discovered Pink Penguin. What a talented designer she is. There are some good tutorials too. She also mentions Stitch magazine and it looks really good. I bought the digital copy but have had to ask about the insert pattern sheet. A couple of the patterns refer to the insert but those patterns were not included in the downloaded magazine.

I am excited about joining in the Pincushion - Sew a Bit hosted by Fiona at Bubzrugz. The groups have been organised but nothing stops you from sewing along. The idea is to create a pincushion as pretty as this one from The Painted Quilt. She has two "wool crazy" tutorials to help.

Happy Quilting,
Val

A change of pace

I think my hand stitching has had enough of a display. Anyone looking for my Christmas items they are in the post below. Since my sewing machine is under repair I thought I would show some of my knitting and crochet. The scarf is made from alpaca in a moss stitch rib. I love the feel of it. I knitted several scarves, vests and hats last winter but my favourite finishes were the tea cosies.

Mohair crochet owl

Here is my crochet owl from Killer Tea Cosies. He sits on display all the time cause I just love him.  The others below were made for specific pots. I like the pineapple stitch one. I got the stitch pattern from an old book of knitting stitches that my mum gave me.

Knitted cosy and pot stand

Crochet with two strands of wool. Pattern from Wild Tea Cosies

Simple rib with beads.

I also did some shopping. Even though it is way too hot I had to have a go at some patterns in the Gourmet Crochet book I got for Christmas and I needed more colours. The pink bit is the start of a cake. I also had to get some embroidery threads for my felt stitchery. Maybe it's my tools causing the trouble :) And since I was at the fabric shop a bit of fabric just jumped out at me!

Stumpy just likes to know where I am.

I bought a thread to match every colour felt I had.

I nearly forgot. I drooled over the magazines for a while and ended up buying Magic Patch ( a European magazine ) and Inside Crochet that had a great mittens pattern. I was inspired to dabble in my crochet again after visiting Kate at Creative World. She has a great blog. Thanks Kate.

Happy quilting (and crocheting and knitting)
Val