Christmas Critters

I just noticed that there is a linky party for these cute little critters over at Mocking Bird Hill Cottage and also at Creative Cain Cabin.
The patterns are PDF and free and simple to make. Two each month.

I made the owl yesterday and the cardinal and sheep today. Today I used the good felt. It is much thicker and nicer to work with. It is 100% wool.

The owl is out of 80% wool and 20% rayon? I think. It is much thinner and not as nice to handle but it is cheaper and not quite as 'squeaky' to work with as the acrylic felt.

I had to make a little English Suffolk sheep because they look so cute.

Visit Flickr or Pinterest if you are not into Google+ comments.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Little Christmas Bits 14

Had to catch up with a small and easy item. This little stocking was inspired by ornaments on my Pinterest board and is the same design as my ribbon stocking. I like the peekaboo style. I may have to make other things using this method. A tea cosy springs to mind but I already know what I want to do for my next tea cosy and probably tomorrow's item.

Happy Quilting and Crafting.
Val

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

Little Christmas bits 3

Just a small one today so I can catch up. I have set myself a goal of one Christmas item every day until Christmas. I am keeping up so far :D

I did my best to copy a partridge on a pear in felt. I think I made it a fraction too small for sewing on the machine so I did it by hand. I put a few plastic stuffing beads in the bottom to give it a nice hanging weight and stumbled around the outside of the pear with the sewing machine.

It is an item from my I Love Felt Pinterest board. I copied the photo and traced over it with my whiteboard app, sized it up and printed it out for tracing with the freezer paper.

I put a squirt of spray baster on a sheet of paper and stick the felt pieces on right side down then give them a blast with the spray baster. (I stick them on first because I have had them blast off the table in the past.) It is then a simple matter to stick them onto the pear and then sew them. I do all my felt applique like this now. The bits never fall off while I am sewing them on and the glue doesn't stick to the needle.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Little Christmas bits

I have been so stressed the last month trying to sort out the listing for selling the house and then deciding to buy a block of land that I have done nothing but a bit of knitting. I just haven't been able to concentrate. Today, being the 1st of December seemed like a good time to get my act together. I would love to make something Christmassy every day until Christmas day. At least it will keep my mind occupied and hopefully keep me more relaxed.
So what is first. I have so many wonderful inspirational things pinned on Pinterest so I just picked something easy to copy. A cute little Santa that I have made into a tree decoration. I downloaded the photo then traced it with my whiteboard app, printed it out, and traced the pieces onto freezer paper.

Here is the original pin


and here is my copy.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

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

Crows and Kitties

This project was started just before I entered my cockatoo phase so I had to keep going with the crows. I guess they are now blackbirds because I gave them yellow beaks. I love working with wool felt and wool fabrics to do applique. I also love the cute little designs that can be made out of felt. You can get so much detail.

On Pinterest I started up my 'I love felt' board to collect lots of cool felt projects for a rainy day. It always helps to have a bit of inspiration. I recently discovered the  Downeast Thunder Farm blog and lots of gorgeous felt bird patterns for free.

I was first introduced to the crazy wool pincushion by Kaaren at The Painted Quilt. And then Fiona at Bubz Rugs had a pincushion traveling swap. I was still feeling my way around blogland then :)
I still love using my international pincushion.

My latest creation has woven wool for the top and wool felt for the elements. I also used felt for the base and just cut a slit in it for turning and stuffing. I used baseball stitch to sew it up. I had a bit of rice and lavender mix in the draw so I popped in a few spoons of that then made it nice and plump with hobbyfill. I put in one of my washers to give it some weight and stitched the edges together.

If you would like to collect this pattern you can download it from google docs.
There is also a flickr photo stream with some construction steps.

I thought the kitty salt shaker should get a look in today. There is a ginger one for pepper but I don't use pepper much. I bought the pair in the Lakes District on my UK trip earlier this year.

Now I have to get busy and tweek the design and put in cockatoos instead of blackbirds and gum leaves instead of apples.

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

Obsessed with the quick finish

You may have noticed that I have been making all sorts of little things lately. My big star quilt is lying idle and my new Nanna's Farm quilt is still a pile of fabrics.
Yesterday I finished four Christmas cookie decorations made from felt...

They are only little.

...then last night I made the little stuffed bird I got from Cookies and Cream. Little stuffed toys are not high on my list of quick finishes. They are way too fiddly. Then ...

...this morning I was browsing around and found a tutorial for a zipper bag at Joypatch. It is a basic pattern and I have made it before but looking at the construction triggered a need to make it out of plastic. The bound edges were perfect for plastic. I folded the raw edges in on the binding then folded it in half as described in the pattern. However, I placed it over the edges of the plastic and sewed both front and back edges at once. I didn't bother with a zipper gusset. I just sewed it straight into the binding then put the end tabs on. The construction is similar to the felt tea bag I made before. Though felt doesn't need the binding. I can see some more plastic things in the near future. Maybe even today :)

Here are the cookies. The small ones were a bit too small I thought so I have included 120% cookies as well. Click on the image, save it then print it.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Would you believe 'More Christmas Sewing' :)

I have been busy sewing and playing. I loved the look of some of the cakes in the Woolworths Fresh magazine so I have traced them to make into fabric things at some point.

And then I saw what Teje was doing on Nero's Post and Patch. She is making fabric cards by just sewing around shapes and trimming them close to the stitching. I have been meaning to try this method for a while. Obviously it is not a good plan for things that have to be washed but I thought if I made some coasters like this they could be soaked carefully if need be. So I cut out some teapot shapes roughly, interfaced them and cut wadding and backing. I then sewed around the outline and cut them out. They look really cute. I will have to make a set.

I managed to finish the last three of my place mats and I made a magpie tree decoration. I added some bells to jazz him up a bit.

My desk was a mess with 5 or 6 projects in various stages so I got out another folder and put all my drawings and interfacing pieces and flosses and even a tea towel into plastic sleeves and I feel so much happier.

If you click on these drawings you can save them print them full size.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Little birds

I have had a lot of fun making little birds to hang on the tree. I used the bird designs I found on the web to get the shapes then made them all from felt. They are not heirloom items and will probably be good for next year too but not much more. I have decided not to buy any more tree decorations. I will just make what ever takes my fancy. Last year I had paper houses and handbags. I still have those and will put them on this year too. I threw away the paper hearts I made with beady dangles as I took them off the tree. They were quick and easy to make so I had no problem discarding them. I have to have room for all the new things I have made.

I have started on the tea cloth and love it so far. It won't take too long to finish.

You may have noticed that I have borrowed some pictures of free patterns and linked them to the site with the pattern. These are on the top right of my blog. There are the strippy triangle blocks, the apron with the built in pot holders and the fabulous crochet hat and some others.

Lastly but not least, a big hello to my new followers. I love it when new people find my blog.

Happy Quilting,
Val

"Black and White" no.2 in the Cat Collection

Here is the second of my four cats. I wanted to play with my felt but had to think hard of something that I would look at or use everyday but wouldn't need to be wash. I had been noticing the sad sight my tea bags make in my pantry. I have tea tins but it is too hard to find the right tea since the tins are all identical.
I reduced the original cat design to 80%.
The felt bag was easy to make. I cut the wide sides to include a 3cm base section and added on another 1/2cm for a seam. I did the applique, sewed the base seam and pressed the base crease, sewed the sides onto the base then sewed up each side seam. I did a bit of buttonhole stitch around the top and added the tie.

Doesn't she brighten up the pantry!

You can download some basic instructions and the cat pattern from my Google docs.

I have also finished the second pot holder.

Happy appliqueing,
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

My Block Keeper

I finished my block keeper yesterday and I love it. It is on the kitchen table at present and I have to keep patting the pumpkin :D
It is not really quite finished. I want to buy some little pink heart buttons that I saw at BigW to sew in the center of the yellow squares.

I put two straps inside to separate two piles of blocks and it can be opened from each side.You have to flip it over. I used bag wadding (stiff more dense than quilt wadding). I almost left off the tie ribbons but I thought if I dropped it things might fly out. I had no bought-to-match ribbon but I found the ribbon I saved from the orange Aldi tea towels that I bought. It says Peppertree all along it but the brown fits in OK. I nearly made the whole thing too small. The raw edges of the blocks just stick out a bit top and bottom.

I had to stuff the front inside the back to get the straps attached properly. I had to leave the bottom edge open on both the front and the back so I could turn them and also fit the wadding in. I decided the wadding would be too hard to sew in and turn so I just slipped it in and sewed it up close to the bottom edge.  

This is the back cover. The cup and cupcake stitchery is from one of my many magazines.

To get in from this side you undo the ribbons on the right. No blocks on this side so you can see the straps. To get to the blocks you can see on the other side close it up and do up the ribbons. Flip it over to the pumpkin cover and undo the other ribbons and open it up. Sounds tricky :) Not going to even try to write a tutorial for this one!

We have a spar out back and the frogs think it is a tropical frog pond! We opened the cover the other day and there were six green frogs. These three were a bit slow to jump in.

I just have to show you these cute felt brooches. Bit too expensive for me to buy but it shows what is possible with felt. She has a couple of cute tutorials too.
http://www.lupinhandmade.com/index.htm

And lastly, I enjoyed visiting Bec's blog Chasing Cottons for the Quilt Class 101. The fabric give away looks awesome.

Happy Quilting.
Val

Pincushion update and my silicone mat

I have finished DeeDee's pincushion part and have sent it along to Sheila. It was fun to do and I am really pleased with how it turned out. I hope DeeDee likes it. I thought that even close up my stitches weren't too shameful.

I think I might try some of this wool applique on some bigger things like all the 6" blocks at Wee Folk Art.   They lend themselves to crazy backgrounds and lots of embellishments. Perhaps it should be a 10 year project and I just keep adding to it :)

I have discovered how to fit the pieces together using a silicon mat. It is a thin non stick sheeting that I bought from Aldi once. You are supposed to cut it out and use it in your frying pan. I have seen it sold for the barbeque as well so you could probably get it from a kitchen shop or a place that sells barbeques.
It means I can lay the pieces over the drawing to get them in the right positions. As long as they overlap a bit they will all stick together in a single unit when it is ironed. The mat is made to withstand the heat and it is non stick so the glue stays on the fabric the way it does when you peel off the applique paper.

Get you pieces ready and peel off the paper.
Put the mat over the drawing on the ironing board.

Place the pieces over the drawing. Carefully lay a cloth over and press.
Gently peel it off the mat.
I peeled this off and moved it a bit to show the matching drawing.

Happy Embellishing,
Val