Sewing update

I have been sewing a lot and loving it.
I have a new block keeper with zips down both sides so it opens out flat but zips up to make a secure tote bag if you want to pop some sewing gear in.

I also made a little shell purse. I put a seagull on it in felt. I have been wanting to use this seagull for a  while. It is from a Bustle and Sew magazine.

I started a bag from a book I got from the quilting group library. I used 2 inch strips and the centre piece is 6 1/2 inches x 8  inches. All seams are 1/4 inch. I don't want to publish the pattern but if you are keen I can give better instructions. Just let me know.

Phone and lipstick pockets

I finished block three of the Who Knows BoM at Fat Cat Patterns. (See my side bar.)

I have been working on my Debbie Mumm sampler from 2012. I have been really enjoying making the cute pieced blocks. The fabrics are nearly all scraps so between this and the owls I am using quite a lot of scraps.

I made a cardboard curve ruler for doing curved corners. It will make do til I can buy the plastic one that I can use the rotary cutter with. I love gadgets.

I worked on Nanna's farm a bit doing the applique on the next column. I have already sewn the other columns ready for applique.

I bought two new books and have made friends with Shirley at Colours of a Butterfly  who wants to try making the quilt with the watering cans on it to match the pillow on the front cover of Country Cottage Quilting.

Shirley is great at cross stitch but hasn't done any patchwork so we are starting with the sewing set that has the drawstring bag from the same book. We are going to start the needle book in May and do the bag and scissor keep over a month or two. Then we will do the pillow then the quilt. If anyone wants to join in or post pictures of what you have already made I will have a go at setting up a flickr group. This is a first call. I will post about it again.

Happy Quilting,
Val

New blocks

I apologise for not answering my comments in a timely fashion. So many of you regularly comment on my blog posts and I love it when you do. I have been sewing and trying to read lots of the blogs I follow and leave comments so something has to fall behind. I love posting about the things I sew but I am thinking of cutting back to once a week for a few weeks and limit myself to visiting 10 blogs a day. A bit like blog diet :)
I just love the owl bom at fat cats and have made block two.

I have also been making a sampler from Debbie Mumm that is from an earlier time. You can find the pattern here.

Linking up to BOMsAway

I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend.
Happy Quilting,
Val

Bomaholic!

Has anyone else got this problem? I know there are quite a few ladies out there who can't resist all the BOMs around the web and now I am one of them.

Have you seen the owl bom from fatcatpatterns ? I missed the first block and had to make it up from the picture. That pointy border was a trick.

 

There is a cute sewing theme one I want to make and I found a lovely looking pieced one that I might just make things out of the blocks rather than a quilt. I am sure you saw Hello Sun last year well there is now Hello Moon. I want to make them both this year.

I made another apple.

I forgot to reverse the pattern so the swirl goes the other way.

The big news is that I finished the cat quilt and I am just making a bag for it.

It just happened that I made one cat too many so I saved it for the bag. I have some left over border for the top edge and some small squares that I will sew together to make the handles. It is sitting on the folded quilt so I could see if it would fit. I will take some photos of the quilt on a sunny day soon.

Stumpy was there for the final stitches :)

I have started collecting BOMs on Pinterest. Rather than fiddle with links in this post just click on my P button in the right side bar and find the bom board.

Hope everyone is getting some sewing done.

Happy Quilting,

Val

 

Posted with Blogsy

mug mats and weeks 39 and 40

I soooo love doing my aerobic exercise. I run. I walk. I jump. I have managed to increase the time to about 50 mins of interval style where you do high intensity for 1 or 2 or 3 minutes then walk for 2 or 3 mins to get the heart rate back a bit then high intensity again. It is very doable.

I have been drawing up a storm using the pictures I have pinned or seen in magazines and I have decided to make a quilt from 12 inch blocks of random design both applique and pieced. I have finished block 1 this week. I copied this lovely design from mamacjt 's blog.

I wanted to get some new skinny folders to file my old drawings a bit more user friendly rather than in the big fat ring binders I have now. They are too hard to pick up and flick through. I also wanted a 12 inch album to store my new drawings. I ended up getting two snap load albums from Aldi for $5 each. They are normally $20 at Lincraft. I have been using my stash of 12 inch scrap booking papers that I have had for maybe 10 years to make the designs into 12 inch blocks. The papers are the ones you get 100 for $15 from Big W. Perfect for quilting designs.

I have been carrying my brekkie outside each morning with my tray. To stop things sliding around I need a tray mat. I have been folding in the edges of my fancy tea towels to use as mats. I don't use them as tea towels because they never get seen then. I had an urge to sew so I  took one of the tea towels and cut it into a mat. I even appliqued a tea pot on the back side and I have enough tea towel left to make a tea pot cover.

I couldn't help myself and just happened to start sewing selevedges together again. They make great kitchen counter mats because spills don't show up. An applique was needed of course so a mug with marsh mallows and a cup of coffee were applied and voila another nice mat to make my tea on. The owl is going on the cat quilt instead of the parrot DD2 didn't like.

I tidied up the sewing table a bit and put all the small UFO's into folders in a hanging file box. I then started putting steps required to finish them in my Errands app so I can do a little bit if I am looking for something to do and then tick it off so I know exactly what is required next time I am looking for something to do.

The folders were left over from my teacher days. This is my half finished tote bag.

Finally I redid my workout routine folder, putting it into a ring binder instead of a display folder. I have quite a few pages now and with the ring binder I can place the current routine in the front of the folder. The routines are made up of some printed out ones from Pinterest and various websites as well as photocopies of routines from my Oxygen or Shape magazines. Having the folder makes it much easier to actually do the exercise rather than looking for, then looking through the magazine or website.

Leslie Maxwell is my inspiration. She is 55 in the photo.

Happy Quilting,
Val

This and That

I am busy making a softie owl for the Christchurch Softie appeal. It is being organised by Kiwi at Heart Designs.

All done. I don't think I have ever done more than a sock puppet before.

While looking for softie patterns I found some cute animal toy knitting patterns at Twins.
 I think they are downloadable PDFs for 5USD.

There are quite a few under the yellow one as well.

I was excited to receive a parcel of wool fabric pieces from Fiona at Bubzrugz. I will be putting some of these into mine and other's pincushions. Thanks so much Fiona.

My neighbour asked me to support their school fundraiser. She was selling grow in the bag herbs. What a good idea.

Happy quilting,
Val