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

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

My Sewing Day

Not that I don't sew everyday but I just need a title that tells me it is not a BoM or linky day. I had a search widget on my blog for a while but it just seemed to stop working one day so I took it off. Sometimes I want to refer to past posts because they have links or ideas or projects that I want to look at again so instead of a search widget I have tried to sort out my labels into nice general specific groups like knitting or cross stitch or the name of a linky party. At least I will have a chance of finding what I need that way and hopefully it will make sense to visitors too.
So no linkies or sew alongs today. I can't guarantee there won't be an affiliate link somewhere. Only joking.

I went a bit overboard with the links on my Craftsy post but I was quite excited about it.

Today I have finished the pink granny bag I started some time in the distant past. It was so easy to finish with the round handles. I made two pieces that gave me a 3 inch fold over and it went together easily.

I have been wanting to make a start on a quilt project so I pulled out the Mrs Greenthumbs fabrics and panel. I was struggling to work out exactly how to show off the panels without just putting a sashing round them.
I decided on a square in square economy block. With the panel picture in the middle the block is 24" square.

I think I will put some green or black sashing between 4 blocks then add some hat fabric as a border and turn it into a lap quilt.

I rediscovered my quiltcalc app while playing with this block. I got the measurement for the hat fabric triangles with it but had to work out the big triangles myself. I am thinking I will make use of the quiltcalc and make some different sized square in square blocks and economy blocks. They always look so good. The app is by Robert Kaufman and is free from the app store for iPads and iPhones.

The other morning I was woken by the local bird gang. They really put on a show. That's the street light outside my place.

I wrote about my Hundred Days Calendar today in my organising blog. It is a great help with those resolutions we like to make. I finally feel like my yoga is a morning habit now.

I am off to Brisbane tomorrow and a bit of a holiday in Sydney. DH will be trying to console Stumpy while I am gone. He hates it when I go away. We bought him some special treat foods to distract him a bit.
I will be trying to look in on the blogging world while I am away but only if I get time.

Comment options:
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Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Country Cottage Quilting

Since I bought a fabric range to do the Go Wild Garden quilt from this book I figured I had to cut off all that I needed for the quilt before I could play with it. No good having a lovely cushion or tote bag if I don't have quite enough to finish the quilt.

I have been busily cutting and sewing so I now have all the nine patch squares done and all the pieces ready to make the block bases as well as enough for the border squares. The half yard of burgundy should do the narrow inner border.
I put together one block base just to get the feel of it. I am quite happy with how the fabrics have gone together. The appliqué elements will be made up from the darker florals and any other bits that fit.

I calculated that it took me 15 mins to cut out a block and 15 mins to sew a nine patch together. It then took me 15 mins to complete one block base ready for applique. This is 45mins per block x 16.

I now have quite a few pieces of the fabric left to play with though I am thinking a couple of matching pillow cases might be nice with a daisy on one side. The back of the pillow case will just have to be a blending homespun.
OK. That's done and this is what I have left to do the appliqué. I think I can get away with using some for a few small projects. I still have some BOM catching up to do. I don't even know which Wednesday we are up to but I think I need to do a bit more on my North Pole quilt this month.

Happy Quilting
Val

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Finished the Catnip Quilt

Just some photos of my cat quilt. I am so happy with how it looks.

I finished the bag.

I finished the quilt.

The back.

Ready to give.

I just wrote the label so it is not really picture worthy. It says the quilt is 90% cotton and 10% cat fur. Stumpy was there for the final stitches.

This quilt is for my daughter. I am going to give it to her when she visits for our family day on Good Friday.

Linking up to 

Link a finish Friday 

and 

Finish it up Friday

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

 

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WIP Wednesday - Nanna's Farm

Applique is my favourite thing. I have been drawing pictures a lot lately and letting my catnip quilt languish on the floor in the spare room. I don't understand what is holding me back. But instead of trying to work it out I have pulled out Nanna's Farm and made a leap of progress from tracing elements onto fusible webbing to actually cutting material.

I have been putting it off because I didn't have enough fat quarters from the fabric list but yesterday I pulled out the four pieces of beige fabric I had (the pattern calls for 15 different ones) and cut out the 11 squares for the first column arranging them so it looked like that's how it is meant to be.
All the quilt blocks are so pretty and I love the way the design was inspired by Patchwork Pumpkin's nanna's dairy farm.

This is how it looked yesterday. I sewed the squares together and added the bias stem. I ironed on the flowers ready to take to quilting group.

I used invisifil and blind hem stitch to sew on the stem.

This is how it looks today. All the flowers are stitched on with narrow satin stitch and the yellow centres have been ironed on.

It must have been weighing heavily on me that I hadn't made a start on this quilt because I feel much better now and feel energised ready to tackle the catnip quilt as well.

Here is a shop photo of the finished quilt.

And a few close ups.

I am sure no one will mind me giving Patchwork Pumpkin a plug. They are having a great sale in December - buy a pattern get 3 fat quarters free. I will be having a look for sure.

I am hoping to have lots more progress to show next week.

I am linking up with WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. 

I have also discovered WOW on Esther's blog and have linked up there.