Weekly Sewing Report

I am feeling the strain of working on the intricate blocks every day so I am going to weekly reports for a while. I feel like I want to do things other than quilting.

I will do some work on my garden quilt this week. I need to do some appliqué edging.

Behind this block I have my doll clothes sewing ready to cut out and try a new design.

I also have a lovely tea towel that my daughter brought from Japan that I want to cut into two strips and hem. There is also a cute piece of fabric that I want to quilt as a table runner.

Lots to keep me busy and give me a break from piecing.

Cheers,

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

Tuesday Archives

It is such a good idea to go back and look at old posts you have written. I have the link to my cockatoo tea mat in my side bar but I haven't read that post since I wrote it. I have been reminded that I wanted to do some flannel flower projects and the Andy Warhol mat just got put aside. I will be getting that design out again now.
I was thinking of doing something like this but with a cockatoo silhouette. I love the colour blocks.

source: http://galleryhip.com/pop-art-andy-warhol.html

I will be linking my cockatoo post onto Tuesday Archives over at Val's Quilting Studio on Tuesday.

If you liked the little wool bag I made here it is an easy pattern. There is a great tutorial here.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

FNWF - Friday Night with Friends

So glad I remembered this month. I still love to visit the blogs but it is always better if there is a FNWF for them to return the visit.
I have a pile of irregular little rectangles. There were hundreds but I have used some up over the couple of years I have had them. They are fabric samples so each one is different.

I squared them up as best I could. The ones for the HST I made as big as possible. I am following the Scrappy Challenge at Patchwork Times. Each month she posts a new block with a tutorial. You have to finish a project with the block to link up. I figure if I stick to tea mats I will get it finished. I have quite a few sewing things on my plate.
I love the way the dark and light show up as stripes. The seams are not perfect but I have never been a process person. I just like the general affect. I wasn't going to cut all those little rectangles into perfect 1 1/2 inch squares.

I will do some quilting and try to get it finished for tomorrow. Today is a blog browsing day for me. I will take a break from sewing today.

Thanks to Cheryll for hosting FNWF. There are lots of people signed up. A great list of blogs to browse through while I have my breakfast cuppa.

I am also linking up with Anything Goes Monday at Stitch by Stitch.

Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val
If you can't do google plus comments you could pin this instead.

I Love Craftsy and my new Tea Mat

All the links to Craftsy in this post are my affiliate links.

There are only a few sites I have joined in order to download patterns. Craftsy and Ravelry and Sew4Home. Now I have stumbled upon the Craftsy Affiliate program.

I am a real fan of Craftsy and have bought several patterns and an online class in the past and I download lots of free patterns and classes. Then I discovered that I can use my own affiliate link to earn commission on the patterns and classes I buy so in the end I spend less. I also earn commission when people visit Craftsy through my affiliate links on my blog or social media and register, make a purchase or sign up to become affiliate members themselves.

I was happy to recommend Craftsy before I joined their program so why not get a commission if people join up or buy because of me. ( I looked up a blogger friend and joined through her).

I bought a class last month before I joined the program.
It is called Finishing Schools: Edges & Bindings, Mimi Dietrich. It is all about binding and finishing off your quilts or quilting projects.
So far I have worked through Lesson 1 on using the backing as a binding. She has some great tips to offer and everything is very detailed and easy to understand.
I finished off my latest tea mat using the backing to binding method. I made it with an economy block. I think I will use my walking foot to sew the second one. I got a few kinks in this one.

I quilted little flowers in the triangles

Lesson 2 is all about making the usual quilt binding. Lesson 3 shows how to add trims to your bindings then it is on to scalloped edges then prairie points and finally putting on hanging sleeves and labels. These are all things that I want to learn about and try to improve my skills. I can highly recommend this class to intermediate and beginner quilters. I am not a beginner sewer but I am fairly new to quilting and patchwork so this class is perfect for me.

I signed up to Craftsy a few years ago so I could access the free patterns and free classes on offer. Quite a few of my favourite designers have their free BOMs set up on Craftsy.

Search for Sew Kitschy, Up the Garden Path and Birdhouse BoM March pattern in 'patterns'

If all this sounds interesting you can:

Join Craftsy’s Affiliate Program Today

or just visit Craftsy and register to download patterns.

I have two things to promote in future posts as part of the affiliate program - an online class review and an online class give away.


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Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val