Quick Apron tutorial and a Gecko Mat with free gecko and leaf designs.

I picked up a couple of cute terry tea towels from Aldi that I new would make good somethings other than tea towels. This one is quick so there is nothing to download.

For the ties cut two 4" wof (from selvedge to selvedge) strips. I sewed then together to make one long strip. I left the selvedges on the tie ends. Make the ties by ironing in half then folding in the raw edges to the centre and folding in half again so the tie is 1" wide.

Sew right around close to the edges starting with the open edge.

Crease a fold in the tea towel then open it out and centre the tie against the fold line. Pin at each end to secure then fold over the tea towel. Pin for sewing.

Sew a rectangle starting along the folded edge about 1/4" in to secure the tie inside the folded tea towel. You are done.

Quick and easy.

Cute and small.

Practical.

What about a stunning gecko mat for the kitchen.

This fabulous gecko comes free from Fat Cat Patterns  I just printed it out and traced it in reverse. The line was dark enough to see through the paper when I turned it over. I had a colourful, tropical print and centred the fusible webbing cut out over the big flower. The background is  13" x 13".

I used machine buttonhole stitch to outline it. Then sprayed some decommissioned bath towel with basting glue and quilted it with some leaves I traced from the fabric.

I used my water soluble pink chalk pencil to draw them on the background.

I quilted, trimmed the edges and machine bound it with the matching tropical fabric.
My tutorial shows how I do the joining of the binding with a bias seam as well as more step by step.

You can pin this post for later.

 

Download the full mat tutorial from my Google Docs.
The leaves are fairly generic so even though I copied them from the fabric I don't think it will matter if I share the outlines here.
2 leaves jpg to download.
2 more leaves jpg to download.

I am linking up with Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts this week.

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Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Pleased with some finishes

Even though I wanted to make my travel jacket it was a 'have to make it' item with a deadline. It feels good to just make something for fun.
I have one sock. It turned out perfectly. I love the way the yarn just knits into those fancy stripes. Knitting is an evening craft so I hope to get the second one done soon while I watch some Star Trek Voyager DVD's.

I have had pillowslips on the list for a while so I made one up. I have started a second one that will have a floral border on one side and dark brown paw prints across it. I think I will give them to my DD1 for her birthday. She likes cats.

The final thing is a place mat for the kitchen counter. I made one a while back and it is nice to have a soft surface to put my teapots on while I make tea. When it goes in the wash I miss the soft surface. This second one is mostly scraps. The cat is made of crazy scraps and the binding is the crazy binding I made a while back. As with the first one I used an old hand towel for the backing.

My DH's new (well old now) jeans are still sitting next to the sewing machine with the hems turned up.  When I finished the cat mat I moved the jeans a bit closer. Maybe tomorrow :)

Happy Quilting,
Val

A Machine Mat with hand towel backing

Since last Friday...
There is so much going on out there!
Over at Korumburra Quilting Bronwyn finished a machine mat in one night that made me get out some fabric to get started on mine. I used up more of my February Hearts fabric and put on a machine icon just for fun. The backing is an old hand towel that I had put away for just such an occasion. I machine sewed the binding. You have to sew it on the back then turn it to the front and stitch close to the fold. I might try some free motion quilting patterns on it later.

I had to square it up a bit because the towel was skew.
It made it easier to sew with the big hems cut off anyway.

I have left a little space on the right for a box I will make later.

 I found instructions for a felt pizza with lots of toppings at Wee Folk Art that made me yearn for the felt I have ordered online, and dropped in on Sharon, a lovely lady growing veges and sewing at Roses among the veg that made me want to get out into the garden again.

I went outside but only to take pictures of  leaves for
applique subjects

My art quilt blogger at Marty's Fibre Musings (well she is not mine but she is the only one I follow) went out and took photos then played with them in Photoshop and that made me want to play with my photos in Fireworks (I can't use Photoshop).

The leaves looked so much better
when I stretched them and I love the glowing veins.

I managed to finish my inspirational wall hanging.
I would like one of those wire coat hanger things to hang it on.

Natalia at Piece N Quilt put up a simple tutorial with her clear ruler and rotary cutter that convinced me that I just had to invest in a see through ruler. I also want a triangle and a dresden wedge shape. And probably a new cutting mat and...and.... : )

We had an unexpected visitor. We rarely get lizards or snakes because the cats are around.

I also managed to get some sewing done on my charm square quilt that I am going to enter in the Moda Bakeshop competition at the end of March. I am going to sew the blocks and sashing together in 4's and quilt it as I go. It will be king sized and way too big for me to do even straight stitching on my machine. I just love stars!

 

And I finally finished my first ever quilt.

A few more things out there...

Block Boards at LaVieEnRosie

Flying geese with triangles and the Fit to be Geese ruler at Sherri's A Quilting Life

I dropped in on As Sweet as Cinnamon (Dawn is one of the designers for Out of the Box BoM) and found an invitation to a blog hop that sounds interesting. I will definitely be having a look. It starts on 25th Feb at Miss Nance's

Happy Quilting,

Val