Happy New Year (only 7 weeks til my USA trip)

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. It always feels good to make plans for the new year. However, most of my plans for 2012 were made months ago. I am starting to get excited about visiting the Stitch and Craft Expo in Puyallup Oregon. I leave end of February.
I have finished my travel bag and a few extras.
I will be testing it out on the US trip to make sure it works. If it is as convenient as I hope it will be going with me to Italy and the UK and finally Melbourne in July. It may have to go into mothballs for a while after that :) At least if I can't afford to keep traveling I will have more time to sew.

One side has two pockets.

The other side has a zipper pocket.

Two big zipper pockets in the lining and a divided insert.

I want to experiment with hanging the insert on the tray table somehow.

There is a handy shoulder strap.

The strap tucks into the pocket on the end.

Keeping up the bird theme I made a folder and wallet.

Room for all my travel information and passport and money.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Tuxedo Cat - no.4

I managed to finish putting Tuxedo Cat on a t-shirt for DH for his Christmas present. I enlarged it a bit but I can't lay my hand on the enlargement at present so I am just putting up the 100% pattern. To make it easier to stitch onto the t-shirt I ironed a big piece of freezer paper onto the back to stabilize it then I tore it off after I had stitched.  I also washed the t-shirt first thinking it might shrink a bit.

Just click the image and save it to your computer. Look in the My Designs page for the other three.

I also finished the shopping bag for DD1. She has a cat that is grey with a bit of a white chest. I thought grey would be a bit boring so he is grey with pink flowers :)

 I have had fun wrapping the presents adapting some of the ideas I found on the web. The gold one on the right DH wrapped. It is for me. The neighbours and their four kids have theirs wrapped with ribbons and stars as well but I put them in a bag with initials for the name tags. We will probably carry them next door so I thought the bag was a good idea.

 We will also give the girls some cash so I made little LV hand bags. I printed the paper myself using the LV pattern I found somewhere on line last year.

 I still haven't put the tree up but at least the box is in the lounge room now.

I have invented the jug wrap!

Merry Christmas to All,
Val

Using up my old Christmas fabrics

I went to Spotlight the other day and bought some new Christmas fabrics at half price. I have put them away and will make some things later for next year. I decided that I needed to use up the old fabrics. I have only been patch working with effort for this one year and I have found Christmas fabrics that I am sure my mum gave me years ago and I also had to buy some for the Christmas quilt I made earlier this year so they just have to go so there is room for more new ones.
I have half finished a runner with strippy blocks and made some little bags with the left over blocks and borders. They will go in the little stockings that I won't let anyone take away. They can take the little bags this year.

 I have decorated some hand towels. I started with pleats, then tried pleats with ribbon then just a strip with ribbon. I thought the plain strip with ribbon looked the best. They all have only a few rows of sewing so I can take it off after Christmas.

 I tried the paper ball. It was a bit fiddly but kept my brain busy for a 1/2 hour. It would be much easier with four hands!

 The little stars are much less trouble and turn out very cute. I think I will make some red ones as well and string them all together to make a garland for the tree.

 I also tried to stitch a paper bird. That too is a four hand task. I sewed on one side then realized I had cut the other side back to front so the music was on the inside. So that is waiting beside the knitted pigeon body to be finished off once I untie the knots in my fingers :)

This morning I had to drop everything to work out what workshops and talks I want to do at the Puyallup Stitch and Craft Expo next year. I am starting to get a tad excited about the Oregon trip. It is only 2 months away now.
I am also having fun looking at what everyone is doing for Christmas gifts, decorations and wrapping. There is so much creative work going on out there.

You might still have time to stitch this cute design from Gail Pan.

Happy Quilting,
Val

Just some cool patterns

I have been sewing little things and working on the knitted pigeon and surfing around. Here are some of the things I have found latley:
The bird card in the side bar was just beautiful and could probably be used for applique too.
http://mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/2011/05/make-momma-bird-card-or-two.html

She also has the most amazing 3D owl.
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/06/20/3d-paper-owl-from-mmmcrafts/

Then I found the fabulous paper snow flakes. You have to print them out then fold and cut. The cutting is surprising easy compared to the lovely pattern you get. mmmcrafts links to the patterns but she also has a good tutorial on how to do it and a blank snowflake fold pattern so you can make your own designs.
http://mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/2009/12/snowflakery.html

There is a felt or paper flower template with several layers of petals and a stuffed toy monkey...
Have a look at all her things. And the lizard is really cute too.
http://mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/p/free-patterns-and-tutorials.html

There is a cute chicken stitchery here. Click Freebie in the menu.
http://www.memesquilts.com/memeindex2.htm

There are some lovely stitchery patterns and applique ideas here. The menu on the right has all the categories.
http://www.french-knots.com/page/4/

There are some nice stitchery patterns here.
http://zuill.us/andreablog/category/embroidery/free-patterns/

There is a cool pieced pumpkin pattern here.
http://www.fvqg.org/05archiv/1005.htm

There are some cute doll patterns to buy here. I like Hattie and Homer Hobart :)
http://www.amongcountryfriends.com/patchwork.htm

I came across this site while trying to find where I got something else from and found the cutest scottie dog mini quilt. The site is about the history of quilting and is very interesting.
http://www.allcrafts.net/fjs.htm?url=www.womenfolk.com/baby_quilts/american-girl-dolls.htm

I liked this cute set of cat blocks.
http://www.allcrafts.net/fjs.htm?url=web.archive.org/web/20080116230112/http://quiltmaker.com/patterns/patt2/

I imagine that this site is not new to most but I found it had some good patterns. This is where I got the link to the cat pattern above.
http://www.allcrafts.net/quilting.htm#Pieced

I also had time to follow the Moda Blog hop that I found links to on Sharon's blog. I printed out a few on card, cut them in half and sewed the block and recipe back to back. I need to get some more card now to do the rest.

I found a different looking little bag pattern here.
http://quiltworld2.blogspot.com/p/instructions-for-quilts-crafts.html

I know you all have plenty of time to play on the computer so I hope you enjoy collecting some of these patterns.

Happy Quilting,
Val