Oh Bother!

I have been doing some housework for mum lately. She was planning to 'get someone in' but I thought a bit of extra pocket money would be good. I don't think I could clean for strangers but it is nice to spend more time with mum. We chat a bit and then I stay for a cup of tea after. Yesterday I was trying to straighten up her craft room a bit and thought it would be a good idea to put some of her pop-up book collection on the shelf in the cabinet so it would get less dust. Trouble is I moved them from one side of the room to the other and the cabinet has glass doors so now they get more light. Oh bother! I popped a tea towel over them but it just doesn't look right.

In the afternoon I was in my sewing room and had a bright idea to make a shelf sheet with something nice on it. I had just enough white and then my eye fell on some book fabric that I had forgotten about. It was perfect.
I had to put a couple of seams in the white to get the right width and set about putting the book border on by rolling the white part up inside the folded book border (like making a border on a pillowcase). I carefully checked the the books would be the right way up after sewing but failed to notice that I had the white piece wrong side up. The books are upside down. Oh bother! I couldn't just turn it around because I didn't want the seams under the applique.

I wanted some bold and interesting letters so I chose these scrapbooking letters.
I inserted the ones I wanted into Pages and sized them all to 6cm high, printed them out and traced them from the back of the page. The lines showed through easily.

I hoped it would be OK but now I see the photo I cannot rest until I unpick it and put it right. It is being modelled on my shelf. There's my squirrel from Melbourne and my free cat pattern on a journal cover and just the top of the hand painted tile I got from Iron Bridge in the UK. I love my book shelves.

On a happy note I finished a little mug rug that had been sitting waiting for some had stitching. The pattern is the same as my free pincushion pattern enlarged a bit and made rectangular. I looked in my box of smalls (fabric pieces that is) to find some backing then dipped into the bag with the binding off cuts. A new tea or mug rug and a few less scraps.

Another souvenir, my mug from Edinburgh. 

If you don't 'do' Google plus why not comment in Flickr or Pinterest. Everyone must be into Pinterest at least. I get notified if anyone comments on one of my pins or just repins. I have been having such fun visiting all the boards of the people who have been repining from my boards.

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Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Sewing is such fun

I still have the little bits sewing bug. Yesterday I made a yin yang cat mat, a fabric pen cup and a pillow cover front. I think I feel a HST frenzy coming on too. I love the 8 at once method!

The yin yang cats were inspired by a pendant I saw on Pinterest made by Loja Yarr. I made some adjustments so it was suitable to use for applique. It is easy. You just make two bodies and two tails in contrasting fabrics using fusible applique paper. The image is already reversed for tracing. They slide together and overlap. The tails go on last.

Save as and print. Vary the size as you like.

Layout

The fabric pen box has thick bag interfacing and a big metal washer in the base so the pens don't make it fall over. I used this tutorial as a starting point.

The pillow cover is made from HST pieced using this design. I left out the petal pieces and will bind the front to the back with the red fabric instead of doing a seam. I used the 8 at once HST method from here. It worked well because I used a 1/8 inch seam each side of the pencil line rather than 1/4 inch (2/8 inches).

Today Pixel Scrapper started up a free mini kit a week thing. I already get several free elements every day just for registering for free. It is great if you like scrapbooking. The mini kits are here.

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Happy Quilting and Crafting,
Val

Favourite Christmas gifts

I have two very talented daughters. I wish I had some of their artistic flair. I tend to just muddle through. They have turned their hand to all sorts of things over the years but the latest is pottery on the wheel for the older one and stamp and stencil making for the younger one.
Here is the plate I got for Christmas.

Here is a gift tag hand stamped after she made the stamp.

I love cats so this little tea bag minder is a favourite. He stops the tea bag falling in the cup when you pour in the water and then he acts as a tea bag rest.

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Happy New Year,
Val

Two more small finishes

I have been steadily working on my tea cosy for a couple of weeks and finished it off yesterday. I love the colours but I think it needs a band of colour then cream for the rest like an Old Country Roses plate. I think the next one will be dark pink, light pink and yellow with maybe a green lining and base border. I love this tweed knitting pattern.

After seeing Donna's star tutorial I just had to make one with the Japanese floral that I had. It sits nicely on the big lazy susan in the centre of our banquet table.

Not much to do right now. It is early. I have to put lemon icing on the quinoa and carrot cake and prepare the pumpkin ice cream mix. I have frozen up several bananas too, to make a nice icy dessert. The pumpkin ice cream is made with coconut milk. There have to be some dairy free options.
I think this Christmas theme is the 'Free From Christmas'. We have to have some dairy free, wheat and gluten free, mango free, peanut free, sugar free, meat free options :D

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Merry Christmas!
Val