February OMG

My goal for February was to cut out the fabrics and sew up the required number of 4 patch blocks that were needed for the quilt that is currently being worked on and seeing that our plans for Wednesday were washed out it was decided to stay home and get stuck into my goal.    Making an early start at around 9 ish and only stopping for coffee and a quick lunch this was the end result by around 4 pm. 

Not only were the 4 patch blocks cut and sewn up so were the larger blocks and the 9" x 4" blocks.  My  left arm was not happy yesterday from all that cutting but has settled down now.   Each time I walk by the quilt I feel compelled to shuffle around a couple more blocks.    I feel that this is going to have to be the final layout - it appears to have a fairly even distribution of colours.    It will be left until tomorrow for "just in case" and then it will be numbered and lined up on the sewing table to sew together.   

Thanks Patty for organising us again this month.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Lunch with a view, buttons and stuffing

Hubs and I meet up with friends once a month for lunch and each couple takes it in turns to pick the venue.  Last week the venue was at Malabar and we had the best table in the restaurant.   It was a perfect summers day to enjoy the view and the food was pretty good as well.   

During the week time was found to finally sew the buttons onto the hanging towels that have been sitting around the sewing room for a couple of weeks getting in the way of everything else.

Then it was onto stuffing the toothfairy pillows that have also been hanging around taking up room.   

Both of the above items are now safely stowed away in my giftie/stall box.

Time was also found to finish off an idea that has been in my head for a while - a clutch purse.   I am not entirely happy with the result as I feel it is a bit on the large side.  

When time permits I will have another go at making one a bit smaller.    

While the finishing off and experimenting was happening this audio book was playing alongside me.

And my night time reading is this book.

Slow progress - both cutting and sewing - is being made with these fabrics.

Seeing that our plans for the day have changed due to inclement weather I will stay home and try to get the cutting out of the blocks finished at least.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all 

FNSI

Which started on my return from Spotlight after lunch today and consisted of using 1 metre of weatherproof canvas, a shower curtain and some elastic.   

2 hours later this is the result.

I wanted this tablecloth to be fitted as it can get quite breezy on the balcony.   It is very annoying trying to stop the cloth from knocking over drinking glasses as well as blowing across the plates while eating and I did not want to bother with tablecloth weights so elastic it is.    I am very happy with the result and it was successful out when eating dinner outside tonight.  

Last weekend I had an order come in for 4 bibs - 2 boys, 2 girls - these were made and delivered yesterday.  

Thanks Wendy for organising another fun FNSI.

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Happy sewing all  

PQ14.4

 The challenge for PQ 14.4 is  "A novel project" which had to be inspired by a book that you have read.   I  finished reading this book last week

Which gave me this idea 

Using these fabrics

And the end result is a tea bag holder with a snap top.

 

I know just the person who likes to take their own tea bags when going out so I will gift it to them when we next meet up.

Thank you to Kim from Persimon Dreams for organising another fun and thought provoking challenge.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Requested birthday gifts, an order and other things

I was asked if I could make 2 sets of 2 placemats and  two masks as birthday gifts.    That was an easy request.   The first set of placemats

The set in the photo below is my all time favourite set of all the placemats that I have made so far.   

And the masks

The recipients were extremely happy with their gifts and I was extremely happy that the gifts were what was requested.  

There was a Zoom session with the Chookshed stitchers a couple of weeks ago

And I was able to sew up some toppers for kitchen towels while chatting away.     

Those toppers now look like this.

Some of them still need button holes made and buttons sewn on and once that has been done they will end up in my giftie/stall box.

I had an order come in for a dress for a 6 year old girl.    Ready to be delivered tomorrow.  

Once I have finished reading this book

A start will be made on one of these books that I picked up during the week.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

FNwF

Was all about getting those bibs and tooth fairy pillows finished off for the hospital auxiliary stall.   I had been working on them on and off during the week and just needed to put the stuffing in the pillows and the velcro on the bibs when I made an early start in the sewing room this morning.

 

These along with the wine bottle gift bags that were made previously are all packed up in my car ready to go in the morning.  

This audio book has been my companion in the sewing room during the week.

Don't forget to head on over to Cheryll's blog to see what other crafters achieved when joining in with FNwF.   

Linking with TGIFF

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

OMG - Time to make a start

Lots of research has been happening on and off over the last 2 months in order to get the best out of the gorgeous 20 fq bundle that was gifted to me prior to Christmas.    It was decided that because the prints on some of the fabrics were on a large scale that it would be better to pick a design that would showcase the fabrics rather than cut them up into a trillion small pieces.  With that in mind my searches included phrases such as quilt designs for large scale prints,  quilts using fq's and  quilt patterns using layer cakes. 

Many options were thrown up at me.  I did find a design after much to and froing between designs on the screen and auditioning fabrics at various block sizes which I think will showcase the large prints and also incorporate the medium and smaller sized prints.  

It was a matter of getting the fabric out and putting a ruler over various sections of the fabrics in order to see how many squares of different sizes could be cut from each fat quarter taking into consideration that I did not want to cut some of the flowers, birds etc in half or worse - cut off their heads.    The fabrics have been divided into bundles of large, medium and small prints.

The large print fabrics will be cut into  9" squares and the others cut at the appropriate size to make  9" 4 patch blocks and some rectanglar blocks.    

I will gift this quilt to Miss M  as the fabrics are ideal for a "tween" - nice and bright  and not "little girly" fabrics with a modern design about it.    There is plenty of time to work on it as it will be given to her for her 10th birthday which is in October.   

My OMG for February will be to get all the squares cut out and make a start on sewing up the 4 patch blocks.   

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all