Secret squirrel sewing

My blog has been severely neglected over the last couple of months and not because of lack of interest but due to the fact that what I have been sewing was for Christmas gifts and those on the receiving end are readers of my blog.

The first quilt that I was working on was for my son and daughter in law. With this quilt I wanted something that was modern and not florally so I went with a red, black and white theme with a few greys in the mix to add some more interest with the lights and darks.





The second quilt that I was working on was for DH who has a habit on a chilly night while watching TV of trying to tug on a corner of my snuggle quilt and me being me do not like to share my snuggle quilt as I need all the help that I can get to keep warm so the thought processes kicked in on what sort of quilt I could make for a man who has many varied hobbies and interests and this is what I came up with for someone who likes to read, listen to music, travel to the Hawaiian Islands, old trains and sailing ships, cheese being one of his favourite foods being washed down with a drop of either red or white, cats, basketball and something to represent his profession - he is now a retired headmaster.

All three recipients were both surprised and thrilled with their quilts and I was much relieved.

Santa Claus is coming to town

Time for a bit of Christmas sewing and experimenting with the feed dogs down. I have been doing some practice, practice and more practice with FMQ and whilst I am feeling more confident I only feel comfortable using this method on smaller items as I have more control and no weight pulling the sewing down and causing puckers.

I found this Christmas panel and cut in into 4 table toppers - I have already given two away that I forgot to photograph. The first one I did a meandering pattern for the quilting and with the second one I kept the feed dogs down, the open toe foot on and using a variegated metalic thread I "drew" around the border, circle just inside the wreath, Santa, his sack and staff for something different. I must say that I was pleased with the result.

Next to come off the Christmas sewing list is a set of placemats and matching coasters for my SIL. Hopefully I will have some piccies soon to show you.

Happy sewing all.

Our Holiday

Hubby and I have just enjoyed a lovely spring break over the last two weeks which included a visit to our nation's capital city - Canberra.



A visit to the Australian War Memorial shows soliders on parade at the Pool of Reflection

Looking across Lake Burley Griffin to Old Parliament House in the foreground with New Parliament House behind. On the LHS is the High Court of Australia and on the RHS is the National Library.

A closer look at those blossom trees along the promenade of the lake with the Carillion off to the left.

A visit to the Botanical Gardens felt more like a walk in the rainforest in Far North Queensland. The vegetation for a cold climate area was a real surprise.

On the way home we detoured via Bowral for a quick tip toe through the tulips.

After a day a or two at home catching up on the "domestics" we took ourselves off to the city to enjoy the annual spring flower display at David Jones Elizabeth store

The next day found us wandering around the Blue Mountains enjoying the spring blossoms in country lanes

And on a clear day you can see forever.

Only an hour across the Harbour Bridge heading south we found ourselves heading for a day at Botany Bay. Looking at the colour of the sand and the water we could have been on a tropical island.

I did manage to do a bit of stash building.

I also found time to get some sewing in but more on that later as it is "secret squirrel" stuff.

Well all good things must come to an end and it is back to work for me next week.

A finish at last

I cannot believe that I have not blogged for such a long time. Where does the time go to??????? What have I been doing - I always seem to be on the run but not much to show for it.

At last I can share with you a "finish". Several months ago my quilting group was given a mystery quilt to complete and I decided that I would be strong and use only fabric that I had in my stash in case I was disappointed in the mystery pattern chosen. And am I glad that I stuck to my decision as I am not a fan of the pattern called Turning 20 and of course as luck would have it that was what the mystery turned out to be.

I finished the quilt last week and even though I am disappointed in the pattern - I think that the blocks are too big for my liking - it will come in handy as a throw on a cold night as I snuggle up to watch some TV.

A Man Bag

For years hubby has had a thing about using a man bag but now that he is retired and doing day trips with the "boys" circumstances have changed - like I am not there to put items in my bag - he now finds it necessary to have something to take with him to put all those relevant bits and pieces in so hence he relented and came to the decision that a bag might not be such a bad thing after all.

However it did come with strict instructions that it was not to be a backpack - too hard to get on and off especially with a coat on - it had to be big enough to hold a fold up umbrella, bottle of water, camera, small items of clothing that may need to be removed or added depending on the weather and other bits and pieces. Not heavy, washable, with a good size pocket and easy to access.

With all the above information I spent a bit of time "googling" and found a few ideas. From those ideas I took what I considered to be there best features from each and came up with the following.

I must say that I am pleased with the result and so hubby.

Outside of the bag



This photo shows the inside of the bag with the flap up and the good size pocket.

And here is the "made to measure" bag being modelled by hubby.

I must write up my directions and measurements as I like the look of this bag and will make something like it for myself.

Hexed by hexies

I along with most of the lovely ladies from our craft forum have been bitten by the bug- the hexie bug that is!! Once you have been introduced to this acitivity of sewing small bits of fabric to paper you cannot stop and this is what I do in my lunch break at work each day. I have joined up either 6 dark flowers with a light centre or 6 light flowers with a dark centre and now I have to decide how these bigger flowers will be joined - either with a white surround or just butt them up together????




I am thinking that it will make a runner for the end of the bed once I have made a few decisions and made a few more hexies.

Storybook land......

Hubby and I always make sure that we fit in a drive to the mountains each autumn to see the changing colour in the leaves and this year was no exception. Driving up to Mt Wilson we stopped along the way to explore this wooded area and I felt just like Alice in Wonderland as I wandered around amongst the trees and found a field of mushrooms.


Magic mushrooms or could this be where the fairies call home?

Further into the wood we found a pile of gorgeous red and gold leaves - maybe fairy blankets lying on the ground!

As we meandered along the many picturesque laneways we stumled across what could be described as the cottage belonging to the three bears.

Upon opening the door we saw a "picture perfect window" facing out onto a beautiful garden.

After all this discovering it was time to sample the fare on offer and we both opted for the homemade blueberry scones fresh out of the oven - and they were just right.

After sitting a while enjoying the log fire and sipping our coffee it was time to put on our coats, collect our brollies and head off down one of the lovely lanes back to our chariot.

A most enjoyable way to spend a misty autumn day.

Three bags full.............

I just love making bags, bags and more bags so to fulfil this passion of sewing and buying fabric I made the three bags shown in the piccie below. Three of my friends known affectionately as "the girls" will be recipients when we meet for our girls night out next month. Each has their favourite colour so I tried to match the bags accordingly. After knowing them for over 25 years I hope that I got their colours right! My next project is a mystery quilt which I am doing alongside the other ladies in my sewing group. Instructions for cutting have been issued and next month we get the sewing instructions for the first block. Doing a mystery quilt is harder than I thought as I agonise over fabric choice for far too long but now I have a timeframe to work within I just have "to do it" and hope for the best. Progress shots to follow soon. Happy sewing to all

FNSI

Why stop at one when you can have three!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After making an octagonal tabletopper a couple of weeks ago using a gorgeous fabric featuring robins I knew that I would have to make more. This time I bound the outside with the same fabric that I used in the first then border and used white for the wider border. I am pleased with the result although the photo is a little on the dark side as it is a wet day and I had to do the photo shot inside.





This is such a simple yet effective pattern and I am sure that I will be making quite a few more to add to my giftie box.

Our craft forum blog hop weekend

Thank you for joining Our Craft Forum’s blog hop. So what is “Our Craft Forum” a craft forum for like minded people who love crafts. Mostly patchwork, stitching, quilting and the like. It’s a safe place to make new friends who share a love of craft & to have some fun and a little bit of laughter along the way & to join in on swaps of all types.

This week end is designed to tell our blogging friends about our wonderful forum and to invite you to be a part of our forum.

Several of our members will be offering tutorials, giveaways and some tips of the trade.

The blog hop starts at miss~nances blog so if you want to join us on the whole journey please go to http://missnance.blogspot.com/ and follow the links at the bottom of each post to find the next blog along the way.

Each person who joins our forum from this bloghop will go in the draw for a craft pack. So to join our forum please go to http://ourcraftforum.freeforums.org/ and register.

So join in on the fun and maybe find a new forum, new blog and new friends along the way. You never now you may even learn something new or win a great prize. Entries close at MIDNIGHT EDST (Sydney time) Sunday 27 February.


Thank you for calling by my blog and I would like to share with you a quick and accurate way to cut out the octagon shape as used in the tabletopper in my post below.

I used a sheet of newspaper - because it was big enough - and used a pizza baking tray to get the size that I wanted. Trace around the outside of the tray and cut so you have a circle as shown below




Secondly fold the circle in half so you have what it looks like




And then fold that half circle in half again so that you end up with what looks like a wedge of pie.




Take your ruler and pen and draw a line from the narrowest point out to the curved edge then draw a line from the outside edges into the centre line as shown in the photo below




Now take your scissors and cut along the line across the top so you end up with the curves as straight lines as shown below - it now looks like a kite.



Now open up the paper and you should have the perfect octagon. You can vary the size of the octagon by using a smaller or larger plate to draw around.



I hope you found this tutorial useful and if you make a tabletopper I would love to know.

Now for the next blog on this tour please hop over to http://raimareesworld.blogspot.com/and enjoy the rest of your journey. I look forward to catching up with you all on our craft forum.

Aloha

This weekend Our Craft Forum is hosting a blog hop, from Noon Friday 25 to Midnight Sunday 27 February EDST . So what is “Our Craft Forum” a craft forum for like minded people who love crafts. Mostly patchwork, stitching, quilting and the like. It’s a safe place to make new friends who share a love of craft & to have some fun and a little bit of laughter along the way & to join in on swaps of all types.

This weekend is designed to tell our blogging friends about our wonderful forum and to invite you to be a part of our forum.

Several of our members will be offering tutorials, giveaways and some tips of the trade.

The blog hop starts at miss~nances blog so if you want to join us on the whole journey please go to http://missnance.blogspot.com/ and follow the links at the bottom of each post to find the next blog along the way.

Each person who joins our forum from this bloghop will go in the draw for a craft pack. So join in on the fun and maybe find a new forum, new blog and new friends along the way. You never now you may even learn something new or win a great prize.

Friday night sew-in

Friday night sew-in turned into Saturday morning finish off as the night just got away and I did not have time to finish off the binding on my table topper.

I saw this idea on the internet and knew that I just had to have one like it. I kept my eye open when shopping for fabric and saw the robins which I thought would be perfect for the middle of the tabletopper and then matched the fabric for the borders. This is a good size to practice FMQ on and I am very happy with the results. My FMQ is getting better but more practice is still needed. Some of the stitches especailly on the curves are a bit big or small but I guess that comes with time and practice.



I can see a couple more of these tabletoppers coming up very soon.

Batik quilt

This is the second quilt that I was working on during 2010 and finished off during my Christmas break. It was a gift for our DIL and I wanted a simple design with bright colours but not florals so I went with the batiks in her favourite colours. Again I made what I call a "snuggle quilt" which is approximately 60" wide and 72" long which I think it is good size to snuggle under in the cool weather while watching tv, reading or having a snooze.

I quilted around the smaller squares, then around the larger squares and did FMQ in the pink border. I really enjoyed making this quilt and loved working with the batik prints and colours.

A man's quilt

Last year I made mum a snuggle quilt for mothers day and I have since found out that dad was in the habit of stealing a corner or two on a cool night - now as you know a snuggle quilt is for one to snuggle into and not meant to be shared - so with dad having a birthday today I set to a couple of months ago to rectify this situation for the cooler nights ahead and in the piccie below you can see what I came up with.



My biggest challenge doing this quilt was working with the colour brown as it is not my favoutire colour and finding fabrics that were not floral and girly. I am pleased with the end result as was the recipient.

Guess who came to dinner

One of the best things about summer and daylight saving is to be able to sit outside of a night, enjoy the light nights and have dinner in the cool of the evening which is what we try to do most nights and sometimes we are have an extra guest.



I am not sure if he was eyeing off the food on my plate or the wine in my glass! He - in saying that it could be a she - now comes and joins us most nights just sitting about the same distance away and just looks from plate to glass, stays a while and flies off.

We are so lucky to have such a tame and well-mannered dinner guest.