A Spring table runner

At the beginning of the month my aim was to achieve a couple of smaller finishes.   The first being two snap top glasses cases which was achieved

These were quick and fun to make so another four were made.

Then it was time to turn a panel into pillowcases.

And the third item that was on the "to do list" was to turn these snowball blocks into a spring table runner.

I am pleased to report that it the binding was put on this afternoon,  it had a good press, a quick photo shoot outside and they now look like this.

This was a charm pack with the addition of one or two other pieces from my stash and I love the pretty fresh colours of spring in the fabrics.

If you would like to be inspired by what others have achieved during the month head on over here.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Blogger's Quilt Festival........

Is on again this year over at Amy's Creative Side.com.   Here is a place to gather and share some amazing work that has been created by bloggers during the year.   First of all I would like to share my 365 daily circles.   This was a fun project and used up a lot of those novelty prints to represent an activity that I did on each day of the year.  I set it out like a calendar and it is a lovely reminder of a year in my life.

My next "net" challenge was the rainbow challenge.   Each month we were given a different colour to work with and for some reason I decided to make 6 nine patch blocks of each colour with no clear direction of what would be done with them when finished.    Once all the blocks were finished I realised that there were not enough blocks to make a decent size single bed quilt so 4 extra colours of my choice were added in and this is the result.    The front

And this is the back

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Happy sewing all

East meets West.......

Is what I have called our new favourite dinner.  I saw the recipe on the "net" a couple of weeks ago and as usual I did not have some of the ingredients but did some substituting as one does and ended up with something delicious.     Best of all it is all cooked in one pan....that is my kind of cooking.   I gave it the name "East meets West"  because  the vegetables are stir fried - being the East part and the West part being the pasta.    The original recipe called for mushrooms but hubs cannot eat mushrooms so chicken was substituted nor did I use soy sauce due to the high salt content so extra lime juice was added.    As you can see it was a big pan so lunch today was leftovers.

I was inspired after my spring walk on Tuesday to get my snowball blocks sewn together today.   It will make an ideal runner for spring on the dining room table.

I still have just over a week to go before the end of the month so there is hope that this will be finished as it was one of the items nominated for September's OMG.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Join me in a ......

Today it was one of those glorious Spring days ...so walking shoes on, grab a bottle of water and into the Royal Botanical Gardens Sydney we go to see what we can see.    Like hidden statues

Paths meandering through the pretty garden beds.

A visit to the Calyx is a must when in the Gardens as they have ever changing displays.

At present it is all about Pollination.  It is very hard to get the full picture of the vertical wall as it curves around.

Time to head back through the Gardens and enjoy the views of the lakes and the sun glistening on the Harbour in the background.

I hope that you enjoyed the Spring walk as much as I did.  

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

FNSI

Tonight I spent the time making up pillowcases from the panel that was bought last month.   After doing some measuring, re-measuring and then working out which way to cut the panel in order to get the best out of it I found that I needed to make the pieces a bit longer and a bit wider and fortunately there was some backing fabric left over from the rainbow quilt which fitted in perfectly as it was from a range called "Spot the dog".   I ended up making two pillowcases with "Skye" on both the back and the front.   Miss M can have one for home and one for here.   These were very quick to make once all the measuring and cutting was done as I used the overlocker to sew them up.

During the week I had some time to cut out more of those snap top glasses cases and all that was left to do tonight was to sew them up.   They have been added  to my "giftie" box.  

Head on over to Sugarlane Designs to see what the other 18 participants got up to during FNSI.

Linking with Oh Scrap.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Snap top bags

My first attempt was back to front with the snaps but once I had another look at you-tube and saw where I went wrong it was on to finish off two snap top glasses cases.  

They are quick to make - around 15 mins each.    I have an order for another one and can see more in my future.    These can be made in any size or shape and would make great gifts.   A good scrap buster project.

Linking with Oh Scrap.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

An "0" Birthday

Hubs has just had one of those "0" birthdays.   His brother is half an "0" older and I am half an "0" younger with all 3 birthdays falling within 3 weeks of each other so it was decided to celebrate this momentous occasion by getting together for a few days  at Coffs Harbour.   Someone whispered to the restaurant manager what we were celebrating and he presented us with the plate below.  

The reason for choosing Coffs Harbour is because it is approximately halfway between where both parties live.    This was our home for the time away.

Breakfast is ready.

  
Off for a drive to the rainforest and a walk out on the skywalk overlooking the area.

Time to head down to the beach and have a paddle.    It will be sometime before anything above the ankles gets wet as the water was a bit chilly.      

While we were away the garden did what the garden does in spring.

There was no time to do any fabric shopping while away but I was lucky to be given this delicious fabric for my birthday.     I will enjoy patting it and having a think about what it will become in the future.

Back to reality with a thud this afternoon.   The bags have been unpacked and the washing machine is doing its thing.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

The beginning of the month means......

Time to sort out what  item is up for a finish during the month.   Me thinks that it will be a couple of smaller items this time.    First up this panel just happened to fall into grandma's basket as she was walking around the fabric shop and seeing that Skye from Paw Patrol is one of Miss M's favourite tv characters how could I have left it behind.    Now what to do with it.   I feel a couple of pillowcases may come out of this.  

One of the members of my quilting group impressed us all when she made a few snap top bags.   Hopefully I can impress you also if I can make something out of this.

Then there is the little matter of some snowball blocks that were made a couple of years ago - like about 5 years - lurking at the bottom of one of my fabric crates.

Originally this was designed to be something big but after laying them out and having a play around with what blocks are made a tablerunner is their destiny.    I have decided that small and finished is better than waiting for something that may never happen.  

So enough about what I hope to achieve lets go and see what everyone who has signed up over at Elm Street quilts OMG aspires to finish during September.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

A bigger table mat

Last year I made a set of placemats with matching coasters and  table mat which be seen below but when using the tablemat I always felt that it was just too small to be of use particularly when there were a couple of bottles of drink placed on it.

During the week when doing a search through my scraps for something else I found some left over cork fabric from the coasters and set to today to make a bigger tablemat.

All that is left to do is the binding and it will be ready to use with the rest of the set when the weather gets warmer and we can start eating our dinner out again of an evening.

That is what I achieved during FNwF - to see what the others taking part got up to pop on over here.

Linking with Oh Scrap.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all