PQ14.6 Conquer a fear

Putting zips in anything is not my favourite thing to do and I have had this idea for sometime to applique a design onto a  pouch with the zip going through the applique design.     This has been put on the backburner  as I feared that the design would not line up evenly top and bottom.  This challenge was the perfect time to conquer that fear.

To see more conquered fears head on over here.  

Thanks Kim for organising another fun challenge.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

FNSI

Following on from my Tuesday group where I managed to cut out a few bits and pieces such as the outer fabrics, linings, tabs and interfacings for 5 small snap top pouches

As well as all the components for three bowl cosies

I took the opportunity last night when joining in with FNSI to do the cross sewing and darts on the bowl cosies.

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Happenings in and around the sewing room

Packing some bits and bobs to head off to my Tuesday quilting group. 

Looking at what is packed I intend being "an over achiever" this afternoon.    Lets see what actually does get done. 

During the week some aprons for my giftie/stall box were completed.

These bowl cosies were also completed and now stored with the aprons.  There was just enough of the lemon, chicken  and coffee themed fabric left over from other projects to make the cosies.    

While the sewing was happening this audio book was playing alongside my machine.

Jodi Picoult certainly writes thought provoking books.   

My bedtime reading over the past weeks has

Time to go and organise a quick early lunch before going to quilting.

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Happy sewing all

FNwF

Last night did not involve any stitching for me just the boring job of threading the cord through some library bags - you will read why nothing much happened later on in the post - that I have been sewing on and off over the last couple of weeks.   These bags will be filled with stationery items for young under privileged children in Sri Lanka.  

They will now be handed back to the co-ordinator and stored until August when there will be a huge packing effort over a couple of weeks in order for the items to be shipped and arrive in Sri Lanka in time for Christmas.

My utensil drawer has been driving me crazy for sometime now to the point that I seem to be having to pull half of its contents out in order to find something every time I reach into the drawer.

How embarrassing.   No more rummaging around in the drawer after a trip to the local shopping centre and parting with $15.00 I can now find everything at a glance.  

One of the "girls" in my small Tuesday quilting group had a birthday during the week and the four of us met up for lunch to celebrate her special day.   

My choice for lunch was prawn linguine.  A lovely venue, good food and good company is the recipe for a fun day out.   

Thanks Cheryll for having us around last night.   Pop on over here to see who else took part in FNwF.

I was on set up duty this morning for the hospital auxiliary stall but due to having a trip to the dentist yesterday afternoon and coming home "ligher" by one tooth with strict instructions not to bend, lift or do anything not necessary for the next 24 hours so it will be an easy day for me with a good book and soft foods.   I have to go back on Wednesday to have the stitch removed.  

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March OMG

Will be to get these blocks sewn together in rows.   At this stage the plan is to QAYG without sashing.    Here they are all numbered, pinned and ready to sew.

Well better get myself into gear and make a start.

Thanks Patty for organising us again this month.

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Happy sewing all

PQ14.5

This challenge was all about "Sew Not a Square" and could be anything as long as it was not square.    My project involved using this wadding, lining and butterfly fabric

Which ended up this like this.

A cross body bag measuring 9" x 11".

You can check out more non square projects here.   

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Happy sewing all

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.

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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.

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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.  

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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.  

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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

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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.   

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Happy sewing all  

Lucky Me

I was one of the lucky winners drawn in PQ 14.1 - The First one -  and scored this gorgeous  3 yard bundle of pink fabrics.

A big thank you goes to Persimon for organising the challenges and to  Electric Needle for donating my lovely prize.   

I was surprised when I opened my front door late yesterday afternoon and there was this package sitting outside. 

It only took 10 days to arrive from the States.    Amazing.   I have known it to take longer for postage to be delivered within Australia.  

I will have fun looking and thinking about what to make with the fabrics.   

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Happy sewing all

TGIFF - Wine bottle gift bags

The first hospital auxiliary stall for 2023 will be held on the first Saturday of February and I needed to sew up some items.    Wine bottle gift bags were a big seller on my stalls so with that in mind I thought I would make a few for the hospital stall and see how they sell.     While the cutting and sewing was happening I just kept going and made a few more for my giftie/stall box.

Last Sunday was a wet cool and miserable day so what better way to spend such a day than in the sewing room.    The afternoon was devoted to cutting out some bibs and tooth fairy pillows which will also be for the hospital stall.  The tooth fairy pillows were also a big hit on my stalls so it will be interesting to see how they sell on the hosptial stall.   Better get a wriggle on and set to sewing them up in order to have them ready.  

While all this cutting and sewing was happening this audio book was playing alongside me.   This is the second Jane Harper book that I have read/listened to and have enjoyed both.    

My current bedtime reading is Showtime by Judy Nunn but not finding it as engaging as some of her books that I have read in the past however I will see it through to the end.

Linking up with TGIFF.

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Happy sewing all