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.