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.