A plan....

Was hatched in my mind in the early hours of the morning so I grabbed a piece of paper and pen and  roughly drew up what I envisage the runner for the piano will look like.

I did not want to cut the cute cat fabric into tiny bits as I want to showcase the cats walking on the keyboard so with that in mind I will cut the fabric into 4 and 1/2" squares.    I have made a start on cutting the black and white fabric into 2 and 1/2" squares.  I have worked out that it will take 8 squares of the feature fabric so more of the black and white will be cut as needed.

While the rotary cutter  was out  it was time to make a start on trimming up my circles.   This is going to be a boring task so best do them in batches now rather than waiting until there are 365.  Within a few days the task of laying them out will begin.  Some thought needs to be given to this before a final design is decided upon.

 

The folded Christmas fabric on the side of the photo is some "homework" that was needed to be done for quilting this week.    One of our members has kindly offered to show us how to make fabric stars. I am looking forward to seeing how this is done.

Not an overly productive day in the sewing room but decisions were made and it was a lovely day so time was spent in the garden doing some weeding and clipping back of plants.

Back soon with some photos of my Christmas fabric stars and in the meantime

   Happy sewing all

Japanese fabrics

Are what I was lucky enough to score when my son and daughter in law returned from Japan recently.   They have been sitting on the end of the ironing board in my sewing room and I have been lovingly admiring them every chance I have had.  

I am thinking that the pretty pink one will make a lovely spring/summer bag and the red piece with piano notes will make a perfect runner for the top of a piano which I have been thinking of making for sometime.    I will leave the remaining two pieces to be enjoyed for a later date after doing  some research on "Mr Google" and my many magazines to find the right project for them.  With this in mind I am going to make the above items my OMG for September.

The colours for September's Rainbow challenge were announced over the weekend so that gives me an excuse to go have a play in my stash today to find deep claret to shades of pink with a pop of gold.

Linking with Red Letter Quilts and So Scrappy

Back soon with some photos of my gorgeous fabrics in a new form and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

I can sew a rainbow

My sewing room has been turned into a "production line" over the last couple of weeks as I worked between my sewing machine and overlocker.    How quick it is to sew with an overlocker and just do some finishing off on the  sewing machine.   Seeing that it was a wet day and no plans had been made I headed off to my sewing room to make an early start on my FNwF projects.    It only took a couple of hours to produce this colourful rainbow of shorts for Miss M and all that was left to do today was to insert the elastic around the waist and iron them.

Next item on the list was to finish off my circles for August

Thanks Cheryll for organising another fun Friday of sewing and giving us the opportunity to share with others.

Linking with Quilty Folk and FNwF

Next items going through the "production line" are summer nighties and dresses for Miss M.   I plan on being back soon with some photos and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

I did it.....

That is I actually achieved the three items that I set as my August OMGs.   Firstly I finished my origami tablemat

Second item on my list was to continue making blocks for my variation of a rail fence and it is growing at good rate

The last item on my list was to try and remove all the papers from my spiderweb tablerunner.   Such a tedious  and time consuming task and at times I felt that the time could have been better spent sewing another item - far more enjoyable.   Once all the papers were removed it then inspired me to go on and sandwich and pin it ready for quilting.    This item has been hanging around my sewing room for such a long time but I can see the end in sight.

Thanks again Heidi for keeping us on top of all those painful tasks that are sometimes put on the backburner and conveniently forgotten about.    

FNSI

It was a lovely sunny morning here today so I took the opportunity to make an early start on FNSI by pre-washing all those pretty fabrics that have been sitting in my stash in order to make summer clothes for Miss M.     A must for summer is a pair of shorts in each colour of the rainbow as well as cool cotton nighties for hot  nights, twirly skirts and a couple of dresses for a "soon to be 3 year old's social engagements".

While they were all drying on the clothesline it was time to sew up my rainbow 9 patch blocks for August.  

After pressing and trimming the  rainbow blocks  it was onto to making a few more blocks of my variation of a rail fence. Below are some of the blocks in various stages of construction.

I am finding that  it is easier to make 4 blocks at a time then join them up.  Then make another 4 and join them.  By doing it that way I can keep a bit of control even though it is a scrappy quilt.  

Thanks again Wendy for hosting another FNSI.    I am off now to organise a birthday dinner for hubs to celebrate his special day so I was glad to be able to make an early start today on my sewing.

Back soon and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

Rainbow Scrap Challenge for August

Really had me thinking when I read the requirements for this month - Misty mountains are the color inspiration for this time around.  Think of the hazy purple of a dawn sky with hints of evergreens and feel free to dip into the grey bin if you are low on the purples.

I had to go through my scraps and stash with a very open mind and  not be so discounting of as many fabrics as I have in the past when selecting my challenge colours.   As you can see  below I really based my selection on a very misty morning hence a lot of light colours with greys, lilacs and a smidge of very early morning pale gold thrown in.

Now onto sewing them up and adding them to my pile of pretties that have been gathering over the last 7 months.  

Last month my quilting group had an "in-house" workshop and one of the members showed us how to make a stained glass wall-hanging.  Our "homework" was to complete it and bring it back this month for "show and tell".  I enjoyed the process and result but can see that a large quilt is not in the foreseeable future.   

Back soon with a photo my newly sewn misty mountain 9 patch squares and in the meantime

Happy sewing all

 Linking with Quilting is more fun then Housework and So Scrappy

FNwF

Yesterday was the first Friday of the month and that means Friday Night with Friends over at Gone Stitchin'.   Earlier in the week  a list was made  of three items that I would like to complete during the month of August and last night I took the opportunity to finish off my origami table mat.   I saw this sometime ago on the "net" and knew that one day I would have to make one which was started a couple of weeks ago on my quilting retreat.    I put in an extra "petal" in mine as  I wanted to have a more "closed" look in the middle and not put a candle in it.  

I can see a few more of these being made using different festive fabrics.     It is quite a "labour intensive" project but well worth it.

Now that feels good having crossed one item off my list and that only leaves two to go.   Some of you who have read  my previous post know that hubs has been slowed down by a very nasty bug and he will be needing lots of R & R over the next few weeks or even months so that will give me plenty of sewing time so I maybe able to cross the other two items off the list also.

Back soon with my progress and in the meantime

 Happy sewing all