Wednesday 31 October 2012



 In need of some down time...
I had decided this week that I needed to ground myself as I had been doing too much over last 2 weeks with hospital days and classes at Hidden Creek. So the plan was to rest and only go out for 2 afternoons that way I could do some work in the garden but the sudden heat put pay to that. I also think a quiet couple of weeks may be more appropriate. But this does not stop the planning I have decided that November is all about Christmas, gifts, decos and such. Some of these items will fully make it to the blog but others will have to be mystery shots as these will be gifts for my girls. I am not sure if secret Santa snooping will lead them to the blog, but just in case. Despite busy times recently I have still managed to squeeze in some sewing, so here are some pics of what's been going on.

A friend of mine had recently got some new scissors and asked me to make her a cover for them out of my scrap, I had no pattern so just decided to make it up as I went along and then made myself one.


 
Pat's favourite colour is purple












           Grandpa's little treasures has got a couple more blocks done.

Oh my he's missing his face.












               My sampler quilt is getting bigger with addition of blocks.





More mini chocolate cupcakes went out into the world via DD21 as she had finished her hospital placement for her uni course and these were a thank you to the great staff for having her and all of their support and help.




Friday 26 October 2012

Screen printing........ Why not have a go?

Today once again I was at Hidden Creek Neighbourhood House ( my home away from home) having a go at screen printing. Our instructors are brilliant and very, very, very patient. First we learn to cut our own stencils by hand, this can be a slow process depending on how fussy or creative you want to be. Last time I hand cut a tree and enjoyed it but this time I wanted to concentrate on the printing side as I had forgotten almost everything I learned before. So I chose a simple teapot da dahhhh....

Hand cut stencil
I like to use -ve and +ve parts of stencils


A stencil I cut on my cricut at home before going

Never know which is -ve or +ve part


Now here are some of the prints I made today some are just on calico to practise ( I need alot of practise) and maybe these will find their way into pot holders I think, we are always looking for one. Others are on tea towels, I am very happy with the end results seen I am just a rookie.








Thursday 25 October 2012

Remember my oversized quilt buttons......?

Well today's class I underglazed them, yes I know they are somewhat loud/ bright, this a learning curve so it will be interesting to see how they turn out. I was also thinking that when I get the quilt button sizes right maybe I could put them on my quilt cards and then the recipient could then take button off card and use it on a quilt. What do you think?
Next week Christmas decorations, have to get my thinking cap on for that. 








Monday 22 October 2012

Not much sewing done Sunday, however........


Baking that's another thing. DD13 was baking and decorating cakes for her year 8 fundraising stall being held Monday as part of their humanities class. Class members came up with ideas to raise money and then presented different charities they thought were worthy. Part of the criteria was that it was to be a smaller charity that does not get much focus and is solely dependent on donations. The Red Kite Foundation won out in the end. Here is what DD13 made to sell for $2 each 40 cakes all up went to school. 



























Then as there was extra mix over minnis were made and DD21 decorated them and took them to her part time job for Breast Cancer Awareness Day.


Just a bit more loving in the world.

Sunday 21 October 2012

Grandpa's Little Treasures

Happily hand stitching along on these blocks they travel with me everywhere as I hate to sit and have nothing to do. I have been in 2 different hospitals this week having tests and you get a bit of stitching done there I can tell you. At one of the hospitals I became know as the teddy bear lady as I was working on a block with teddy bears on it. So here is my progress to date.





Sampler quilt progress

Well my sampler quilt is coming along as you can see with an extra 3 blocks




Have not decided on size yet but would like it to cover chair that I stitch in so will keep going probably until I run out of selected colours. Stay tuned.

Thursday 18 October 2012

Absolutely Fabulous

Today I attended my local Hidden Creek Community House to participate in a ceramic pendant making class. But of course I did not want to make a pendant I wanted to make oversized quilt buttons. This was soooo..... much fun it was hard to contain myself I was much quieter than normal due to the fact that my mind was a whirl of new possibilities. I had taken some of DD21 stamps ( don't tell her ) to try just to see if they could be use, yep sure can. Here are some of the buttons I made today this is only half, but I was so excited of the possibilties that I forgot to take more photos at the end. Next week we will be glazing and starting on some Christmas ornaments, because guess what we decided to continue each Thursday, YEAH!












On a more serene note in the morning I made DD21 a new Minnie Mouse bookmark as requested and enjoyed one of my climbing roses first blooms.








Spontaneous swap

Sue and I decided to have a mid month swap and Sue would make for me one of the blocks I had admired on her blog. Sooooo... excited it arrived today ( even though I had accidentally peeked at it ) when you get the real thing in your hands it's wonderful. Thanks Sue.


Below is the block I made for Sue.


I have also been doing something new and absolutely fabulous today will post later night as I have to go watch DD21 play netball now. Toorah!

Monday 15 October 2012

Symmetrical girl that's me.

I had mentioned previously that a new WIP, is a sampler in violets and greens after making a log cabin for my swap partner. Well I had already made one for my sampler because I just fell in love with it, but over the past few days it kept telling me that it could not be the only log cabin in the quilt. So it came to me that it needed to have one in each corner of quilt, so here we now have four.



Then I made two more.....

Saturday 13 October 2012

Why did I never think of that?

Whilst I was making a swap block for my October partner Tanya I became smitten with the colours Tanya had requested, violets and greens. The block requested was the log cabin which I had not made in years and as it grew so did my liking for it. When finished my girls thought it was beautiful and asked why I had not made a quilt in these colours, as purples and greens are my favourite colours. I was that smitten I had already made a matching one for myself. So I now have a another WIP, to make my first ever sampler quilt with these colours. I am going to use favourite blocks from Elm Creek Quilters books and elsewhere. 
Thanks Tanya for the inspiration!

Here is Tanya's block to me.... just beautiful and I have already decided it is going to be the matching cushion to my quilt.

Here is the block I made for Tanya

Thursday 11 October 2012

Where did the week go?

I can not believe that it has been a week since I last wrote, won't let that happen again. We had a few decent days so I have been trying to catch up on my vegie plot, finishing a new flannel quilt for DD13 to take to camp next week and some block swaps.

Here is the lastest quilt "striptease". I had put it into the dryer.... yes that's right the dryer so that it goes all raggety. After a couple of hours I thought it must be finished by now I opened the dryer.... it's gone. How can it possibly open the door and hop out mmmm..... maybe another seniors moment where did I put it? No, somebody has taken it who could that be? Did not have to go far to find it's new owner already giving it a test run.















About 2 months ago at about 3am whilst I was pondering my bedroom ceiling I started thinking about how to keep the snails out of my strawberries this year one thing led to another and I had this idea of a self watering strawberry tower constructed out of bibs and bobs such as below. Well I have finally built it, now I just have to see if it works, stay tuned. Check out In the garden page for end result.