a sunday afternoon project.....

Just lately, I have decided it would be a good idea on the weekends to try and get some sewing preparation done so I can just sit down and sew during the week - cutting out blocks, preparing applique, tracing stitcheries and so on.

Today I planned to cut out the next 3 or 4 blocks for my Underground Railroad quilt, which got me to thinking about how I was going to store them, as some of them wouldn't be sewn for a few weeks.  I could have stored them in plastic ziplock bags, but didn't want them to get creased and/or start fraying.  

So, I made a folder/holder; 

Some time ago I bought two pieces of A4 board from Bunnings with the intention of making myself a sandpaper board, but was then given one, so the boards were just put aside.  I covered the boards with fabric, cut two pieces of batting and sewed them together down the middle and glued them to the board covers, and added some ribbon to tie it closed.

And now I can keep my cut pieces neat and tidy.

 xx

a farmer's wife, sort of..... and other sewing projects

Finally, I have got back to some sewing. As I am determined to get quite a lot done this year with my quilting, I am trying to 'start as I mean to go on' - to make the time and just do it!

This year's sewing journey has begun by revisiting my French Braid quilt. I had four braids completed, and another two partly done. Turns out I had cut enough pieces to do almost 9 braids, so I got stuck in, cut a few extra, and finished all nine of them.


These will get temporarily put aside now, as I am in a quandary as to what I am going to use for the sashing. I think I'll need to take it to the quilt shop and try a few things out.

I also started a gift for a friend. So far I have this -


These blocks are from a fabric panel from the 'Full Circle' range by Kathy Schmitz. It was quite difficult trying to get it to square up as the printing of each square was quite uneven. Anyway, it's on the list to finish in the next week.

Although the plan for this year is to work on my "12 in '12" list i.e. not start anything new that isn't already ON the list, I have for quite a while wanted to do the Farmer's Wife quilt which has of course been so popular in the blogosphere, so in January I started the blocks for that - although I am sort of doing my own version of it. So, a farmer's wife, sort of. For quick and easy cutting, I have matched up many of the blocks in 'A Farmer's Wife' to blocks in '501 Rotary Cut Quilt Blocks' by Judy Hopkins. For those that are not an exact match, I have found blocks that are very similar, often almost the same.

My progress so far -


Most of the fabrics are 'Maison de Garance' by French General, with a couple of other coordinating fabrics added in. I must admit I am really loving how the blocks are turning out. I want it to be a quilt for the cold weather, and the warm reds and browns are perfect. I am thinking that I may sash it in dark brown, particularly so that the blocks really stand out, but I will see when the time comes.

Another quick project was these placemats for one of my family, made particularly to coordinate with some new furniture they have bought. The fabric is 'Metro Goes Au Naturale' by, I think, Benartex, and the brown colour is from the 'Morris Workshop' range from a couple of years ago. The colours matched perfectly, and they were much appreciated by the recipient. (The colour of the photo looks a bit odd, but was taken at night.)


This weekend I am planning to start a quilt for my niece's birthday in March. A bit of a challenge, as she has drawn me a rough sketch and it has lots of borders to try and fit.... It is going to be in red, white and blue and she described it to me as an 'American style quilt', so the obvious choice is stars and stripes. Hopefully there will be photos to come soon!

where does the time go?!?

Firstly, a belated Happy New Year!! I hope it is a wonderful year for you all.

Doesn't the time just seem to be flying by again! One of my personal challenges/goals for this year is to build some routines into my days so that things - such as my blog - don't get left behind. Hopefully my neglected little blog will get a lot more attention from now on!

On the subject of goals, have you read the book 'The Happiness Project' by Gretchen Rubin? I read this for a second time over the holidays. I love this book; obviously it is about Gretchen working on her own level of happiness, and I love the way she listed her resolutions/goals which she believed would create a happier life, and then broke each one down into smaller steps to achieve them. It's something I am trying to do myself more often so that some aspects of life (even the enjoyable ones sometimes!) don't seem so overwhelming.

Gretchen has a great blog, and you can sign up to do your own 'Happiness Project' for the year, if you are so inclined. I have signed up, as I have some very definite goals that I want to achieve for this year. Nothing the least bit lofty mind you; just homey, crafty, health and financial goals - just kind of going back to basics in a lot of things and building routines and plans into my everyday life, and just being a LOT more organised and focused.

I guess I feel like I just didn't achieve very much last year. In fact, I felt like I achieved very little at all, and I don't want to finish 2012 with the same feelings of discontent and disappointment, and such an overwhelming feeling of being disorganised with so many things.

So, onward and upward!

Firstly, just a quick Christmas run down. Here is Ollie with a pressie he got from his 'aunty' & 'canine stylist' (my sister) - a box full of yummy doggy treats. Lucky Ollie. His 'mum' was very remiss and didn't get him anything (except lots of kisses and cuddles of course; he is a very cuddly little doggie)!



I received some beautiful gifts, and it was 'Cath Kidston' time again - see my previous post here. This time, a Cath Kidston purse which I love from my gorgeous niece, some really pretty CK soaps from her boyfriend, and some CK mugs from a friend.



I also received, among other things, some cute tartan slippers (have always had a thing for tartan and all things Scottish), some movie tickets, yummy chocolates, a cute little Christmas wreath made by my niece, a diary, and some money to buy - you guessed it - fabric! Lucky Tania too!!

I also did make some Christmas gifts which were given away to friends, but in the Christmas rush neglected to take any photos, although my gift to Ms Kylie, a cushion cover, is here.

Now, onto 2012. You may recall my list below, and my plan to complete "12 in '12".

:: Machine pieced sampler quilt - to be quilted and bound
:: Hand pieced sampler quilt - to be quilted and bound
:: 'Persian Tiles' quilt - to be quilted and bound
:: A quilt for my niece's birthday in March - not yet started
:: A quilt for my nephew's birthday in May - not yet started
:: Finishing my 'French Braid' quilt - currently a WIP
:: 'Pinwheel' sampler quilt - a 2012 challenge
:: 'BBQ' quilt - a 2012 challenge
:: Round Robin - a 2012 challenge/quilt-along
:: Irish Chain quilt - currently a UFO
:: my Lori Smith applique - currently a WIP
:: Lumiere de Noel charm square quilt - not yet started

I might tweak this list yet - my 'Persian Tiles' quilt is not really a priority at the moment - but the goal remains to complete 12 quilts in 2012. Pushing it? Possibly; but even half that many would be more than I completed last year! Still, it is a goal I would love to achieve and I will be doing my best to rise to the challenge!

In my next post, sewing so far for 2012.

Love
Ollie & T xxx

challenges and gifts.....

..... another quick catch up::

firstly, our felty christmassy something :: a cute, simple little plum pudding


and, as mentioned in my last post, my lovely Kris Kringle gift from my wonderful friend Sue ::




isn't it lovely?

our next challenge? a cute felty flowery brooch, and a gorgeously sweet little house decoration.

these little challenges are so much fun!!

catching up.....

Where have the last few weeks gone??? The time has just flown by as it always does, particularly at this time of the year, but just lately it seems to have done a complete vanishing act.

So, time for a bit of a catch up.

Firstly, our Sunday mini-challenge. Mini-challenge #1 done - our cute little bag.

Pop on over here to have a look at Ms Kylie's too.

Our second mini-challenge, now already finished, was a pincushion. My choice, as I needed a new one, and a bigger one too, 'cos I kept poking my self with pins that were coming through to the bottom of my old one!. Our lovely friend Gabbie also joined in too.


Kylie's and Gabbie's lovely pincushions are here.

We are now up to our third challenge - a little felty, christmassy something - a cute plum pudding perhaps? Piccies of my soon-to-be-completed mini-challenge #3 soon!

Now, Gabbie's turn to choose next week!

Speaking of felty, christmassy somethings, it was our Wednesday night group break-up this week and we had a Kris Kringle. We were all very remiss, as none of us remembered to take any photos, but I made a little felty, christmassy something for it - a little Christmas garland with hearts, holly leaves, red 'berries' and some little crocheted flowers. I do have a little confession though; I did put it off until the last minute and so it was a bit thrown together, but kind of cute I hope.


I was the very lucky recipient of my lovely friend Sue's gift, a gorgeous little decoration with a lovely vintage-y feel to it, very sweet. (photo to follow later - thank you Sue, I love it!)

Christmas is looming frighteningly quickly (do you all feel like that too??) and I still have several gifts to make, so it will be head down at the sewing machine over the next few days between work hours and christmas functions.

Of course, 2012 will follow very soon after, and already I have managed to put my hand up for three quilt-alongs/challenges! More about those soon.

Another challenge I have set just for myself (and anyone who wants to join in) is a "12 in '12" challenge - to have 12 quilts completed in 2012. Not an original plan of course, but I hope it will motivate me to get some quilts finished, particularly as I (STILL!!) have three quilt tops waiting to be quilted apart from the WIPs/UFOs currently still hiding at home!

Currently the "12 in '12" list is -

:: Sampler quilt - to be quilted and bound
:: Hand pieced sampler quilt - to be quilted and bound
:: 'Persian Tiles' quilt - to be quilted and bound
:: A quilt for my niece's birthday in March - not yet started
:: A quilt for my nephew's birthday in May - not yet started
:: Finishing my 'French Braid' quilt - currently a WIP
:: 'Pinwheel' sampler quilt - a 2012 challenge
:: 'BBQ' quilt - a 2012 challenge
:: Round Robin - a 2012 challenge/quilt-along
:: Irish Chain quilt - currently a UFO
:: my Lori Smith applique - currently a WIP
:: Lumiere de Noel charm square quilt - not yet started

There are others I want to finish too, but I think I will be pretty happy if I can just get those above completed!

So, I am very happy that I have finally now caught up! More again very soon.

'working on' wednesday {4}.....aka 'sunday mini-challenge' {1}

On Sundays at the quilt shop, I work with the lovely Ms Kylie who (along with the lovely Miss Amanda on Saturdays), makes this job so much fun. While Kylie and I were chatting last weekend about sewing in general and fabric we liked for bags in particular, she mentioned a cute and easy bag pattern that she had, and asked if I would like to make one too. As I said I would love to, she came up with the idea of us both making one by the next Sunday; and thus, our 'Sunday Mini-Challenge' was created!

So, here is our bag pattern ::



In this instance we are both using the same fabric, as with the size of material we needed, it was more economical to buy one piece each of the outside and the lining, and cut them in half. We both love this material, so we don't mind it being the same. This is from the gorgeous 'Etchings' range by 3 Sisters for Moda, which we have all been in raptures about in the shop.



The blue print, which is a map of Paris, is for the outside, and the cream cursive script material is the lining.

As this week has all of a sudden become much busier than expected, I had better get my skates on and start making it - it would be rather embarassing to fail on our very first challenge!!

And now it is my turn to pick next week's challenge. Perhaps a cute little pincushion? Or a gorgeous little brooch? Maybe even a little Christmassy something?? We shall see next Sunday!

In the meantime, some progress has been made on my previous 'working on' Wednesday projects - a few more rows of my crocheted blankie done, and another block finished for my applique project.





My little knitted bag is now sewn up and ready to be lined. Kylie asked me what book this pattern came from, so I have included a photo, and the photos in the book of this little bag.



Hopefully there will be some more ta-dahs to show you next week - including my 'Sunday Mini-Challenge' bag!

'working on' wednesday {3}

Today, a little project which has actually been a UFO for some time - five years in fact. FIVE years!!! Which is a little embarassing, as there is not much I need to do to finish it. Truth is, I had forgotten all about until recently!

So, I have moved it on to my list of WIPs and plan to finish it very shortly.

This is (or will be) a little knitted bag, and the pattern is from Emma King's book 'Fun and Funky Knitting'. I love this book; the patterns in it are really cute and most of them are quite easy.



My little bag is the 'Floral' pattern. SUPER easy and quick - so no excuse for it not being finished!



The beautiful floral material is for the lining and I absolutely ADORE this fabric - it was called 'Petals from the Past' by Hoffman, and was out around 5-6 years ago. I only came across it towards the end of it's run, and so only have two small pieces with this green background, and a few small pieces with the white background. It's kind of become one of those fabrics that people refer to as their 'holy' or 'sacred' fabrics - the ones that are soooooo beautiful that you are almost too afraid to cut into them, especially when you can't get any more!



Here's a few more photos of its utterly exquisite gorgeousness ::







On Wednesday nights I go to a sewing group with a few like-minded crafty friends. We get together for a social sit-and-sew, and have been meeting for two years now. It is such a pleasant little interlude during the week - lots of laughs, something yummy to eat and a bit more progress on a project - a perfect night!! It's always a good time to get some hand sewn projects done.

Unfortunately I have not made it to many Wednesday nights lately due to some health problems, but as we now only have about 4 more evenings until we break for Christmas, I am planning to get my little bag sewn up ready to be lined, and make some more progress on my crocheted blankie.

So, photos of my finished bag to come VERY SOON!!

'made by me' monday {2}

So, I guess it's no secret to anyone that knows me. When it comes to crafts, I am really a jack of all trades, master of none. However, although I have tried many different things over the years, the learning and creative process has always been the best part. The fact that I may have something I love to show for it at the end is just kind of a bonus.

And, in any case, if you don't try lots of things, you'll never find out what it is you do love, right?

Today's 'made by me' piece is a silver ring that I made when I took a one day silversmithing workshop last year. During the day we designed something and then made it. As I love silver jewellery, this ring was the perfect project; something I really enjoyed making and could wear at the end of the class.



The ring is silver and the heart in the centre is a Japanese silver/copper alloy called (I think) shibuichi. I must admit I was pretty pleased with myself that (given it's size), I managed to cut the heart out of the copper sheet with tin snips and, once I had smoothed the edges, still had a cute little heart shape!

I really enjoyed this silversmithing workshop, and would love to do it again - maybe next time some cute little matching round silver earrings with a copper heart in the centre too, hmmmm?

'working on' wednesday {2}

Hello, and welcome to my second 'working on' wednesday post! Today, a little bit of applique.

I saw this pattern in the shop where I work and loved it.



As you can see below, I have been blanket stitching my applique. I would so love to be good at needleturn applique, and always say I will practice on the next block, but then I worry that if I try to needleturn it all, it will never get finished! So, blanket stitch it is, at least for this project.

I have had four blocks that have been finished for a little while now, and I am hoping to start a fifth one this week - maybe the one with the cute little house.


So, with any luck there will be another block to show you before too long!


These blocks are only 7" to start with, and so don't take too long to get through, although the one with all the leaves did take a little longer.


The great thing with small applique projects like this is that you can use up lots of little scraps that might otherwise get thrown away, and I HATE throwing fabric away unless it's so small it isn't useful for anything.


I do love a lot of the Lori Smith patterns. I have one pattern pack which is for nine small quilts all done in pink, cream and brown - 'Cherries, Chocolate and Cream' - and now that I have a nice little collection of pink and brown fabrics, some of these little quilts may be 'on the menu' before too long too.

more pottery.....

Just a few more photos of pottery I have made, to follow on from yesterday's post.....

'made by me' monday {1}

Hello! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. This weekend I worked at the shop on both Saturday and Sunday along with my friend the lovely Miss Amanda. We spent our working hours in raptures over the new 'Etchings' range by 3 Sisters for Moda which arrived in the shop on Friday. What stunningly gorgeous fabric! As fast as we were cutting it into kits and packs, people were buying them. It truly is a beautiful range, and in three days we have almost sold out of it.

I have always wanted to try dressmaking, or at least specifically to try my hand at making some skirts, and so I have put some of this fabric away for two skirts, one in the greys and another in the lovely aqua colour. Hopefully there will be a post on that soon!

Speaking of things I have made or am planning to make, I thought I would like to have a 'made by me' monday series of posts showing things I have made in the past, or current WIPs and UFOs that finally become FOs! Kind of a way of keeping some photos together in one place and documenting them for posterity!

One of the things I used to do is pottery. I actually took weekly one-on-one classes for five years with an amazing teacher and for that period of time I loved it, and my skills became pretty good. I LOVED working on the wheel; the feeling of moulding and shaping the clay and creating a form simply by the pressure of my hand, and the excitement as something grew and took shape - and the occasional disappointment of it collapsing in a heap! I now have a lovely collection of bowls and vases which I cherish, and my family have lots of different bits and pieces that I made over this period.

These are a few pieces that I have made:



After five years of classes, I decided to take a break for a month or two. In fact, it was 12 months before I felt ready to pick it up again, by which time my fantastic teacher had unfortunately moved away. Sadly, I have not felt the urge to take it up again since; nonetheless, I have found that I can now achieve the same creative satisfaction in other areas, particularly in my sewing, and although precious little of that has been happening lately, I hope to have something to show again soon.




Have a lovely week all, and Happy Halloween!

'working on' wednesday {1}

... in other words, my works in progress that are currently on the go.

I have a few WIPs at the moment, and the progress part seems to be going very slowly! I do find though that my creativity, or at least the actual doing part of my creativity, seems to come in cycles. I find that for a period of time, two or three months usually, that I get really into my craft work (whether or not this means much actually gets finished could be an entirely different matter!) and then I find I do very little for a few weeks. Am I the only one who finds creativity runs like this, or do you find that it happens to you too?

Anyway, here is my first 'working on' wednesday project, a granny-stripe blanket, inspired by the wonderfully talented Lucy at Attic 24. In fact, I had never really learned how to crochet before, but once I started reading Lucy's blog I was inspired to learn and taught myself. This blanket was an early attempt to practice my crochet and I started it in acrylic wool. I wish now I had used pure wool, but I'm sure there is another granny-stripe blanket somewhere in my future which will be wool - and probably in different colours. I do love the colours in this one though for autumn or winter. This one is 3/4 finished, and hopefully will actually be finished in time to be able to use it for next autumn!

happy thoughts on thursday{1}..... excited!

Hello! Today I thought I would start a 'happy thoughts on Thursday' series as a way of feeling gratitude and appreciation for something that has happened during the week, or for a beautiful photo, or quote, or poem or..... well, you get the idea.

So, over the last week I have felt not just excited, but very grateful and blessed to have received some gorgeous gifts (and it's not even my birthday), and the prizes from two lovely blog giveaways I won recently.

Last Thursday evening (my goodness, where did the week go?!) I had dinner with my gorgeous 19 year old niece (19?! my goodness, where did the YEARS go?!!) and she gave me this lovely little wallhanging which she bought for me, just because she thought I would like it. And I do, I LOVE it.



On Tuesday I met for breakfast with my friends, the lovely Miss Amanda and the lovely Kylie (both of whom I work with at the quilt shop) and Kylie's utterly adorably sweet daughter Cameron. Whilst we were there, Amanda gave me this gorgeous Cath Kidston book which was very kind of her. I know many of us feel a bit of 'Cath Kidston Love' and actually, it turned into a bit of a Cath Kidston week, as you will see.....



I still had a book shop gift voucher from last Christmas which I finally got around to using and I got - you guessed it - a Cath Kidston book, 'Patch!', which I think is a new one. I also bought a Penguin Books 'Pride and Prejudice' mug, which I plan to use for pens and pencils on my desk.



My first giveaway prize which arrived this week and was won on Ballarat Patchwork's Scrap Bag blog, was a kit for this pretty selvedge bag - thank you Emma.



The second was received from Crafty Mermaid, a parcel of sweet goodies which included a Cath Kidston bag which was made from a kit by the obviously-very-talented Ms Crafty Mermaid herself and also some of her pretty handmade cards. It also included a candle and some little kiwi bird fridge magnets which are a cute memento of New Zealand, along with a very nice hand-written note in one of her cards. THANK YOU Ms Crafty Mermaid for your very generous gifts!



Lastly, the new USB cable for my camera arrived and as you can see I can now post photos to my heart's content!

I feel so lucky! Yes, it's been a very exciting week..... and now to finish with just one more photo of something I love:

inspiration

Good afternoon - or morning, or evening wherever you are in the world! I had been procrastinating about adding anything to my blog as I am having a few minor issues in uploading photos, but today I decided I would just crack on and see where my musings take me!

One of the reasons I wanted to start a blog is because of the fact that I love to do crafty bits and pieces, but rarely take photos of them, and with this blog I can both post them as a record of the things I have done, but also (hopefully) prompt myself to remember to take the photos to begin with!

I also want my blog to be place to remember and savour all the other odds and ends of my life - movies I have seen, books I have read, even possibly some of my decorating efforts at home (if I can deem them good enough to be shown!). Life for all of us just seems to fly by so quickly these days, and being able to look back over things and recall the enjoyment of them seems a lovely way to go forward in life.

I really love to read other blogs; three of my absolute favourites (amongst many) are Lucy's blog at Attic 24 and Vanessa's at Coco Rose, and Vanessa Cabban's blog Do You Mind If I Knit. I'm not sure I can aspire to have such a beautiful blog as any of these incredibly talented women, or of the many others that I read, but I do love the idea of being able to refer back to times in my life, or certain projects or events, and remember them.

So, welcome to my little world, and I hope you may find a little inspiration or something of interest along the way.
Love
Ollie & Tania