Arty, practical & freebies!

Hi all, I hope your days are happy & rewarding. I am pleased you made the time to stop in to say hi! Well, some of you don't say hi, you just pop in for a look about & leave. Either way it nice to have you here.

Customer quilt...................................(sorry for the bad photo's, we have had wild weather here, so it had to be photo's inside, because it just doesn't work on the washing line outside!)

Friend's of Gaye wanted her to make them a quilt, they chose a quilt designed by Suzanne Wray.
This quilt is large, measuring 95"x 95", when I phoned Gaye to tell her I had finished quilting, she asked if it did my head in?!! No I said, why? She told me she attempted the quilting herself but it did her head in!
Using three different variegated threads by Gunold I created a flowing water effect & rambling flowers, feathers & swirls etc.

I managed to get this & the following photo's on an angle on my sofa, so they are reasonable.

Next is something I was surprised at how quickly these whipped up. My next  installment fro the 'Sewing Essentials Project' from The Country Yard. Some handy pouches.

The smallest pouch measures only 5 1/2" x 3", the larger one : 7 1/2" x 4".

Karen over at 'Laugh your self into Stitches' is having a giveaway, please pop on over to see!
I was lucky to be gifted the wonderful patterns Karen design's, they are really lovely!!

P.S.......Karen is a real sweet person too ;-)



customer quilt & another productive Sunday.

I am delighted to have Diane as another one of my new customers.
Diane wanted an all over meander through the middle of the quilt, then something a bit fancier on the border. I love the colours of this quilt.
Over cotton batting I used Madeira & Gunold threads for the meander, straight lines on the sashing & the hook feather on the border.
Diane was delighted when she picked up the quilt other day, she said was going to use the red for binding & it was going over the back of her lounge suite.
Enjoy Diane!

I managed to have another productive Sunday. On Thursday I picked up this months Sewing Essential Project from The Country Yard. So far I have been making two of everything.
A block holder, scissor fob & mini pincushion, arm chair husiff, clam shell case, & rotary cutter case.

Don't ya love these fabrics? If you click on the photo you will see I have a CD in the base ( under the pincushion ) as I need to get another tile. The tile is what is used to weight the whole creation!
My second one..................

Tee hee........don't ya love it when your photo's go Topsy Turvy.....................................
The thread catcher on this one I put a slippery fabric for the lining of the bag & used RicRac & Velcro as I can take the bag off the empty the thread & the odd chocolate wrapping!

Wishing you all a happy & productive week!

This & that..................................

First up a finish from The Country Yard 'Sewing Essentials Project' club. This month a pouch for my rotary cutter & a thimble/ thread/ earing keeper thingie.

Next a cushion I made for a friend who is going through a rather tough time at the moment. You will notice from the photo's how different light can change the look of the fabrics.

Trapunto on the front & an all over loopy/paisley for the back.

It is winter here in New Zealand, so it is hard to believe this next photo. They have a divine scent!

This weekend I celebrated my birthday, I got a very special gift, my youngest granddaughter to visit. Here she is helping do the dishes.

Jelly roll quilt, hussif & Miss Alice!

104" x 87" one big quilt!

 Elizabeth is fast becoming a regular customer of mine. Although this is Elizabeth's first quilt, I have quilted two other quilts for her. Using 2 jelly rolls & some soft buttery cream fabric for borders & sashing this is a soft pretty quilt. Bamboo batting, Madeira Poly Neon threads. The inner part of the quilt was quilted with an all over looping design.
 I was very keen to quilt swooping feathers on the lovely 9" borders but I came up against a wee problem..................

This was unpicked!

Wavy borders!....................................
Usually I notice if any borders are going to cause problems at the point of tacking the quilts up. Unfortunately I didn't realize how wavy the borders were until I was on them! I phoned Elizabeth to make a time to meet up so I could show her the problem. The best thing to do is remove the borders, measure, cut & reattach. But Elizabeth wasn't keen to do that. So we came up with plan B............... Only do the swooping feathers on the corners & quilt a loose open stipple on the remaining parts of the borders. This seems to have solved the problem, but no nice swooping feathers on those lovely wide borders.
The moral of the story is.........ALWAYS measure your border fabric.

I have finished this months Sewing Essentials Project an arm chair hussif.

Nice little pockets to hold scissors, threads, a pincushion.

 

Some weeks back I went on a road trip with some friends to visit Julie at Threadbear Cottage, there Julie had for sale some lovely dolls. I asked Julie if she could custom make a doll in the fabric leftover from my Buggy Barn quilt. Julie did just that & Miss Alice came home today!!!!

 

 

Maybe I should have waited until it was daylight to get a better photo, but I was so happy with her & wanted to share her with you!

Julie is so amazing at making dolls, well making just about anything! She did just as I requested. I think she is perfect.

Did you notice the lovely vintage buttons & a Parisian dyed doily??

Here's Miss Alice sitting on my bed waiting for her quilt to come home!

 

 

Tomorrow brings work in my most favourite quilt shop, then off for an annual retreat!!! Yippie, sew, sew & more sew!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by, have a fabulous weekend!

 

a massive quilt!!!!

This quilt is a whopper! 104" x 92". Jacki made this quilt from a block swap she was involved in last year. Jacki has made some extra's to get enough to make this quilt that is going to be gifted to newly weds. Jacki wanted very simple quilting with straight lines. I quilted straight lines on the sashing & borders, then with the same Maderia poly neon ( brown ) I crossed hatched the plain & pinwheel blocks. Maybe if you click on the photos you will see the quilting better?
 As you can see I had problems getting this on my washing line for a photo!

A view of the row of pinwheels for the backing...............a fun quilt!

I picked up my next Sewing Essential Project from work the other day & put the final stitches in it today.

A handy scissor keep & cute scissor fob/pincushion. They go beautifully with my block holder.

Thanks for stopping by!

books

Happy Easter everyblogreader! Are you sick of the sight of chocolate? Never!

I finished two books, the first is the kind you don't read. It is another block holder, from the same pattern as the two I made last weekend. A great pattern from the Sewing Essentials club .

I used Matilda's Own bag batting & a leftover panel from my sewing machine cover.

For the back of the block holder I 'up cycled' some abandoned blocks in my 'headache' box..........
If you have been following my blog for sometime you will remember this project!!!!
I decided to make this book a bit bigger than the last two, they were aprox 12" , this one is 17".
Look what I found to go in this book.................................

My blue & yellow Dresden's!!!! I love em!

Now for the other book I finished........................

"war correspondent Jenny King thinks she's just a temporary guest in her grandmother's Amish community while she recuperates from the devastating injuries sustained in a car bomb attack that changed her world. But when she meets Matthew Bontrager, the man she had a crush on as a teenager, she wonders if she can look past her emotional scars & bridge the gap between their different worlds."

Productive weekend

What a fabulous creative weekend I have had!!!! Time to make stuff, I love that when it happens, just pottering & making things.

First a book for my Granddaughters' first birthday, these fabric books are so quick & easy to make.

I bought the panel to make this book from my favourite quilt shop.

Also from The Country Yard the first month of a BOM of sorts, a " Sewing Essential Project".
A block holder.............................

front of my block holder

back of my block holder

I personalized the back with the twill tape measure. I used Matildia's Own bag batting which is firmer than Iron on Pellon.  Each month I will get a kit to make a 'sewing essential'.
I found this a breeze to make, nice clear instructions that I decided to make another!



some Ricrac & ribbon on the back of this block holder

I didn't have enough bag batting for the second block holder,  but I was in the 'groove' so I wanted to make another anyway! The last photo shows you the inside, I made booboo with the pieced block for the front, so I turned it into a pocket.

Last Saturday I had a couple of hours spare ( I suppose I could have done some baking, cleaning or gardening???? ......yeah right!!! )I was keen to have a go at making a cat from a book I got at the Library called : 'Quilt & Sew' by Anne-Pia Godske Rasussen.

I am linking to Narelle for 1 Xmas item. All item's except the first block holder are going into my box for Xmas presents. Did I tell you how much I love this inspirational, motivational idea??