Sunday stash #10

I have had some last minute additions to my stash this week. Kristy from Quietplay and Jane from WhereJaneCreates both live quite close to me, so when any of us do an international fabric order we check if the others would like to help fill the postage bag. Last week Kristy did an order with Fabricshack and put the call out for help to make up the 9 yards. I said "pick me, pick me!!"

So yesterday on her way to Spotlight, Kristy dropped in my purchases! I ordered two charm packs - always good for a small project and variety.

The first pack is Reunion by Sweetwater.

Such happy fabric! I love the bunting. There is also quite a few text prints, which are always fun to pop into a paper piecing block.

My second pack is Spa by Deb Strain

I actually hadn't seen this fabric range before, but was sold on the colours. Lots of blues and whites....kinda like tiles. You can see the full range below

Spa by Deb Strain - courtesy of sewingbox.com.au

I also ventured to Spotlight yesterday. There was 40% off all quilting fabrics, so what's a girl supposed to do??!! I picked up this pretty fabric from the Denyse Schmidt range...I thought it would make a good binding (i like spotty bindings!)

I also bit the bullet and bought close to a full bolt of white homespun - I got 13m (a full bolt at spotty is 15m). I also bought 5m of grey homespun. The total for my 19m of fabric?? $80! Now just to hide the bolt! This won't be too difficult as we are moving house next week and I have bought 2 new 80L storage tubs for all my fabric...am sure I can pop it in there and hubby won't notice.

Now I did also get some Lotta Jansdotter fabric love from Kristy this week, but I have zealously packed it away so I can't show that to you :(. Maybe next week!

Linking up as always with Fiona from Finding Fifth

Lots of little things

Ok....I have been quiet, but it's been a busy couple of weeks, and I am just trying to get all my eggs into one basket! In the last 3 weeks our plans for the coming year have changed. We are no longer moving to the Barossa at the end of the year - we will be staying in Coffs for another 12mths for my husband's work. And of course once we decided that, our house, which had been on the market for 3 months, has sold. So, we have to move house anyway! We are heading to a very nice townhouse that has a pool that I won't have to clean! So I'm in the process of packing some things, and deciding what I can and can't live without for the next 12mths or so - most of our stuff will be going into storage in SA. And of course all of this comes right in the middle of a time where I am working fulltime for the first time in 8 years!!!

Anyways - I have been managing to sneak in some sewing time and it's all been paper piecing!

One of my son's school friends had a birthday party last weekend. She is 7 and totally into Dr Who. After scanning the shops and not really finding anything Dr Who there, I thought that I would tackle a few of the awesome paper piecing patterns from Fandom In Stitches.

Dr Who Logo and Tardis

The Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver

I then sewed it into a pouch and lined it with some teardrop fabric and finished it off with a velcro closure. I forget to snap a pic, but my son's friend loved it, and has been bringing it to school everyday to carry her favourite things :)

The other project i have been working on is some blocks for Wombat Stew - the paper piecing bee that I am part of. Alyce from BlossomHeartQuilts was Queen Bee for Sept and she asked for sushi inspired blocks.

My first block was inspired by a japanese plate that I found whilst googling.

I showed the pic to the lovely Kristy from Quietplay - she ran it through EQ7 and here is the result - 

My second block was inspired by Japanese tea. I sketched the design and Kristy was able to run it through EQ7 so that I would have a pattern to work from - here is the result.

I used some Rice Bowls fabric from Lecien to make the teapot and to add an accent to the cups.

I believe that the pattern for this block and the Sunrise plate will be available in Kristy's Craftsy shop in the coming weeks :)

You can see the rest of the Wombat Stew blocks here on Alyce's blog. We have such talented stitchers in our bee! You can also find us on Flickr

And in other news - I am a late minute addition to the lineup for the Sew Seasonal Blog Hop! I am very excited to be involved and to have an opportunity to help showcase the great designs from Kristy and Alyce.

Here is a little sneak peak of what I will be working on - 

I hope you can join me here on November 2nd!

Sunday Stash #9

Just a small Sunday Stash for me this week after a 3 week hiatus. We have just spent some time away in the Barossa Valley. I did no sewing, nor did I get the chance to venture into any of the local quilting shops (there are two). Instead I spent my time with my hands in work gloves, mixing render by the bucketful and playing around with paint colours. Lots of fun.

But all good things come to an end and we are back in Coffs Harbour and Term 4 starts tomorrow! On our return, a little parcel of fabric goodness was waiting for me! I bought this little 1/2 yard bundle thru the Joshua Rack Medical Appeal charity auction in Sept. A very worthy cause. You can read more about Danielle and Joshua's journey here.

I have plans for this little bundle. A friend of mine who lives near the beach in Sydney has just welcomed a new addition to her family - a little boy called Henry. I think a quilt is in order, and that this bright seaside fabric fits the bill :)

I love the little crabs - too cute.

We have quilt group this afternoon - yay!! I have missed my quilty peeps over the holidays - looking forward to a cuppa, some fabric petting and hopefully a bit of sewing too. My Janome is still at the mechanics, patiently awaiting her service, so I will be digging out my Singer Featherweight and giving her a run this afternoon.

Linking up today with Fiona from Finding Fifth

A small Friday Finish

Another week of work has seen me kept out of the sewing room again. I did manage a quick project this week though! We are off to the Barossa tomorrow to continue with our house renovations. While we are there, I am going to meet up with a fellow blogger who I have been in email contact with over the last few months. I wanted to make her a small gift to thank her for all her advice and support.

I needed something quick and not too complicated so I had a quick flick through the Zakka style book and came upon the Delightful linen bag - perfect!

I went with the general instructions in the book, but went with the sizing from Fiona from Finding Fifth's tutorial so that the bag would be big enough for a Kindle or Ipad. Oh and I didn't have any linen, so went with some grey homespun.

I embellished on the front with some bunting and on the back with some vintage doilies held in place with sunshine yellow thread.

The lining is a Denyse Schmidt print with blue and green tones.

and to finish off....a vintage button from my button jar and a loop of sewing tape that had come via Kristy at Quietplay!

I am really pleased with how this turned out...just hope that my bloggy friend likes it too!

Linking up with my friend Jane from WhereJaneCreates for

Sunday stash #8

Good morning. Hubby is out doing his first triathlon on the season so I am free to pull my new fabric out of hiding and share with you!

I had bought some half yards from the Sew You're Destashing page on FB last week, and they made their merry way to me from Perth this week. They are to be my last purchase from that page - I have left the group so as to not be tempted. I have enough fabric enablers in my Paper Piecing Bee!

So...I got a half yard of these two prints from Robert Kaufman's Metro Cafe line. You may remember that I already have the cutlery fabric from this line in red and black. I discovered that Sally from SallyBally Creations has a thing for cutlery fabrics, so I have shared the fabric love and sent her a FQ of this fabric below, as well as some pieces of the red and black colourway.

I also bought this fabulous fabric as a bit of an inspiration for my month of Vintage Kitchen for the Wombat Stew bee. I love it. The colours are far more vivid in the flesh - the pic doesn't do it justice!

I also added some more tufted tweets to the stash. I have 5 prints in total now. I am hoping to use some in Kristy from Quiet Play's Polaroid Block Swap

It's been a bit of a quiet week on the sewing front. I worked 4 days this week instead of my usual 2. I take my hat off to all those fulltime workers out there....it's not easy at all. I did manage a few little things though.

We are going to a birthday party next Sunday for a little girl that is turning 1. I thought I would make her a gift rather than trying to find something generic at the shops. I have made this little top before and I really love that it doubles as a dress for younger children or a smock for a 2-3 year old. You can find the pattern and tutorial at Smashed Peas and Carrots.

The front - just needs the buttons and buttonholes and some topstitching.

The back - I love the crossover.

My other little finish this week is the September QCA Bee block for Jodie - 

This was by far, the most complicated block that I have done so far, and I am so so so pleased that I managed to line everything up and get it together. The theme that Jodie requested was red, white and blue.

If you would like to try this block, you can find it here - Stripey Lonestar

I have quilt group this afternoon - can't wait! It's been a few weeks since we last met up, and I know that everyone is going to have lots of things to share...not sure whether there will be a lot of sewing or just a lot of fabric show and tell!

I'm linking up with - 

My first Zakka project - Happy Garland message board

I have been watching with interest as my beautiful friend Fiona from Finding Fifth has been participating in the Zakka Style sew along. I have even be so fortunate as to be on the receiving end of not one, not two but THREE beautiful items that Fiona has made as part of the sew along.

Top - Bread basket
Middle - Zakka pincushion
Bottom - Patchwork pot holders.

So when I was making a Book Depository order the other day, I thought I would add the Zakka book to my cart (along with my 3 Kevin McCloud books - there's a whole other story to go with that!).
There are lots of lovely projects in the book, but I thought I would start out small and easy and attempt the Happy Garland Message Board. I had all the listed requirements too (apart from the pegs but I bought them yesterday at Spotty) which is always a bonus. As coincidence would have it, this is also the project for this week in the Zakka Style sew along!

I have a little bit of a thing for greens going at the moment, so I thought I would use that colour scheme. What a super project for using up all those little scrappy pieces of fabric that you can't bear to throw out! Each little flag is cut from a 1" square of fabric! I am really pleased with how this turned out...and I managed to make it in between doing a few loads of washing, making lunch and getting dinner simmering on the stove - you have go to LOVE a project like that!

If only the note was true - wishful thinking on my part and a little nod to my beautiful friend Fiona.

The colours match really well with the patchwork pot holders that Fiona gave me on her last visit. I love them and am a bit in awe of Fiona's circular binding!

Finished and hanging on the wall.

I am looking forward to trying some of the other projects in the Zakka book in the coming months.....but I really should baste those 4 quilts that need doing first!

Sunday stash #7

Just a small addition to my stash this week. I had a little bit of time to kill yesterday afternoon while Master 7 was at a birthday party. Where to go, where to go?? Oh here's an idea - why not go to Spotlight??!!

In my defence, I did need to buy some homespun for a quilt backing - 6 metres in fact. There was a little quilting expo happening at our local spotlight, so there were a few extra discounts. My homespun was 30% off so cost me less than $5/m. There was also 25% off quilting accessories, so I got a replacement blade for my rotary cutters. I  have realised that I have to designate one rotary cutter solely for paper piecing, as I am finding that my blades are getting blunt a bit too quickly. I also picked up some cute little pegs to use in Zakka project.

There are also specials on fat flats - buy 2 get 1 free. I found these very funky text fabrics and I thought that they would be great to use in paper piecing project.

My favourite is the one with all the haberdashery ads...there is even one there for Singer sewing machines...I have a soft spot for Vintage Singers!

Am linking up today with Sunday Stash at Finding Fifth....if Fiona gets 10 linkers today, she will give away a charm pack of Kate Spain's Serenade....and I want it!!