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!!

Sunday stash #6

Good morning! All is quiet in my house this morning. The boys are playing LEGO and hubby is having a very hard earned Father's Day sleep-in before heading off to work - yep, you heard right - my lovely hubby has to go to work today :(. And then to add insult to injury....there is NO quilt group this afternoon either!! Golly, I guess that just means I'll have to sew at home ;)

So....what lovelies have made it into my stash in the past fortnight? Here's a peak -

Last week was the Coffs Quilters and Embroiderers exhibition so after my boys had hockey, I dragged them along to check it out. I thought that this year's quilts were a little more exciting than last year's - more colour, better fabrics and even some contemporary designs. There were several businesses with stalls so it was worth a look. Below are some small pieces (12" square or so) that I picked up for $1 each....kinda hard to resist - I mean one can not have too many spotty fabrics, and there was even some Kate Spain Terrain in there! The little birdie fabric is for Kristy from Quiet Play - she is such a lover of all things bird!

There was also a table selling $1 FQs - I only found this out because I bumped into Jane and she showed me her little bag of goodies. Again....you can't have too many dots and spots and I thought that the green might be interesting to use in a paper piecing project.

I bought 3 FQs of this red sewing fabric.....not really sure why.....I thought I might be able to either use it to make a new cover for my tabletop ironing board, or maybe fussy cut it for a paper piecing block. I do like the bobbins!

I was also lucky enough to receive some squishy mail this week. These lovelies came from a little FB business Fabric Letters and Appliques. I bought half a yard of the Hungry Caterpillar fabric - I still have a large bag of scraps and bits and pieces left over from the Caterpillar quilt that I made one of the boys three years ago. I am hoping to put together another quilt as a gift for a little girl who has a love of caterpillars. 

I also couldn't resist the dandelion fabric (you know me!)

Also included in the parcel was half a yard of this groovy sushi fabric.

I have big plans for this fabric. I have joined a new paper piecing Bee with a group of gorgeous gals from QCA - we are going with the moniker of Wombat Stew. Alyce from BlossomHeartQuilts is kicking us off for September and has requested a "Sushi" theme. So I will be busily trying to design an 8'' x 8" block involving this fabric to send to Alyce in Japan! Nothing like a challenge! If you are interested, you can follow our Bee progress on Flickr - Wombat Stew

So I think that's it! I have had been very good this week - there have been no other fabric purchases/ordering online!

Linking up with the lovely Fiona!

Practically Paper Piecing roundup

Well today is the last day of August and I promised that I would draw the winner of my giveaway today. The lucky winner will receive a copy of amy Friend's vintage kettle pattern. There were 22 comments in total - and the winner is -

Comment No.6 was from AlyceB.

Congratulations! I will contact Amy and she will email your pattern to you in the next few days.

Please  pop over to QuietPlay and join the linky party. There are some great prizes up for grabs if you have a completed paper piecing project to add. There are some great entries so far!

I managed to make a start on a new project this week using the Half Moon Modern layer cake that I bought a few weeks ago. I have completed all the blocks...now I just need to piece the top together. I think it is going to make a great quilt! Block size is long and narrow - 16"x8".

If I get this quilt top finished over the next week, it will mean that I have 3 - yes 3 - quilt tops that need basting and backing. Basting is my LEAST favourite part of quilting..I hate the pinning on my hands and knees. During the week, a fellow QCA member Sheila shared the technique that she uses - 

I am very keen to give this a go for my next few quilts.

I would love to hear what techniques you use to make basting easier. Please feel free to leave me a comment.

Sunday Stash #5

I have lots to show you today - but I have to be quick! Hubby is out on his bike so I have just enough time to get my fabric out of hiding show you what made it into my stash this week.

On Monday I ventured to Spotlight because they had 30% off storewide. My rationale was that I needed some more grey homespun to make more diamond stars! I did get some grey homespun...and also some purple too...am thinking I might be able to add some purple in for sashing when I come to putting the Diamond Stars into a quilt top.



Grey and purple homespun.

Now seeing I was already at Spotlight I thought I'd have a quick look thru the clearance rack, which is usually $8/m. I picked up three more Denyse Schmidt prints....I thought that at under $6/m  with the 30% off was not too bad!

Denyse Schmidt fabric goodness.

I particularly like the pink and red spot fabric in the middle. I have already used it in quite a few projects, most recently as a binding for my paper pieced coaster project for the Practically Paper Piecing bloghop.
I also picked up some thread and managed to leave Spotlight relatively unscathed financially!



My other big excitement for the week was that my order arrived from FabricShack! I have ordered from the lovely ladies there several times now. They have great service and friendly emails and I guess the most attractive things for me is that they can fit 9 yards...yes 9....in a postage satchel for US$8.50....which is 50% off the standard international postage from the US.

So seeing you can fit 9 yards in a satchel it seems only right that I take full advantage and fill it to the brim! This is what I received..

Three yards of what we call "Pearl bracelets" in our quilt group. This is by Lizzy House and actually is used in several of her fabric ranges - Hello Pilgrim, 1001 Peeps and Out Foxed. This isn't all mine - I am planning on using some to swap with Jane from Where Jane Creates for some of the Tufted Tweets that she received from a travelling stash earlier in the week.

Little Pearl bracelets in brown, pink, green and yellow.

Speaking of Tufted Tweets....I got some of those too! That's it in the middle, sandwiched between the Raindrops and the Wrenly Blooms.

Raindrops, tweets and blooms

 

These next three are all from Robert Kaufman - the outer two are from the Groove range and the middle is from Remix.

A Groove sandwich with Remix!

 

I was hoping that there would be a bit more "green" in these fabrics...it's often hard to tell online, so they are not exactly was I was after, but I am sure that they will come in handy at some point!

Layered nature, Heirloom, City Weekend.

I also got some lovely fabric from Lecien - that's the little bowls and chopsticks in the left. I couldn't resist the bunting of "Reunion" and the retro sewing machines of "Sew Happy"

 

Asagohan, Reunion, Sew Happy.

I look forward to making use of these prints in some paper piecing projects in the coming months,

 

And finally....my fav fabric from the order...Heaven and Helsinki. Am just loving the bright colours and house designs in this fabric!

 

Helsinki

Well I better go and hide this again put away all this beautiful fabric. Looking forward to some show and tell at this afternoon's quilt club.

I'm linking up with Fiona's Sunday Stash over at Finding Fifth

Have a great Sunday!