Too Cute

I really wanted to make something christmassy so last night I made a cushion and it is soooooo cute. I used a tutorial for Santas Belly quilt block at 42 Quilts. The block is 6 inches.I kept the buckle measurements the same but made everything bigger around it to get a 10 inch cushion.

Till the New Year

 I have been sewing a little but I have to put these things away till after Christmas so hopefully I can do some Christmas things.

 I made the back for City Harbour from City Quilts. I got the idea for this back from the Modern Log Cabins book by Susan Beal



 

I have started making Theres a Square in There by Kate Conklin. I have made a wall hanging using this pattern and I love it so I am making a full size with green and blue batiks.

Had to add a photo of Rhani

I'm back

 

It has been a busy few months. We went to the states to catch up with old friends and visit new places and had an amazing time. I have not sewn a lot. I made another table runner like this one only longer and better and gave it to good friends in the U.S.

 

A friend from the gym is moving to New Zealand so a made her a little table topper with Australian fabrics. I used a Moda Bakeshop pattern, Positively prefect by April Rosenthal

 

 

I added an extra cross to the back.

 

We had our first regatta last weekend. That is my crew out in front. I paddle at position 5. The Sydney boat just behind us ended up coming first and we were second. We were very happy with that result.This race was 14 km (about 8 miles). Tomorrow we are racing a 20 km (about 12 miles). Let me say I am a little concerned about making the distance. OK more than a little!

Hopefully I will post again soon.

A long long time

Wow I cant believe how long it has been. I have manged to finish a few things but not enough considering the length of time.

 

 

 

 

 I finished the full size top of city quilts. It looks great. Now to quilt it.

I finished the scarf. It is very pretty and lacy. I was terrified the whole time I was knitting it that I would make a mistake and lose the lot.

 



Brittany had to make a project for school and instead of listening to her mother and teacher she decided not to make a small project. Guess who finished sewing her rainbow tie dyed bean bag.

 

 

 

I finally made a lined drawstring bag from the In Color Order blog.It was very fast and easy.

I have completed a pillow too but I do not have a picture of that yet!

Knitting

Yes I couldn't resist. I decided I needed to knit a scarf. I got some knitting magazines out of the library and found a nice lacy pattern that was easy. The only problem was the only local shop that sells wool is kmart so the choices were limited. I ended up with baby wool as I wanted a finer ply. I think it looks good. I am sure I have a container of wool and needles somewhere but I cannot find them. How do you lose wool and needles?

  I forgot to post pictures of the back of my latest runner. I just used scraps pieced randomly.

Dave went to a Quilt Shop!

 Dave was in Alaska for 1 month and actually went to a quilt shop and bought a quilt kit for me. It is gorgeous and will look great when made. I want to practice some techniques before I start this one though.

I finished my mini City Harbour and still love it. The colours are great and do not show in the photo as it is cloudy and raining for a change. If I wait I may never get a photo of it. I am working on the lap size version now.

I love Minis

I love minis!!!I decided to test the City Harbour quilt from City Quilts by making a scaled down version. The measurements are about 2/3 of the original with 8 rows. The main reason I did this was to see if I like the Teal in it. Well I love the Teal and I love the mini so I now want to make every quilt in the book in mini. How cool would that be. I have all the rows sewn on the real size one, I just need to sew them all together. I think I will finish the mini first and see how the quilting looks.



It was very cloudy so I could only take photos in the lounge room on the blanket box. You could not see the whole thing so I took photos of each end.

I have managed to get a little sewing time.I made three granny square blocks. I am not trimming them yet because who knows when I will finish enough and be ready to put them in a quilt.I am not good at scrappy so when I saw what Sewfantastic did with hers I had a brainwave. I would use black and white for the inside squares and a different colour for each block. I could not get a colour exactly like Kona Ash but I found a nice grey at lincraft. It is one of their quilters homespun and is really nice.

  I bought Rhani a new bed. A bean bag from the op shop. She loves it. Isn't she cute.




  I made something for gran. I can't show it as she reads my blog. Here is the back.

Progress Report

I have been working on my City Harbor Quilt from the City Quilts. I love the quilt in the book and decided to make it exactly as Cherri made it. I have made the first set of rows and love how it looks. I am not sure about the teal blue colour in the next set of rows. It looks great in the book but it looks a lot greener to me in real life. I am going to make the whole row except that teal and then decide.

I have also got on the granny square band wagon. I am using some charm squares I have had for a while but want to use kona ash for the background and I do not have enough. I don't want to order anything online for a while as I need to reduce my stash so I might see if I can find something similar locally.I know I should have ironed the fabric but who knows how long it would take me to post this if I did that.

Where did the time go?

 Things have been busy. I managed to finish the placemats a while ago and finally I have gotten around to blogging about them. I am still reading all my blogs but not doing much in the way of contributing by commenting or posting.

 I made this mug rug for Debbies' birthday.

We had our last race of the season on our wedding anniversary, which would probably be OK if we both raced but Dave just came to watch. This is near the end with only about 1 km to go. I am surprised at how much I enjoyed competing and hope to race with this team again next year.

A tale of four Placemats

I decided to make placemats using the tutorial by Alissa over  on her blog, Handmade by Alissa

This is the the fabric and the placement I decided  to use.

 This is the first one I made. Soo I decided to have 2 like this and 2 as planned.

 This is the next one I made. Sooo I decided to have 4 different placemats!!!

I like them now they are done. I am quilting them now so hope to show the finished product soon.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery

At least I hope it is.


I have been very busy and so of course got sick too which has resulted in very little sewing time. It seemed like if I had 5 minutes to spare I would go in the sewing room and achieve nothing. Then I saw this little gem and decided it would be quick and if I copied it I would not waste time choosing fabrics and a design. The colours have been changed but everything else is the same and I love it. It will hang on the wall above my machine. Victoria has made a similar one to her original with colours inspired from blood oranges which is gorgeous and very vibrant. Victoria's blog, The Silly Boo Dilly is always inspirational and I have made a few wonky stars in my time too.

The colours are better in real life



The back all ready to hang!

Quilting, training and other things

 I have been busy with various things lately. One is training for outrigger canoeing. I have gone from a social paddler to part of a racing team so I have had to up the training.

 Rhani broke her tail. No idea how! She is a very clumsy dog.

 We went to Sydney and saw the Harry Potter exhibition. It was very good although they let too many people in at a time so it was very crowded.



 Quilted a top that I finished a while ago. I did some straight line quilting.I decided to do something different on the back which I like as much as the front. I have no idea what I am going to do with this quilt.

I started a moda bakeshop quilt called love beads with Kate Spains Good Fortune. I teamed it with Kona Ash which is perfect with it. I am doing the table runner version

I Love this Book

I bought this book online from fishpond without ever actually seeing it and I love love it. I want to make the cover quilt and my daughter loves it so hopefully I will make it for her.

I also love this one. Deb and I decided that we should start with a small project first so we will be making this cushion below.

However I could not wait so I made this cushion from a bag pattern. I really like how it turned out. I used some dark Kona charms with Kona Natural and Black.

I only wanted to use scraps as I am saving my black for 2 city quilts I plan/hope to make so I pieced the back with leftovers from the charms. My husband prefers the back!

When skill does not meet expectation

So what do you do when your skill does not meet your expectations. I usually try to change the pattern slightly. I decided to make the stacked coin quilt by crazy mom quilts from moda bakeshop. Once I had the coins assembled in rows I realised that my rows were different lengths. My cutting and sewing were not entirely accurate. If I had have thought of it before I started I would have used different widths of coins but it was too late for that. I knew it would drive me nuts when I sewed the columns because I would see that the coins did not line up. Sooo I cut 1 inch from the top of row 1,3 and 5 and cut 1 inch from the bottom of row 2 and 4. This is a bit weird as all the other coins are the same size but it works for me because it takes the pressure of matching seams. I had planned to make two of these exactly the same for my 3 year old twin nieces but not sure now. I think I might find a new pattern to try.

It looks alright but I don't think I will make 2. I think I will use this one to practice quilting and give it to a charity.

I just found the perfect coin quilt for me. It is the sliced coin quilt at Don't Call Me Betsy.



We are back in the Bay

 We have just got home from three great weeks in Perth. We caught up with family and friends and did some tourist things too. The only sewing thing I have to show is  the wall hanging I made mum. It is from a patchwork and stitching magazine. It is meant to be applique but I stitched it instead.

Here are a few photos of some of the things we did.