Friday, January 23, 2009

Cup Cozy finished!

I had my neices and sister visit again today and Miss 12 impresssed me by sewing together 30- 3 strip 9 inch blocks this afternoon. Okay so we had a production line happening at the end with me pinning and my sister doing the ironing bit, but they are flying home tomorrow and she has all the blocks ready to sew into a quilt top. A good effort for an afternoons work, more than half of the strips were ready to sew when they arrived, and I cut the rest, but my neice did all of the sewing. Yet again I forgot to take photos. She promised to send me one when it is done. On a different note, Jo Jo is having a 100th post giveaway and you have to write and post about 3 crafty things you can't live without, you can see from my picture that counting is not something I do well. Okay I nominated 3 groups of things, can you guess? Yes, my floss collection, my fabric stash and my favourite scissors, no this is not all of any of the groups I selected, just a mere sampling so you can see where some of my inspiration comes from, oh and some of the tools used to achieve the finished products I did finish something this week in between sewing with the girls and just spending time with them while they were here. I made this cup cozy, I know they have been seen around blogland a lot lately, and well I just had to have one of my own. Now all I need to do is this in the car for the next time I order take out. Now I really must get onto my swap project... Enjoy the long weekend and I hope it is productive for you all. Happy Crafting

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Sewing with children

I had two of my neices here earlier this week and we did some sewing together, unfortunately I did not get any pictures, I hope to catch up with them again before they go home on Saturday. On the way back to grandmas house we stopped for some retail therapy and Miss 12 decided that she would like to try making her own patchwork quilt. She made some fabric purchases and when we got to grandmas we started to cut out rectangles, she is hoping to make a start on the sewing before they fly home. I found out this week that Sam and Suzi starfish have gone to a good home. These critters were dropped as part of The Toy Society Christmas, and I am pleased that they are appreciated by the finders. I have started working on the fluffy thing but have been going a bit slower this week with lots of socialising with family. I will be back soon with some photos to show. Happy Crafting

Friday, January 16, 2009

Cool sewing stuff

I finished the table centrepiece for the Living Creatively competition today, in time for the deadline tonight. Yes, I work well when the deadline is looming large. I put it aside for a couple of days so I could look at it and decide whether my quilting idea would work. I am happy with the result. I entered the competition to challenge myself to follow an idea through from concept to completion. It will be interesting to hear the comments. I am up to the swap projects which I always find challenging, making things for people you don't know requires a little extra thought and planning. I will be playing with the following materials for the Sewing Love swap. I'll let you see what it is when I am done, as it is a secret so my partner doesn't know me! Yeh! cause I am not very good about keeping secrets or being patient waiting for the post people to do their job. Yes, that would be fur there with the fabric, hope I can find the templates tomorrow as I did not have any success tonight, and I really want to get started.
Happy Crafting

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Bags

Well today was another productive day. I completed two bags featuring Loralie Designs nurse panels, these will be going to colleagues of my sister who works in a large city hospital. There is another one in progress but I got distracted and went walking this evening and it was very pleasant out, so I walked a long way.
Having entire days to plan projects and sew feels very indulgent and I am enjoying every minute of it. When I have finished the bags I will be starting my next swap project, which will be a bit different to what I have shown so far. Fortunately for me, my swap partner likes brights and lots of colour too, this should be an easy project for me to complete. I'll keep you up to date.
Happy Crafting

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Rest is over

I think my sewing machine has finished resting and is now back in action. Today I achieved the majority of a project for the Living Creatively - Think outside the Square - and quilt with circles, competition run in conjunction with Amitie. I have made a circular table centre piece for my round table in some fresh summer colours. I enjoyed the challenge. Just need to finish the quilting and it will be done. Tomorrow will be another day filled with sewing goodness, I am trying to finish some projects before the relatives arrive from interstate next week and require entertaining. So here is an in progress photo. Hopefully I will manage to get one with true colours to enter in the competition, the colours are actually very crisp. Just the thing to brighten up my dull kitchen. I hope you too are having a productive weekend.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Cup cake goodness

So far so good? The new year has begun with a short break from sewing activity after all the projects which I completed in time for Christmas. Following are two views of the same bucket I made for a friend for Christmas, there was also a cupcake pincushion which matched but I didn't get a good picture of it before I gave it away. The stitchery patterns are from Brenda Ryan and the bucket is adapted from a pattern by the ladies at Blue Willow Cottage.
So while the sewing machine is having a rest this week I have been working on a Scrapbook project, photos from my extended stay in the UK a very long time ago. It is an interesting journey full of lots of good memories.

Monday, January 5, 2009

I'll figure this out soon??

Okay so I thought setting this up would not take me this long.. Yes I am challenged. I'll sort it out soon and be back or else I'll give up and sign off before I start!