Black and white animal quilt front

Remember this cushion?  The rabbit is one of four animals on this particular fabric design.  I bought two complete panels, to make my friend a rabbit cushion, and three cushions for myself using the other three animals.  Glenda adores her rabbit cushion, but I haven't made up the other three for myself yet.  But using the other complete panel, I have made up the top for a couch throw, adding turquoise solid fabric to lift the stark black and white.  I am still working on the backing, and of course the matching cushions, which haven't been started yet :-(

A variety of projects.

I have made this table runner for the Avicultural Society Xmas raffle next week. I used what was left of the Aussie bird fabric that I used in the quilt for the society raffle last year.

Ken's niece mentioned recently that she is a Dog Person rather than a Cat Person, and I remembered that I had this scrap of doggie fabric in my stash. So this will be her Xmas present.

I finished the mediaeval fabric runner, but am not happy with it. I chose the yellow fabric for the border, thinking it would match the yellow tones in the feature fabric, but it doesn't do much for the runner at all. Somebody suggested I used lace to embellish it, so I put a row of lace with blue ribbon threaded through, down the middle. Then I added another lace to the border, trying to sew it between the front and the backing fabrics, but I stuffed up the corners and had to cut them. AAAAAGH what a mess! Oh well, the whole thing was just a way to used up some stash in a hurry, so it's not going anywhere out of this house. It will probably be folded up and put at the bottom of a pile of other experiments which never see the light of day! Do you have many any of those?

Hoping this project will be more successful than the runner. I bought this cute fabric at one of the stitches and craft shows a year or so ago. It can be used in several ways, making up a picture by joining up the individual owl groups, or making separate place mats, mug rugs, etc.

I chose to make up a picture using them all. Next thing is to add a border or two, and backing, and ta da! Another wall hanging.

Rabbit cushion finished.

I think my friend will be pleased with this cushion.  I'm glad I got two lots of this fabric, as I fancy a couple of cushions like this on our couch!

Remember the odd medieval design fabric I pulled out of my stash a few weeks ago, after I was inspired by a table runner that I saw on Pinterest?  I happened to have just the right coloured fabrics in my stash to add some borders and make up a runner in a similar style.
This is a closeup of the fabric so you can see the detail, and understand why I chose the deep pink and blue solids for the borders - it matches the clothes worn by most of the people in the pictures.

Here is what I have done so far.  Now I need to decide whether to add another border, or simply quilt and bind it as is.  What do you think?   Hmmm,. now I see it on my screen, I am thinking I should have done this a bit differently.  I should have used the pink right around the picture fabric as well as the centre and sides, and added the blue as a complete border.  Might have to do some unpicking here!

A week later.

Well, I'm rolling along nicely.  In fits and starts as always though - depending on what is planned (or not) as each day dawns.  Some days there is nothing in the diary, and I think YES!  A day of crafts.  But there may be a surprise phone call, or the Man Of The House decides that we need to go somewhere...Ah well, there is always the night time when he has gone to bed and all is quiet.
Today was quiet though, because he hasn't been well, and stayed in bed all day which left me free to work and play to my heart's content (after I'd tended to his needs, of course).

So I was able to cut out and made four more teacup coasters, although one turned into a teapot coaster, because I cut the teacup fabric the wrong way up and it would have looked all wrong with the cups design upside down.  I think it looks quite cute though, so I might make some more like that.
The two on the right hand side are made from plain red and dark green (not black as it looks here) Xmas fabrics with a gold printed star design.

In my last post here I mentioned making a cushion for my friend Glenda, using some rabbit fabrics.
I was intending to use this as the front, and another rabbit fabric on the back, but it would have been wasted on the back, so I called Glenda to see what she would like me to make this up as, and she decided she would like it as a cushion.  So I will be making it up with a plain homespun backing, and the other bunny fabric will be used to make another cushion also with a plain back.  She loves bunnies!

The rabbit on this fabric is one of a set of four of these unusual designs on fabric that is available at our Quilt Shop.  There is a rabbit, fox, bear and owl.  I have added the black and white border from my stash.  Still thinking about what to made with the other animals.  Not keen on foxes or bears, so I might make them into placemats or something, and give them away, but the owl will be made up into something for me of course :-)

Halloween tomorrow!

I finished my table centre today, and have put it on the kitchen table ready for tomorrow's Halloween.  Not that we do anything different, apart from have a bag of sweets to give to any passing witches or wizards, but we never know if anybody is going to turn up, so I don't go overboard with that because we have to eat them if they aren't given away!
I used black to bind the mat, and used an orange and black fabric from my stash for the backing.

Right....what is next on my sewing agenda?  Well, I made a couple of coasters with cat fabric, and gave them to my niece's teenage daughters yesterday, and they loved them.  Their Mum is more of a Dog Person, so I have decided to use some more of the doggie fabric in my stash and make her a table centre for Christmas.  
I want to make more of the Teacup Coasters in Christmas fabric to have on hand for little extras in the coming months, and I've promised my friend Glenda that I would make her a cushion with the rabbit fabric she gave me some time ago.  I also have the Pacific Rim silhouette wall hanger to finish, but that's going to be a long term project I think.  Well, at least put off until next year when I have more time.  It won't be a UFO - I really do want to have it finished and up on a wall somewhere!  But there is a lot of stitching to do, and if I get going on that now, it will mean that all the other gifts and things I want to do before December will be delayed.

Simple Living Forum Xmas swaps.

On the Down To Earth Simple Living forum, there is always something happening!  At the moment many of the members are exchanging handmade gifts for Christmas.  I received this lovely tote bag from V. in Qld.

In return, I have made for her these items:  a plain tea towel (or hand towel) embellished with a scalloped edge and ric rac, and a Teacup coaster using the same fabric that I use for the scalloped edging.

"Making The Australian Quilt" exhibition.

So many exhibitions come and go, and I miss out on them by procrastinating about when to go, but I was determined not to miss this one of a kind exhibition at Federation Square in Melbourne.  So I asked my dear friend Sharon if she would like to go (silly question - of course she did!), and we drove in last Tuesday 18th October.  We spent nearly three hours looking at the quilts, then had some lunch, and visited the gallery bookshop to buy a copy of the book about the exhibition.

We both took heaps of photos, but I haven't got around to doing anything with mine, as to be honest, there are just too many, and I don't know where to start.   I was impressed by the write up that Linda Steele posted on her blog about the exhibition, so rather than duplicate her, I am inviting my readers to visit Linda's lovely blog and have a look at the photos and description.   She knows a lot more about the subject than me, so  it is very worthwhile reading.
https://lindasteelequilts.blogspot.com.au/2016/10/making-australian-quilt-exhibition.html

Inspired by Pinterest

I spend a lot of time (an hour or more most days) surfing Pinterest.  My Pinterest account grew so rapidly when I first started it, that it got to the stage I couldn't find what I was looking for, which defeats the whole purpose of having a Pinterest account!  So I set up categories for my various interest (cats, peacocks, mermaids, embroidery, patchwork, paper crafts, calligraphy, etc. etc.) and as time went on I subdivided those categories even further to narrow down the variations.
 The patchwork and quilting category has now been divided into Batiks, Panels, Mug Rugs, Table Runners and anything else relating to quilting.

One of the benefits to me of having hundreds of photos to look at, is that they give me ideas on what to do with my stash.  How often do you buy some fabric because you like it, but don't have any purpose in mind at the time?  It is how I acquire most of my fabric - just because I like it.  I rarely buy fabric for a specific pattern because I try to use what I have.  But I have got to the stage of being cross with myself for having so much fabric sitting there without a purpose, and I find that going through my saved photos on Pinterest provides ideas.  I see a finished product, and I can picture it made up with my own fabrics.  I don't consider this stealing patterns, as what I do is very simple stuff, based on the basic quilting concepts of rows, four square patches, etc. and there is no copyright to worry about.   It just gives me a starting point to use my fabrics.

For instance, I have had this scrap of Xmas fabric in my stash for a couple of years.  Can't even remember where I got it - maybe from the opshop, or the remnants bin at the Guild.  Anyway, it was too pretty to leave lying around, so I took it home.

Every Christmas I have dug it out with all the other themed fabrics, and thought What can I do with this?  One of the photos I recently saved on my Pinterest account was a table runner, with a border design fabric similar to this, running the full length of a runner, with another fabric along each side.  Ah ha!  Just the thing.  My piece of fabric was obviously left over from a border fabric of some kind, so I had to add a bit to each end to tidy it up.  Then I surrounded it with the green and gold fabric I had left over from something else, and backed it with another Xmas fabric which was exactly the right size.  Black binding to finish it off, and tra la - a nice little runner for this year's festive season!

I have had this particular piece of material for years,buried at the bottom of my stash.  Everytime I had a cleanout, I would think I should get rid of it, I'll never use it.

 But again on Pinterest, I saw a table cloth that someone had made using  a similar design of fabric, with a scene running along the edge and plain colours to divide the blocks.  Hard to describe, but as soon as I saw it I dragged out my fabric and after I'd taken this photo, I cut the scenes into four separate pieces,   That will be my next project after a Xmas swap item that I must do next :-)

Two wall hangings.

In my previous post, I wrote about buying patterns that I later regretted, because they looked too complicated for me!  But with the help of Leanne at The Quilt Shop in Eltham, I have been able to achieve so much that I wouldn't have tried on my own.  I bought these two patterns at a suburban quilt shop a few years ago, thinking they would be quite easy to do - "Two Fabric Applique" patterns by the Pacific Rim Quilt company.

They look quite small, don't they?  When I opened the pack, I discovered that the actual size is 24"x 36" - which is clearly shown on the packet, but I didn't think too much about it when I saw that.  It is only when I had to transfer the pattern onto two pieces of fabric that I started to wonder if I'd taken on too much..  Once the pattern has been traced onto the fabrics, one fabric is laid over the other, and the pattern is cut away to reveal the fabric underneath.  I have done this technique once or twice, but on a MUCH smaller scale!  However, after seeing the finished project on display elsewhere, I felt I had to have a go, and with Leanne's help, this is what I achieved last night at her class:

The dark fabric is fused (with fusible webbing) to the light fabric, and next job is to stitch around all the edges.  I'm not going to hand stitch it - that would take me forever, so I'll be machine stitching it.  Then the backing and quilting.  So quite a bit of work still to be done, but I am very pleased to have got this far!  I would liked to have been able to use a pink, blue and yellow fabric like the original pattern photo, but I couldn't find anything like it, so I settled for this cloudy blue, which is prettier than what it looks here.

And, to end the week, I finally finished the batik Seascape I have been messing around with for some time.   Once I finished the backing and binding, I added a few embellishments such as a little white plastic seahorse brooch up near the mermaid, added sequins on the mermaid's body, sewed some shells on the sand, and an orange Xmas star that looks enough like a starfish for me to add!

WIPs and Finished projects.

I have been so busy in the past week!  The Quilt Shop has been a very positive influence on my sewing, as I have found the confidence to make things that I would not have attempted previously.  I have bought many a pattern at craft shows, only to get home and have a closer look, and think "what on earth was I thinking?!"  I am now starting to work on and complete some of those patterns.

But I've also been making a few simple things as well, just to use up scraps and pieces of fabric that I've had for a while.  These are the smaller items, inspired by Stephanie at The Enchanting Rose.  As I have written here previously, she posts some lovely tutorials on her blog, and I can't resist making the small ones because they are quick and easy, and use up scraps!

I've made some of the teacup coasters before, and have decided to make some more, using Xmas themed fabrics.  This is the first one I've done:

The next coasters are made from charm squares (5"squares) and a small doiley, or in this case, a crocheted table runner made up of small rounds, that I have cut into individual bits.  The doiley is sewn on to one square and backed with another.  I used different fabrics for the front and back.

The next thing I've made is a Halloween table mat.  The fabrics were at the Quilt shop for 50c a piece, and although we don't really celebrate Halloween, I do like the coloured fabrics that come out at this time of the year!  This just needs to have the wadding, backing and binding done to finish it off.  This photo is a bit pale, the purple is much deeper than it looks here.

Gifts for friends.

The man who built our chook house is so good to us; he has done several major jobs in addition to building the chook house, and has dropped in several times to sort out minor issues.  He doesn't charge for these, which is rare these days, as most tradesmen charge anything up to $100 just to be called out.  So I thought I would make something for him to say thank you.  Ken will be giving it to him tomorrow while I'm out, so I will be keen to hear what his reaction is.

I found several Xmas fabric panels at the opshop a few years ago, featuring Xmas stockings.  I made a few of them and gave them to various kids in the family.   When I rediscovered the other panel last week I thought it was a good time of the year to make these up!

The stocking on the right is lined with calico, but the other two are unlined so far.  I haven't made up my mind whether to line them yet.  Depends on what I do with them I guess.  If I give them away I will definitely line them.

Stephanie's Teacup Swap

Stephanie at The Enchanting Rose blog has been hosting a teacup or mug exchange for several years, and I was lucky enough to hear about it from another source, to join this year's swap.  Participants are given a name of another person to whom they send a surprise gift package.  In turn they receive a package from someone else.   I asked Stephanie if it was possible to send mine to an Aussie, given the cost of postage from here to anywhere else in the world, plus the possibility of things getting broken in their trip across the Pond.  She kindly gave me the name of a lady in a nearby suburb! so we are actually going to meet up for a coffee so I can give her my parcel of goodies :-)

Today, I received an enormous box in the mail.

I had a fair idea it must be my teacup/mug surprise, but you can imagine what I thought when I saw all those topshelf brand names on the box!!!   When I opened the box, all these were neatly packaged inside along with insulation to stop breakages.

OMG!!  I thought Christmas has come three months early!   It was an absolute delight to unwrap each parcel and savour the contents from "Joanne" in NSW.  

Beautiful coffee mug in gift box, matching paper napkins,  floral ceramic condiment set,  Earl Grey Aust. Afternoon Tea teabags, Moccona latte coffee sachets, Ginger biscuits (how did she know I love those?), two dear little ceramic birdies, and a lovely card introducing herself to me.
Jo, I can't begin to describe how excited I am to receive all these, it is extremely generous of you!
I will be writing (as in pen and paper, lol) to thank you, but couldn't wait to acknowledge you here first, so Stephanie and the other ladies in the swap around the world can see how fortunate I was!
And thanks again to Stephanie for organising this.   I will definitely be back again next year!

Small wall hanger, mug rug

The deplorable weather in Melbourne lately has been great for staying indoors stitching.  I have finished two items for friends over the past week.  They may see them here before they receive them, or they might not even realise they will be the recipient!  Anyway, the Halloween mug rug is part of an online forum swap.

I have had this cute dogs fabric for a while, just waiting for the right person to make it up into something.  I was given a surprise gift recently from someone who loves dogs, so I decided to use my doggie fabric to make her something in return.  It could be used as a coffee table centrepiece, or hung on a wall - she can decide what she wants to do with it.  If it looks a bit bumpy around the edges, that is because I still have to handsew the binding to the back.

I did some more work on my batik seascape, but the photo I've taken doesn't look much different to the previous picture I posted here, so I won't post the latest one.  I took a bit of a risk with the quilting.  I wanted to machine quilt wavy lines over the whole piece, and was thinking of using sparkly cotton which I know is available.  But I didn't have any quilting cotton of that kind, so I went to my cross stitch and embroidery cottons and found some Kreinek sparkling blue thread on a spool.  I threaded the machine, using ordinary cotton in the bobbin, and very slowly and carefully, quilted the wavy lines I wanted.  Turned out great!

Finished item, in progress item, experimental item.

...and more in the pile waiting to be started!
I bought this kit at the Eltham Quilt Shop about a month ago but only found time to make it up last week.  It will be great to take one of my many colouring books and a few pencils out somewhere and be able to sit and  'colour in' when I feel like veging out :-)

The kit came complete with all the fabrics and a zip, but I made a couple of modifications.  Instead of decorating the front with stars, I fussy cut a cat from some patchwork fabric and used that instead.

I didn't need a zip pocket (and I hate sewing zips into anything), so I just made a large pocket to hold the book without the extra zipped pocket.

The In Progress Item is my little batik ocean wallhanging.
I have added a mermaid to it, and have a little seahorse brooch which I will pin on when I have done all the stitching.

Finally, the experiment is something I saw in a library book, and wanted to try before the book was due back.  Stitching on velvet.  I never thought about doing that before I saw the instructions in the book, which had advice on putting velvet in an embroidery hoop, and how to mark the velvet with the stitching lines.  I based my stitching on one of the designs that was in the book, but used some colours that I had on hand.

Cross stitched parrot on a doiley

One of my lovely friends on the Down To Earth forum found this in an op shop in the country town where she lives, and thought of me.  Don't you love little surprise packages in the mail!  She also sent me a page from an old issue of Patchwork & Stitching Magazine, which featured a letter from me with two photos of projects I had made from P & S mags.  I remember emailing them, but never knew they had published it!

Japanese Cranes quilt finished.

Can't believe it is nearly a month since I've posted anything here!  Probably because I haven't had much to post, but I have been busy.  Sorting out my late friend's linens took a long, long time, and I have given some of them to her other friend to distribute to mutual friends.  I still have two boxes to sort out which ones I want to keep, and think about what to do with the rest.  A call to the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre resulted in a lukewarm response, but I guess they didn't know what to make of my call.  So I've decided that I will just go ahead and make a doiley quilt, and when it is finished, I'll take it in there and ask if they would like to keep it to display, or raffle it to raise funds.

In the meantime, I've been working on my Cranes quilt.  I got the attic windows effect done, and planned to hand quilt each section, stitching the outline of the cranes and the landscape.  I bought the special quilting hoop, put one corner of the quilt in, and started stitching.  After about 20 minutes and 8 inches of stitching, I decided this was not for me!  My neck and back hurt, and the thought of doing the whole quilt did my head in :-(  

So I removed it from the hoop, threaded up the machine, and an hour later, all done.  I only stitched along the landscape borders, and left the cranes alone.  This quilt is not for show, it is just for my own satisfaction, and the Quilt Police will not be inspecting it, lol!

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The back is some fabric that I had in  my stash.

Time for sharing.

Today I spoke to the husband of my late friend D.  He said he has another box of her linens for me, and asked if I had been through the first three boxes.  I told him that I had sorted, washed and pressed all the items in those boxes, and they are ready to be shared with D's friends.  After that, I plan to make a quilt using some of the linens, and donate it to the Olivia Newton-John Cancer clinic in memory of  D, and he thought that was a lovely idea.  But I have to call them first to make sure they would welcome something like that, as they may already have a lot of quilts and such donated to them, and would not like any more at the moment.  Anyway I will ask

One of D's friends - J, came over here with her husband B. today.  J and I went through the linens, while Ken and B talked about their respective sound and hi fi systems.  They had only met briefly in the past, and I was pleased that Ken enjoyed B's company, as it can be tricky when you introduce your friends' partners to your spouse, and cross your fingers that they will find something in common!  J. took a bag of linens home with her to share with her friends who knew D, but it didn't make much of a dent in the pile!  So I will go through them again and put aside the ones I want to keep.  In the next day or so I'll call the Austin Hospital about making a quilt, and once I've got that sorted, I'll start distributing the remainder among interested friends.  I'll probably post photos here like I've done before, as I was happy to see so much go to people who would use them in some way.

Christmas in July/August at the Quilt Shop.

Alison and Sharon (owners of the Quilt Shop in Eltham) organised a lovely day for the regular Friday morning girls today.  Instead of us being there from 10 am to noon, they made today a Christmas In July event, from 10 am to 3 pm.  (it would have been July, but they ran out of time due to other commitments, so it was August instead).  They made up a dozen different Xmas craft kits for us to choose from a few weeks ago, and when we arrived this morning, our chosen kit was ready for us.  We took our own lunches, but Alison and Sharon provided morning and afternoon teas.  It was a cold rainy day, but inside the Quilt Shop a dozen women had a lovely time, stitching, eating, and laughing.  I don't think they had many other customers this afternoon, so it must have made their day to have us there to talk to!

I chose this project - everything was supplied in a kit, but anyone could do it with an assortment of green and red buttons.  I got mine finished by 3 pm, so I had something to show Ken when he picked me up!

Using Batik fabrics.

The girls at the Eltham Quilt Shop have been both amused and puzzled by me snapping up most of the Batik sample fabrics that are put out for sale by the managers.  The samples are given to quilt shops by the fabric wholesalers to choose from when ordering, and our shop sells them on to their customers for 50cents a piece, a real bargain when some of them are as big as fat quarters!  I don't know why the others leave the batiks behind, because there are so many things you can do with them.  You only have to look at Pinterest for a start, to get plenty of inspiration.  Below is my first batik project, partly inspired by Linda Steele's prize winning seascape wall hanging, and partly by a tutorial I found on You Tube.
I cut the fabrics into strips that are a bit wider at one end, to give a bit of interest to the panel, rather than all being the same width.  Machine stitched them on to a piece of stiff interfacing.

 Trimmed the sides, and started looking for some bits and pieces to embellish it.  I used freezer paper to draw the seaweed, then cut it out from another piece of batik.  I fussy cut fish from other fabrics in my stash, and found some small shells with holes drilled in them.  A friend gave them to me years ago, and they have been sitting in my stash waiting for the right project!  I haven't attached anything to the background yet; I like to sit on something for a while, show it to friends, and see if there is anything I can add, remove, or modify.  Do tell me if you have any suggestions!

Small table runner for a musical friend, and some teacup coasters.

I spend  waste far too much time on Pinterest and other links, because when it all boils down, I'm just looking and not doing!  But some things are so cute and quick, it is fun to have a go.  I found the link to these teacup coasters on the Down To Earth forum, and rushed off to make them immediately.  They looked very simple.  But I didn't stop to think about the size of the cup template, and botched my first attempt:

So the next day I tried again:

Oh...they don't actually look much different in those photos, do they?!  But none of them are as pretty as the originals on Stephanie's blog ( I will get the link later on and post it here if anyone is interested).

The table runner is for a friend who is a music teacher.  She doesn't know this is coming, so I'm hoping she isn't reading my blog regularly!

And that is just about the last of that piano keys fabric.  I bought a metre of it at a craft fair a year or so ago, and made very good use of it.

My pick of the doilies

There are over 100 doilies of varying sizes in the linens given to me, and I have had to select just a few to keep, because I already have so many, and don't want to keep items that I have no use for.  Although having said that, I have often thought about making a quilt or throw, using doilies, and perhaps my late friend's husband might like something made up with them, although she didn't stitch any herself, so it wouldn't have the same meaning for him.  I will ask him anyway.