Storage of fiddly bits, and making bunting.

The storage of fiddly bits first:
Lyn over at Moore Patchwork was bemoaning the state of her ric rac collection - all tangled up in a box.  I suggested she sort it out and wind each length around pieces of cardboard, and she was most grateful.  Here is what mine looks like now.  I keep them in one of those plastic containers that you store frozen pastry sheet in - I bought mine at Coles a few years ago.

The lace is another story.  There is far too much of that to put in the same container, although I do wind the lengths around cardboard sheets.  But they are all in a plastic pack thing that I bought in a mail order catalogue. They are meant for storing clothes, but of course you can use them for anything you like, and I have many of them, filled with fabrics, magazines and other stuff.  Too much STUFF, that's my problem..

Now - the bunting.  I've never really been into bunting, but I've noticed that a lot of craft magazines and website are talking about it lately.  When I saw a tutorial on here yesterday, I thought it looked like a fun thing to do before I start my next 'serious' project.  Actually, finishing a project is more like it - I still have to embellish my April CQ block for CQJP2012.   But I needed something sort of mindless before I tackled that, so here is my very first attempt at Bunting!

The tutorial specifed bias binding 25mm wide, and the blue was all I had in that width.  The fabrics I used are batiks left over from the quilt tops I've been making.

Quilt top and CQ block.

Today I finished a single bed quilt cover for Oz Comfort Quilts, and will be posting it to Jan Mac early next week (after I've shown MIL - she loves to see my work). I rather like this one, and I can understand why so many quilters are reluctant to part with their finished projects. But I've got nowhere to keep excess quilts, and I'd rather them to go someone who has a genuine need for a warm rug or quilt in our coming winter months.

I also made up my block for the April CQJP - my theme this month is Autumn. It was hard to select just a few ties from my stash, as there were so many with those Autumn colours.

I had a small furry friend keeping me company under the desk while I was working. He probably tucked himself under there to get out of the way of my feet while I was feeling around for the sewing machine pedal!

More opshop finds.

Today I cruised the opshops in High Street Kew with a friend, and was rewarded with these lovely cloths - art deco style supper cloth with four matching napkins - $7.

Sweet white cotton cloth with unusual two toned blue stitching - $6

Exquisitely stitched tray cloth, $4.

I think I've done enough tea cosies for the Bundoora Tea Cosy Festival next month. In addition to the three patchwork cosies that I have already posted photos of here, I finished these off over the last day or so. I received such good feedback from people over the first Tartan cosy that I decided to make two more. It will be interesting to see if anyone buys them on the day. I had already posted a pic of the herbs fabric cosy, but I added a row of ric rac and some buttons to tizzy it up a bit. The yellow ric rac doesn't show up very well I know, but all the green ric racs I had were the wrong shade of green for this fabric.

New additions to my collection.

I found these doilies at various opshops last week, mostly about $1 each.

Quilt top in the making.

I've been making the blocks for this quilt top for the past week or so, and today I started pinning them together. With a bit of luck I'll have it finished early next week and will be able to send it off to Jan at Oz Comfort Quilts.

The camera doesn't capture the colour very well; yes it is blue and brown, but the batik fabric is brighter than it looks here. The brown solids are all from the same piece of fabric, so they are all one shade of brown, not different as in the photo.

New table cloth for the collection.

I found this beautiful cloth at the Salvos in Malvern today, for $15. It's been a while since I bought any linen, so I indulged myself. Hand embroidered of course, with a machine made crochet edge.

This was in the same opshop last week for $5, hung up with the skirts - probably because it is supposed to be a batik sarong. But I loved the fabric, and plan to use it for something else...I've accumulated a fair bit of batik, but other than cutting it up for quilt tops, there must be something else I can made (other than clothes). Anybody got some ideas?

Tiny boxes.

Remember that pile of inchies I made a few weeks ago? Another idea in the Inchie book was to make tiny little boxes. I like tiny things, so this project was right down my alley.

This is the box before I added anything.

I have added a ribbon loop and a green button, and although you can't see it in the pic, there is a little Easter egg in there. I'm going to make another box and egg, and give them to our niece's daughters on Sunday. At 8 and 5 years old, they also love tiny things!

Two more tea cosies.

I finished making two more tea cosies last night. I've been attaching little tea pot buttons to the previous cosies, but haven't got any more left, and I feel that the tartan cosy needs something else. Do you think the Scotch thistle adds something to it, or should I leave it off?
The other cosy looks okay as it is because the pattern is very 'busy'. What do you think about that?

Exhibition of vintage Australian samplers.

Today, Yarra Ranges Regional Museum opened a new exhibition titled "Practice Makes Perfect".  I was invited to the opening because I had lent some of my vintage linens to be shown, and I asked Sharon to join me, as she is one of the few people that I knew would truly appreciate the show.  It is a display of Australian samplers dating from 1850 to the present, some of them never seen in public before.  I took numerous photos, and have posted some of them on my Needlecraft shows blog here

The exhibition is on from 31st March to Sunday 24th June and the museum is free.  It is open six days a week (closed Mondays).  The link to their website above will give you more information.  If you have any interest at all in embroidery, this is a must-see exhibition, as the vintage samplers are fascinating, and the work of embroiderers today is absolutely stunning.

Truckload of fabric - FREE!

When people decide they have had enough of a hobby, there is usually a pile of un-used stash or half finished projects to be disposed of. Particularly so with those who sew or knit - fabric, cottons, wool are out the door! I have been the lucky recipient of several such destashing events, but yesterday topped the lot.

One of the blogs I post comments on is the Melbourne Op shop blog, where I and others write about what we find at opshops, and where those shops are in case the blog readers want to go there. One of the other opshop blog girls emailed me last week to say that her mother used to sew a lot of clothes, furnishings, etc. but has had enough, and there was a heap of material to be thrown out - did I want it? What a silly question! But I didn't say that; instead I replied that I would be delighted to take it off her hands.

So, yesterday afternoon a car pulled up outside our house, and a young woman removed several bags from her car and dragged them up our driveway. I rushed down to help her, as they were obviously heavy. We got them inside, and sat down with a cuppa to talk about opshops and crafts. Jess isn't into crafty stuff at all, otherwise she probably would have kept her Mum's stash. But she didn't want it, so here is what I ended up with:

Tartans, some brushed cotton.

Soft furnishing fabrics

Variety of dress materials, batik, and patchwork fabric.  Below are the smaller pieces.  Everything else is yardage, mostly 3 metres or more. 

I am so excited with all those tartans/plaids!  I know exactly what I am going to do with them - some will be used to make quilt tops for Jan's Oz Comfort Quilts, as she said once that they don't get enough to suit boys and men.  These plaids should keep the blokes happy!

I've been itching to have a go at this cute chooks quilt made with plaids, now I have the fabric to do it...when time allows, lol!

There was actually more fabric - another bag full, but I gave it to a friend today after showing her the whole lot.  K. has a small son and is expecting another baby soon.  She makes clothes, dolls, and a lot of the furnishings for their home, curtains, cushions, etc. so she greatly appreciated the bag of mostly furnishing fabric that I didn't want for myself.  I'd rather give it to someone who will definitely use it, than to the opshop or someone who might just add it to their stash and it never sees the light of day again.  Of course I have way too much in my own stash, but I have plans for most of it, and I periodically cull it to keep the pile under control.

Quilt top started

Jan over at Oz Comfort Quilts needs 35 quilts for abused children. As soon as I found out how big they needed to be, I started cutting and piecing some blocks from the Batik fabric I found at the opshop last week. Luckily I found some matching plain blue and brown fabrics in my stash. Now all I have to do is decide which way to place the triangle blocks.

Two more wonky blocks.

I finally had some time to myself today while Ken was messing around in the back yard. I've been wanting to make the other two wonky blocks that Leila wrote about on her blog, and I made up my mind I was going to do them today. This one called Quarter Log Cabin block.

And this is based on the standard log cabin block.

Here are my three wonky blocks. I'm pleased I had enough of these fabrics in my scrappy stash to use for all three blocks. I doubt if I'll make anything up from them. The "wonky" look doesn't really appeal to me! I guess I could make them up into a table runner if I used sashing to separate them?

March CQJP block completed

This is the third block in the CQJP challenge, and I'm pleased with the result.  My theme for this month was St Patrick's day in March, so I used as much green as possible, with a touch of orange here and there.

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For the next few weeks I will be busy working on more tea cosies, catching up with Leila's Skills samplers blocks, and preparing the CQJP block for April.
I also want to make some more mini quilts from a book on mini quilts, and I have two books from the Embroiderers Guild library that have me itching to make some of the projects in them! But there is only so much time available, so I don't know how much I'll get done. Still, it's all fun!