FABULOUSLY FUN FABRIC FROLIC

Try saying that heading fast 3 times! A great time was had on the yearly fabric frolic with one of my patchwork group's yesterday. A small bus load of intrepid travellers made our way to all the shops who were part of the Fabric Frolic and we had so much fun. This year I made a list of specific things I was looking for and managed to tick most things off the list. Some more 1800s repro fabrics.

Fabrics for the Gail Pan's Meadowlark quilt that I bought the pattern for at the Christmas Gathering back in November last year. Yes, I planning to start it this month.

A couple of years ago I completed all the stitcheries for Annie Downs' " A Gardener's Journal" but they have been sitting in a box with a heap of other stitcheries waiting to be pieced into actual quilts. With this in mind I decided to buy some fabrics that may be suitable to start  piecing that quilt  and bought these for auditioning.

  

 

 

I couldn't resist this gorgeous cat panel. I have visions of simply adding a small border, sandwiching it and then doing some  hand quilting around the pictures.

 

All the participating shops were very generous with great discounts and some freebies.

I found this cute pattern, ( as if I need another one) and thought the swatch thingies would be a great idea for me instead of carrying around  small bits of fabric in little zip lock bags .

The highlight of my day was having lunch at the very very crowded Patchwork Teahouse up  in beautiful Warburton. 2 large busloads arrived after us and they had also booked for lunch there. Chaos, but organised chaos. And look what I found! You know I collect owls and also collect thimbles ( as well as many other things) , well this was perfect.

AN OWL THIMBLE!!! Da da!!

 Another pair of embroidery scissors. One can never have too many pairs of scissors.  And a very cute owl scissor fob which was made by a 14 year old local girl up in Warburton. ( well, that's what the lady at the Patchwork Teahouse told me). While we were there the lovely Libby Richardson was sitting painting her stitchery bears and she made it look so easy. Classes are going to be there this year again if you are interested. Sorry, no pics.

Well, I think I had best let you rest your eyes now and cease overloading you with all these pics.

Thanks for stopping by again. Angel Blessings.

CLEVER AND ADDICTIVE

I am so thrilled to have gone to a skill share workshop on Saturday at one of my patchwork groups. It was to make a stained glass iris wallhanging and it is an uusual way of putting the whole thing together. Basically you have a background fabric and then you iron the pieces on with fusible webbing and then iron fusible bias strips around all the pieces. Even the border is fused to the background! I haven't got that far yet but here is a peek of what I did achieve on the day.

There is no need to worry about placing pieces beneath other pieces until you get to the bias strips. Fantastic idea! Can you tell I am excited about finishing this?

Some of you know from a a couple of previous posts long ago that I collect souvenir thimbles from all over the country and overseas. They seem rather hard to come by these days, infact I live in a big tourist area and we don't have them. Shot glasses seem to be more popular! Although I have never had the opportunity to travel overseas I have had some lovely people bring me back thimbles from their travels and I now have quite a collection. Here are 2 new additions from England that a neighbour of my parents gave to me recently. Thankyou so much Margaret.

Sorry, a bit blurry. But you get the idea.

I have now almost finished the items for the  Initial Heart Swap and just need to add some finishing touches and a couple of other little things then I can wrap it all up ready to post on the 1st of February. Here is a little glimpse as I can't show you much because the recipient could be you.

It is actually my own design as I couldn't find what I was looking for.  Remember the crocheted baby blanket for the Womens Refuge? It is finished.

I enjoyed making it so much that I have started another one.

Thankyou Barb for assisting me with verbal instructions for the border via a phone call. I am fairly new to crocheting so Barb has been a bit of a mentor.

Now, back to stitching the label for my Henrietta Whiskers quilt that needs the binding sewn on and then I can show it to you.

Angel Blessings.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I hope you have all welcomed the new year with an abundance of good health, love and happiness, not to mention lots of yummy stitching projects to do. I have taken the plunge and already joined a swap as you can see on the right hand side bar. I have made a start on it and plan to have it done with heaps of time left before it needs to be posted to my mystery swap partner. Could it be you? Meanwhile, I have been crocheting a baby blanket for the Women's Refuge, a good start to my year of making things for charity.

I am fairly new at crochet and have attempted a ripple blanket for the first time with the help of a tutorial and some input from Barb. Here is a closer look.

 

 

Do you like a magazine called "Quilt Mania" ? They have a sisiter magazine called " Simply Vintage" which has just been released in English and I was lucky enough to find it at a local newagency. This was an Autumn issue and it has so many projects in it I want to do.

 

I have read a few books during the past few weeks. As you can see my genres include fiction, non fiction and biographies.

This month I am  focusing on finishing things off such as putting sleeves on the little civil war reproduction quilts , sewing the buttons and binding on Henrietta Whiskers quilt, finishing all the appliques for the Crazy Cats quilt  and doing the Initial Heart swap . Maybe I shall knit a couple of facewashers and crochet another baby blanket for charity between all this.  Well, you know what it is like, gotta keep the fingers working.

Angel Blessings

ALL PRESSIES DONE

Hooray! I have just come out from my sewing room and wrapped the final 2 pressies which are little purses for the vouchers I am giving my 2 girls for Christmas. Being adults they are rather pleased to just receive vouchers or money so that makes my life easy. I always include a couple of little extras as well. So, here are the 2 purses. My eldest loves cats and the other loves Pandas.

After a cuppa I am back in the sewing room making myself a cover for my tablet.

For some reason beyond my blogging  intelligence the date is actually showing as the day before I post. So, this post is done Christmas Eve. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas with an abundance of all good things to come in the New Year. Many angel hugs and blessings to you all.

LAST MINUTE SEWING

Whew! I have just spent the last couple of hours in the sewing room making mum a little draw string bag she bought the pattern for at one of the craft shows this year. It has been sitting amongst all my other "to do" projects so I decided I would get it done to slip in with mum's Christmas gifts. All was going well until I had to make the gumleaf that hangs down on one side of the bag. It was so thin to turn the right side out! I nearly turned myself inside out doing it. Perseverence paid off with the help of some tweezers so here it is.

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When I get a bit tired of stitching I pick up my knitting. I have made 4 more face washers for charity. I like to keep a stash ready for when needed.

Another stitchery block for  the "Once Upon A Time" quilt is finished. This one is Jack and the Beanstalk.

Tomorrow I have 2 little purses to make to hold gift cards for both my daughters. Will I have time to make myself a cover for my new Samsung Galaxy 3 Tablet that Santa brought early???? Yooohoooo!!! Elves, where are you?

Angel Blessings.

GIVING

I don't know about you but I really enjoy making gifts for people and certainly enjoy receiving hand made gifts myself. When one is a crafter one appreciates the time, energy and love that goes into such gifts. Now that Barb and Vicki have both received their gifts from me I can show them to you.

The one on the left was for Vicki and the other was for Barb. They were a bit out of my comfort zone to make as they have spring closures on them and are also little bags. I have great problems making lined bags and tend to avoid making them for myself despite loving the array of beautiful quilted bags out there to make. I also made a little hanging of a snowman for Barb as she loves snowmen.

Some of you may recognise the stitchery from Gail Pan's Christmas book. Well, until my next post many Angel Blessings to you all and thanks for visiting.

A GIFT

A beautiful forum friend of many years sent me a Christmas pressie that I received today. Vicki and I have always exchanged homemade birthday and Christmas gifts as have Barb and I. Infact, Barb and Vicki have been my forum and bloggy friends around the same amount of time. We have been fortunate enough to meet a few times too. Here is the beautiful table topper that Vicki has made for me.

I particularly love those fabrics and the design. I made pressies for Barb and Vicki but Barb hasn't received hers yet so I can't show them to you until she lets me know that she has opened hers. I do have 2 more stitcheries to show you. "Rapunzel" and "The Princess and the Pea."

It is very hot here today but I have been doing a little stitching. I hope you are not all melting with heat. Until next time Angel Blessings to you all.