Owly purchases

Hi again, remember yesterday I mentioned some owly purchases I made....well I said I'd share pics of them with you, and here I am, actually carrying through with that promise (ok, so I actually wrote the post yesterday and scheduled it to post automatically...but that's cool to do right?  I call it being constructive with my time management!)

An owl pop up laundry hamper, but I'm going to use it for the larger scraps/offcuts in my sewing area.....then when it's full, I'll take a break from sewing, get out the Go Baby! and have a blast filling up my containers below!

 Owl containers....even the lids have owls on them....gonna get me a few more of these hopefully....this size is perfect for those times when I try and get organised, and I'll keep scraps in them, but not just any scraps...these'll be in sizes, such as 3" squares etc....wish me luck!

Have a look at the cute hooks for the shower curtain...cute huh?  It's all so bright and cheerful, and the plus side was all the above cost $30 which isn't bad if you say it quick enough lol  I got all the above items from The Reject Shop.

Latest show n tell

Just recently I shared the pics of the items I made for the F-R-I-E-N-D-S Swap for Marcia (Marc - pronounced Marse for those who thought it might be pronounced Mark!) well I made her a couple more things, one was for her birthday and the other was a new tutorial I found and wanted to try!  Actually both were online tutorials, one a printed one, and one was a video one that doesn't really have a pattern, so I 'winged' it haha

So the above shows the twisted drawstring/dilly bag I made her....it's an interesting technique and I think would look great in any fabrics.

Next up, I made Marc and Terri tissue holders.....doesn't sound anything flash or anything, except I think I really, really like the shaped top on these...I've made the straight edged ones in abundance, but these are going to be one of my "go-to" projects for pressies.  I found the tutorial here.

The bottom pic shows Terri's tissue holder and she wanted me to take a pic of it with her owl pendant....so you should've seen her leaning over the cutting mat, but trying to keep her out the pic at the same time....it was very funny, especially as I didn't tell her I'd zoomed in and wouldn't have got her in the pic anyway....lol

Next up, is a couple of pincushions I made, these were a printout that someone gave to me, as she had found it online, but the printout doesn't show whose tutorial it is sorry.

In the quilting group I go to here in the Riverland, we ran a Birthday block swap this year, and whilst I've taken pics of the blocks I've made, they're all on my old pc that needs some TLC before I can access them, so here's the latest one, which was for Pat M and she wanted animal blocks, so I did her an elephant applique (it's actually a softie elephant, but I just used the shape for the applique!) and gave her the bottom pincushion in the pic above....as it has an owl on it, so she'll remember who made her the pincushion.

I've also made an owl block....it's not finished yet.....still got to stitch around the edges...but I'm trying to decide whether to reverse sew the 'tree' sections, find some more brown tone-on-tone fabric and re do the claws and tree or whether to do faux ankles in the gap I've acquired in between the feet and the bottom of the owl.....decisions decisions, but until I decide, it looks nice on my design wall.

Oh, and the need to be centralized too, as I seem to have moved on from wonky eyes....to wonky feet lol  The block is from Vol 7 of 100 Blocks Magazine.

Above are some scrappy blocks I'm putting together for Aussie Hero Quilts....they measure 8 & 1/2" and are a great way to use up relatively small scraps, or as I prefer to call them, offcuts.  I've cut more out, so I'll be making at least one quilt top out of them...coz I know Jan-Maree (although it's easier to see what she's up to by visiting the Aussie Hero blog in the link above) likes scrappy quilts....and I do too, so it's kind of a double whammy lol  I can't wait to share with you the final quilt pic....I reckon it's going to be a nice bright, cheery quilt/s.

I have some cool purchases to share with you, but I'll share them with you tomorrow, seens as though this is getting to be quite a long post...don't want to overwhelm you with pic overload today...lol

Blog Lovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I've just signed up for bloglovin to follow blogs....anyone else use it?  I know, I know, it's probably old school for some of you, but this is kind of only the 2nd time I've seen anything to do with it and now I'm a member of it.....now I've just gotta work out how in the blazes I add a widget for it lol  Wish me luck, I'm going in lol

As you can't have, or rather it's not generally the done thing, to have a post without a pic (unless you can't upload pics because of a technical hitch for instance), here's a few pics of some owl tattoos that I think are cute *smiles*

F-R-I-E-N-D-S Swap 2013 Show and Tell

As I might have mentioned, I enjoy entering Khristina's F-R-I-E-N-D-S swaps, and this year saw me being paired up with a lovely lady, Marc (Her blog can be viewed by clicking HERE), from a town 8km's away from my house....and we've had a couple of lunch dates in the last couple of weeks, and now on Saturdays, Marc is able to attend my quilting group in Barmera, so it gives her an outing on the weekends where she gets to intermingle with other 'crazy crafters', and spend some time doing uninterruptable crafting :-)

Anywhoooo, last Thursday, Marc and I met up for lunch to swap our Friends gifts....here's what I gave her (I'm saving mine to show you shortly.....you should always save the best till last).

All wrapped and ready (yes I know I already shared a pic of them, but I like how hers look lol)

So, for F, I gave her:

F - Fabric tote bag, in her favourite type of colours.  The tutorial that the bag is mostly fashioned after (I made some adjustments!) can be found here.  The pattern doesn't have an inside pocket being that it's made QAYG, and it has raw seams inside, which are a pet hate, so I lined mine, which meant I could add a pocket.

R - Runner, also done in fabric colours she likes (at least I hope she does lol)  The tutorial for the runner can be found here and a link just for the block is here.

I - Iron caddy & travel iron.....now I actually purchased a pattern to make the caddy a while back, but there's a very similar one for free here, with a pdf download near the bottom of the page.

E - (Boring and unimaginable, yet yummy at the same time!) Edibles....some choccies to give Marc sustenance when doing big quilting jobs or large stitcheries.

N - Nifty Needlecase and notions.....if you want to make yourself a needlecase like this, then click here.

D - Drinking Chocolate, Drinking Mug and Mug Bag....so Marc has her favourite hot drink to bring along to quilting or when she goes to any workshops

S - Sewing pouch made with Scissors fabric and something to keep her hands soft (ie hand cream) which I forgot to take a pic of.

For some reason, Marc felt her FRIENDS swap gifts were inadequate, and today she gave me another bag of goodies, to make up for it....even though I'd told her not to.  First here's the lovely gift ribboned box she arrived with to our swap over lunch.

I couldn't resist taking a pic of the white bit you see peeking out under the ribbon.....I'd never thought of printing off the badge/button that Khristina uses for the swap each year....good thinking Marc.

Now here's what was inside the box....all these pressies, and woo hoo, they were ALL mine *grins*

See how she even used the swap button as the tags for the pressies.......so clever...guess who'll be stealing that idea next year? lol

 F - Folder, Free patterns and Fruchocs
R - Red ribbon, rose fabrics and a Rosalie Quinlan Pattern (it's a wee ladybug bag and pincushion)
I - Inspiration Bag...check out the stitchery she did on it below this list
E - Embroideries, DMC threads (3) and a folder to keep them in
N - Notebooks all with owls on and some note keeper pegs, also with owls on
D - Drink mug with the owl & a pussycat and a matching mug rug that she stitched on it....and how cool is it that the fabric she used on the mug rug match the colours of the mug too?  (I put a close up of the stitchery she did below) also, some Dark chocolate tim tams
S - Sewing bag and snake lollies

So, am I spoilt or what?  I think so.  BUT wait, there's more....today at quilting, she rocked up and presented me with the following bag of goodies.

Some gorgeous owl fabrics in two different colour ways, two owl cards, an owl fridge magnet, a very cute owl badge she made me and a label on the bag that says (if it's too hard to read in the pic) Thank you for making me feel so special.  Marc, my new friend, you are more than welcome hunnybun.









Now, in my quest to get to know her, I actually read Marc's blog, all the way back to her first post...and I happened to notice that it's her birthday on 12th Sept, so next Friday, myself and my bestie Terri are going to one of our local golf clubs for lunch to celebrate Marc's birthday....and yes, Marc will be there too lol  I just realised that it sounded like she wasn't coming along hee hee hee

Show 'N' Tell

As I mentioned yesterday, I might have been AWOL, but I have been sewing, so today I thought I would share some brag photos of some of the things I've sewn.

The above are some of the quilt tops both myself, my bestie Terri and my next door stalker have put together for Aussie Hero Quilt recipients from BOM's sent from all over Australia, however the top one was some orphan blocks that were sent to me to use for the Aussie Hero quilts....sorry I can't remember who sent them, so thank you Ms Anonymous!

Last month it was Terri's birthday and as she and I have had a bit of a cup cake thing happening....I made her some cupcakes....the food colouring was rose pink, and I wanted darkish pink, so I added a fair bit of colouring to the frosting.....ooops, my bad, they were a nice shade of fluro pink in the end...hee hee hee, but thankfully she didn't mind!

I also made her a sign for her craft room door....I got the idea online, and when I find the tutorial again, I'll share the link with you all.  Basically you paint onto the photo frame glass, in reverse, then you put fabric behind it....and as she's now an owl lover like me I did an owl theme for her sign....can't think who would've encouraged that can you? *looking innocently around my shoulders*

I also got her a purple (both of us's favourite colour) fat quarter storage bag and an owl chest....when I went back to get me one, they'd sold out grrrrrrrrrr

Oh and I wrapped the chest up in owl fabric :-)

Next I made myself a mega card holder wallet from this tutorial.  I nearly have it filled up already, and have been using it to death....might make a couple of these for Christmas pressies.

I also made myself a matching USB stick wallet, but haven't taken pics of that yet, as I'm planning on making another and doing a tutorial for it at the same time....stay tuned.

For ages I've been wanting to make a jigsaw quilt, and whilst I was MIA, that day came....ok so it's still just a flimsy, but only until I find the right backing fabric for it...then it'll be quilted....by me!  Yep, I'm getting the hang of this quilting lark lol  (Necessity or rather poverty is a great motivator!)

I'll post another pic when it's finished...the pieces should stand out more then.
Till next time, keep smilin' and stitchin'