Friday, December 13, 2013

I'm always 'down' for a good fart!

For those of you who know me, my subject choice is a very scary title, but if you want to know what I mean this time, click HERE and check the list out.

I definately have a 'sable' but am always up for a 'fart' but so far I haven't made many 'wombats' how about you???  Which of the acronyms can you relate to?  Or do you have some to share that aren't on that list?  I'd love to see them

Talking of acronyms...in one of the groups I'm in, one of the lovely 'mature' quilters said she'd just found out what "WTF?" stood for, and was mortified....for ages she'd been using it....thinking it stood for "WOW, that's fantastic" lmao....I can imagine the face of her grandchildren on showing her their latest school project, and her happily exclaiming "WTF" lol

On that note, I'm outta here for now, but before I do, here's a cute owl project that you can make for yourself, Carla at The Scientific Seamstress shares a pdf download for how to make them.  I'm going to make some up...and they'll be available for purchase if you can't sew, don't have the time or can't be bothered making them yourself....keep 'em peeled for the link to when my new online shop is officially launched.  Click on the photo below to go grab the pdf from Carla's blog.

http://scientificseamstress.blogspot.ca/2013/12/owls-for-all-group-sewing-project-for.html


Saturday, November 30, 2013

Hero Uniform transformation

A while ago, I pleaded with an 'Army' friend, to part with a couple of his old Army shirts so I could make an Army bag out of it....such as the military bags you see in the U.S.A  After a little coaxing, and the promise that he could have one of the bags to give to someone as a gift, so long as I got to keep one for me....he relented and sent me 2 shirts.

I've sat and deliberated over them for a couple (maybe it's a few!) weeks, trying to pluck up the courage to cut into at least one of the bags....Yesterday became the do or die day....and I hacked and sewed and designed on the fly.....here's the fruits of my labours.

This is the shirt in it's uncut state.

In case you're wondering, I've smudged out his name badge, to protect his identity...but on the actual bag, the name shows up....I just don't think I should be brandishing his name about in cyber space....but around South Australia on my bag, it'll be fine lol

Then, after holding my tongue to the west and the scissors to the east, and with a snip snip here and a snip snip there, I had gone too far to stop.

I managed to get a fairly decent size tote/shoulder bag, a zippered pouch and a coin purse/phone holder out of the one shirt...you beauty...that means there'll be enough for me to make me a decent sized bag, and maybe a coin purse like the one pictured below.





I removed the Aussie logo off the sleeve and sewed it (yes, I must've had my eyes crossed when I lined it up for middle....I should've used a tape measure huh?) onto the panel for the zippered pouch.







So, there you have it, bag one.....bag two to follow soon-ish....as I have 2 baby bags to make ASAP and also some Christmas Pressies I hope to achieve, along with the binding on a very special Aussie Hero Quilt for one of the girls at my quilting groups son....who we get to present it to him on 18th December.  Hopefully I'll be able to share pics of him with his quilt...will let you know.  Till next time...happy sewing.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Rememberance Day 2013

Today it is Remembrance Day, a time to reflect on 'heroes' of World War I.  At 11am on the 11th November, we have a minutes silence because  at 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years continuous warfare.  A short while ago, I spied the pic below on my friends' Facebook page and thought I would share it here, for those of my friends who don't do Facebook.
Lest we forget



Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Grab your 2014 Owl Calender

Some really nice options for next years calender...don't delay, grab yourself your free downloadable 2014 Owl Calender by clicking on the pic below

Owl Lover 2014 Calendar

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Recent works, a mini tutorial & new hair colour

Just in case you thought I was having another hiatus in the craft department, then you'd have thought wrong....I have a few finishes, but can only show you two at the moment, until the others arrive to their destination.

First up is a tablerunner top...not technically a finish, but it's a 'hope to be finished soon' kinda deal lol

Quick and easy tablerunner....4 solid corner squares and the rest is all hst's...it doesn't all have to be one colour for the patterned bits....you could do two colours and a solid background colour and also use hst's on the corners, but face them dark side to the corners....even a scrappy one would look good.  To make it, work out what size you want the finished squares to be and add half an inch....so I started with 5 & 1/2" squares, made my hst's and trimmed them to 5".  Sew them together in rows, alternating the way the seams are pressed on each row, so they nestle together and play nicely lol  Then sew the rows together....and tah dah a tablerunner that's quick, easy and effective looking.  Back and batt it and then quilt it as desired, bind it and you're all done (labelling is an optional extra), pat yourself on the back.

Next is a birthday block for one of the 'gals' at the quilting group I attend....her birthday was a while back, but with her being away, and then me being away, I haven't had the chance to give it to her.....but here's the block (2nd one, I misplaced the first one!) I made for Heather B, who wanted teddy bears on black.

Later on in the year, once the last gal has her block, I'll post a photo of all the blocks I made this year....next year I think I'll try and get some of the girls interested in doing a squishy fq swap for birthdays....I have enough quilt blocks from swaps to keep me busy next year, without adding another quilt full lol

Lastly, today I went to my friend Carols place, and she foiled me...well, not me exactly, she did foils on my hair....so I went with this hair colour....

And came home this colour.....

Think I need eye surgery....my eyes are uneven lol  Think it was all those years of wearing my long hair plaited over to one side of my head....will try and find a pic of it one day, so you can see why I think it's my hairs fault that I have wonky eyes lol

Till next time

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Pricing - how much would you pay?

This is a bit of a strange post, even for me....but having spied a couple of sites recently who don't charge for their patterns, instead they have a tip jar (how cool....sounds way more fun than a contribute or donate button right? Although the standard button from paypal is Donate still) then today, googling for something, I happened across a very cute to hoot Halloween quilt pattern, which is available for purchase here

The above is the quilt in discussion here...it is/was a BOM, but now you can buy the pattern....whoop whoop, so off I toodled to the above site.....AND then, I saw the price......$78.00 for one quilt pattern....seriously?  I could possibly, would probably consider buying it if it were about $20 or even $25 but almost $80...sorry, but I just don't get it...if only I could draw and come up with something similar....but I struggle to even draw a straight line...with a ruler....well ok, I'm not quite that bad, but almost!
Don't get me wrong, I understand that a designer should get some sort of reward for their talent and skill, but if 100 people bought that pattern...that's a healthy down payment on a new car, for just one pattern in a designers line....you can't tell me that ALL designers are making this kind of money...surely?  I know I'm coming  across as a whiney tight arse grinch, but it just grates at me, how much money people want to make on one item all the time.

So, as the title of this post says...how much would you pay for a pattern that you really really like?  How much is the most you've paid for a pattern, and have you used that pattern yet?

Thank you to Angela, who is the main 'culprit' for having great write ups on her blog about reverse engineering, copyright and how she's a 'Copy Leftist'

Saturday, September 21, 2013

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.

Friday, September 20, 2013

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

Thursday, September 19, 2013

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*






Saturday, September 7, 2013

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