Forgive me readers

......for I have sinned, it's been 6 days since I last posted....and with no further religious references, because I don't want to offend anyones' beliefs, I'll get into my latest post.

Here's a sneaky peek at the cushion cover I made for a swap in the Craft Forum (link in my sidebar).  Opening day is tomorrow, and I'll post again then to show you not only the full cover that I made, but also the one I received from my partner.

 Doesn't give much away does it?   LOL, oh well only one more sleep and you can see the rest of it!

 I have a very dear friend, Jenny C, who I went to Para West Adult Campus with, a few years back, and we've kept in touch, via Facebook.  Well, a couple of times now, I've managed to be on at the right time, to catch her "who'll give me $ (insert amount) for (insert photo) this fabric....both times I've scored BIG TIME, and this last time was NO exception.....I even scored the huge bucket the fabric was in....as you can see, it's overflowing...and I got all that for $10....BARGAIN CITY right?

These are all pics of the fabrics I received....most are fq or bigger, some are even 2+ metres.  I don't believe I found one useless/ugly piece of fabric in there.

 I'm happy with all of it, and if you look at the pic below, you'll see she even had some owl fabric in the mix!

Honestly, it was like emptying out a Mary Poppins Bag....the fabric was just coming and coming....lol  Love it all, so thank you Jenny xxx

I did give a piece or two to my next door stalker, Polly, but the rest has been re folded and stacked neatly back in the bucket and will be getting used as I begin to practice quilting...yes, I still haven't mastered the art of FMQ on a domestic machine.....boo hoo hoo.

I have also started a new page (up there at the top of my blog) for videos I like, and no, the closest you'll get to porn is fabric/quilting porn!  The first video I've embedded there is a great FMQ stencil video tutorial by Don Link.  Do watch it if you've been searching for an alternative to plastic stencils and/or press and seal.

I had a friend visit for the weekend, and whilst I didn't get much done in the way of sewing, I did get a frilly scarf knitted for a client/friend who saw me showing the yarn on Facebook and put an order in for one.  They are sooooo quick and easy to knit, and once I had the right needles, had it finished in no time.  I started out with a circular needle, but got fed up of wrestling with the long loopy bit, then I swapped to straight needles but as they were long, I kept getting them hooked up in the knitted dangling end of the scarf, and it was driving me nuts, yeah yeah, I know, not a very long journey!  Here's a pic of Colleen B's scarf.

It's a really crappy pic sorry, but no one wanted to model it and the only place I could think of putting it, was on the door, which just so luckily happened to have a white dressing gown that I'm supposed to be 'blinging' up for someone!  Guess as it's gotten cooler, I should think about doing that soon hey?

hasta mañana

What do you think?

Of my new blog background that is?  It took a while for me to remove the old one but I got there in the end, so am doing a happy dance here.  If you have had hassles loading my blog in the past (ie red screen taking ages to go away and owly images showing up) is this template better or worse????

Another make for April

Apparently, my next door neighbour (yes, we really do live next door to each other....our driveways are adjoining!), Sharina (aka Polly) seems to think I lead her astray when it comes to crafting, however, that's NOT always the case.  The other night (Saturday I think it was) she decided that she was having a night off from crafting here, and flew solo at her place instead.  She made herself a crochet hook holder, and she used this tutorial.  I'm not a HUGE felt fan, so tonight I decided to alter the original tutorial to suit my needs.

For starters, there's not a single bit of felt in sight.  I made the hook 'pages' double sided (although I'll need to re-work them next time....as some of them kind of got split into two mini skinny pockets when I sewed the pocket page into the outside casing.  I also added an elastic closure to keep it closed when I'm taking it on my travels (no, alas, I don't have any planned yet, but these days, a trip to Adelaide is travelling right??? lol)

 

Above shows it closed...and yes, I've already utilize the fat quarters I got from Barb in the FQ Swap the other day!  There's still a wee bit of it left, so might make myself a notebook cover and that'll fit inside the cover me thinks.

You can sort of make out the pockets on the swirly fabric, but also, inside each of the covers, there's a long pocket so I can store patterns/notes in there.  I made the middle section totally different to the felt one, and had to reverse sew the whole of that square....only once though...wasn't going to catch me out twice!  Reason I had to unpick...I'd put the pockets so that one ended up upside down and everything would've fallen out, so had to rethink the layout of them and re-do them....am happy now as they turned out ok second time around.

Already loaded with the stray hooks that were on my computer desk.

Showing off the back pocket and the back of the centre 'pages'

If you've been and had a look at the original....do you think mine is nice too????  I wish Polly had pics of hers up on her blog already, but as at 2.26am Tuesday (Sth Aussie time), she hadn't...maybe I can cajole her into doing that later today.

This Wednesday, Polly and I are off to Lake Bonney Quilting group...for our first all day session there....OMG what to take along to work on....maybe I should be doing some hexie hand work, or should I dig out a machine and maybe make something on the machine....decisions decisions decisions!

Just wondering/I hate change! & Follower giveaway/pledge

I hate change just as much as the next person, but when I tried to make a post over the weekend (Saturday night to be precise) my blog editor has automatically updated and for once, I'm not going to see if I can find how to switch it back, I'll see if I can suck it and see.....lol

On the plus side, the new editor shows your list of posts and next to it, shows you the stats of how many people are viewing your blog posts, presumably so you can keep track of which posts are more popular and which aren't.....but the surprising part for me, was how many views I get, I thought you'd all abandoned me because not many people are leaving comments.   This is where the just wondering part of the title comes into fruition....I'm wondering if there's a reason why not many are commenting anymore?  I know you're still reading, or someone is....one particular post got 198 views and only 3 comments.....if it's something I've said, then please let me know, you don't have to leave a comment, you can email me here and I'll happily listen.

I want my blog to be somewhere you look forward to seeing what crazy antic I've done now, or what pretties I've been making, not somewhere you try and avoid at all costs!  Is it because of all the 'crap' you have to do on some blogs, such as word verification?  If I haven't switched that off already, I'll try and find out how to now, just in case that's why you're not leaving comments....the only other thing I can think of, is how I've set the comments up now....I believe they open in a separate window right?  I can change back so it opens in the same window if that's what y'all want????

If it sounds like I'm a desparado, then you're kind of right....I enjoy hearing from you all, and unless I miss seeing the email, I do try and answer every comment that's left for me :)

I'm in a giving mood at the moment, so have decided to have a giveaway to celebrate getting 300 followers, and yes, I do know that I don't have that many yet, but I'm getting soooo close...only 25 to go I think.  If you feel like helping me get to the big 300, please do so, but it's not a requirement of the giveaway, just that the quicker I get there, the quicker you'll have the chance to win either a patchwork gift bag like the one I made on Saturday or a wee owl.

Just in case you want a preview of the bag, here's a pic of it again:

This is an example of the owl that will be up for grabs.



If by some chance I end up getting to 350 followers, then I'll sweeten the deal, by sending both the owl and the bag and I'll use Mr Random generator to decide on a winner (when the time comes that is).

This isn't the actual giveaway post, so please don't get carried away just yet, keep an eye on the amount of followers, and the other eye out for the giveaway post and then you can enter.

2 month swap recap

As much as I do try and be a good swapper, I get so excited when I get parcels, that I rip into them, most times without taking pics of them in their wrappings....then I show any visitors I get my new haul, sometimes I even get close to posting about them on the blog by taking pics, but mostly I leave them dotted around the craft room so that I can delight in their presence whenever I want to.....I am hoping to start breaking that bad habit, and today I'm going to recap the last couple of months of swaps I've been in....and you can share in my excitement over some great gifts.

First up (not necessarily the order I got the swap in, but the order I've located them in!) was the Let's Exchange swap.  I was partnered with Sisbabestitches (no blog as such, so I won't link her up), and boy oh boy, was I spoiled brat....if you've received any emails from me lately, you may have noticed that I have a little gizmo below my signature that, surprise surprise, has an owl done in apostrophe's etc, and check out what Sisbabestitches did with it.

 See, told you I was spoilt lol  Isn't it a fantastic idea, I'd have never have thought of making it for me, let alone anyone else!

 Then check out my "Wonderings" journal and cover...and yes, I do deserve more owl....a gal can never have too much chocolate, too many diamonds OR too many owls! Hoot Hoot

This pic is to show a close up of her stitching....so even, I can only hope one day to have mine so neat and even looking.  Thanks Sisbabestitches.

Moving along to #2 in the hall of fame, was the Mug Rug Swap hosted by Aunt Pitty Pat.  My partner was Maria from Thunder Bay in Canada.  Currently her blog is under construction, but as soon as she sends me the link, I'll update this post to show a link to it.  Look at all the goodies I got.  A mug rug, a seam ripper, a wee wallet and a snap happy pouch...check out the feather quilting on it...so jealous of anyone who can do that!

 I believe the next couple of pics are the last ones I have to share with you at the moment, and it's the Fat Quarter swap.  This month I was partnered with Barb, which was quite funny as I sent to her in the Let's Exchange Journal Cover swap and mentioned to her that I had a funny feeling we would be partnered up for the FQ swap soon, and we were! We agreed to break the rules and not send what we were supposed to, which was "Brights".  Barb has requested reds or pinks and they're going to the Post Office tomorrow.  Below is what she sent me, I requested purple and didn't she do well?  I think she did.

 In addition, we were also partners in a Bookmark swap on the Craft Forum.  Bad (read lazy) me, I've stolen a pic from Barbs blog of the bookmarks she sent me, because I don't want to get off my butt and take pics of them lol

Being that it's my favourite colour, she made me two purple bookmarks.  Thanks heaps for being such a great swap partner Barb.

If you know you've sent me swap presents this year and I haven't shown them off on my blog, please send me a 'kick up the butt' email here, reminding me and I'll make sure I put pics up.  Lastly, I just want to say another big thank you to all my 'senders' I love each and every gift I receive.

Hot Crossed 9 Patch block

Today, actually I lie, it was late last night, I re-discovered the Block Lotto Blog and found a link to the above block by Sophie.  Of course I couldn't just make the block as per the instructions, I had to try it with 5" squares and the result is a 17" block.  The outer strips on my version of the block are 2" and the black strips that make the cross part are 1 & 1/2" wide.  I had fun making it, and it was really quick and easy (and for those who are new to patchworking, the tutorial tells you which way to press the seams - which is always really helpful I reckon) so thanks Sophie for sharing the block instructions.

Sew Sew Saturday

I happened to stumble upon Karen from Sew Many Ways' blog early this evening, and she has a post about Sew Sew Saturday...I cheated a little....I was planning on sewing tonight anyway, but by commenting on her post, it meant I had a bit more incentive to finish some things, and post them!

 First up I made this cute wee patchwork gift bag, tutorial can be found here.  I decided to make mine fully patchwork, but the tutorial has instructions on how to do it with a plain back as well as how I did mine.  Doesn't really take all that long to make.  I've even made a mental note (well written actually, as I've printed the tutorial off, and have noted it on that) to keep an eye on directional fabrics!

 The following is another free tutorial, that you can find here.  Personally I think the tutorial is a bit hard to follow, but probably clear as mud for all you 'veteran' quilters....me not so much!  I ended up kind of winging it in the end....as I couldn't work out what 3/5 and 2/5 in the tutorial meant lol

For the pink I made the cuts at 5 & 1/2", adding in a 1 & 1/2" strip each time and rotated the fabric square as stated in the tutorial.  For the dark grey, I made the cuts at either 8" or was it 8 & 1/2" and used 1 & 1/4" wide strips.  Lots of getting up and down to move between the ironing board, cutting mat and the sewing machine, but went together fairly quick once I'd worked out that I was going to fly solo hee hee hee.

Close up of the centre where it looks more like it's woven.  Might try this again in multi coloured strips....would you like that?

Scotty McOwl

Ooops, I forgot in my last post to show you my latest owl.....I've recently 'designed' my own wee owls....yes they're probably similar to other owl out there, but I drew this one up from scratch, took it to the photocopying place and got the pattern enlarged....the latest one I've made is the biggest of the three sizes.



Introducing to you Scotty McOwl, with his very own sporran and red tartan fabric body. Scotty would love to come and live at your house, and for $20 (Aud) plus postage, you could make his dream come true whoo hoo!

Look what I made this evening

Some time ago, I found a tutorial on the net (yeah I know, surprise surprise...I find lots EVERY day lol) for a Fold-up Tote and today was it's turn to be made. If you'd like to make one of these yourself, click here and you will be able to follow the tutorial easily, as it's well written and has pics in case you do get stuck. Above is the bag opened out.

Above you can see one side of the bag when it's folded up.

And this is a pic of the other side of the bag, as you can see, it's cute little Kitty fabric.

The last pic shows you how thick the bag folds. It's a great size to keep in your handbag/shoulder bag for when you make any unexpected purchases, such as fabric (not that I'd ever do that lol) This one isn't lined, I'd like to have a whirl at making a similar one or two but line them, as I do prefer a lined bag personally.

I'm all set for Bingo

A while ago, you might remember I posted about playing BINGO and there was a link so that you could make your own Bingo card....did anyone else do it? I know my next door neighbour "Polly" did, because I gave her a starter square and cajoled/convinced/persuaded/forced (strike out as necessary!) her into making a bingo card so she could play too.

Here's the explanation of what my squares represent:



If you happened to make a card, don't forget to add it to the Linky here, before Saturday 22nd April, or else you'll be too late. Don't forget to have a list of what each square represents...and please, Tonya has asked that we ensure they're one word descriptions....ie it's either cat or kitten not kitty cat, puppy or dog and not puppy dog....you get the picture right?

There's heaps of great prizes.....my 'spare' buttons are at the ready to be sewn onto the squares if I'm lucky enough to mark any off.

2012 PIF....Wanna Play???

(Pic found on google images) I'm hoping some of you want to play the Pay It Forward game with me....Here are the rules:

I will send a surprise gift to the first three people to comment on this post. This gift will be made by me and I will send it sometime within the next year. Exactly when you will receive it will be a surprise (it will probably be a surprise to me too :-D).

Of course there are some rules in this game. Here it goes:

Rules:1. I will make a little something for the first 3 people that comment on this post. It will be a surprise and may arrive at any time in the next 365 days (yes, a year).

2. To sign up to receive a gift from me you must play along too. Share the giving love on your blog by promising to send a handmade goodie to the first three people that comment on your blog post.

3. You must have a blog.

4. After commenting on my post, you have to post this (or similar) on your blog to spread the love. If you haven't posted in 48 hours then the next commenter will be chosen

Would you like to play?? I'm itching to make you something special!

Edited on Friday 20th April 2012: All spots are now filled in my PIF, but maybe if you're still keen to play along, click on either of my recipients below and sign up for theirs if they've not got 3 people yet....or click on one of theirs etc etc, it could take you a while, but you might just get to meet a new friend in the process. Oh, and another thing you can do is do a Google search for Pay It Forwards in 2012.

We have a winner

I know this was to be drawn on the 31st March, but as I haven't been to bed yet, and on the other side of the planet, it's still Saturday, so I just did the draw, and Mr Random.org selected Number 5, which is Cathy. Alas my Mozilla had a hiccup and shut down just as I went to do a screen shot of the number draw, thankfully I remembered which number it was.

I have notified Cathy by email and will be passing her details onto Rana as soon as I publish this post.

I'll be posting again later today, as I have lots to show you, but had been holding off so that I didn't distract anyone from the giveaway. I'll be having another giveaway soon, as part of One World, Our Art (link in my sidebar)...which reminds me, I must go see when that's happening, so there's a nice treat for anyone participating in the expedition. Till later

Pincushion Pattern Review and a nice surprise for my readers

Back in February, I contacted Rana regarding doing a review on one of her pincushion patterns that are part of her Pincushion Of The Month programme. She accepted my offer, and it was agreed that I would do the March POM, which happens to be a Daffodil Pincushion, and as you can see from the pic above, it's a cute one.

The pattern is very well written and even though I admit that I looked at the pic on it and panicked, all my fears and panic were shoved aside as I read the instructions and managed to produce a pincushion that I love. (I've actually given mine to a friend who is a cancer survivor, seens as though Daffodils are a symbol for the Cancer Council of Sth Australia)

All up, from sorting through (read finding amongst my rather large collection of fabric) suitable fabrics, to the time I took the photo of the completed pincushion, it took 90 mins, yes, just 1 & 1/2 hours to complete this little beauty.

The image above is borrowed from Rana's pattern & Kit information page, just to show how hers look and how similar mine came out when following the pattern.

The pattern called for crushed walnut shells, but as I don't have any, mine is just stuffed with poly fill, but I don't believe that distracts at all from the pincushions overall attractiveness, right?

Following the pattern (yes I know, shock, horror and amazement that I actually do follow patterns to the letter from time to time) you will be amazed at how thorough, yet simplistic, Rana's pattern is. Given that the instructions in the pattern are so exact, that even an advanced beginner could make these and have them turn out exactly like the picture on the pattern.

I still can't believe that the pincushion was made as easily as it was...who knew I could read how to make it, and that it would look how it was supposed to!

Now onto the surprise for my readers, Rana (thank you by the way hun) has very generously offered a free pattern for one of my lucky readers, because believe me, you'll love making the Daffodil Pincushion. All you need to do is:

1. Leave a comment, it can be any comment, but it would be nice for Rana if you left a comment about the Daffodil pincushion I made.
2. Make sure I have a way to contact you, as Rana will organise to get the pattern to you direct. If I can't contact you, then I can't provide contact details to Rana. If you don't leave a way of being contacted, I will just do the draw again until I find someone who I'm able to contact.

I'll use Mr Random.org to pick the lucky winner on March 31st, 2012 and announce the winner on here and also via email directly to the winner. Good luck You don't have to, but if you'd like to share the giveaway either on your blog, Facebook or Twitter, that would be really swell, thanks.

If you aren't lucky enough to win a copy of the pattern, they are available here, also available are kits which include enough to make 2 pincushions...how cool is that?

Swap Reveal & Show 'n' Tell

Recently I entered a Notebook/Journal Cover swap here...and tonight I got confirmation that my partner has received her cover, so I can share pics of it.....I did actually buy a pattern similar to the one I made, but alas, the person I got it from is away for a few more days, so it wouldn't have arrived in time for the deadline, so I cut and sewed the BG Notebook cover. I've written down the measurements, so it'll be interesting to see how close to the mark my measurements were hey?

This is the front of the notebook/journal cover. I even managed to stitch the flap in the right way round and on the correct piece when I attached the binding...do I sound pretty chuffed with myself? You betcha!

This shows how I set up the interior for Barb. She has a choice of notebooks, depending on what she's wanting to use them for....both notebooks are easily replaced, and readily available here in Australia. Glad you like it Barb.

Now for the Show & Tell part of this post.....I'm a member of a craft forum, which you too can join, by clicking here. This year, Vicki is hosting a Sampler BOM experience....so I'm participating....I've done 2 of the 6 blocks so far....one each month, but, in my defence that is all I HAVE to do, the other 2 a month are bonus ones....if I say it often enough, I'll believe it, lol

I don't think I put last months on here yet, so I'll put that one up first. This one is the Baby Bud block, and you can find the tutorial for it here.

Then with this months', the Balkan Puzzle block, which you can find the tutorial for, here. I decided to sew 1/2" away from the 'sewed on' line and cut between the two rows of stitching....thus giving me 16 hst's, which I trimmed to 2 & 1/2" HST's and played around with layouts until I found one I liked....and tah-dah...if anyone happens to know the name of the smaller block, can they please leave a comment with the name of it? Thanks.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'll have more swappy type show and tell soon, as the Easter swap parcel is on it's way to it's new owner and should arrive soon. Please leave a comment, even if it's just to say hi, it's nice to know that someone is reading my blog still!

B-I-N-G-O

I've played a couple of rounds of Quilt Bingo in the past, but this is something new.....You make your own BINGO card and supply it to Tonya before April 22nd to be eligible. If you want to find out more or sign up for it yourself, then click on the Fabric bingo card above. You will notice that there's a link for a tutorial to make your own BINGO card, but I've also put that link HERE for you. My Mum (RIP Jannyman) loved going to Bingo, and was quite lucky, so I like to play in her memory....wish me luck!

Fun and Done QAYG YouTube video

I'm not sure if this is going to work, but I have everything crossed. I love the simplicity and speed of this method and the fact that there's no hand sewing (lol) and it's all quilted and ready to be used (unless you're going to wash it that is) the minute you stitch the last stitch. Gonna have a go at making one of these....I don't have the ruler she uses, and have had a quick squizz on the net for one, but it proved too hard so I've given up and will just 'wing it' lol

Stay tuned to see how I go, as I'll post progress pics when I do try it.

My first Friday Night Sew In (March 16th)

I've been wanting to do this for a while now, but timing hasn't been right (like how I make it sound like I'm always uber busy lol?) however, this time I'll be there and will be sewing. If you want to join the others, and there's people from everywhere participating, then click on the button above to go sign up.....it's this Friday crafty guys and gals! Now I'll have to work out the time difference so I don't prematurely sew in!