Day off = Sewing Day!!!
I did nearly three hours work at Breakfast club this morning (invoices & accounts after the kids had gone) but now I'm free until tomorrow morning - yippee!!!
I got stage 4 done on the Stay At Home Robin I'm doing with Kate (click here to see others', and the instructions)
and I've nearly finished a felt castle for India. Can you recognise which castle it's meant to be?
Once it has some windows on the castle walls, and a flag pole to support the flag, it can go in the post to Australia. She might be old enough to appreciate it!
I'm going to make a blue car felt postcard for Marley, but he's just a likely to eat it as appreciate it!
I got stage 4 done on the Stay At Home Robin I'm doing with Kate (click here to see others', and the instructions)
and I've nearly finished a felt castle for India. Can you recognise which castle it's meant to be?
Once it has some windows on the castle walls, and a flag pole to support the flag, it can go in the post to Australia. She might be old enough to appreciate it!
I'm going to make a blue car felt postcard for Marley, but he's just a likely to eat it as appreciate it!
I love a day off - I can get so much achieved without having to rush back to school!!!
Lisa has come home for the weekend, so I've been to to Terminal 5 to pick her up, and I did stop sewing to have a chat with her, but she's gone out now, so I did a bit of tidying in the sewing room - and I came across two orphan blocks ... one from Henry's tessellated quilt,
and one from Lisa's pink Skinny Insert quilt. Waste not, want not... so I have started two additional Robins using the orphans as the starting blocks
Lisa has come home for the weekend, so I've been to to Terminal 5 to pick her up, and I did stop sewing to have a chat with her, but she's gone out now, so I did a bit of tidying in the sewing room - and I came across two orphan blocks ... one from Henry's tessellated quilt,
and one from Lisa's pink Skinny Insert quilt. Waste not, want not... so I have started two additional Robins using the orphans as the starting blocks
Denim Weave
I have seen a fair number of examples of denim weaving in blogland: Spirit cloth and Beates fabric Art amongst others, and wanted to have a go.
At the same time I was wondering what to offer my class at the library for the 3rd lesson, as I wanted to have at least a work-in-progress to take next week.
Then Niki gave me a pair of past-it jeans for my collection and I knew what I wanted to do. My library class is restricted in that I cant ask the students to take their sewing machines, but I really wanted to teach them simple patchwork ... so we are going to weave a patchwork instead!!!
My plan is that those who cant machine stitch theirs at home can use buttons to hold the strips (the weft and the warp?) together. Once the outer lines are firmly joined (by hand, machine or buttons) other squares can be joined ("quilted") randomly just to keep it in shape. Too many holes for a baby's quilt, but fun for a teenager I think!
I'm leaning towards red buttons for mine - I LOVE denim and red together. One of my girls had a denim dress with red hearts when they were little, and it seems the perfect combination.
(I used it before on Jess's 18th birthday quilt)
The downside of this idea is the the dust created by ripping the jeans into appx 2 inch strips - probably should have done this in the garden in the summer!
At the same time I was wondering what to offer my class at the library for the 3rd lesson, as I wanted to have at least a work-in-progress to take next week.
Then Niki gave me a pair of past-it jeans for my collection and I knew what I wanted to do. My library class is restricted in that I cant ask the students to take their sewing machines, but I really wanted to teach them simple patchwork ... so we are going to weave a patchwork instead!!!
My plan is that those who cant machine stitch theirs at home can use buttons to hold the strips (the weft and the warp?) together. Once the outer lines are firmly joined (by hand, machine or buttons) other squares can be joined ("quilted") randomly just to keep it in shape. Too many holes for a baby's quilt, but fun for a teenager I think!
I'm leaning towards red buttons for mine - I LOVE denim and red together. One of my girls had a denim dress with red hearts when they were little, and it seems the perfect combination.
(I used it before on Jess's 18th birthday quilt)
The downside of this idea is the the dust created by ripping the jeans into appx 2 inch strips - probably should have done this in the garden in the summer!
Blocks for Another Christmas Quilt
How's this for multi-crafting - under the guise of testing my stroppy big embroidery machine ... I have created an embroidery design that makes quick scrappy applique Christmas tree blocks
And they are really quick as , with careful fabric placement, I don't need to do any trimming until I have finished the tree
(I know it looks messy, but wait for the next photo...)
- so with two hoops I can be stitching one and trimming another, or I might gather a whole load and trim them in front of the TV.
I love the style of the trees, and it is using up all the leftovers from the fabrics that were swapped for BQL badges but not needed for the Christmas Candle blocks
lots of shopping :-)
We went to the Mall today - and shopped and shopped and shopped :-)
From top left:
- 4 muted fabrics for a rail fence quilt, and the yellow in the same range. I didn't choose the brown at first, but the yellow didn't blend too well, so i added the brown, and will use the yellow as the border
- pack of 5 spotted fabrics
- two packs of 5 Fat Quarters - usually each FQ is a couple of pounds - but each pack was $7!!!
- lots of cream and neutral textures for Hilary's tactile quilt
- More fancy buttons - I must start using them!!!
- And in the middle - fabric flowers that I've been searching for since Festival of Quilts. Jackie if you are reading this I will send you some :-)
And for Lizzy - $60: red zippy hoodie, turquoise long sleeved hoodie T shirt and grey t-shirt - hope they are ok!
Oh and we went in the new mini, with the top down!!!
An Art Gallery, and more shopping!!!
We popped into the local art gallery where Step Mum has some painting exhibited, it was great to see her name outside headlining the exhibition
She mostly works in abstracts
but does some people too
After that we went to Jo-Ann's where I picked up some more fabrics
And I have been sewing too - I'm starting on the sky to go with the Christmas Log Cabin Candles quilt - so far I have hand sewn 1.5 inch dark blue squares into a strip 6 meters long , and have about another meter's worth of squares to go. These will be followed by about the same amount of medium blue squares, until hopefully there is enough to complete the sky ... then I need to do the same again in white for the snow on the ground. Will it be finished by this Christmas???
