I Made Another One!

One of Sherri's bags that is. Rosemary was the last Material Girl to have a birthday this year.

Rosemary's 'theme' was 'something you'd like to make for yourself.' So I did! Her bag is made from Sweetwater's Mama Said Sew range of fabric.

 I really love the lining fabric ... there's something very nice about those red, black and grey flowers on the white background.

 

 Maybe after Christmas I'll find some time to make myself one. 

The next two weeks are hectic with lots of performances to either conduct or perform in. My school choirs have seven performances in seven days and I have five brass band engagements to attend too. Madness! .. so looking forward to the end of term and 6 weeks holiday.

Cherry Sundae

Block 5 of the 2012 Designer Mystery BOM from the Fat Quarter Shop is Cherry Sundae. This cute block was designed by Barb Adams and Alma Allen of Blackbird Designs.

This weekends sewing mainly fell into the 'secret' category although I did trim the edges of this quilt ...   

 

and try to decide what fabric to use for a binding. No decision yet!

 

 I also remembered to take a photo of these hexies. Have to confess I've lost count of how many of these I've actually stitched! 

I've decided that during the summer holidays my stitching time will be divided between quilting my Schnibble quilts and taking stock of all my 'works in progress'. That's the plan anyway .. wonder if I'll stick to it!

Zakka House Pouch

Currently I am besotted with linen so when it was time to make a birthday gift for Annie it had to be The House Pouch by Julia Bravo in Zakka Style.

Teamed with some Ruby by Bonnie and Camille, it made a rather cute house pouch.

I used the red and white scallop for the roof ...

 

 and spotty fabrics for the door and windows.

 The lining is another Ruby print. I had some dramas with the zip but it all worked out in the end!

Annie had requested some ric-rac so I used that between the roof and walls. 

 It was a fun little project and I'd love to make another one soon.

Joy Luck

Joy Luck is now officially a flimsy ...

and ready to join the growing pile of Schnibbles needing to be quilted. I'm thinking that might be a job for the summer holidays ... there are only six more weeks of school. Eek!

 Can you see the quilt inspector? ... he's never far away!

  

Cook, Eat Grow

I am lucky to belong to a lovely online group of stitching friends. Each time one of us has a birthday someone in the group makes them a special handmade gift. This year the theme was 'Cook, Eat and Grow' and it was my turn to make for Dawnie.

For COOK I made a pair of potholders from the book, Zakka Style. Dawnie loves Japanese fabrics and although they are very different to what I usually work with I did enjoy making these.

For EAT I included a magnetic 'eat' sign and some Tasmanian fudge produced about 25 minutes from where I live ... yum.

For GROW I made a drawstring bag based on Sherri's tutorial ...

and incorporated a Lynette Anderson garden stitchery called Secret Garden.

At the moment, I am enjoying mixing patchwork fabrics with linen ...

and will share some more examples soon.

 

Checkered Star

Yesterday I worked on Checkered Star one of two small quilt designs in Marg Low's Candy Floss pattern.

 

 

 For once I remembered to take some 'in progress' photos.

 

 

 

 Just the borders and quilting to go. This went together very quickly and was a nice change to all the 'secret' sewing I've been doing lately.

 It was great having a long weekend here in northern Tasmania. I spent most of yesterday in the sewing room working on various projects and this morning did some cutting for some others. Hope your weekend was good too.

Having a Play!

Yesterday I finished up some swap pressies. Apart from some drama with a zip (accompanied by quite a few 'rude' words), I am fairly pleased with what I have made. I would love to share but I know the recipients are regular readers so no show and tell just yet.

Today I felt like starting something new so I had a little play with some Denyse Schmidt fabrics I have been hoarding for a while. Most of them came from Spotlight except for some bits of Flea Market Fancy I purchased from the Fat Quarter Shop.

I cut a 5 inch strip from each fabric then cut them into charm squares. These are from lots of different ranges which I hope will give a scrappy but not too clashing look. 

 

I am using them to make my October Schnibble, Joy Luck. I wasn't feeling enthused about this months' choices, Hubble or Bounce which are both larger sized quilts so decided to just do my own thing. 

 

I managed to piece the 60 Chinese Coins blocks and hope to piece them into rows after work tomorrow.  

We have a Winner!

Ok, nearly a week late! BUT we have a winner. Congratulations Maree ... the Speck pattern is all yours.

Maree (like me) is a fan of French General fabrics and thought they would work well with this pattern. Thanks to everyone who entered. I enjoyed reading all your fabric suggestions ... Vintage Modern and 1930's fabrics were mentioned frequently ... and just wish I had the time to make them all. 

Lately, I've been mostly working on gifts so all I can share are block 3 and 4 of the 2012 Designer Mystery BOM from the Fat Quarter Shop. Block 3 is called Weather Vane and was designed by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson of Me and My Sister Designs.

Block 4 is called Breezy Afternoon and was designed by Aneela Hooey of Comfort Stitching. 

I love receiving these blocks in the mail each month. This years blocks seem a lot less complicated than last years and go together really quickly. Have a great week.

A Big Speck and a Little Giveaway

Once again I missed the A Year of  Schnibbles parade ... only a week late this time ... but better late than never. This month's pattern was Speck one of the new Little Bites series. These patterns are designed to use the new Moda mini 2 1/2 " charm squares. 

I choose to cut fabrics from my stash, mostly small scale florals and patterns. There's a lot of Sweet Shoppe mixed with some Lecien Old New 30s and a few other scraps.

 The white background fabric is Pam Kitty Ping Pong (what a great name!) by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse Dry Goods and I used one of the Sweet Shoppe prints for the border.

I made my quilt larger than the pattern ... 6 blocks by 6 blocks rather than 4 x 5. I hope the quilt inspector approves!

Now to the little giveaway ... the Speck pattern .. completely new and unopened. Luckily for you I somehow ended up with two so I have one to share.

  
To enter just leave a comment on this post... you can tell me what fabrics or colours you'd like to use to make your own Speck quilt or just say hi and where you're from. I'll pick a winner randomly on Monday 15th October. 

If you'd like to see more Speck quilts go over to Sherri or Sinta's blogs to see the October parades.

Scandinavian Rose Blocks

I am really enjoying these Scandinavian Rose blocks.

There was lots of satin stitch in this one which I had to do during daylight hours.

Back to school on Monday ... where did these two weeks off go? Today I plan to have a pottering day with lots of sewing and a few household jobs. Enjoy your day whatever you do.