May and June Round Up

Some sunshine and gardening has kept me away from the sewing machine again these past two months.

Holidays - A long weekend to the Queensland Gold Coast to stay at Sea Word Resort with day trips into Sea World, WB Movie World and Wet n Wild fun parks.

Quilt - Polaroid 9 Patch. Blocks made by Quilt Club Australia Bee #1 members plus a couple of generous other bees - Waverlee and Christie.

Blocks - Dr Seuss, midcentury modern by Wombat Stew and Bee blocks.

Chooks - Two new layers, winter coats, curiosity, warm porridge, egg stashes, excavating in the gulley and pumpkin patch.

Harvest - avocados, davidson plums, mandarins, pecans, limes and oranges.

Planting - peach, pommegranate, orange, mandarin, daffodils, fresias, sweet peas, grevillias, pumpkins and sweet potato.

Weed Control - even in the cooler months there are many areas to tackle.

Down the slope with the weed eater, hand mower and sowing rye grass

Lantana in the gulley

Pruning 

Lilli Pillis

Palm Felling

Books -  I have reached my goal of reading 13 books in 2013. You can read my reviews on Goodreads. 

Sunday Stash #69

The 'Miss Freelove' Homespun Edition

Wowzers! 69 Weeks of Sunday Stash! Great numbers. I was born in the Summer of '69. 

This week I was Star Wars pattern testing for Kristy of Quiet Play - not a hardship really - but I needed some flesh coloured fabric pronto. 

So I ventured off to Spotlight and found some Prima Homespun in 'nude'. It is a slightly more pinkish than the Kona 'ice peach' that Kristy has ordered for her Star Wars blocks.

I also added some Prima 'chestnut' for his hoodie. Close to Kona 'chocolate'.

Then there are the staples of any good Bee stash - some black, white and light grey.

Hosting Sunday Stash

Thank you to the SEVEN extra bloggers who responded and signed up to host Sunday Stash last week. I so appreciate your enthusiasm. I needed to add a few extra dates to fit you all in. Here is the updated list for the remainder of 2013.

July 7th - Gemma of Pretty Bobbins
July 21st - Kristy of Quiet Play

August 4th - Amanda of What the Bobbin?
August 18th - Melissa of Ms Midge
August 25th - Heidi of Fabric Mutt

September 8th - Vera of Negligent Style
September 15th - Audrey of Hot Pink Quilts

October 6th - Emily of Sew E.T
October 20th - Foster of Foster Reviews It
October 27th - Michelle of Squeak Crafts

November 3rd - Rachael of The Floral Suitcase
November 17th - Lisa of In Port Hope

December 1st - Josh of Molli Sparkles
December 15th - Kelly of Made By Kelly
December 29th - Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts

Most Visited Last Week

And congratulations to Cynthia Brunz Designs and What the Bobbin! who were equally the MOST visited posts of the week.

Next week Sunday Stash is hosted by Gemma of 'Pretty Bobbins'.

Now it's your turn to link up your Stash reports below.

Old Ben Kenobi

Have you seen the fabulous paper pieced patterns that Kristy has been coming up with lately? Lego Star Wars! Awesome!

She called for some pattern testers. I had to laugh when I saw the title "Help Me Obi Wan Kenobi, I have no Face" linked up to her blog. It was from Snips  Snippet who was pattern testing Princess Leia.

Well sorry Snips but Obi Wan cannot help as he also has no face either!

Kristy's pattern is actually for the younger Ewan MacGregor version of Obi Wan Kenobi but I am more of a fan of the original Episode IV Obi played by Alec Guiness. 

So I had to make a few changes to his beard on the pattern (happily supervised by Kristy).

It was a little tricky to get the numbering correct. Good puzzle for my brain.

I am keen to work out how Lia mananged to use fabric paint to finish her Princess Leia block. Isn't she just fabulous? 

Update: Lia emailed me to say she uses potted fabric paint and applies it with the eye or point of a needle!

It will be challange to try that method. I was hoping to use my fabric Sharpies but they don't come in grey. I might wait until I do a few more blocks, invest in some proper paint and try Lia's method.

And how fabulous are these blocks already made by Kristy? Especially the light sabres. I love all of her pattern but I think these are my favourites now. Actually I love all her blog posts - they are usually very witty.

My boys are Star Wars fiends and so I am going to be making them a wall hanging for their room with all of these blocks. I might have to get the Wombat Stew girls to help me out when my turn comes around again.

Finally I can link up with this week's Paper Piecing Party over at Quiet Play. And SUPER TGIFF over at Blossom Heart Quilts again.

Teabag Pouch

This time around in the Zakka 2.0 I am picking and choosing the projects. This teabag pouch is the first that I had picked to do. There  are so many gorgeous versions of this pouch already posted on the Zakka 2.0 Flickr page.

Ayumi's pattern did not come with any diagrams and some of the wording had me confused. My usual pattern trailblazer Amanda The Patchsmith has not yet made this one. You can see my mistakes and confusion here. Thank goodness Alyce came to my rescue.

Teabag Pouch Visual Tutorial
So here is a visual tutorial to help you should you be interested in making one for yourself.

Cutting

I did not use fusible interfacing but some scraps of cotton batting and basting spray instead.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

The crux of the pattern is not clear with the written instructions for this step -"the rectangle"  refers to the inner cotton solid for the interior. It took me a while to figure this out.

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

Step 9 

Step 10

+ Button Making

I do hope that this helps. Certainly a cup of tea does after a tough pattern.

This is my paltry submission to the Kate Spain blog hop over at Blossom Heart Quilts. The fabrics are from Kate Spain's Good Fortune collection which I blogged about last Sunday Stash #68.