Artist Trading Pouches

Ooo I had fun.

But I can only show you the one that I made for myself.

The rest are under wraps as a surprise to the Wombat Stew Girls.


Well here's a sneaky peak of their zippers.

I am posting Gina's and Alyce's directly and the rest are heading off to Kristy for a corral first.

Linking up to TGIFF and Sew Cute Tuesday.

ATC WiP

I actually had most of this sewn last Wednesday but was too busy to post about it.

I have been working hard on my Artist Trading Cards these past 10 days. 

I was struggling with the whole concept of a card that does nothing but form a piece of art (sorry folks I am a practical kind of gal!). 

So I asked the Wombat Stew recipients if they would not mind if I turned my card into a useful zip pouch.

They were all gracious enough to say yes. I have been buzzing ever since. 

Each pouch now has a back, an inner and some quilting to match each of the Wombats and their personality.

Loving this project.

Linking up to WiP Wednesday.

Little Tastes of Spring

Living on the north coast of New South Wales where nearly every weekend this year has been wet I now admit that I was a bit too ungrateful for that constant in my garden.

Mulberries

It has not rained for more than a month now. The garden is starting to suffer from serious droopiness.

Sweet Peas

But small changes are happening. Spring is whispering to the trees and insects and reptiles.

Orange Blossoms

But I wish it would rain. Even just a little.

Strawberry Blossoms

Fireworks Block

QCA Bee #1

After such a  time-consuming block last month I was so grateful to Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts for coming up with a lovely easy block this month.

The colour brief was either orange, yellow or red in either solid or sketch. I did the reverse colour block in a orangey yellow.

The bunch so far - by Kate, Marieka, Alyce and Kristy

Alyce is a bit of block designer. In fact she did a whole bunch of Very Merry HSTs last year that you can follow her tutorials for here.

Linking up late to TGIFF.

Sunday Stash #77

This week Sunday Stash is being hosted by Heidi of Fabric Mutt.

Last week the linky with the most visits was Charly and Ben's Penny Sampler. Did you see her stash mail?

Stale/Fugly Stash Swap

This week here at Finding Fifth I am purging from my stash. Lucy and Laura have a linky party where you can link up your fugly and unwanted  fabrics.

So here are mine. I am happy to swap or give away for the price of postage to your place. Make me an offer or not.

1 metre of each 

#1 - A green batik print. Taken

#2 - a lightweight polyester in pale green with daisy print. Great for a summer skirt.

#3 - a dark green and white paisley print in quilter's cotton. Taken

A FQ Bundle of these Vintage Sheets

#4 Vintage Blue  Taken

#5 Vintage Pink Taken

#6 Vintage Multi

Just let me know which number you want and whether you want to swap or pay postage.

This wonderful idea comes from Laura of Quokka Quilts and Lucy at Charm About You. So I am linking up there as well as linking up to Sunday Stash over at Fabric Mutt.

Sunday Stash #76

This week Sunday Stash is being hosted by Melissa of Ms Midge. So you can head over there to make your link up. Coincidentally, her linky was the most visited post last week.

Next week Sunday Stash will be hosted by Heidi of Fabric Mutt.

Gumnut Fabric

A few weeks ago I found this gorgeous May Gibbs' Gumnut Baby fabric at Spotlight. At $20 per metre it was not cheap but with a $10 off voucher it was less painful.

It is so gorgeous. I knew that my daughter would love a dress made out of it. I just did not have the right pattern to do it justice.

Then Ms Midge posted about a summer dress pattern that she had purchased online. She had made up two versions of the dress for her two daughters. 

The sizing for the youngest was a little tight and so I offered to buy the dress for my daughter as Fran is a small size 5. It arrived in the post recently and Fran was excited to open it up and try it on.

I might keep this fabric tucked away for a couple more summers though. The pattern is called the Gatsby Dress and just $6.90 USD will buy you a downloadable PDF.

I am linking up to Sunday Stash over at Ms Midge. See you there.

Kimono Dragon

This month Alyce, of Blossom Heart Quilts, is Wombat Stew Sensei and she picked a wonderfully Japanese icon to paper piece. The Kimono. After the labour intensive QCA Bee block last month, this was a very easy and quick pattern to piece - bless her!

She gave us two designs - front or back. These are the ones already made by Marieka and Kristy.

You can be sure that Alyce will make her paper pieced Kimono pattern available soon enough so you can make one for yourself.

Linking up to TGIFF!

Narrow the Scope

Do you ever find that if you are given a narrow scope for a sewing project, that you can branch out and be quite creative? But the opposite is true for me. If the scope is too broad I really struggle to find much in the way of creativity. Why is that?

The Wombats agreed to make eachother Artist Trading Cards. The brief was broad. I struggled for most of July to even start.

I blogged last time on WiP Wednesday that I was working through some of the likes and dsilikes of the 8 other Wombat girls. I started sewing. I finished 3 out of the 8 fronts.

Today I finished the other 5 and even added 1 more for myself.

I still have to finalise the size and execute how I will finish them off.

Linking up to WiP Wednesday.

My Sewing Space

Lots of linkys to Sunday Stash #75 were also linking up to "Show me yours. I'll Show you Mine" over at Sarah's Quilts. What a great idea to show off how folks organise their stash. 

Cooincidently, I spent a day last week giving my stash a serious overhaul and a tidy. So my Sewing Space looks very good right now.  Trust me, it is not always so.

Each of these IKEA boxes contains things like t-shirts, elastic, buttons, FMQ practice, selvedges, vlisofix, ribbons, button making etc.

Here (where a built in was never, well, built in) I have crates organised into themes - solids, tone on tone, floral, Binding, Halloween, Christmas, Girls, Boys, Babies, Denyse Schmidt, Themes and Vintage Sheets. Before you gasp in horror at the amount - I would say that 40% of this was directly given to me by my quilting mother when I first started. Some worth keeping. Some I culled this past week.

Here are the two boxes of fabric I culled. I will write up a Sunday Stash post about these soon. I have started giving some of these away. The green zip up is Christmas fabric she gave me last time she visited. I have yet to sort through it.

Craft Books

Scraps sorted by colour. Rulers hanging on hooks.

Gorgeous cross stich my mum made, Hand Stamps in the Paris box and Business cards in the two drawers.

More Fabric - Heather Ross, Aneela Hooey, Civil War, Modern, French General, Patchwork pieces, Sketch, Repairs, T-Shirts, Dr Seuss.

Scraps to sort, Preschool Scraps and thread rubbish.

My Janome DC 2101, Snoopy cup from my childhood.

And down below the IKEA desk.

Bin, fan, overlocker, Beginner Machine

The IKEA drawers hold all the stuff you need close.

Blinds that double as a design wall

If you want to see the actual fabrics in my stash....why not join me here EACH Sunday for Sunday Stash? You are more than welcome to link up with your stash. There are 75 posts to catch up on vouyer fabric flashing in my stash.


Linking up with...