Sunday Stash #25

Scrap Savers


Are you a scrap saver? 
I mean, how small does a piece of fabric have to be before you relegate it to the Preschool donation bag? 

My current 3 boxes of scraps

If you are into Paper Piecing, then no scrap is too small to save. Since starting this method I have been saving the MOST ridiculous sized pieces. 

By the way this is my Preschool scrap basket!

Have you been following the Practically Paper Piecing Blog Hop these past 5 days? If you saw Kate's post you will see her miniscule PP blocks measuring 2" square! What! Really? Oh yes - she's making a sweet mini quilt for the mice of Brambly Hedge.


This week I was the beneficiary of two generous scrap savers. The first was Jane, from Where Jane Creates, who sent me some scraps (see my previous reference to her scrap bin) for my PPP 'Summersville Neighbourhood' project. She sent me these delicious snippets in yellow, red, green, blue, orange and black. Thank you Jane.

The second was an amazing windfall of scraps from Kelly of Kelby Sews. I won these by linking up with her 'My Precious' post in June. Kelly has great taste in fabric and I was not disappointed to get some choice pickings from her floor. And many of them were decent sized.

Ok I will need some help with naming most of these prints so feel free to make a comment if you know one or two or ten. I only really recognise the Denyse Schmidt, Aneela Hooey and Heather Ross prints.


Reds

Oranges

Pinks

Greens

Blues

Purples (not a lot of this colour in my stash)

Wouldn't it be nice if more of us packaged up our scraps and sent them off in the mail to make another person's day? Or even manage a scrap swap?


Tips - Now scraps that are very small can also come in handy for making:


fabric covered buttons

cute gift tags (I used to bother sewing these on but now I just use a bit of stick glue for these)

Don't forget to link up with your stash additions below.

Wednesday 'Sew Stitchy' Winner and WiPs

With 34 entries for the 'Sew Stitchy' charm park and layer cake Blogiversary Give-Away, it has been a lovely little affair. Thank you for entering everyone. Great ideas were shared and most of you wanted to make something to hold your sewing notions, cover your machine or cover your legs. But my favourite comment was from Cherie who said "I'd hoard the fabric for a few months, then look through my stash and realise that I still have it and then put it back." Spoken like a true fabric collector. 


But let me encourage you all to use up your favourite fabrics because I just won a prize over at Kelby Sews in Kelly's 'My Precious QAL' give-away.

Blogiversary Give-Away Winners 


The winner of the layer cake is...#29 Mareen Chen from Aquamareen Crafting.


The winner of the charm pack is...#7 Bronwyn Beazley from Stop that Owl.

I will be in touch with both of you to get your postal addresses to ship these to you. Don't forget to write a post and let us know what you make from these.


Collaborations for a Cause

This year Kristy from Quiet Play and I are working on Collaborations for a Cause by making a boy's quilt to auction off for a Charity called Angels for the Forgotten. Kristy used the pattern from the Zakka Style book to make the Zakka Block quilt with some rainbow charms from our stashes. You can see the gorgeous quilt top here. 

My job was to make the back. As the quilt top is 50"x60" I had to make the back slightly larger. So yesterday I made 2 extra I-Spy blocks so I could make the width with an I-Spy strip. 

Then I dived into my boy stash and came out with some fabric long enough to make the width and pieced the rest of the back. Now it does not really look too much like the front, but  it makes the back a 'different' kind of front.  So in essence 2 quilts in 1.

I was able to sew it all together and get in the post to Kristy yesterday. She has kindly offered to quilt it, so I threw in a little gift for her efforts.  


This week's stats:

Completed projects  - 2 Corduroy skirts

                                            - Zakka Happy Handwarmers

                                            - mug rug (extra sweetener for my secret swap partner).

                                           - quilt backing for  'Collaborations for a Cause'  quilt.

                                          - 1 teal QCA Bee June block for Kate

Currently in progress  - 1 orange QCA Bee June block for Kate

Yet to start - Craftsy BOMs

                         - Zakka Style Pot Holders
                

On Hold projects   1 - Katie Jump Kites - top finished

I am linking up with...

Sunday Stash #9

50 Followers Give-Away

Firstly I have to start off this post by saying how amazed I am by the response to the 'French General - Petit Odile' Charm Pack Give-Away. I am trying to respond to all the folks but I fear it is going to take me a while. This humble little blog has nearly doubled its 'followers' in 4 days! I think Kristy is experiencing similar volumes. If you have not entered my give-away yet, you can click here and teleport to the entry from last Wednesday. If you have not entered Kristy's give-away  then click here as well. Entries close this week at 8pm Australian Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday 18th April.


The Unsinkable

Secondly, I have to acknowledge the historical significance of the date above. It's been 100 years since the majestic Titanic set sail from Southampton and into the history books for all the wrong reasons. My own grandmother, who was born in Portsmouth Army barracks,  remembered the shock of the event as she was 11 years old in 1912.


I have previously shared that Duncan wrote a great article, on the anniversary of the sinking, for his Student Newspaper. He is a walking encyclopaedia of facts on this topic. He can reel off the stats without having to look them up - how long she was, how many decks, passengers, survivors, number of lifeboats, name of rescue vessels and ones that didn't. You get the picture? Having Aspergers is like a Fact superpower. (He will always be on my team at Trivia nights). His interest in the Titanic started when he received the gorgeous pop out book called 'Titanic Ship of Dreams' for his 6th birthday. It has morphed into an interest in all ships since.

Last night he asked his father and I if we could set eh alarm for 2:20 this morning.
"Why?" we asked.
"Because that was the time that Titanic sank 100 years ago."
I responded, fearing the alarm ringing at that ungodly hour. "Um, actually that was 2:20am local Newfoundland time." Phew!
So then he used the internet 'time zone' converter to calculate that it would correspond to 2:50pm Australian time today. And he remembered to pause at that time today. He is very special.

This book was c0-written by a local man, Steve Hall. His wife runs the school canteen where I volunteer twice a term. This is the signed copy he donated to the school library. It's so weird to have a world expert living in Ballina NSW!


A Little Bit More of Katie Jump Rope - KJR

Can anyone pick the odd FQs out?

Today's Sunday stash is more of a supplement to my Denyse Schmidt collection. I was missing a few FQs from the Katie Jump Rope line, so I ordered them earlier this month. During the week I received my order from Clay Deal on Etsy.

However, even as I cut into the KJR stash this weekend, I realised that I was still missing a brown and some dark green fabrics from the line. A quick Etsy search, and I was able to order these from Bilje Olifantje. Kit was also kind enough to track down the 'green ribbons' fabric for me too!


Katie Jump Kaleidoscopic Kites - KJKK


I started drawing up plans for my own 'Kaleidoscopic Kites' quilt using the FREE pattern designed by Faith of Fresh Lemons Quilts. It is such a lovely and striking pattern. I was inspired by this version in KJR by Kelly of Kelby Sews. I am not sure I could ever be a quilt designer - I am far too mathematically challenged. Whilst using grid paper to make changes to the  colour order, I made 3 mistakes and had to draw it up all over again. It was so frustrating.

My favourite fabric from the KJR line

Anyway after finishing the planning stage, I slipped in a NEW rotary blade and proceeded to cut "My Precious" stash of KJR Fat Quarters. It wasn't as hard as I thought it might have been. Maybe I haven't been hoarding it long enough!

Delicious selvedges to make a pouch with

It was a time consuming job but I got to watch an Episode of 'Coast, Who do You Think You Are? and Is the West History Part 1 & 2'. We are moving into the second week of school holidays. My husband and I  shared the kiddy duties today as we were both sick of them fighting. He got time off to go into town for a coffee and I got sewing time later.

Here's how they were earlier in the day looking all happy and cosy together on the couch watching tv. Believe me, this is a rare shot of all three together. The quillows were ones my mum made for each child. They love them.