Sunday Stash #28

Little Monsterz and Bugs

A few weeks ago the Little Monsterz range from Cloud 9 Kids was up for grabs in the Zakka Style Sew-Along. I reeeeeaaaallllly wanted to win that giveaway on LRStitched. However it went to a lovely blogger named Amanda from The Patch Smith.

I did pin the fabric to my Pinterest board called Fabrics I Love. 

It paid off to pin because I got an offer to buy nearly the full range of Fat Quarters from my lovely friend Emma. Emma makes the most delicious natural dolls called Jem of Mine Dolls. 

Also Jem of Mine Dolls was having a de-stash sale on their Facebook business page and I snapped up 2 fat quarters of bug fabric as well. I love that little bug holding up his x-ray!

Summersville Charm Pack Winners

It was nice to have so many regulars pop by on my Practically Paper Piecing Blog Hop post on Monday. There were some old and new names as well. Thank you all for your lovely comments...I really doubted my finish until I got your feedback, so thank you very much.

The winners of a 'Summersville' charm pack EACH are:

Robin of Not Ever Still Overseas
Tracey of The Peony Tea Cup Australia

Sunday Stash
If you have something new to your stash, then please link up below.

Blue Tones & Blue Jeans

Charmed Give-Away


Just a reminder for you all to post an entry or 3 into the 'Tandem' fabric giveaway here on Finding Fifth and there on 'Quiet Play. We 2 small bloggys have 2 adorable charm packs to ship out to 2 lucky winners. And with ONLY 18 people entered into mine so far, you are in with a ripping good chance!
                           
Thrifted Thursday


I only had ten minutes this week to slip into Vinnies but I found some nice trinkets.


These 2 plates at 20c each!

And look! They are closely related to my favourite fabric from last week's Zakka Style Sew Along 'Zig Zag Tote'.

This hand crocheted circle for only 50c. I have no idea what to do with him now but he might make an appearance on a Zakka Style Sew-Along project later.

And this delicate napkin for only $1

Blue Eyes 


This gorgeous crocheted top, from Christine of Lavenderlore, coincidently matches Florrie's eyes. I love how Emma's Jem of Mine Dolls have so many beautiful eye colours to choose from. I almost asked for Florrie to have green...but I did giggle when Emma asked me if I wanted "freckles or no freckles". Why freckles of course!

Blue Jeans


Last week I picked these iron on patches up from the SL fabric sale (they were NOT on sale though). 

I thought that they might add a bit of pizazz to a pair of Fran's blue jeans. So she chose the spots where they should go and I ironed and stitched as best I could.

It's nice to have some easy-sew projects for a change!


I am linking up with...

Meal Plan Mondays


I am still doing these but am late this week. I've been so blessed to have my husband home on holidays from Thursday - Tuesday of the Easter weekend. He has been so helpful with not only the kids and camping but also cooking. His home made pizza below.

On Monday he took the 'Lancashire Lamb Shanks' recipe and cooked it whilst I was out. When I came home, it was emitting delicious smells from the slow cooker. His reward? Off to the bike shop to buy more lycra pants and another drink bottle holder. He cycled 150Km in total over the break!


This is what's on the menu this week at our house...

I'm linking up with a new site at 'A Quilter's Table'...

Dolly Dress Ups

Pyjamas

My local Post Officer knows me by name and when I popped in there this morning he handed me a nice lightweight package from Emma at Jem of Mine Dolls.

tea pot dress

with felt love hearts

My daughter and I have the day together and when we got back home, we excitedly opened it up to find some gorgeous new outfits made by Emma and a knitted cardi by Lavenderlore Originals.

Fran got to work and changed her outfit 3 times in 10 minutes.

Then she wanted to wear a cardigan to match Florrie (even though it's 24degrees and humid here today).

Apart from her very popular mermaid attire Florrie came with 2 delicious Japanese outfits.

Emma makes the most beautiful Waldorf dolls in different sizes and with different hair colours and skin tones. If you check out her Facebook page link above you will see a delicious new doll with pink hair!

Look what else came in the post this week. A delicate Colclough tea set in dusky pink from my favourite tea shoppe on Etsy called Nancy's Tea Shop. So my collection of crazy tea sets is nearly at completion.

Little Dolly Quilt A and B

When last we left Little Quilt A and Little Quilt B, they were looking like this. I had taken Dolly Quilt #1 and split them to make smaller twin dolly quilts.

After quilting and zig zagging around the perimeter it was time to trim the excess batting and fabric away. I wasn't entirely happy with the basting spray effort of holding the sandwich together...so there was a bit of unpicking and repinning with my usual basting safety pins.

I had just enough of the plaid blue and white pillowcase fabric left to make both bindings - phew!

 So the binding was sewn onto the front.

 Ironed and pinned using these colourful bobby pins ( a great idea I saw on Pinterest instead of using pins).

 Little Quilt A is done.

Florrie looks happy with it. She is waiting on a parcel of gorgeous new dolly dresses and pjs made by her creator, Emma of Jem of Mine Dolls. This is the first time her legs have been out of the mermaid tail since early January.

Little Quit B is pinned but I haven't sewn the binding through to the back yet.

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 2 pram/dolly quilts - finished and for sale in my Etsy shop 'Florrie and Stan'.

                                         - Little Dolly Quilt A

Currently in progress - Little Dolly Quilt B - binding made and sewn part way on.
                                             - Feb  scrappy log cabin quilt - quilt top sewn together and ready to be basted.
New projects - 1 = baste and quilt 'HR Far Far Away 2&3 Fussy Fairytales' quilt

I am linking up with....

Dolly want a quilter?

After a lovely family holiday down the coast at Port Macquarie, my two sons headed further south to Sydney with their grandparents for 5 days. So that left just me, my husband and my 4 year old daughter to ourselves for the first time ever. It also left significantly more time for sewing as I estimate the drop in housework to have been more than 75%.


So I thought my daughter should benefit - well her dollies at least. She has numerous stuffed toys but three dolls (2 are babies). The other is a gorgeous Waldorf-style doll handmade my lovely friend Emma from 'Jem of Mine Dolls'.  I bought it in 2010 when I happened to grab a custom spot that someone cancelled. I kept it hidden in it's postal box until her birthday in early January.

Her name is 'Florrie' (my daughter's alternative birth name was Florence - after both my grandmothers but my husband got to choose this time and so she was named Frances).


'Florrie' came in a sweet Japanese cross-over top but my daughter swiftly changed her into the amazingly small mermaid outfit! You can find Emma's store here  and her blog here. Also she has a great Facebook page here.

So Sian, Lilly-Belle and Florrie all needed their own quilt for naptime. Last year I ordered a book online called The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman from Oh Fransson!. 

In keeping with the '2012 Challenge to Myself', I want to start following some Quilt Patterns. So I chose 'Small Plates' which is basically a square within a square. 

Her quilt is made with the gorgeous fabric from Denyse Schmidt's County Fair. However my selection was 30s fabrics from a generous Crafty Lady scrap bag and my upcycled fabrics stash.

METHOD
Cut two 9 x 21/2" strips from a solid jelly roll or your own fabrics.
Cut two 5" x 2 1/2" strips.

Sew the solid strips around a central charm square.

Do the same with the print strips but sew the 9" strips vertically rather then horizontally.

And voila!

Quilt 1

Quilt 2

I had lots of narrow 5" + pieces and so made some vertical strips

Quilt 3

I never like to waste fabric and so the verticals continued

I left it a few days, and then I used fusible webbing to add some 2" centres to each block and appliqued them on with the blanket stitch on my Janome 2101.

The 2" squares were also the result of not wanting to waste smaller scraps

So now they look like this...

Hopefully I will get a chance to baste, quilt and bind once the boys go back to school, and Frances starts Pre-Kindy, the first week of February.