Sunday Stash #65

Thank You and Welcome

I was really surprised to get 21 link ups to last Sunday Stash #64. I am grateful too. The previous record was only 14. There were plenty of new blogs to visit during the week. So thank you and welcome along. I hope you find time to link up again soon. 

Button Code is Wrong

I must apologise for my dodgy 'Sunday Stash' button code though. I will have to get to fixing it after Alyce pointed me to a helpful tutorial. 

Give Away Winners

Winner 1 - 11. Michelle's Romantic Tangle 
Two 50cm WOF - by Alyce Kennedy for Timeless Treasures

Winner 2 - Mareenchen @ Aquamareen Crafting 
A scrap bag that includes some of the off cuts from my latest finish 'Polaroid 9 Patch'.

Congratulations ladies. I will contact both of you to get your postal details.

Kate Spain Month

Alyce, from Blossom Heart Quilts, ( her button works) is hosting a Blog Hop featuring her favourite designer Kate Spain.. I can see that her next line of fabric  called 'Sunnyside' will be worth investing in. The Hop starts tomorrow!

Weekly Paper Piecing Linky Party

She finally did it! Kristy, from Quiet Play, (her button works too!) has started a weekly linky party to celebrate all things paper pieced. The link opens on a Friday and stays open all weekend. I am behind on my May ASO paper pieced block!

Zakka 2.0 Sew Along Through

There is a weekly Blog Host and Linky Sew Along happening at LR Stitched and A Quilter's Table. Each week the next project in Patchwork Please by Ayumi Takahashi will be on the 'to make' list. I was a big fan of last year's Zakka SAL but I will not be making all of the projects from this book. It starts tomorrow too!


As always it is time to link up your latest fabric, notions, patterns and books.

Sunday Stash #64

A Year of Sunday Stash

I started Sunday Stash as a Party of one in February last year but it got a little lonely. So in May last year I opened it up as a weekly Linky Party (with a few inlinkz hiccups along the way!)

It started small - most weeks had only 2 link ups and I had a couple of no link ups but it has grown to a respectable 7-12 each week in the past year.

I do appreciate, and visit, each one of you that joins in. I have found so many new blogs, friends, lines of fabrics, designers and books through Sunday Stash. 

I also appreciate those who have taken on the task of hosting Sunday Stash over at their blog once or twice! Thank you for supporting them by linking up when they host. 

I gave myself a year to assess but Sunday Stash looks to continue at least until the end of 2013. Look at this wonderful line up of hosts for the later part of the year.


June 16th - Allison of Dreaming in Patchwork
July 21st - Kristy of Quiet Play
August 18th - Melissa of Ms Midge
September 15th - Audrey of Hot Pink Quilts
October 20th - Foster of Foster Reviews It
November 17th - Lisa of In Port Hope
December 15th - Kelly of Made By Kelly


A Thank You Give Away

I wanted to say thank you by giving away a metre of fabric this week. If you link up to Sunday Stash this week you will be in the running for 2x50cm cuts of these two fabrics. (both white, black and lime).

A runner up will recieve a scrap bag of goodies. I will reveal the random winners NEXT week on Sunday Stash.

This IS open to international folks too. Just make sure you have a valid email attached to your blog or leave me it in the comments below.

Now it's your turn - the fun part. What's new in your stash this week?

Sunday Stash #63

More Scrap Love

Today Sunday Stash link up is over at Sew Happily Ever After with Rachel but it may come online a bit later due to the time difference. 

Recently our family holiday took us to Coffs Harbour. 

Marieka and I

Some of the Wombat Stew girls and I caught up, with our kids, at North Sapphire Beach at the fabulous park and Cafe there.

Kristy and Jane

It was a time for eating, drinking coffee and swapping stories, blocks and scraps!

So much scrap love that I felt embarrassed actually.

But the girls are like that - so generous.

And these ones came in the post from Lara.

Fran had a bit of fun with them all.

She's been home with a nasty cough most of last week. She still has it so I am not sure if she'll even go back again tomorrow.

Today is my 2nd Blogiversary but I will have a fabric give-away next Sunday Stash. There might even be a scrap bag on offer as well - after all I have plenty now.



Linking up to Sunday Stash over at Sew Happily Ever After later today.

Scrappy but Happy

I really wanted to try some charming stars for the back of my 'Hope' tall boy runner but I find that I have lots of smaller scraps rather than charm squares left. I would rather use them up than cut into the larger pieces I have left over.

I also have long strips from where the Astor Manor quilt back was trimmed before binding. I wonder if I can use some of them.

Do you ever do that? Try and use up scraps rather than freshly cut fabric?

This Week's  Sewing  Stats

Completed projects  -  "You Little Ripper!" paper pieced block for Feb
                                         2 Hen Saddles for the chickens

Currently in progress -  Dresser Runner (back)

                                        - Tall Boy Runner (top complete)

                                                                                           

Yet to start  -  'Spooling Around' paper pieced block

                          'Sliced Scrappy' block for QCA Bee #1

                          'Sew Mid Century' paper pieced block for Wombat Stew

                          Lorax Quilt

                           

  

Medical Updates

I am off to see a Hand and Arm specialist in Brisbane later today. My GP is worried that my swollen index finger (my sewing one!) is not looking good after 6 weeks. I may have to be admitted to hospital, or in for day surgery so I have packed for any eventuality.

Duncan is still not walking properly and the GP gave him the rest of the week off from school, so I am taking him with me. We will stay with my parents and maybe I can get some sewing done with my mum.

Chicken Update

I will miss seeing the chickens come home later tonight when Frances, Tristan and Dean pick them up from the vets. Breanna had to have surgery to close both of her wounds yesterday but she is recovering well. She and Washington have been particular favourites of the receptionist. She chuckles when she tells me that they are free-ranging in the small yard at the back of the surgery.

I have made them some little capes/hen saddles/hen savers to cover their wounds and missing feathers. I don't want the rest of our flock pecking at them during their recovery. The fabric comes from Noumea and Gemma, of Pretty Bobbins, gave it to me when we visited last year. Isn't it going to make the girls look groovy? Late last night Dean and I test drove it on Bluey to see if it needed adjusting - thankfully it fit perfectly. I will share a tutorial later on how to make these.

Kristy will be kindly linking me up to WiP Wednesday later on today. Thanks Kristy.

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.

Scrap Bag Log Cabins

Last year I bought 2 Moda scrap bags. Most of the scraps were long strips not quite as thick as a jelly roll, but close enough.

I found myself with many strips of fabric in burgundy, brown and navy. And there was nearly a whole scrap bag of the gorgeous 'Hope' fabric.


WIP - Wednesday


So I set to work to make something for myself. I had never made a log cabin block before so I started on some. They were easier than I had expected and I couldn't stop at one!

Then I left them for 2 months until this week. I managed to finish the borders, baste and quilt both. 

I used basting spray as the job was so small

I made some binding using leftover cut-offs from my 'Astor Manor D9P' quilt. 

binding

sewing the binding on to the front

pinning the binding on

getting better at machine binding

The top one is for my side of the bed and the bottom for my husband's side.

Now I have plans to use a lot of the scraps to make a stacked coins quilt table runner to go on top of our naked dresser.

This week's stats:
Completed projects - 2 bedside table mats, 2 Craftsy BoM Feb blocks
New projects - None

On Hold - 1 custom strip quilt - will start when I receive 50% deposit , 1 Feb  scrappy log cabin quilt - once all the blocks come in

Currently in progress - scrappy coin table runner, 3 dolly quilts to back (still! Am thinking of using vintage sheet fabric for these).

How did you fare this week? Pop over to 'Freshly Pieced' to link to other WIP blogs.