Snip it Good

Now Snip it...into shape...I am actually early to make April's 'And Sew On' paper piecing block. So I can post early to the Quiet Play collection finally.

This was a less complicated block than March's 'Spoolin' Around' block. I wanted to have a funky background and I found it in a vintage sheet fat quarter. 

I did detour from the pattern slightly when making the handles of the scissors. I hope Kristy does not mind. But I managed to cut the piecing by half.

I do wish that I had used a darker grey for the blades of the scissors now that I see it altogether.

But the four blocks look good together.

Sew Mid Century

Alyce's sideboard block arrived in the mail yesterday. She has used a clever brown fabric with what looks like coffee beans and also some text prints. She totally got the mid century colours brief.

And these three blocks look good together too.

Sugar Cookie Sack

Out of the entire Zakka Style book this was the project I was MOST looking forward to making. It is sooooo sweet and being a lover of felt decorations I was so excited that it was on the 'to do' list this month.

Now that I can embroider, I found the label easy to do with stem, straight and back stitch. I was able to do about 3/4 of it whilst ill in bed for 5 days. 

My Version

I reversed the fabrics and had a plain label because I had the sweetest vintage sheet fat quarter all picked out for it. 

My cookies had icing and buttons.

I sewed the ribbon onto the back of the sack after I had decorated it with one of the only fancy stitches on my Janome 2101DC.

It is now being enjoyed by my 4 year old daughter with her tea set. "I'll have a cuppa and a cookie please Frances."

Linking up with...

An Elephant Never Forgets Bookmark

I am still catching up with the July Zakka Style Sew Along projects. I knew that this bookmark was going to to be finicky - so many others have mentioned how tricky turning through the legs and trunk proved to be - and so it was! It's a nice project that should take only an hour or so but I had trouble with my bottom ribbon when it came time to turn the elephant right-side out.


I made use of a vintage sheet cut off for the dress and Essex linen blend in steel from Fresh Stash. Great colour for elephants!


Tips
I made my elephant silhouette slightly larger to try and combat the turning difficulties.

To get the dress fabric different to the legs and head, I used the pattern traced onto freezer paper and then paper pieced the sections. My new skill - don't forget the Practically Paper Piecing Blog Hop which kicked off today with a pouch tutorial and a give-away - thanks to Kristy of Quiet Play.

Do NOT add the ribbon to the bottom IF it overhangs the bottom of the dress seam. Add it after you have turned the project right-side out. This is where I had trouble turning things through and had to unpick the bottom half of my elephant.

The top orange ribbon was fine but the bottom  one caused me grief!

So I unpicked it, took it off and then resewed it once it was turned right-side out

Use a smaller stitch length to give you extra strength when turning through. I dialled mine down to 1.5

Clip the corners and the curves, before turning, to reduce bulk inside.

Hopefully you can see that I have a small stitch length and have snipped the curves in the seam allowance of the ear BEFORE turning!

I think they would also make a cute Christmas tree decoration given Xmas fabrics and some rick rack to hang it.

You can check out the other elephants on parade at the Flickr group or here.


I am finally linking up with:

Sunday Stash #16

Today's post is a mixed bag of treasures old and new.


Old - some vintage pillow cases from the local 'Bargain Basement' at 50c each.

Old - some fabrics donated by my MOPS mentor Lanie. These include a few swatches of green upholstery fabric.

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New - a brown, white and orange floral that would look right at home in a Denyse Schmidt range. I found this for $5 for 1 meter at a little fabric and scrapbooking shop in Yamba NSW whilst on a MOPS overnight  retreat 2 weeks ago.

Feedsack IV ca. 1930 Pattern No. 39011 by Windham W Fabrics

New - My first digital photography book from Lindcraft for only $8.

I hope that this week's linky tool is flawless.


What's new in your stash today?


Feel Free to link up below...(and maybe spread the word about 'Sunday Stash')

Sunday Stash #5

Last month I participated in the 'Vintage Fabric FQ Swap' with Green Tea and Red Nails. Kel had a massive job collecting, sort and redistributing all of the FQs we posted. 

My collection of 40 FQs arrived safely during the week and I found a few delicious surprises in amongst the stack. If you participated in the Swap this February you might see some of the ones that you donated.  

I am collecting yellows blues and oranges for a vintage sheet quilt planned for later this year.

 Then there are some whimsy ones that I just like.

If you participated in the Swap this February you might find some of the ones that I donated. Can you see them in this pile?

Sunday Stash #2

This week I received some very different Vintage sheet FQs from Ducky House on Etsy. Tamara is based in the town of Winnepeg in the plains of Canada. She had such a huge range that I had to limit my choice to what we could stuff into a postage bag. And I was so happy with my final selection. Getting the a healthy combination of greens, blues and yellows to put away for a planned quilt later in Spring.

I also ordered some more Vintage FQs from Simone of Local Honey Crafts. Now her store is a one stop jaw drop shop. Plenty of Vintage goodiness (all on sale for February!)

And not realising that Spotlight were about to release the same 'Daisy Mae' line, by Denyse Schmidt, in Australia, I ordered some FQs off her as well (although it is not the full line). Her DS FQs are only $2 each and you can pick your own!

And by pure coincidence I found her blog this week too! It is full of lovely tales and quilts. You can find her blog at Goody Goody Gumdrops (cute name huh?). If you go to her last Sunday Stash entry you will see some Pezzy Prints and a new line of Denyse Schmidt called 'Aunt Edna' that has just come out in the US at their equivalent of Spotlight (called Joann Fabrics).


What's new in your stash this week?

Something sweet

Sometimes, as quilters, we are so caught up in the BIG projects that we don't really take the time to do some cute, achievable in an afternoon, mini-projects.

I have just discovered the mother and daughters' team at 'Sweetwater Designs'. After I received their book for Christmas and tried one of their patterns, I visited the online shop and bought this little kit. Then my friend Marieka kindly sent me a packet of 'Hometown' charm squares for my birthday this week. 

The instructions were a bit oblique in some places but I muddled through.


1. Sew strips of 8 x 2 1/2" squares together. Press.

2. Pin and nest the seams and sew 4 rows together. Chain piecing saves time and thread. 

3. Turn over and measure around your notebook for sizing. Mine was a bit too tight as my notebook was bigger than the pattern allowed. So I added an extra row.

 

4. Cut inside fabric and wadding slightly larger than the front patchwork. I used 2 scraps of wadding and used basting spray to fix it in place.

5. Using the plain inside fabric, cut the 5" book flaps slightly larger than the width of the notebook and sew a turned over 1/4 " hem. 

6. Lay these on the batting and inside fabric, right side up.

7. Lay the patchwork on top creating a sandwich.

8. This is where I deviated from the pattern. 


Measure your notebook size again and draw a line1/4" from this border. I added extra width because my notebook is spiral bound and would not be wide enough to fit when closed. I also found that if I moved my notebook up into the top corner, I didn't need the 5th row or 8th column. So when I trimmed, these strips were intact! (I hate wasting lovely fabric!)

9. Sew around the notebook line on all 4 sides and leave a 2" gap along one edge. Make sure that all your raw edges are lined up in your sandwich.


10. Trim away the excess. I also cut the diagonals off the corners.

11. Pull through the fabric to the right side and sew the hole closed.

12. Peel off the label and iron onto the front. Stitch around the label being careful not to stitch over the flap.

13. One sweet notebook cover finished!

Great for about 2-3 hours of fun with your 21/2" square stash. I am keen to make some more. They would make a sweet gift.


Also, today I posted out 3 of the 4 'fugly fabric' giveaways (still waiting to hear from Leena in India), 36 vintage sheet fat quarters for the swap and some 'little girls' squares to a good friend in England.

36 Vintage Sheet FQs all rolled up to save space. An extra treat for Kellie who is organising the swap.