Making Christmas - Week 8 already!??

Week 8 update

Here was my list in Week 3 with a few things added in Week 5.  I have added pictures of the things that I have completed to bring my list up to date to Week 8:

 

Christmas 2013 TO-MAKE list:

1.  Tissue holders

2.  Hanging tea towels - finally COMPLETE

3.  Drawstring bag - Yay I managed to make several - here are pictures of just two of them!!

 

4.  Pom pom snowman ornament

5.  Paper pieced robin - COMPLETE

6.  Felt ornaments (I've made one set of three already - I want to make another set) - COMPLETE

7.  And Sew On blocks into project(s)

8.  Robin in Wreath paper piecing project

9.  Infinity scarf in voile

10.  Christmas wine bag

11.  Toothbrush travel wrap - COMPLETE

12.  Tea holder pouches

13.  Pot holder

14.  Recycled Christmas Card boxes

15.  [Added] Tea towel - COMPLETE

16.  Bibs [Added] - COMPLETE

Linking to Missy Mac Creations

Wonkyville grows again and TWO WINNERS

Sorry for the delay, but I have finally drawn the TWO winners for my "Blog Hop Party with Giveaways" giveaway!

Congratulations to:

Prize #1 Winner:
Judith has left a new comment on your post "Blog Hop GIVEAWAY":
I love scrappy quilts, so I'd pick #2, but I certainly wouldn't say no to the pretty fabric in #1. Thanks for the chance to win.

Prize #2 Winner:

Judy has left a new comment on your post "Blog Hop GIVEAWAY":
Prize #2! Sounds like a bunch of fun. Thanks!  

I have emailed you both so I look forward to sending these prizes out to you!  And guess what?  I will be having ANOTHER giveaway starting on December 9th.  Giveaway Day with Sew Mama Sew is nearly here and I already know what I will be giving away!    

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beep beep be bedee de beep * Important NEWS just in *

WONKYVILLE grows again!!

Turid from Norway is one of the kindest blogging pals I have!  She keeps herself busy by sewing me houses, trees and now STARS for Wonkyville!  Here is the latest addition to that crazy ol'town I call Wonkyville:

And look - another inhabitant for the village!  My plan is to sew Wonkyville together over the Christmas break.  I can't wait!!  Stay tuned for layout options - I can't decide if it will be a crazy higgledy-piggledy town layout or a structured, planned town in rows.  Decisions decisions!!

**If you are interested in sewing me a wonky house or tree (or star!!) to be included in Wonkyville, please let me know and I will send you my address and details!  The more houses and trees for Wonkyville the better I say!!

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A HUGE thank you to Lucy of Charm About You for the Giant Chevron pattern by Jess Frost.  This was a prize I won a couple of weeks ago and I can't wait to sew it!  Also, a HUGE thank you to Martingale Publishers who sent me an eBook of Sara Lawson's Big-City Bags, won from entering a comment on the Blog Tour.  Wow - I'm off to make a bag (or two)!! 

Hope you are all having a Happy Wednesday! 

Blog Hop GIVEAWAY

***GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED*** 

Yay - it is Blog Hop Party with Give-aways time again!!  I am 'giving thanks' to everyone who pops in today by holding a giveaway!  A big THANK YOU to Miska for organising this giveaway hop!

There are two prizes up for grabs from my stash!  

Prize #1 - four fun fat quarters from the "City Girl' line by Kitty Yoshida for Benartex.

Prize #2 - a crazy selection containing a button tin with buttons, a thumb pincushion with 3 novelty pins, 2 red zippers, 2 brown zippers, a stack of fugly 5" charms [perfect for a Scrap Vomit quilt], a hot pink tape measure, some snap fasteners and a name tag marker with tags!

How do you enter?  Easy peasy!!  No hoops, no word verification and nothing to 'like' or link to - simply leave a comment on this post as to which prize you would like to win and I will draw two winners on the 27th November.  Open internationally!  I will email both winners so please be sure I have a way to contact you!

Good luck and happy hopping!  The list of participating bloggers will be posted on Thursday afternoon (USA Eastern time) on the Quilting Gallery blog.

Making Christmas - Week 6

Week 6 update

Here was my list in Week 3 with a few things added in Week 5.  I have added pictures of the things that I have completed to bring my list up to date to Week 6:

Christmas 2013 TO-MAKE list:

1.  Tissue holders

2.  Hanging tea towels - finally COMPLETE

3.  Drawstring bag

4.  Pom pom snowman ornament

5.  Paper pieced robin - COMPLETE

6.  Felt ornaments (I've made one set of three already - I want to make another set) - COMPLETE

7.  And Sew On blocks into project(s)

8.  Robin in Wreath paper piecing project

9.  Infinity scarf in voile

10.  Christmas wine bag

11.  Toothbrush travel wrap - COMPLETE

12.  Tea holder pouches

13.  Pot holder

14.  Recycled Christmas Card boxes

15.  [Added] Tea towel - COMPLETE

Linking to Celtic Thistle Stitches 

X-Factor pillow swap - sent and received

I was invited to join in Round #7 of the X-Factor pillow swap which had the theme of 'low-volume'.  Each round has a different theme and the way it works is GENIUS!  You sew a cushion cover (minimum size 16") to the theme of the round and keep it a secret.  Once you have sewn your masterpiece, you send an image of your creation to the Flickr mama who posts it in the pool with an entry number.  She is the only person who knows who made which cushion.  A day or so after the deadline, all the members who created a cushion cover then vote on the cushions in order of what they would like most.  The only person who knows this info is the Flickr mama.  Then, a week or so later a cushion arrives at your house and you get to see who the maker was and which of your choices you received!

Here is my interpretation of the 'low-volume' theme:

Of course I HAD to add some green, right!!?  If you can see it, I added three lines of Aurifil green thread across the cushion at the base of the green triangles.  I think of the triangles as trees.  Wonky ones!  I love wonky!  The triangles were paper pieced from a pattern by Owen's Olivia.  Clever stuff!  Each white was a white on white print so those areas still had a low-volume effect.  And guess who the recipient was?  The swap mama herself -- Tiina!  I hope she is enjoying her new cushion!  Oh and I added a little ribbon tag to the side (I HAD to, right!!??):

So - which one did I receive?  This gorgeous scrappy one called 'Pale and Interesting' by Wooden Spoon Rachel.  I love every single fabric in this cushion - and there are 100 squares!  It is like an I-Spy with strawberries, crabs, birds, eye glasses, chickens, houses, scissors, wheels, snails and more!!!!  The quilting is amazing too - I do love straight lines and the grid is perfectly done [=jealous].

I am so lucky - thank you Rachel!!  And thank you Tiina for choosing mine and being a great swap mama!

Round #8 has just been announced with deadline of 25th January 2014.  Want to join in?  Join the group and get sewing!  The theme will be log cabin and text fabric.  Woohoo - two more of my favourite things!!  How will I interpret that one???

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The winner of my 'For the Boys' blog hop giveaway is RHONDA D.  I have emailed Rhonda about winning a bag of Christmas scraps.  Thank you to everyone who stopped in and commented on the shaggy/frayed edge/rag time quilt!  I love making these!

Also, I will be having another giveaway starting on the 21st November.  This is the one organised by the Quilting Gallery - there is still time to register :)  I am thinking I will have two prizes to give away!

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Thank you to Kristy of Quiet Play for sending me a prize of three of her paper pieced patterns.  I was a lucky winner from entering Celtic Thistle's Holiday Mini Competition.  Thank you to you both!!! Oh how I love paper piecing!!!

Also a big thank you to the Quilters Newsletter who sent me 'More Take 5 Quilts' by Kathy Brown and five Quilting Treasures Mod fabrics.  I am itching to start yet another quilt ;)

Hope you all have a great weekend.
Linking to Finish it Friday

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Linking to She Can Quilt for the 4th Quarter FAL.

Here is my original post of goals.

Lizzy in da'house

Lizzy House was at The Village Haberdashery on Saturday and I enrolled in her class to teach us her 'Meadow' quilt.  This is a special quilt to Lizzy and will never become a published pattern - so it was pretty cool to be in the same room as Lizzy, teaching us HER quilt.  She said that there are only a few completed Meadow quilts out there to date so do I hear '"challenge" or what!?  Charlotte will win - she is a total machine!

Anyways, here are a few pics from the day.

And here is mine so far. 

...a long way to go unless I just make this one a baby quilt...  I was going to do 9 blocks instead of the 20 but I have since decided that I quite like it as 4 blocks (this will have sashing) so watch this space to see it completed.  And yes, this makes quilt-in-progress #14 on my to-do list.  I am such a magpie to shiny new projects!  A serial-starter! ;) 

Thank you Lizzy for a great day!!  

I did it, I finally did it!!

I joined a Stash Club.  The Village Haberdashery's "Village Stash Society" to be precise.  Look - I even get a button!! 

 

I went for the '10 designer fat quarters' option to fit in with my budget.  Annie has carefully designed the stash club to offer regular fabrics and organic fabrics and you have the choice of having one or the other or both - plus options to have it as fq's or half metres.  Check it all out here.  

November is RED - I love red and I am totally looking forward to it arriving!  February is green.  I LOVE green.  I also love grey and that will be December.....  Oh how exciting this will be :) 

Mr Mouse

I had a migraine yesterday which sort of disappeared about 7pm so I made a mouse. 

I did a quick sketch months and months and MONTHS ago and I finally made him into fabric!!  Here is my sketch:

I feel a bit fragile today and have woken up with a slight headache in my left eye area so fingers crossed it won't become another migraine...  I'm off to my real job (aka 'work') to pay for my fabric addiction (and so I can sew some cheese for Mr Mouse).

Happy Monday folks!

Making Christmas - Week 5

Making Christmas 2013 - update!!

Here was my list in Week 3.  I have added pictures of the things that I have completed to bring my list up to date to Week 5:

Christmas 2013 TO-MAKE list:

1.  Tissue holders
2.  Hanging tea towels
3.  Drawstring bag
4.  Pom pom snowman ornament
5.  Paper pieced robin - COMPLETE

6.  Felt ornaments (I've made one set of three already - I want to make another set) - COMPLETE

7.  And Sew On blocks into project(s)
8.  Robin in Wreath paper piecing project
9.  Infinity scarf in voile
10.  Christmas wine bag
11.  [Added] Toothbrush travel wrap
12.  [Added] Tea holder pouches
13.  [Added] Pot holder
14.  [Added] Recycled Christmas Card boxes

Linking to Whims and Fancies

"For the Boys" blog hop & GIVEAWAY

 

**GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

One of my favourite blogging "Amy's" is our cheerleader for the "For the Boys Blog Hop" - she is Amy of Sew Incredibly Crazy and along with Mdm Samm they are hosting this fun "For the Boys" blog hop!  Thanks ladies!  I couldn't resist participating because blog hops are a fabulous way to meet new people and get great ideas for more projects to add to my 'to-do' list!   Be sure to visit all of the lovely people on this hop today too:

November 7^th

Amy's Crafty Shenanigans - you are here!

Ridge Top Quilts

Creatin' in the Sticks

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Meadowbrook

Malinis Quilts

Just Let Me Quilt

Kris Loves Fabric

What did I make?  I made a fun shaggy edge (or rag or frayed edge) quilt!  The fabric that gave me the initial colour scheme was 'Backyard Baby'.  I then added some Pearl bracelets, Kona solids, chevrons, some turtles, bears and a few orange and grey fabrics to make an I-Spy style quilt. 

This quilt was a commission from a work colleague for her grandson

There are foxes, snakes, bugs in jars, woodpeckers, snails, turtles, cars and many more creatures and critters to find!  This quilt is between a cot and baby size quilt and will make a great play mat too!  I love making these quilts - they are quite time consuming but the finished effect is great!  I have a plaid one that I have on my bed all the time and it is one of my favourites!  This style of quilt washes up really well too.  This one has been washed three times (in a pillow case to prevent the threads clogging my machine) and dried in the tumble dryer three times to fray-up the edges.  It will only get better and better each time it is washed.  

How did I make it?  I made each square 5" and placed a 4" piece of wadding between two of the 5" squares and sewed an X across corner to corner.  Each square sandwich has the same fabric on top and on the bottom so the design on the back of the quilt is the same as the front. This just makes it easier to decide layout!

The back view

These quilts are so versatile to make.  You can decide on any square size and even use up scraps of wadding that are left over from other projects.  Charm packs are great to use - and would save you cutting all those squares! 

All the sandwiches ready to be sewn into rows!

My way of saying THANK YOU to you for stopping by today is to hold a giveaway!  I am giving away some fun Christmas fabric scraps to one of my followers (link to Bloglovin' and GFC on the right hand side) anywhere in the world.  One entry per follower - just leave any old comment plus a way for me to contact you if you are a no-reply person!  I will draw the winner on November 15th, 2013 by RNG or similar and will email the winner.  I will be adding a surprise or two to the parcel as well! 

Approximately 2 fq's worth of scraps and I will throw in a surprise or two as well!

I hope you enjoy the rest of the "For the Boys" blog hop and good luck!! 

****GIVEAWAY CLOSED****

Congrats to winner:  Rhonda D.

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Linking to She Can Quilt for the 4th Quarter FAL  

My original post of goals.

 

 

And sew on and on and on...

I have really enjoyed the "And Sew On" block of the month with Kristy @ Quiet Play.  She really does make some very clever paper pieced patterns.  My favourite block to make was the 'Stash Cupboard'!  I made this for the Sewing Room Swap and my secret partner loved rainbows (the shelves are full of a variety of fabrics to represent the rainbow), she loved paper piecing (which is why I picked this block to make her mini of) and she loved Sweetwater fabrics (binding, wallpaper and cupboard door).

Here are some of the extra details I added:
Top left to right: a clock, a removable two sided name badge hung on the doorknob of the cupboard
Bottom left to right: a thimble on top of a stack of books with selvages, scissors on the floor

I really enjoyed making this mini quilt for my partner to hang on her bare sewing room wall.  The little touches and details were so much fun to add - I wanted it to look like a real sewing room and stash cupboard with a pile of books and an overflowing scraps basket!  Maybe I should have thrown some threads all over the carpet for a more realistic effect!

Thank you Kristy for these wonderful FREE patterns.  I am looking forward to the next Block of the month she has planned for the new year!

Linking to Quiet Play

Month in review - October makes

October is over already?  WHAT?  Yikes this year is flying by quickly!  Here is how I spent my free time in October:

Yes, October was all about Christmas!  I do love Christmas and I am in an ornament swap so I just made loads and will now decide which partner gets which one!  I also finished a quilt which I will reveal on my day of the 'For the Boys' blog hop later this week :)

My favourite item from October has to be this snow globe embroidery (from Aneela Hoey's book):

But I do love the mushroom ATC card for the ATC swap too:

Linking to Fresh Sewing Day