Raggedy and Friends mini quilt

A couple of years ago I really liked Kaaren’s Raggedy and Friends quilt she had as a free BOM. Visit her blog and look down the right hand side to see the patterns are still available.


I stitched the embroideries and about that time we had a small group swap in our local patchwork group. I put my stitcheries into the bag and asked if they would add pieced blocks and fabric around the stitcheries. When we swapped the bag each month we met at a local café and usually my daughter was with me. As a result she got to know the ladies and therefore the story of the quilt of how it was added and sewn too. She really liked the quilt, so I decided I would give it to her.

However, as is often the case with a UFO, it sat in the cupboard until December last year when I got it out to sandwich it and quilt, yes that’s all that needed doing!!! I gave it to her for her birthday which is two days after Christmas. It is now proudly hanging on her wall.

Raggedy Ann means something to my daughther.  When we went to pick her up in the Philippines the gifts we took her not only included a soft toy kangaroo, but pencils, paper and a Raggedy Ann colouring-in book and other itens. She remembers that very distinctly that colouring-in book and the pictures in the book.

It is interesting to read up the story behind Ann and Andy.

 

First 2011 project

I have completed my first project for 2011. A x-stitch bookmark I received as a Christmas gift. It was "very me"!!! I love roses and pink with cream and green!!

Also end of last year I completed Kaaren's Huswif Needlecase, that she had as one of her First Friday Freebie patterns. The following is the stitchery completed,

Now sewn together with outer fabric, binding and button.

Inside the Huswif Needlecase. I altered Kaaren's last image changing it to a pineapple (from another of Kaaren's FFF's) and my own words "Heart given to hospitality." My home has been that in the last week and a half, with 14 guests either to a meal or staying with us.

Finally a picture of the lastest chickens my daughter is loving to death!!! This is a picture she took on the back verandah, where she plays with them for hours.

Months disappeared...Where? and What?

I’ve wanted to post, for some weeks, but other things kept happening!!! Then a dear friend posted a comment, hoping I was okay, so I knew I just had to sit down and get it done!!

So where do I start?
My new job – as a school chaplain, started off and went very well. By the end of the term I knew over half the students by name and started to place sibling groups together. Coming into my office for “teddy hugs” has been a huge hit.

I also made some cushions for the office, using a very colourful cardigan someone had knitted, which I bought at a second-hand shop. It wasn’t complete – just the back and two front side panels, which had been joined, but no sleeves or anything else. I unpicked it, and made cushions with them. The photo’s show the outcome.

Just before I started the job I managed to get some DJ blocks made for someone I’ve been swapping with for a while. I made great progress then they came to a halt.

I made progress in getting 3 mug pouches sewn up for my giveaway, commenced the embroidery work after completing the colouring-in on the stitcheries, then they came to a halt.

Everything changed as my hours and days changed with working and affected my creative/sewing times. Plus I was feeling quite tied.

On top of all that, my sister-in-law was getting married and asked my daughter to be a flower-girl, along with her cousins. So making a flower-girls dress became priority one, in what little time I had. I really enjoyed making this dress, it's been a few years since I last did some dress making, which was also for a wedding. Back in my teens I used to make most of my clothes.

From this:-

To this:-

Along came Christmas, with family coming here. When we have Christmas here in our home, it’s become our tradition to make a ginger-bread house. So this is our 2010 Gingerbread house!!

Our son now has his "L" driver’s license . . . some of you know me as calm, quiet and easy-going. Well, we may have to now add, “she’ll go grey very quickly!!!”

Then yesterday morning…….my daughter had gone into the kitchen, when she called out “Mum!” I said “What?” (Hubby and I were lying in bed relaxing and talking.)

“Mum, there’s a snake in the kitchen!!” (Action…..fast jumping out of bed, unbelief that it could be so….)

There it was right in front of the kitchen stove. Hubby raced out for a shovel, while we kept watch, as it turned and slithered back across in from of the cupboards and sink.

My husband has said “it ‘naturally’ died of ‘natural’ causes!!!” It was a 3ft “tiger snake”. Some interesting stats: one person a year dies from snake bite in Australia. 60% of people die from a “tiger snake” bite.

We can only guess it came through the front door, when the flywire door wasn’t properly closed. Don’t try and think about it being in the house for the day and night, without us knowing!!!

So I’m happy to say we are all safe and well and I’m hoping for some creative times in coming weeks. I’m suffering badly from “withdrawal symptoms”!!

Icecream Container . . and . . Mug Pouch?!

I mentioned two posts ago about the Re-Invention challenge by Jenny of ELEFANTZ. I can now show you what I did with the icecream container.

A few years back I saw the pattern for a mug pouch, by Christine Book, in the Australian HOMESPUN magazine No. 38 (Vol. 7 No.4). I wanted to make one then, but never did. Recently our patchwork group decided, as it’s growing “too big”!!! and to make it easier on the hostess, where we meet once a month, it was suggested to bring our own mug along. I knew exactly what I wanted to make, to take along my mug with.

I also made a couple of others for friends in the group also. So I’m using the last one I made, as the model for the process of making it and how the icecream container came in useful. I tried something new – colouring in with pencils the stitchery, painting over it with Textile Medium and iron setting it.

1. The pouch is made in two pieces, like mini quilts. With some embroidered pockets. One goes on the back for a teaspoon, and the teabags plus sugar.

2. It’s folded in a certain way, which makes sense soon…!!!

3. Embroidery completed, which I did as Crazy Quilting, as my friend loves CQ! Also a piece of icecream container. What’s if for? It will sit in the bottom of the pouch to hold the base out. I used it because I didn’t have any template plastic like the instructions suggested.

4. The pockets have been sewn on the front and the back, and now the two pieces are hand sewn together, to form the pouch.

5. The completed pouch!!!

6. Here are the three I made. The rose one is mine.

7. The back of my pouch, showing what the "spoon" pocket looks like.

Free BOM and Giveaway

Dorothy Baker is starting a free BOM stitchery "Sweet Nostalgia" - it looks just beautiful. She's also having a giveaway to launch this BOM.

Amy Karol: "Bend-the-rules Sewing"

A while back I saw someone mention on their blog about the book “Bend-the-rules Sewing” by Amy Karol. She has a blog as well. What was said, the project made and shown, got me interested. So I got a hold of the book.

I mentioned my daughter knitting in my previous blog, so from Amy’s book I made two of the “Charming Handbag” - one for my daughter’s knitting and one for me (mine has the crocheted heart on it)!! I made it from a fine corduroy.










After that I made the “Artsy Clutch”, “Pleated Beauty Bag” and the “No Cash Wallet” (Why that name? it’s to carry loyalty cards, credit cards and so forth). I made them as a set.








The front panel for the “Pleated Beauty Bag” I used a design from Cinderberrystitches. I also used an element from this stitchery design for the “No Cash Wallet".


I really enjoyed making them.