FNSI - Potholders

I didn't sew very much but it is finished. Yesterday was such an overcast day I couldn't take a photo that didn't look dark and gloomy but this morning is lovely so when I eventually chased the almost teen off facebook (!) I uploaded this

It's the start of some useful gifts I am going to stockpile for this year.

Cheers,
Robyn

Down on the Farm....

This was the theme of a recent swap on Our craft Forum. The requirement was the item needed to have something to do with farms so the scope was fairly wide. As boiled eggs are a favourite breakfast of mine, but the timing for having the toast and the eggs both hot/warm at the same time can be challenging and, I thought my swap partner may encounter the same problem, so I made her a set of egg cosies with some cheeky broody hens on to keep her eggs warm while she organised the toast.

Australia Post finally deigned to deliver them to her house (after nearly 3 weeks!) so I can now post a picture of them without giving anything away.

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Thanks for visiting!

Cheers,

Robyn

FNSI – Oven Glove

I wasn’t going to post this as I did just as much unsewing as sewing, it’s still not bound and I’m debating whether to finish it at all. Then I thought that it happens to all of us and might make someone else who has trouble sewing oven gloves/mitts a bit less disappointed when theirs goes awry.

This is the ‘nice’ view

Look, good fit!

However.......see the unsewn pieces?

I think I’ll sew the next one up a little differently so there’s not so many thick seams at corners and curves.

Hope everyone had a productive FNSI J.

Cheers,

Robyn

On My Mind..... art fabrics and art quilt

I didn’t have anything to post for this today until DH came in with the mail that he’d collected at the PO on his way home.

YAY, the giveaway I’d won from Quilt Routes in the Sew Mama Sew May giveaway month had arrived! These materials are gorgeous and what you can’t see in the photo is the glitter throughout some of the fabrics and the variety of colour. It will be so difficult to use the larger pieces as when they are opened out they are a picture in themselves with all the tones and sparkles.

The coloured scrim at the right back of the photo will most likely end up on scrapbooking pages, cards and beyond the page projects like treasure boxes and mini albums.

The art quilt I’ll do as a winter project and  you’ll have to wait to see those fabrics in the finished project J.

To see what is on other people's minds today visit Rhonda's blog and follow the links.

The giveaway I am holding is in my previous post.

On My Mind......Swaps

Here's my practice dishcloth for the dishcloth swap that I'm involved in on down_to_earth. I need to work on the joining corner as it's a bit wonky. That's the corner in the bottom right of the photo.

Lucky the swaps don't need to arrive before 1 June as DD12 has borrowed the crochet hook and misplaced it and I don't have another anywhere near that size. Shopping day next Thursday though and a few hours of industrious crochet crochet whilst watching Dr Who and Inspector Morse should do it :).

This is the buckeye block I made for the Acorn Gatherer's swap with Linda on Our Craft Forum. I like the colouring better than the practice one and Linda likes it too.

This went together surprisingly easy and I only had to unstitch once or twice :O.

I'm in a private block swap with Mary though and I had to put the block aside or I would have set fire to it! I'm having trouble matching one of the sides to the centre square of a nine patch and after unpicking a few times and trying different ways of assembling I still can't make a half square triangle set meet the corners properly. Think I'll have to do this one again or at least redo the strip.

To see what's on the mind's of other people visit Rhonda's blog.

FNSI - Firsts!

I finally did some sewing on a FNSI. These are firsts as I haven’t done a block since the first 12” block swap I went in years ago. They were the first blocks I ever made and the pattern wasn’t quite right so it was a chore to do them so I just winged it and hoped they turned out square and mostly the right size L.

I’m quite pleased with these as the points join nicely (I’ll ignore the fact that I had to unpick one seam twice!), they were evenly square before trimming and the 2 nine patches are12 ½” though I need more practice with the half square triangles on the bullseye block as it’s only 12 ¼”.

Yeah, I know, I’m a fusspot but that’s just me.

Nine patches are destined for youngest GD’s quilt and the bullseye is a sample and will eventually go into a sample quilt if it doesn’t end up being in a bag or something else that takes my fancy!

UFO's/WIP's???

I’ve just joined Sew It’s Finished so I’ve been looking through my stash and I have a few started and a few more planned that need to be done....this year.

The list of UFO/WIP so far is :

·        Quilting and finishing DGS Bob the builder quilt

·        Making a quilt from some heart blocks I’ve received for newest DGD

·        Making ‘something’ with 12”  ‘Squaredance’ blocks from a swap 3(?) years ago – hmmm a lap quilt for winter.

Now for ‘Must do this year’ that haven’t been started :

·        Make DS a quilt before November 1st.

·        Make a planned gift for an overseas friend.

·        Try to make at least one Christmas gift each month.

This doesn’t look like much but DGS quilt is the first actual quilt I’ve done. I’ve quilted potholders, oven gloves, needlecases, bookcovers and other items but not anything this big and I don’t FME yet. Lol, that’s another thing I have to start doing this year - FME! 

This is where I'm up to with DGS quilt so far:

I'm going to self bind this quilt as the backing fabric is a bit heavier than the quilt front fabric.

FNSI

Here's what I did last night. Any comments welcome as this is my first quilt and true to form I'm 'freelancing' instead of doing it from a pattern!! Lol, I can't help myself. This was originally a fabric book but I just liked the theme for my grandson as he helps his Pop and his Dad a lot.
Caught myself out last night as I thought I had more strips cut for the sashing/borders but when I went on a search for it I discovered that I had used that red for something else and hadn't replaced it yet! Looks like I'll be at the fabric shop on Monday.
I had to trim the blocks again as the pattern isn't quite even but at least I've made a start *smile*. The finished quilt should be about 36" x 46". Is that big enough for a 3 year old boy to wrap himself in or should I add a second border and make it 40 x 50? 

More Potholders

Finally remembered to photograph the one I gave Mum...she hasn't used it yet!! She said it's too good to use, now where have I heard that before :P? If Leanne hadn't specified pumpkins this would have been the replacement.

This is a crazy quilting one which is meant to depict the area I live in. Well I know it is and that's all that matters :). There's a few fabrics in this that Juliet sent me. Thanks Juliet! I'm acquiring the ability to machine embroider neatly. Both potholders are 8" square.

The last one is one I made using the tube method but I halved the sizing as I thought I could always make it bigger for my needs but it would have been difficult to downsize it. This is 7" square to keep the dimensions correct.

Potholders.....finally :)

Here are the potholders that Monika and I made for the potholder swap. Monika made me this one, isn't it gorgeous!

and I made Leanne this one

I made my mum one for her birthday but forgot to take a photo. That will have to be for another post as I seem to be acquiring a few family orders for these so will group them together.
Have a nice weekend everyone :).