Mini Christmas bunting.....

7 months minus one day to go

....until Christmas 2013 .....

... and time for the next 1 Christmas Item hosted by Narelle ....

I made 5 metres of this mini bunting from scraps

bits of Christmas fabric selvages and 1" strips from the scraps - sewn onto a piece of wadding .... 3" by whatever length I had...

sewed the strippy piece onto a plain back (scrap of course!!)

then drew marking lines.... these were at 2" intervals.... to make like mini trees!

... stitch on either side of the drawn lines.....

... then cut on the lines....

... and thread and knot the little trees onto your mini cord...

...... hum, sing, as you thread and knot.....

... all done, ready to hang up.....

.... rather cute I think...

.... scrappy, but cute... which is what I wanted....

.... cost me nothing but a couple of hours of footy time (can you tell I really love footy??????)....

Next month Narelle is visiting this end of the world... we are going to catch up for a cuppa... that will be fun.....

Righto, Gotto Go... still another deadline looming... this months SAL bag... almost done....

Hand lotion...

A Pay It Forward treat arrived at my house from Tracy this week

real 100% pure bees wax

Bev has some great ideas for home made products

Here is the link to Bev's instructions to make these lotion bars .... so easy, so nice .....

really not at all difficult and it doesn't take long to make either 

I used the beeswax, copha (coconut vegetable shortening) and my favourite body oil Jojoba

The scent of the honey in the beeswax is just amazing

I made another set with olive oil and lavender last evening

blended up dried lavender with the oil and added a few drops of lavender oil

I am finding this is perfect to put on my hands when I am sewing... no greasy feeling at all

and yesterday I spent some time with my machine and pretty strips for my Scrappy Trip

coming along nicely... such fun to have a lovely selection of strips to play with

anybody got some time to trade?

Righto, Gotto Go...... still washing bedlinen.... need clean towels..... more visitors coming .....

Needlecases and a Friends ..........

I wonder if there is such a thing as too many needlecases?

I seem to have quite a collection and I use them all....

I just fell in love with the squared blocks in one of the Rural Jardin ranges.... and I wanted to show them off in a little project....

... so this is how I have made some needlecases ...

... of course you can use any fabric and any size ....

I cut up the blocks and cut a backing and wadding to size ....

(these were approximately 4" by 8" to fit the already printed blocks)

... also some pieces of fine ribbon (about 8" long)

placed them together... main fabric right side up.... ribbon mid point at the edges, backing fabric right side down, and finally wadding/batting....

... pin them together holding the ribbon ends carefully in place and ensuring the other ends of the ribbon are well away from where you are going to sew the seams....

sew around the edges leaving a hole for opening (about 1 1/2" will do) , clip the corners.....

.... turn through and close up the hole ... I ladder stitched by hand...

hand quilted 1/4" round the edges ....

cut a piece of felt ... I used doctors flannel .... a lovely soft fabric, not as firm as felt but it is lovely and fine and holds needles beautifully.....

.. here it is marked in the centre .. then sew it down on your machine

no rules... just guidelines and you can hand sew it down should you prefer

tie some beads onto the open ends of the ribbon and secure with a knot....

.... cute little needlecase.....

do you want one?

you can make one too

I have 3 'kits' available to give out

(cut fabric, wadding, doctors muslin, ribbon, beads and some thread for quilting)

just comment... that's all...

I'll have a chat to Mr Random in a few days time

Yesterday I was so lucky to meet up with a bloggy friend and gave one to her (made up!!!) in a little Christmas bon -bon... with a few naughties to eat

Marilyn was visiting our town for a wedding and we joined up for coffee

..... and just a bit of chatting....

Marilyn does lovely sewing and she brought along her lovely project which I have so admired.... I didn't get a picture but pop along HERE for a look... it is just lovely in real life (so is she!!!) 

look at this amazing project bag she made for me..... It is just perfect, perfect....

.... and so beautifully made.....

she really is very clever and does such lovely work... it was so great to chat and also get lots of ideas and tips from Marilyn... so great to meet up...

Righto, Gotto Go... I'm making some more needle-cases for the gifties box....

Making selvage fabric .......

I have been using up selvages.....

the selvages were first sewn onto a piece of  scrap calico which was cut a litttle larger than I wanted the final piece to 'make' the fabric

..... take care to sew one edge of the selvage carefully over the cut edge below...

 then cut to size (these are 12" squares for pot mats but you can use whatever size you like)

as you can see I try and use mostly  the markings on selvages... the dots with colour range and the writing... makes it fun.... on larger pieces there are plain spaces.... we all need space to breathe sometimes!!!

once the 'selvage fabric' is made I sandwich it as for any topping - I used heat resistant wadding with foil as I wanted them to be able to take hot pots.... double wadding works too....  then I quilted it quite closely with a stipple/meandering (what is the difference anyone?????)  so that the mat is quite firm....

binding added and you have a pot mat.... mug rug..... pot holder.... tray cloth.... place mat..... table topper 

I sent one to Shez and she is using hers as a table topper

I put in one of these little fittings .... nice and easy and no special equipment needed .... the bits all came in the box with the eyelets....  but of course you can sew a little loop or just leave it to rest on the counter.... 

I use pot mats in the kitchen all the time... and on the table...

save selvages, make fabric, repurpose to something useful.....  

Yes, quite a bit of sewing...  arbitrary strips is great for those mindless times... which are happening a bit more frequently... hmmmmmm

Tonight is FNSI and I love joining in to stitch with people all over the world and then visiting to see what they made.....

Heidi is hosting and you can sign up HERE

Righto, Gotto Go....  I need to sort out what I will be sewing tonight....
...  I'm still working on my document folder.. just waiting on a delivery of magnetic snaps.....  hope they arrive soon - I need it in 13 days!!!!

Make a Mini Quilt .....

Melody from The House on the Side of the Hill is doing a Penny Rug block of the month...

This month we have made a fence and some bird boxes....

Melody also suggests preparing a couple of mini quilts that are going to be hung up for next months block....

This is how I have made one of them...

The suggestion was for a 4 - 5" quilt... and I used 1" squares ...

I used a base of lightest weight iron on vilene (sticky side up) marked with 1" gridlines - I planned on 8 x 10 ... so 80 x 1" squares

next I placed the 1" squares randomly (sortof) in the grid to get a range of colours

once all the squares that I was using were carefully placed within the marked lines I covered with my teflon piece (if you don't have this then baking paper works perfectly well) and gave them a good press to stick to the vilene...

then I trimmed up the vilene ....

fold each line right sides together and stitch your 1/4" seam ... because these are tiny little squares its a bit fiddly... but not hard....

here they are all done down one set of parallel lines....

next snip through the vilene...this is easy as the vilene sortof really tears rather than needs to be cut...

then fold and stitch along the other set of lines....

it may not be necessary to cut this time but I felt it made it a little less clumpy for these tiny little squares...

a good spray with starch and a press and you have a miniature quilt.... all those little 1/2" squares

(the points aren't perfect but I'm sure you get the picture - much easier with bigger pieces)

I will turn the edges and buttonhole stitch it down to add it to the penny rug

(This is great way for larger squares too... makes it nice and easy to get the corners and is especially a fun way for children learning to sew)

and of course we do need a snack after any sort of lesson

I'm having a temporary health kick so there is a choice from my lovely fresh fruit and vegetable delivery that arrived

It's not too late to join in to the Penny Rug.... Melody has the links on her side bar....