Taggies, Kaffe Quilt and Pot Mitts

In a burst of energy, I created a stack of taggies. I have so much Minki to use up. There have been a few babies born to staff at work, grandchildren and acquaintances etc and these are the best little gift to share.

Another job that had been hanging around was the finishing of the binding for one of Rivka's quilts.

I had been staring at the quilt for a couple of months. Half the binding was on, but the last few stitches just never seemed to come.

Here it is, not fully stretched as my husband's arms just couldn't reach all the way to the ends.

Last of all, a pair of pot mitts. My son is moving out with some friends and they just had to have some pot mitts to use in their new kitchen. Every thing in their kitchen is cream and plain so I made these mitts with the plainest linen I could find in my stash. I couldn't resist using the mustard backing though. The glasses are so perfect for my son. He must have lost or broken a dozen pairs of them and although he is far less forgetful these days, they just remind me of him before he grew up and left home.

Holidays are Almost Over

With the holidays drawing to an end, I am looking around me and seeing so many plans still unfulfilled. I'm not complaining though because I have had the most quiet, relaxing, easy holiday in a long time. Being a teacher, I get lots of holidays, unlike when I was in the retail world. I appreciate them totally. These holidays saw knitting projects finished,  and quilts started, finished and in the middle of, and a few other bits and pieces. I had my first yoga class (and found it really hard - BUT I AM NOT GIVING UP!), walked on the beach and around the local parks, met friends, drank coffee, spent time with my family, did the crossword every day, worked a little, cleaned a lot, got accepted into university to study my Masters part time (am I crazy?), bought some great bargains, cleaned out the back veranda (and found a red back spider), read books, tried new recipes and generally did whatever I wanted whenever I felt like it and it was so relaxing and regenerating. 

I guess I am now ready to enter the world of reality and go back to work. 19 new students to get to know, 19 new sets of parents to meet and remember their names. Organised chaos, here we come!

One of my last two projects stitched on the machine has been these oven gloves.

My son wants to take them back to Sydney as a present for his girl friend's family.

I like them now that they are finished but they were a pain to make!

The other one has been quilting the Keiko Goke improv quilt I started with Gwen Marston.

I have just made up the stitching as I have gone along and it has been lots of fun.

I think I know what the binding will be, but I am not 100% so I will leave it for a while and have another look with fresh eyes in my next term break.

Play time for me is over.

A Couple More Pot Mitts

I love using old scrap fabric and breathing new life into it.

Here are a couple of pot mitts that will be end of year presents.

 This is where I first used the fabric by Laurie Wisbrun.

It is fun going through the scrap pile. You find all sorts of old friends and can get a tiny bit nostalgic.

Scrappy Quilting

I like to read other people's blogs but unfortunately I don't always get the chance and time to do that. One blogger that keeps my blog roll moving is im a ginger monkey . 

There is always something going on there. One day, looking for inspiration, I fell upon her tutorials page and found the famous "Scrap Vomit" quilt which led me to looking up her Scrappy Trip Along photos on Flickr . 

The light bulb went on. Get rid of scraps. I need to do that. 

I've been cutting and sewing for weeks and weeks and have made the biggest quilt ever! 

I think I could go on for ever. I can't believe how much yucky fabric I have and how many scraps I have accumulated. 

I have bought no new material and am holding back until I make some inroads to my stash.

I have even more blocks made. 49 in all and about 16" square each. Enough for a king bed.

It has been so much fun playing with the blocks.

Every time I lay down the blocks I have found another way to make a pattern.

Once I decide on the final lay out I will put it together.

Meanwhile... I am trying to make a few gifts for end of year thank you's.

These dogs are for my co year level teacher.

She is mad about dogs.

Anyway, if you are looking for an idea to dig into your stash, follow the link to the Flickr photos and you might become as addicted to making these scrappy blocks as I have been lately.

Playing with the Dresden Template

I never really liked the Dresden style of quilt until I saw a fabulous cushion cover made by Louise from Amitie. I've linked her name to her Flickr account but unfortunately she hasn't put the cushion cover up yet. She has made some great stuff so it's worth visiting her photostream. 

Perhaps it was all the hand stitching that scared me. The little ties can be stitched on the machine but I hand stitched the whole piece onto the grey background.  Anyway I loved the concept and on the weekend I had a go. Here is the top so far. The hand work is not so bad if you only have to make one.

Besides that I've made a few pot mitts,

and some more taggies.

Pleased but not Perfect

Today was not all that productive even though I had a whole day unplanned. First I cooked tomorrow night's dinner, then there was a walk with a friend, followed by a coffee with a work colleague. She is expecting her first child today, but we made it through the coffee without any surprises. So, most of the day just seemed to run away. I think winter can make days disappear. Summer is wonderful with all the daylight. You feel like you have so much time. I guess I should be pleased that I finally threw out my old yucky oven mitts and replaced them with these. They were fiddly to make with all the layers but will be worth the effort I think. There are a few rough bits with my stitching but so long as I don't get burned, they will do. I use oven gloves all the time.
Its 5pm and the sky is darkening. I'm really over this weather!

Pot Mitts Again

Although I was almost pot mitted out when I made stacks last year, I was asked to make a pair for a friend at work. "What kind?" I asked. "Pink," she replied.

Instead of using scraps from the basket I cut into my nicer piles of colour and was much happier with the result.

 She was so happy, she asked for 2 more green/blue ones.

 I had to make 2 sets because I wasn't sure if she would like the darker ones.

Thanks for all your advice on the + x blocks. Your thoughts and ideas have encouraged me to keep going. In fact I'm going to start cutting as soon as I have some coffee and chocolate while doing the crosswords. It's Sunday after all.

Holiday Sewing

At Last the Wheel of Fortune quilt top is finished. It's not very big but those diamonds were such a pain, I was glad to see the last squares being stitched in.

I had about 20 squares left and a few diamonds and I laid them out and arranged them in a neat little square with the diamonds acting as a border. My no. 2 son, who loves tessellations, asked if he could play with them. He created a fantastic new pattern that I have never seen before. I spent the next day cutting more fabric to complete his idea. Now I will have to be working with diamonds again. I'm not showing his lay out yet. I need to psych myself up to drawing all the seams and pinning them all together. May be a few months away yet.

I also made a square block which I will be sending to Japan to be part of the Tokyo Quilt Festival. It was originally blogged about by Ayumills . The thing I like about this idea is that the block will be joined to other blocks, sent in from around the world. The blocks will be made into quilts which will be shown and then auctioned off with all proceeds going to the tsunami victims. Last show they put together 86 quilts!

What else have I been doing these holidays besides freezing?

I've started a quilt using some of my 30's reproduction fabrics. They have been sitting on the shelf for way too long. I have 19 blocks finished and 11 half done.

I made a couple of pot mitts for a teacher friend who just got married. The teachers all pitched in with money for a big present but I just wanted to add a little something extra for her on a personal level as we team teach our class and I was dying to use some new fabrics I bought.

I added an extra pocket at the back to fit your fingers in to get a better grip but stupidly quilted the mitts vertically whereas had I done it horizontally the mitts would have folded in your hand much more easily. Live and learn.

Diamond quilt is being hand quilted and it is looking beautiful.

Snowball Quilt is stretched.

I guess that is where most of my sewing time has gone. I can't believe I go back to work on Monday. I do have a crochet class to look forward to on Monday night though! Wish me luck.

Endings and New Beginnings

The kids used up all our internet allowance about a week early so using the internet was very difficult. They just can't control themselves and seem to watch every you tube video, sport results video, Skype with friends, Facebook and download music so I couldn't really do much blogging. It was a finishing off week for sewing and all 4 Dick and Janes are finished now. They were quilted and had their bindings done.

The final part of the binding was put on this

A few more pot mitts were quilted

And then I got stuck into a new project.

I am a Bruce Springsteen tragic and my brother dropped in a couple of his DVDs to watch. I never really get much time to watch anything but somehow, yesterday I found myself with the house all to myself.

On went the DVD and out came the sewing machine.

I didn't really watch, so much as listen to the DVD but the music was turned up really loud and I started this quilt top.

It was finished today, but with a few hiccups. My measuring wasn't all that good and a few seams ended up being 1/8th to lengthen a few sides - oops. I guess that's why it's known as 'patchwork.'

It was inspired by this

All Potted Out

Pot Mitts are small.
Pot Mitts use lots of scraps.
Pot Mitts make great presents.
Pot Mitts only take a couple of hours to make.
But after 10 hours of making the little blighters, I'm going potty!

I played around with ways to make them today because they are fiddly and it did make them a little less painful but I made too many and it took the fun out of it. It's just that I have a market to prepare for and the time is running out so...

1 down

12 to go

Another little boy quilt is finished. Almost the same as the other but with different backing and binding.

So I guess it's been a good week for making.

Making Things Weekend

Today was a day for all sorts of things.

Finishing boy quilt

Making a very large mug rug

First attempt at some linen coasters

And cleaning Phil's home (our class pet stick insect)

Ikea

Yesterday I went to Ikea just to check out what they had in fabrics. I found these cute prints which I believe have been out for a while now. They are prepacked in little bundles. There are lots more designs to chose from but one can go overboard if not careful and I am going to a fabric sale tomorrow so I need to save some money for that too.

I haven't ironed out the wrinkles yet

After searching the kiddies section I went to the real fabric section and in the soft furnishings range I bought 3 fabrics with a project in mind. I wanted to make a thank you present for a friend who had my family over for dinner last week and I forgot to bring a present along.

So I made this pot mitt glove for her. It will match her slate grey kitchen.

Maybe I am Slightly Obsessive

I think I have this obsessive personality. If I get an idea and I receive even the slightest positive feedback I just go nuts and make lots of whatever it is. This week it was pot mitts. Admittedly I had already made a few but when I took those few to school it was suggested I make some more. It was full steam ahead and some have happily been sold to new homes. Boy I hope they really do work. They are filled with 2 layers of wadding and some insulated wadding. I am nearly over the mania as they are really annoying to stuff but I will have to make some more for the market I am doing in November. They are really great for getting rid of some of your scrap fabric.
Here they are. It was hard to part with a few - I do get attached. I have to get used to selling stuff because I need to justify (only to myself) the growing stack of quilts, toys and fabric in my house. Its everywhere.

I have been playing with Flickr and can't work out how to get a mosaic of photos onto my blog. I worked out how to make the mosaic but it was all blurred in the blog. I need to play some more but if anyone can help, please send me a message.