Snowman Quilt coming along

 Boy oh boy is this quilt taking some time!  and here I thought it would be a quick one to make!

I have now made 6 of the appliqued blocks and have 11 to go.  But I am really enjoying making it.

 After that, I join it and then snip all the edges to rag it.

From experience, I will go outside and snip it and take regular breaks, as I know of one lady who snipped her quilt in one sitting and ended up with her wrist in a brace for a few weeks!

I used this for the first time to applique the pieces and am VERY IMPRESSED!

You iron it onto your fabric, then you peel off the paper and it sticks to the next piece of fabric.  No ironing the second time with the risk of moving it.. it sticks itself and if you aren't happy with the placement, you take it off, reposition it and it sticks there... a bit like "sticky notes".

I was hoping to get this finished before I return to work on Wednesday after having the festive season off, but I can't see that happening!

I am planning on taking down the Christmas decorations tomorrow.. they took 5 hours to put up and I hope it only takes 1 hour to take down.  I know they are meant to stay up until the New Year, but I will be back at work then and won't have lots of time on my hands when I go back.

Until next post..

Jewells

One Block Made - 16 to go

I have just finished the first appliqued square and I just love it!

When placing the nose I realised that there was an error in the instructions.  There is only 3 of this type of Snowman in the quilt and in the picture the nose goes to the right, not the left, otherwise it didn't curl "up" right..  I checked that I had traced the pattern correctly and it did not say to reverse the tracing on this Snowman.

I also came across another error in the cutting out of the 6.5" squares... it was one short.  Again I recounted what I did and what the pattern said.  I counted the squares on the pattern and it was one short.

Very MINOR errors which shows that the "author" is only human.

 

I use to proof read patterns for a friend and I know how easy it is to miss something.  You actually "know" what it is meant to say, and sometimes you read what should be there.. when it isn't.

 

I found the safest way of proof reading a pattern was actually making the quilt as you read it.

Must get back to another square.

Until next post...

Jewells

A long time between posts.. SORRY!

 I am working on the above flannel quilt. (Yes it is summer here and I am mad to be working with flannel in the heat!).  When finished it will be about 50 x 70". So far I have made the 4 block squares and traced all the pieces onto fusible wedding.  I used a whole roll of fusible webbing ("Appli-Kay Wonder") which was 18" x 3 yards!

 Before Christmas I was knitting these Santa dish cloths.  It doesn't show very well with the variegated cotton, but the solid colours, especially the red, shows up very well.  These are the left overs after giving them as part of my friend's gifts.

 Many years ago, I was in a Christmas Churn Dash Swap, and here is what I made up with many of the squares, and with the left over ones.....

 I made a table cloth.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and all enjoy the coming New Year.

Until next post...
Jewells

Aussie Christmas Lights

Last Friday night I went to the Hunter Valley Garden's Christmas Lights and was very impressed.

The above shot was taken at the water feature there,

But the most impressive part (I thought) was the area that had the 12 days of Christmas:

These lights were pulsed to the music of the 12 days of Christmas and the lights were on 3 sides of the sucken garden on the tall hedge of trees.  As each day was mentioned, only that lot of lights lit up, then as the countdown of the days was sung, they would light up, then go out until it was mentioned again.. I sat and watched it a few times (much to my partner's disgust!)

Managed to sew 3 lots of curtains this weekend for our house.

Christmas will be with us soon!

Until next post..

Jewells

Aprons

More items for my craft stall.  

I made these aprons for last year's sale and all but one sold, so I got in and made more for this year.

This is my favourite one (I made 2 of these).

The centre piece is meant to be a fat quarter cut into a square, but I used a "cushion panel" for this one, and only have to cut it down a bit.

I will be using this model for the display at the sale.  I found last year, whatever was on the model sold first.. I had to keep re-dressing the model!

The following are more aprons finished.

Folded up ready to sell

Wish I didn't have to go back to work on Monday!

Until next post..

Jewells

Cushions for my Stall

As mentioned last post, I have been "resting" by doing some sewing.  

 I am having my annual Patchwork & Craft Sale on the 8th December, so I thought I had better get in and make some items for sale.

Today I was making & finishing off these cushions:

Christmas Cushions

Christmas & Snoopy Cushions

Snoopy Cushions

All piled up!

Will post again tomorrow with more of what I am doing for the stall.

Until next post...
Jewells

Flowers, Fish, Jewellery

Still showing you some Fiji photos

These are some of the beautiful flowers in bloom while I was there:

The blue star fish and the colourful fish:

 This is my grand daughters braids... it took 3 hours for the 91 braids to me done

This is how bingo is played over there.. with rocks!

Then I spoilt myself with these 2 pieces of jewellery

Made from Coconuts

Black fresh water pearls

While I was over there I felt unwell for a couple of days, not the tummy bug, but very sore throat, tired, aching arms & legs and VERY tired (slept for a day and half solid, only getting up to "try" to eat).  I put it down to the air conditioning and all the walking & stairs climbing I was doing, so I thought I would shake it off when I got back, but my throat got worse.  I eventually made a doctor's appointment yesterday, only to find out I have Glandular Fever.
I am on medication to reduce the swelling and the inflammation.  But the cure is rest.

So what does a quilter/patch worker do for rest?  SEW!!
Tomorrow I will show you what I have been up to!

Until next post...
Jewells