26 September 2022

Helena's Quilt

 I made a quilt for a couple having their first child. The family had arrived as refugees from Aleppo and we had been introduced to them by our daughter. It was just a fun quilt to be thrown on the floor and used as a play rug.



Sadly, this another of my projects that I gifted before I took a photo of the finished article but no doubt you get the gist of it! And "yes", the baby's name was Helena.

Wall Hangings

 This is currently 1 of 1 Wall Hanging but wait! There might be more in the wind! Some finished and gifted, others in the pipeline of various stages of completion.


This is Miral's Wall Hanging. At the time she was living in Canada, having emigrated from Egypt but since Covid19, she's been living back in Cairo amongst her family. She loves the beach, so I thought it was an apt one to make for her.



Table Runners

 How handy are Table runners? And for the various Seasons too!

Challenge for myself: To make a range of Table Runners for the various Seasons in our life. Times like Christmas, Easter, Summer, Winter, Spring and Autumn. Let's not forget about birthdays, either!

Well! Here's a couple for starters:



A Table Runner for the Christmas Season



One side of a Table Runner in Japanese fabrics.


The reverse side of the same Table Runner.



Norm's Footy Quilt

 I had previously made Norm and myself a knee-size quilt for when we went to the footy. However, one day my brother saw them and decided he's like one too! So, Norm surrended his on the condition I make him a replacement one.

Herewith is his new footy quilt:


The reserve side of his quilt!


.. and the front!

Lily's Quilt

 Lily is one of my bears - a purple bear and when we bought her, I decided that she needed her own quilt!



I had quite a few 2.5" squares pre-cut and I knew amongst them were some purples. So, I found enough to make Lily a quilt! And why wouldn't you???


Lily and a couple of her friends enjoying her quilt, on the bed in our caravan!

Will's 21st Quilt

 Will was 5th in line to receive a quilt for his 21st.


Will's was made from a range of Aboriginal fabrics. Should I find a photo I took of it after it was finished, I'll upload it.

Jessica's 21st Quilt

 Jessie was 4th in line to receive a quilt for her 21st birthday. We worked on the design and colours together and she took a keen interest in following its progress the whole way through.



Jess's 21st Quilt - at the front is a Temperature Quilt, like Rachel's, except Jess has her name appliquéd on it - just to be a bit different.


Another view of the front, showing her name.


And the back is a colour wash with her initial on it.


Amy's 21 Quilt

And so Amy was 3rd in line to receive a quilt for her 21st. Sadly, she had to wait a couple of years before she received it due to a bad case of procrastination on my part. However, eventually it happened!

The finished quilt-top before it was quilted and bound
Showing one of the corners of the quilt
Showing the Arlington Braid and blocks either side of it.


Another view of the corner!

This is one of my favourite quilt blocks - sadly, it's not a 'quilt' until it's quilted! I just love the colours and the design - all my own work with ideas and helpful hints from all sorts of people and places.
Like for example - the border of French Braid took me about 6 months to work out how to turn the corner while keeping the pattern going - it would have been too easy to have just placed a plain block in each corner but "no", I wanted to turn the corner with the pattern intact. Mind you, it wasn't 6 months of thinking of nothing else - it just sat in the background of my head, as I got on with life and eventually I got there! Yay!!!!





PS: did you notice the "peep border"???

Bunting - the new eco-friendly balloons!


And more than 2 years after I started this Page, I'm finally having a go at uploading it. Attached is a photo of our bundle of Christmas Bunting, which we string up every year at the front of our home. It heralds the Festive Season for us. I also made a stack of generic bunting which we string up around our Patio (at the back of the house), when we celebrate a birthday or any other event - and sometimes they too, get an airing at Christmas time.

26 May 2019

Rachel's 21st Quilt

I wanted to make Rachel a quilt for her 21st but what to make - what design to choose? After much thought, I decided on a Temperature Quilt - and so I set about doing the research on it. First, I had to find the daily maximum temperatures for each day of her birth year and then calculate how I would "display" them - I settled on a colour for collections of temperatures (in celsius). They being:


a)  10-11-12 = ice blue
b)  13-14-15 = light blue
c)  15-17-18 = medium blue
d)19-20-21 – darker blue
e)  22-23-24 = light green
f)  25-26-27 = medium green
g)  28-29-30 = darker green
h)  31-32-33 = yellow
i)   34-35-36 = light orange
j)  37-38-39 = darker orange
-->
k)40-41-42 = red

However, I needed another 9 rectangles to complete the set. Problem solved - I chose fabric with musical notes on them in a light shade of white/grey and I placed them at strategic points on the quilt - the birthdays of herself, her siblings and her parents, but because I still needed another 3 placements, I chose New Year's Day, ANZAC Day and Christmas Day coz on each of these days music is played - think about it! And so the quilt below has the 365 days of Rachel's birth year, plus these extras to complete it.



What to do on the reverse side? Her mother (my cousin) suggested that Rachel's favourite colours at the moment were black, grey and white with a splash of colour - and so that's what I did on the reverse - exactly that!



17 October 2018

Block Swap 2019

I was invited to be one of the testers for the 2019 Block Swap, which was great - it was the first time I've ever done that.

Herewith my 2 test blocks:



Half of the square had to be a white triangle and the other half were scrappy strips. I think the group will be going with the first option of horizontal strips to the diagonal. While I enjoyed making the second one, I would not recommend it for struggling beginners. The idea is that on the white triangle, participants are to write a favourite recipe which showcases where they live. Uggg!!! Writing on fabric is not what I call fun - it's anything but...

However, I am not the coordinator and so whatever she chooses is what we'll go with!

26 September 2018

Making Clothes

This is no longer on my "love to do", nor my "like to do" list but sometimes it's just unavoidable. Our adopted daughter begged me to make her a layered skirt. So I did... I actually finished it and gave it to her before I snapped a "finished" photo but I'm sure you get the gist of it.



"Pick Me" Quilt

This is still in the making but here's a picture thus far. The pieces have yet to stitched or patched together but this is the basic colour wash background.



Coffee Machine Cover

I was recently asked to make a plain cover for the coffee machine at our church. However, I don't do "plain". So this is what I did - and they were very happy with it.


And the pattern? What does it mean? What's behind it?
Answer: Nothing at all - I just loved the colours and mix of shapes and lines! It also easily identifies which is the front of the cover...

Pin Cushions & Needle Cases

I love making "things"!!! And this time I had a go at Pin Cushions - this was based on a Victoriana Pin Cushion.

This is it when first made.


And these days, it is full of pins, fit for all sorts of purposes.


This is the first of this series of Pin Cushions that I made.


And then I made a "Moroccan-look Pin Cushion, which was gifted to a friend.



Some of my Favourite Foods

I'm not a big cook and much prefer to eat other people's cooking.

However, here are a couple of dishes I've made and been proud of:

This is my "Horizontal Salad", which I love to make when asked to take a salad for a BBQ or casual lunch!




Another Day, Another Salad



Zippered Pouches

I love making Zip Bags. I first learnt about these at one of our quilt club camps and I've been making them ever since for all sorts of things.

And these are zip bags for my Quilt Rulers. I've since bought more rulers, so I'm in the process of making more zip bags for them.




And I showed Yashu, at Creative Threads, how to make a zip bag, which she loved making:


Project Zip Bags
These but a few of the zippered, clear plastic fronted project bags that I've made - each with their project inside, awaiting completion. The bags make it easy to simply pick it up when I want to work on said project and everything I need to take it to the next step is already inside.





Zippered Charging Bags
These bags, each quite small, are for the charging cords and plugs for me my phone, tablet, camera and fitbit. When we're going away, I know that if the bag is empty, then the cords are NOT inside and I can go looking for them!!! No more leaving plugs and cords home anymore!!! Too easy...


Camera charging stuff:

Fitbit cord:

iPad cords and stuff:

iPhone cord and associated stuff:

And there's a bucket-load more bags - each purpose made for their specific tasks. I love 'em!

Tea is another of my "Happy Places"

I love tea! I love everything about tea from making it for myself, for friends and then enjoying every cuppa.

Here's one of my favourite tea mugs from T2:




But wait - there are others which I love as well...

Like this one!





And what of the Pot itself? Here's but one of them... All covered in a simple red jacket which I knitted using Fisherman's Stitch or was is Sailor's Stitch? It was something marine anyway!!!




Stuff I've Made for the Caravan

We recently upgraded from a Camper Trailer to a Caravan and during the transition time, I got busy and made a few things for it - to celebrate a new era in our lives - as one does!
Other items will be published in between other posts...

I love making things that I perceive are needed at the time and with the advent of our caravan came a whole new batch of things to make.

This a set of 4 Placemats which I made for the caravan, depicting caravans on them!



I needed something to protect the microwave platter when we travel. I had been using an old tea towel, which looked quite daggy and finally put thread and fabric to good use and made something "fit for purpose".



And one can't have a bed without a homemade quilt? That's just not proper!!! 
Complete with our travel buddies!!!


Knee Quilts for the Footy

During 29016, I decided to make ourselves a knee-Quilt for the footy - as football is a Winter sport, it gets rather chilly around the hips, knees and ankles. And as our local team in Glenelg and their colours are black and gold, they are made in their colours.

This one is my quilt - using the Apple Core block.



Norm's Quilt is also using the Apple Core block - but with a different placement.



Both of the Knee Quilts have much the same back: