My week......

We have a Hoya plant which didn't like it where we had it after our move 2 years ago..... we finally set up a trellis and moved it against a wall outside our bedroom - it's not in a good place for viewing but it is happy there and covered with flowers - I have never seen it flower so prolifically...

This picture gives an idea of the flowers... and the buds coming up for more....

Hoya flowers fascinate me.... they are waxy and have those wonderful drops of sweetness coming off them...

I have two plants side by side - different colours... the darker one has much more flowers ...

My parents home had a huge Hoya growing at their veranda door - I think I love them as it gives me lovely memories

the last colour for my houses was the browns.....

I now have heaps of little houses... and a plan..... I just need to work out how to make it work.....

I've been quite busy with various quilting lately and enjoyed some stitching in the evenings using just one thread...

Very relaxing and hard to put down.....

These are Tags for the quilt in No Fuss Stitch-a-long

This is a sweet cot quilt I worked on.... the panel and border fabric is from The Quilters Angel and is so sweet...

The leafy border suits the woodland theme ... and I love doing those little ribbon swirls in small borders...

The quilting on the wider border doesn't show so much but it does on the back.... I need to draw a guideline to get the waves ...

I like to outline pictures to show them off and then I did stipple swirls in the background...

There is enough quilting to show off the pictures, but also still keep it soft enough to snuggle

I am enjoying looking at some of the fruits of Hubz work in the garden

the other evening our outside sensor light switched on so we went to check what set it off..... this pair of Tawny Frog Mouth's were having a rest....   (poor picture but you can make them out)

Righto, Gotto Go... today I am going to sort out my embroidery threads.. they seem to have got out of hand and I can't find what I need when I need it...

Have a lovely weekend....

Norfolk walks....

I do enjoy walking in England - I think the climate so suits it - much cooler and less sweaty!  Saying that I'm not sure how I would go walking in the winter there!!

The Norfolk beaches are lovely.....

I did love the beach houses.....

... sand and shells for ever.....

I understand the beach houses can be purchased for around 65 000 pounds.... around Aus$110 000 - considering its only a room to store a few things in ....... 

Another lovely walk was Sherringham Park - we were just a couple of weeks late for all the rhododendrons in their finest but we did get to see some of the colour ....

The foxgloves were looking lovely though....

... and another walk in another area.... fun to see the windmill there ....

July's scrap challenge is blue..... of course blue beach houses is perfect to end this post....

Righto, Gotto Go...... quilting to do....

The colour Red.....

Red is our colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge....

This weekend I managed to make my fabric basket.....

and there's lots of scraps in there to make my little houses when I get a chance.....

... my bookshelf is beginning to fill up with the baskets.... I like....

I have been lucky this week...... this thread just had a tiny bit left when I was quilting ..... I had no more of this sparkley white so I was holding my breath... silly but I get a bit of a thrill when this happens!!! haha..

.. then my bobbin ran out just the right time..... I feel like I am living on the edge!!!!

haha.... don't you hate it when you sew a seam only to find the bobbin thread was finished????  I remember holding up a quilt to admire the borders I had sewn on and they fell to the floor!

This is what I was using the sparkley thread for... to make some water for this little card.... you can't see the delicate sparkle in the photo but it looks very nice...

Then I edged it with the satin stitch and that's where the bobbin lasted for me .... I just made it in time!

This card is going off to Wales.....

Righto, Gotto Go...... I'm ready for a coffee - then back to play/work .....

QAYG fabric basket tutorial

I do love to join in sewing with others and my Tuesday sewing friends and I like to do a joint project too....

On Michelle's blog she wrote about a Rainbow Scrap Challenge she is doing -  which is hosted by SoScrappy.  

Anyways, since we all have scraps and I don't like throwing ANY fabric out --- and us Tuesday girls needed a new machine sewing project (Dutch Treat is ongoing hand work) this seems a perfect opportunity to work on my scraps and get them in some sort of order....

This is how I keep them at the moment....

My plan is to make baskets for the different colour scraps - use some up and store the rest!  

There are several fabric basket patterns on the net but I wanted to do a Quilt As You Go  in one piece and couldn't find what I wanted so I adapted.  Now there may well be something similar around  and far better but I thought I would include how I did my  NO waste QAYG scrap fabric basket.

First I wanted to make a single piece of quilted fabric out of scraps (for this experimental basket I used batik scraps) and used THIS tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman at Oh Franson.  My finished size of the rectangle was 17" x 23" so I cut my backing a couple of inches longer and wider and the wadding the correct size.  Then quilted the patches over using Elizabeth's method.

When all the pieces were added I trimmed it all to 17 x 23"

... like this....

Fold the work in half lenthways and cut out corners 3 1/2" x 4" (the 3 1/2" being from the folded base up.  Cut carefully around the corner and keep these pieces aside.

And sew the sides together (right sides facing) (I used an overlocker for this)  

You end up with something that resembles a quilted pair of nickers without any elastic!!

Fold the corners lining up the half length fold line with the side seam and sew the boxing seam...

... and that gives you the basket shape....

Here are the pieces that were cut out the base 

Now fold them in half lengthways and sew the seam .. then turn through (this was the most difficult part as they are a bit bulky but just fiddle around ....

Find the side seams of your bag and pin these short lengths to make handles.  I put them about 1/2" on either side of the seam....  Baste them in place.

Make enough binding to comfortably fit around the bag... I did the length plus 4".  Sew it down on the inside of the basket...

Then turn over and sew the binding down..... (of course you can do this by hand)

As you can see this method shows the seams inside.....

.. but it's perfect for what I want ....

The basket has ended up sort of 7 - 8 " square (I say sort of because some sides are 7" and some are 8".  Not perfect but fine for me....

... Hmmmmmm - my overlockers sits in an old plastic cover - it could do with a QAYG cover sometime..... 

So I used up some scraps and I am also using up some of my lovely threads left over from quilt projects (not enough to use for a big project)

For the linings I am using left overs from backings (so officially scraps too!!!) .... sometimes I need to join them...

and I have a couple of linings (also made from scraps)  and the wadding scraps .... 

my first newly made UFO in the bag to make one colour per month...

SoScrappy gives more information about it HERE if you are interested...  basically she chooses a colour and you choose what you want to make with it..... 

Righto, Gotto Go.... this months colour is PURPLE and I need to go and sort out my scraps and see what I can find.