It's perfect......

............... and ever so soft and cuddly .........

My fusion blanket is done.... I started with doing some of the butterfly stitcheries on the blocks.....

the other side of the blocks is this pretty flannellette....

It really is one of the softest snuggliest that I have made... not quite a quilt but not a blanket either.....

.... I think I'll call it a quilket......

If you have been wondering about making one of these... go ahead... sooooooo lovely..

.. I will be doing this again....

the tutorial is HERE - the original design being by Sewing Daisies... thank you

Righto, Gotto Go......

those eyes are still watching me

Do you ever feel you are being watched?

I do........

 chooks in a row

I did have a problem with some of them..... I made a few that were looking over their @#&*  tail feathers so a bit of reverse stitching was required..... 

(note to me - pay attention to which seam you are sewing)

I wanted a bit of weight so these are filled with little plasticy teady bear filling beads - the pins do go in fine but I'm not too sure if it will be good for them (the pins) long term....

Excellent for holding down pattern pieces.....

I ran out of beads..... so some of them are slumped in a corner looking like they have had the stuffing knocked out of them ...

in fact, of course, they haven't had any stuffing yet to be knocked out of them

.... I made up 5 1/2" squares of 'fabric' with selvages and used THIS tutorial ....

rather cute chooks......

.... eyes all over the place.... even watching me pin the quilt  ....

Righto, Gotto Go.......  I am being watched ......

A lovely day......

I got the day off from hosting a table at the Creative Fields Expo.... (which was a fantastic success) and Michelle came up from Brisbane for a play date....

It is a looooooooong drive - a couple of hours so I really didn't want Michelle get all faint and weak for our day of fun... so first things first...... 

DEVONSHIRE TEA... isn't Michelle such a lovely person....

there was a display of aprons in the tea room - you can see some of them in the background...

loads of beautiful tea pots... this is only a few of them (Michelle has a few more pictures HERE) 

I went for the healthy option for lunch... we had bread rolls and lovely fresh strawberries for our picnic lunch...

.... you didn't really think the strawberries were on their own did you? ....

Michelle likes to think I led her astray.... tell me... does this look like anyone who needed encouragement??????

here is our very civilised picnic spot...... chairs and tables all set out and live music in the tent at the back.....

the gardens were beautiful......

the sun was out, spring was in .... just perfect.....

we did take in a couple of quilt shows... there were just so many unique and beautiful quilts.... we didn't take pictures but spent the hours admiring and oohing and aahing .... and a bit of chatting...... just a bit mind you...

Michelle came with a lovely goody bag for me...... just look...

such a pretty tea mug.... with tea ... a cute lizard all the way from Ayers Rock (and in the right colours) and some chocolate and lovely tea towel.... you need to see a close up of the lovely fabric appliqued on the towel.......

I love it all (well some of it I loved  - haha - the chocolate has disappeared!)

A great day out.... what about a bloggers meet for next year???? 

Righto, Gotto Go.... after 5 days of out of house time there is a pile of laundry.... (sorry to swear on the blog ladies) .....

One Christmas Item a Month.....

...... I haven't kept to an item a month ....

.... I left out quite a few months .....

.....  so I need to catch up .....

....these might be small but they were hand stitched ....

.... and they are pretty cute ....

(These tag patterns were a freebie a few years ago from Hugs from Helen
 - just too cute and sewn with one strand of floss)

To finish off the tags I used a double sided iron on pellon and stitched around the borders then cut the edges with pinking shears and threaded ribbon through the top

I also finished off the binding for these little mug rugs - the design is by Allie

you can find the pattern HERE - there are 7 different designs and they are all ultra cute

Narelle hosts One Christmas Item a Month.... and if you want so festive inspiration have a look on THIS page......

you can do more than one though... like I did

we probably need to...... only 3 months till Christmas......

Thanks Narelle for all the encouragment....

Righto, Gotto Go..... Michelle's coming to play today .....

FNSI September .....

Our Carnival time has started....

Creative Fields is in it's second year and is proving a popular attraction to visit ....

I spent Friday helping hang quilts.....

and setting up tables.....

to say I was exhausted is an understatement.....

but I was determined to keep my FNSI - all the other girls would be there 

.... managed a few seams of my fusion blanket.....

I'm still eating healthy... so I had raspberries .....

on my icecream.....

the blanket is slowly growing.....

lots to see and do at this time of the year

... grandieboy widget went down town with his godmother.....

there are piano's in the streets....

a bit of magic .......

Righto, Gotto Go.... carnival time and I'm at Creative Fields for the week - sooooo fun 

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!!!!

A pieced backing ......

I just loved doing the SAL with the others in the group where we have each been making our version of My Favourite Things designed by Anni Downs

I finished my top a while ago.....

I had a pile of leftover fabrics.... and I really LOOOOOOVVVEEE using my scraps....

..... so I've made the backing.....

... and there is still plenty of green for the binding ....

.....and pink floral but that will have to be another project....

... there were some 2" pieces light backing strips left.... they looked very forlorn... and it is quality fabric....

.... stitch, slice, stitch....

and I have a fat quarter of unique fabric....

...... it's probably quite valuable... being one of a kind.....

Righto, Gotto Go.... quilt to pin......