Finishing Home Sweet Home ...

Last year Melody shared her Home Sweet Home Penny Rug BOM with us ... and I have finally finished off the last touches having spent the last couple of days frantically sewing it .... 

There were tulips to make....

And a quilt to hang on the barn....

And wording and stars to sew.....

I chose to back the rug with a large piece of felt

(well shrunken woollen blanket)

and used some well loved kitchen utensils to trace my circles

machine blanket stitched the base onto the backing

making pennies

... with buttons....

hand running stitch to add them to the backing

... all done...

We have rather a boring storage box (grandiechildren toys) in the lounge room

.... perfect .....

I used a lovely old linen tablecloth for the main piece and the felt is all old woollen blankets which have been felted ...  some I even found in the 'dog blankets' section.... like the blue for the backing of the Penny Rug...... look at the back...

I wonder if they still issue pure wool blankets... I might need to find myself a tame sailor man....

"Got any blankets Sailor?"

Thanks to Melody for many hours of entertainment and fun... I love my Penny Rug....  It is still available HERE on Melody's blog should you fancy doing it...

Melody is going through a difficult time with a friend in hospital... my thoughts are with you my friend....

This was a UFO from last year... glad to get it done... now that means I get to start a new project.....

Righto, Gotto Go... tracing to do....

Quilts on Quilts .....

The latest addition to Melody's penny rug has been an autumn tree and some mini quilts on a line

these are the little quilts that I pieced together
the house is 3" square (23 pieces) whilst the scrappy squares is about 4" (72 pieces)
there is a mistake in the scrappy one - can you spot it?

this little village is growing nicely - I wonder what will be next?

The links to the blocks can be found on Melody's blog in the sidebar... I look forward to each new section

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have neglected showing my trapunto blocks but I have been working hard on them ....

it feels like each block is a little quilt on its own

I have played with various filler options....

some work better than others...

it's all practice... 

Close ups of the blocks I have shown before can be seen HERE and HERE

The tight filling makes for quite a firm quilt... each block will be trimmed to 15".....

the blocks need to be trimmed, then sashed together and there is a wide border with a pretty rope quilting to be done on it....  

This has been a great way to develop free motion skills - small pieces to work on at a time and even with not so perfect stitching the effect is still workable

some of these designs will be great to use on quilts - I love the feather circle

the lines were done using my walking foot... a friend of mine has done the majority of her work including the outline of all the shapes using her walking foot

Righto, Gotto Go.... some instructions to read... some sashing to slice

Tuesday Treasure

Time does fly when you are having fun..... Tuesday again

Thanks to Melody who prompts me to look and remember those things that I enjoy

I found this trio of rather cute treasures in an op shop some time ago....

I put them with a tape measure so you can see they are really quite dinky...

the sewing machine handle turns .....

the cash register handle also turns and the drawer opens....

the spinning wheel also has movement on the handle 

they are all working pencil sharpeners

cheap little gimick items made in China.... no value but very cute huh?

I have finished my block from Shells BOM at Raspberry Rabbits...

"The Adventures of Harrington and Hannah"

and also the one from Melody's BOM at The House on the Side of the Hill

"Home Sweet Home"

Last week I received this lovely little treasure in the post from Wendy at Sugarlane Quilts

It is an iron on transfer for that cute stitchery in the picture

but I love the little box envelope it came in too!!

Thanks Wendy.... I do love stitcheries so this is going to be well enjoyed

and I do hope you are feeling less achey

Forecast is for lots of rain today.... I'm playing with this.

Treasure Tuesday

Thank you Melody for hosting Tuesday Treasure....

This week I dug out an old book.... it belonged to mum when she was a little girl... she would have been in her 80's now so the book has hung around for a while...

... such adorable illustrations .....

(I do like daisies!)

... each with their own little verse....

(the page is all mottled and the book is worn)

... some DIY colour to the illustrations .....

... the cover is a bit scuffed up...

... it was one of mum's favourites... now it's one of mine....

Treasure Tuesdays is a lot of fun... you can sign up HERE for this week

ANNOUNCEMENT

FNSI starts this week hosted by Heidi and Bobbi....

Sign up on Bobbi's blog HERE

Last week Melody, who hosts Tuesday Treasure shared her Home Sweet Home Penny Rug...  mine is coming along nicely.... you can find block one HERE

and this week another felt work project BOM started at Michelle's from Raspberry Rabbits.... it's called Harrington and Hannah....

you can find the first BOM information HERE

I think I may be stitching a bit of this on Friday....

you can see the bunny ears in the corner...

Again I am using wool felt made from old blankets and clothes and a piece of linen tablecloth for the background

though I made a concession here as I didn't have 'white' felt... the snowman is cut out of polar fleece - which makes him nice and fluffy!

Blog Activities - you can join too .....

I do like to make plans and set myself goals and the New Year is as good a time as any to start.

You might like to join in one or more of these too

Last year Dawn and Wendy started a blog called Sew It's Finished and challenged us to list our UFO's that we had in our cupboards and then post on them once they were done.....  I had 28 items listed and I managed to do 20 of them.... so impressive were those finishes that I hear there is a little surprise on its way for me..... how sweet is that.... thank you Dawn and Wendy.....

this is their new, very clever blog header showing some of the finishes from last year.  I was so chuffed to see one of mine in it....

The good news is that they have decided to do this again this year..... if you have a load of UFO's you want to get done.. why not join us.... just go HERE and email Wendy or Dawn - their emails are in the side bar... you then get invited to join the blog, make your list and thereafter post your wonderful finishes.....

The less good news is that I have 30 UFO's on my list this year... how can that be????   I have made a new page HERE where I have photographed and listed my UFO's as from the 1st Jan 2012

There are new projects I wanna do too...... 

Michelle from Raspberry Rabbits is going to do a free BOM 

and so is Melody from The House on the Side of the Hill 

I have a 'stash' of wool blankets that I have been collecting and felting in anticipation for these .....

I haven't seen either of them but I have no doubt they will be lovely designs... 

are you going to join us?  I am pretty sure either design will be lovely in cotton if you aren't keen to use felt 

Narelle from Pins and Whiskers is going to run another year of One Christmas Item a Month... this is such a great way to get some of those Christmas goodies done ahead of the time... and of course you don't have to stop and doing just one!!

Peg and Kris run OPAM... One Project A Month.... and this is a great motivator to get projects finished... I really respond to having plans and itemising the things I have made so thoroughly enjoy posting my finishes and sending off a number each month... just try for one a month... any more than that is a bonus..... Peg and Kris then add up all the projects from all of us and keep a running total.... its great fun.... just email Peg or Kris if you want to join....

I am going to continue with my Christmas 12" block swap... 

last year I made these two toppers with the blocks I received...

this year I am going to collect stars.. which I show on this page HERE

The other block swap is 12"  QBSA where I have been collecting Eye Spy Wonky Square blocks... you can see all the ones I have so far HERE

Both these block swaps are great fun... I just love linking up with people far and wide and then having a special block from them in my home..... if you want to join either (and there are also 6" block swaps) just visit the sites .. 

 - you don't have to be from Australia to join....

- you choose which blocks you want to have sent to you

- you can take a break if you need it

If you are like me and like lists and goals each month Melody gives us a new button to add to our blogs - its such fun writing the list and marking them off as they are done.  There's no obligations... just get up the button and make your own list....

... and of course I will do a few swaps.... I'm sticking with this Once a Season one which Cheryll from Gone Stitchin' is hosting again this year.  You can read HERE about it as well as several other swaps Cheryll is hosting this year on the same post

..... and so far I haven't made the plans of the new things I am going to make!!!

I have no doubt I will be led astray to do some other swaps and start some other projects ....  but I am going to try and be more restrained this year and finish things....

 what about you... do you also have heaps UFO's and a list of things to do this year??????

I'm going to need a few of these

and some of this