Funky Little Asian Bag

My last finish for Feb OPAM, my funky little asian bag.

It measures approx 9.5" by 10.5" and has one strap.

Only thing I should have put in during construction was a magnetic closure.

My own design.

I also finished this morning a secret swap project for an online stitching group, Friends in Stitching, that I am a member of. I will show you what I made later in March once it has been recieved.

Hope you had a great weekend, I am of to milk the cow and feed the poddy calves... there are only 6 of them now. A few weeks back I had 14.... will share some pic's soon...

Bec xxx

PS Thanks Alison!

(aunty)

for the FQs...

Bagged Out

Busy today finishing off some UFOs.... gotta get that deadline for February!

The bag above is from Hatched and Patched; Sewing Store.

I put 'Oh Sew Busy' instead of 'Sewing Store' on it; showed the stitchery part off a few months back. I am thinking about undoing the top of the bag and redoing the scallops - I stitched in one stitch too many and it has resulted in puckering.... did NOT want to redo it so I finished the bag but am having second thoughts now....

DH thinks it is meant to be like that...mutered something about flower petals....

Another Hatched and Patched bag, one of Petunia's Garden Bags.

I had this one part way together last May but could not get the base stitched in nicely so put it aside to collect some dust - this does help as it fitted in beautifully first try today!

It's very stiff and upright with the iron on pellon and extra stiff interfacing!

The matching needlecase for 'Sewing Store', Has my name on it in case anyone thinks about swiping it!

Inside. Lots of little pockets for needles, thread, scissors, bits and pieces....
I machine blanket stitched the pockets on, instead of slip stitching by hand -had a thing for the machine today....

All together on our olive tree in the afternoon sun...

So I am 'bagged out' this afternoon!

Finally have a finish for OPAM February (just!) and have some lovely bags to take to Nundle in a couple of weeks...

Courthouse Steps by Nat

Another stunning quilt by my non-blogging-new-quilting friend Nat!

This is another log-cabin quilt done in the Courthouse Steps version, how cool does that look!

This is for one of her sons.

Nat would love some suggestions for more masculine quilts - can we have some links, pictures and ideas please......

Log Cabin

Couldn't help myself but had to put this together over the past couple of days in between working on my quilt tops to take to Nundle. This is a miniture log cabin quilt, though I actually did the logs 1/4" wider than the pattern.

I am really happy with how it has come out and love to look at it....

DS9 thought it was pretty cool how the furrows show up in the quilt.

Hoping to baste and quilt it today as I seem to be very slow these past few months at FINISHING things (OPAM), yes, working on a lot of bigger projects that take longer but not much actually finished....

Creative Messes

As you can see I have a jolly big mess on my sewing table at present! Seems that the baskets and bags that hold much needed bits are multiplying! After getting 'Forks' pieced (still not decided yet as whether it needs any applique) I am working on piecing two more quilts that I am hoping to take to Nundle as they are being made with mostly FQs from the Nundle Bloggers SQ Birthday Swap.

One quilt I am calling the 1930s Table quilt is actually 'Chicken Linen' from a Darlene Zimmerman book and I am mostly using Mama's Apron Strings by RJR Fabrics.

The second quilt is reds with neutrals/backgrounds. I changed my mind several times over what to make and finally settled on making a Sister's Choice block quilt with sashings after seeing a very inspiring Navy/White one in a book lent by a friend 'This Old Quilt'. There were no patterns in the book but that was ok as I found the block pattern for Sister's Choice easy enough. Working on the Sister's Choice quilt is taking me out of my usual 'square' in that I am using multiple reds and backgrounds; I am really enjoying this and can visualise more quilts like this in the future!

Do you order fabric that you 'have to have' with no idea on what to make with it???
Well I did this with Barbara Brackman's William Morris fabric last year.
It can be a bit of a bug bear when you have NO idea what you want to do with it, then have to put aside several good ideas because you should have ordered more of this fabric and less of that.
I threw all the agonising out the window last week and just randomly pieced the triangles I had bought. The quilt will be small even with the borders added, should have bought two triangle packets but a small quilt is better than no quilt so I am pretty pleased to have a good start on this quilt!

Alison's Birthday FQs

The FQs that Alison recieved for her birthday last November.

She said 'They are all great and all go together'.

'Thanks!'

Alison is my aunt and is part of the Nundle Bloggers group.

Stitching Hard

Forks

Working away on getting 'Forks' pieced from black'n'white fabrics that I recieved for my birthday FQswap. I saw that Dale has two quilts done and thought I had better get a wriggle on!

those of you who know what I have been reading lately should get the name of this quilt; more so when you see it all together....

Butterfly Garden

Working hard on the stitching side of Butterfly Garden.

Thanks for all the comments about DearJane - I have passed these all onto my friend. For anyone out there thinking of starting this quilt here are two important links;

Dear Jane

That Quilt

If you look at Friends in Stitching second block that was two posts earlier you will notice that the top right hand square is stitched on differently to the rest! A email buddy pointed this out, I never noticed! In fact I didn't pay ANY attention to how the squares were, I just sewed! Now that I can see this it will bug me, so I will change it around - which thankfully is easy enough to do with it in the corner!
Thanks Kerry!

Dear Jane/Farmers Wife Sampler Quilts

I have previously been interested in these quilts and now a non-blogging friend is wanting to know about them.

Can you PLEASE email me or leave a comment if you are making one, have made, or know much about them.

I have located the Dear Jane website, but want to hear from other quilters.

Thanks so much!

Bec xxx