Organisation

I found a great idea on the Internet, perfect for taming cord spaghetti.

This is how I did it:

Take a charm square and apply interfacing to half of the wrong side
Sew around the edges making sure to leave a gap for turning
Turn to right side and edge stitch all threat around
Apply small squares to both ends, one each on each side, one at each end


For smaller skinnier cables I cut long and skinny fabric. After I. Sewed it into a tube and cut it to length I applied bias tape on one side to stabilise it. Then I sewed the Velcro on


I want to post a pic but having issues. Will try again later.




Edit: Hooray! Finally worked out how to get the picture off my phone and into this file.

These cord tamers are sweet and easy to make. I made my husband some fabric pouches for when he travels; now he can tame those cords i n the bag. Perfect.

This is much better than it looks

I have a much under-utilised  food processors- right now the name escapes me and I can't be bothered going to the kitchen to look ;o)  It is possibly a Cuisinart.


Anyway.....  I love nut butters. I don't know whether to be saddened or relieved that Number Guy hates them. Hmmm.....Anyway (part 2) I saw a recipe for  pecan butter and decided to give it a whirls.  I bought 3 bags, ate about half of one and chucked the remainder into the food processor this morning. I sure am glad that I went for a good model of FP- although the nuts became warm due to the action of the blade the machine itself didn't come close to becoming warm.

Anyway (part 3) if I can get my phone and Mac talking to each other I will post a pic. Here goes.

(Hooray! It worked. What a PITA- I have to do so much fiddling about that I cannot remember what I did)

 This may not look inviting but  believe me it is divine. I added a little salt and some maple syrup- 2 tbsp of the latter, a good pinch of the former. I may stir in a little more of both, we'll see. My next step witl be to make some candied almonds and then make those into  nut butter.  Yumm.

Economy Block

I am not sure what it is about this  quilt block that I like, but it is my new favourite thing to sew. It is a paper-pieced block (but an also be done 'freestyle'). I saw it a few times on http://www.redpepperquilts.com/ and shelled out the very reasonable price of $2-00 for the PDF

This block has a few different names, such as exploding square, square in a square, but I like the name it has on Red Pepper Quilts- the Economy block.  I am also very happy that one of my Accuquilt dies cuts our the shapes I need. It is called the Value Die, the name of which I think goes neatly  with the block  name.

I think this might becoe a quilt,  but I am not going to get all stressed out, traing to do it in a very short time. I am going to fit these blocks in between other projects.. When i have enough I will will decide what I want to do with them.

Go!Baby

I have finally jumped on the die cutter wagon. Over christmas I saw a lot of people posting about Accuquilt productshttp://www.accuquilt.com/. Finally I could stand it no longer.

There are four options to choose from. I deliberately chose the smallest. There is a large number of dies for this little beauty, many the basic building blocks of quilting.

At the moment I am seeing half-square triangles (HST) together to form 3" squares. They are for some time in the future. This block is very versatile and there are numerous arrangements.

I have also started piecing Drunkard'sPath. This is another classic. Each unit is a quarter circle pieced into a square. It would be very laborious cutting the individual pieces with templates. The Go!Baby makes short work of it.  As is the case with the HST, this is a block which can be combined in a myriad of ways. Again, I am just going to piece and sew and when I have enough for a projects, be it a cushion, an apron or a whole quilt, I will decide what to do. In the meantime I am enjoying piecing the  Drunkard's Path, but it is a little tricky

I will purchase a bigger cutter some time in the future but this handy little cutter will still get a lot of use

This pic has both of the above blocks in it. Half Triangle Square is 3"

And of course, no sewing post is good without a gratuitous kitty pic. 

This is Willow. He is a Devon Rex boy of about 6 months in this picture

 above. In the image below we can see  a very sleepy Gittan being sniffed over by a curious Willow. Gittan is a 3 yo Devon Rex.  I can't say just how wonderful it is to have cats in our lives again :0)

  

not much going on...

..things have been quiet-ish here. Well, on the craft side. Pain-wise it has been crap.
But enough of that, I am doing a little sewing knitting etc.

This is the very simple 9-patch block (with a pinwheel square). I usually like to make this into a 'disappearing 9-patch' but I think it is busy enough as it is. T

his is going to be the front of a  cushion cover for my sofa. I did an amazing pink/ red/ white one and then brought it to my sewing room to measure...then I never saw it again. Weird. Let's hope the same doesn't happen with this.

I have also made four 'Ruby' Tops, designed by 'Made by Rae'. Here is the latest:

The fabric is from Michael Miller. Aptly named 'Giraffe Love' ;0)

Ruby III

The yoke is a Michael Miller metallic print and the  body is a sheer cotton with a silver thread running through.
I used the Bernina Flat Fell foot 71 to do the seams- the flimsy nature of the main body fabric meant it needed some sort of finishing. This is a nice alternative to a French seam. First time using this foot. The stiffer fabric was really easy to sew but the first pass through for the flimsy fabric (a flat fell seam has two lines of stitching) was a real pain in the ass. Worth it though, I like the finish. I also used the  edge stitch foot to put the bias tape on. That also made things a bit easier than normal.

Ruby

My Sorbetto plans have come adrift. There was a nasty gape at the armholes. When I went online  to find a tutorial for 'gaping armholes' I was amused to see that the  person who made the tutorial used Sorbetto ..so I am not the only one. I was really delighted to see  this top available as a free download- I have seen a number online and they looked great. But I am going to have to follow the online fix before I attempt this top for the third time.

Instead, I  bit the bullet and bought Ruby, designed by' Made by Rae.'  The pattern  download went smoothly and I was happy to see that the various sizes have different coloured outlines. The instructions were very clear and I would recommend this as a good beginner project, easily whipped up in an afternoon if you are an experienced needlewoman.  here is Ruby I

And here, under construction is Ruby II