Although barely in time for June, I have been crafting small items for little gifts this coming Christmas. I was behind all the other starters, finishing my journal and storage boxes late in the challenge too. But what to stitch?
I've started on a few key rings, but not finished yet. I've started on a couple of key fobs, but not finished yet. I did stitch on my quilt top - but that's not part of the challenge I did finish my pink snowman cushion - but that is also not part of the challenge
I did find a couple of great tutorials - Not sure who gave me the idea for coasters - 
but I thought they looked fairly simple - and I had some fat quarters to play with... I made 2 sets of 6 to start with, and thought they were so great, I've gone overboard with the idea - I'm now in the midst of sewing about another40 of them.... I can sew about 6 per night, and will sew all the tails in sometime this weekend. 
I've still got a couple of ideas for little gifts floating in my head - I just have to knuckle down and put them on paper and transfer them to fabric!
You can also see my itty bitty tomato pincushion - I've only made one so far, but plan to make many, many more. Something that took my fancy, but I don't know who else (but stitchers) who would want one. My main challenge is to make Christmas gifts for non-stitchers.
My next post will be my 200th post - fancy that! I'll gather some bits together for a giveaway and will announce it on my next message!
Happy Stitching!!
Hip Hip Hooray!!!! I was playing around yesterday with the Ohio Star block and a method of piecing that had me intriqued. The bit I played with will be made into something or other. I had dragged out these three fabric colours, and knew they would work with the hot-pink fabric of my snowman finish from a few days ago. (where on earth i've put the other snowman finishes...oh well-somewhere safe for now) Anyway... I pieced the patchwork and knew I wanted to put the stitching off-center - and played with the fabric that was left over. So here is the front of the cushion.
I'm a bit thingy about wasting one whole piece of fabric for a back of a cushion, so decided to have a play at another technique for the back.
A bit of crazy patchwork, but I'm not that thrilled with it. It does fill out the back of the cushion quite well, and who will be looking at the back all the time with the stunning stitching on the front anyway??? The cushion is only held together with two pink buttons, the extra 3 white ones are for decoration. Now to move onto another quick project, while the sewing machine is on!!
(and as this is post number 198 and I have now 97 followers - perhaps I'd better scout around for a 200/100 giveaway????? - stay tuned!)
This is my second 'finish' for today. Loyal readers may remember my holiday project from the first week of May - and that I had to cut my holiday short by one day, which prevented me from completing the quilt top.Because I decided to make this a smidge bigger than the pattern, I've added another 7 trees and 6 x 9-patches to that which was originally made.I spent today putting those extra 9-patches and one tree together and changing the order that the trees would sit. I have yet to source material for a border, but imagine a green mini-border, with a further calico/green square row, before another, wider green border.Of course, I will post further progress pics as I go.
Although this is another snowman finish for '2010 - The Year of the Snowman' - I am happy to have finished this one off. It was not a fun stitch - I kept making errors in counting and re-stitched each section at least twice. This was a full kit at least, so I don't have to do anything more with it. It came made as a pillow, complete with inner cushioning. Now to move onto my Pinetree quilt for today - and perhaps a tad of Halloween stitching......Happy Dancing - another snowman for the year!!!!
Here it is...Hot off the needle at 1am - Sunday morning.I was not going to go to bed until all the backstitching was done. I decided to sign it : bronnyb June 2010 the year of the Snowman.I'll be making this one into a cushion.Woo Hoo !!!! so pleased that I've another finish done!!!(time for bed now.....)
Mother Nature has flipped the switch well and truly to Winter!!Last week, I'm sure, still felt like Autumn, but today is all the colours of Winter. Even though there were blue skies in between the showers and grey clouds, the sunshine was brittle.It is a long weekend here in Victoria, Australia - Queen's Birthday long weekend. No, it's not Her Majesty's real birthday, and even the UK doesn't celebrate it, but for whatever reason, it's a good excuse for a 3-day weekend and signals the start of the snow season.I don't do cold.I don't like snow - we don't see it here, but over the next couple of months, I'm sure there will be a day or two, where it sleets and is nearly snowing. The closest I'll get to snow, is stitching Snowmen this year!!!!This weekend, I intend to snuggle down in a comfy chair, needle in hand and stitch until sleepy.
It's been a bit chilly this afternoon, and instead of stitching, I've been crafting in other directions.You see, a friend at work gave me this week, 10 pairs of shoes!! One pair does not fit, Two pair do not suit, one pair of thongs have some really cool mother-of-pearl buttons on the top - these will be snipped off and snaffled for future projects. Of the rest, two were given to me in really cool, sturdy shoeboxes. They each had eyelet holes in the front, and I couldn't help myself...they called out to be covered in Christmas fabric and utilised to store my small Christmas gifts in.....which leads me to my latest project:Early Bird Christmas Crafting. You will see that I've added a button to my sidebar over there >>>>>>>>Judith at Creative Studio is hosting this really good idea for getting a head-start on all our Christmas gifts - and getting us thinking about what to craft for friends and family. By starting now, anything that takes a bit of time to make can be started in time for December!There is a monthly prize draw for those who have crafted items and all sorts of spot prizes for bloggers joining in on the challenge. There are also free patterns and ideas to get you started!The first thing to do, was to find a notebook and individualise it to get the Christmassy theme going. There are a lot of very talented bloggers out there - and a lot of great ideas are being shared.I found the last remaining cheapo 5c exercise book and covered it with some super sparkly green and gold velvet. I reinforced the covers with some extra cardboard and covered the inner covers with green Christmassy material. I found a small strip of red Christmas ribbon and it sets it off nicely (and I can tell which is the front of the book!) While the book was sitting under a pile of placemats to set dry, I started on the shoeboxes. I did drag out all my christmas fabric and decided that blue would be the way to go. I didn't have enough to cover both tops and bottoms, but by having matching lids, they coordinate nicely - and the bottoms are in blue and gold material. I'm very pleased how these turned out - I may cover more things in fabric soon!Even if you don't join the challenge - cheer me on - I'll show my efforts as they are churned out!!
but I thought they looked fairly simple - and I had some fat quarters to play with... I made 2 sets of 6 to start with, and thought they were so great, I've gone overboard with the idea - I'm now in the midst of sewing about another40 of them.... I can sew about 6 per night, and will sew all the tails in sometime this weekend. 
I've still got a couple of ideas for little gifts floating in my head - I just have to knuckle down and put them on paper and transfer them to fabric!
