My January OPAM Finishes!

Well, my first month of OPAM has been quite successful. I started and finished nine projects! January is the time I get a lot of sewing done as I am in 'holiday mode'. No school runs, no sports runs, no routine!

Sewing machine cover.

Sewing Case.

 

Three mini Christmas cushions.

Two mini Christmas hangers.

Two hats.

Happy Australia Day!

 

I know. I'm a day late but I didn't even turn on the computer yesterday. We headed off to Sorrento Back Beach to catch up with some friends. Their two sons were on Life Saver duty. The boys had a great time playing in the waves.

I just sat on the beach and stitched. I hate swimming in the beach. All that sand and salt when you get out - yuk! I worked on some more of my TTS blocks. 

 

We then went to Rosebud for a BBQ tea with Noel's mother, sister and some friends. I hope you all had a lovely Australia Day too.

New Hats!

 The most recent issue of Australian Homespun (Vol 13, No 1) had hat patterns for the whole family. I showed Noel and he thought they looked good. So I made one for him on Sunday. I was so pleased with how it turned out that I decided to make one for myself.

Noel's hat it fully reversible. I've lined mine with the burgundy fabric and it's also reversible although I probably won't wear it the other way. I love the floral too much!

Friday Night Sew-In and OPAM 2012!

Well, I was a bit more productive this FNSI than the last. I made three mini cushions and two mini hangings. I had finished the stitcheries on Thursday night so that they would be ready for last night. I'll finish stitching the binding down today. That's five Christmas gifts to go into the drawer ready for December!

I must say that it's a nice feeling knowing I have started Christmas sewing (although it also feels a little strange) so that I can be on top of it closer to Christmas!

I've signed up for Peg and Kris' One Project A Month (OPAM). Hopefully, this will help me keep inspired to get lots of gifts made throughout the year.

OOOPS!

 

This morning I was sorting through my blog list and accidently deleted the lot! What a pain! I think I had about 190 on my list. Too many, I know. That's why I was sorting them. I've managed to get back nearly 100 of them from my "blogs I am following" reading list. Others I've gone by memory. If you read my blog and notice your blog has disappeared from my list, can you let me know.

Wild About Fabric and a prize

 You may remember last year I posted about my brother being the costume designer for Wild Boys (see this post). Here at MacDonald's Patch, we loved watching the show. Unfortunately, Channel 7 cancelled the show as it cost too much to produce. Looking at the bright side, Neville had some of the quilting fabrics he used to make the girls' dresses left over. I was the lucky recipient. I was expecting just some scraps but received larger pieces

 My favourite is the pink one. There is about 7 metres of it so I should also be able to use it for backing. Will have to find a good pattern to use. The other pieces are about 2 metres each. So my stash has certainly grown.

 Speaking of my stash growing, this is the lovely package I received from Leona of Leona's Quilting Adventure I won in her Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day. A charm pack, two half yards of lovely red fabrics, sewing machine needles, thread, post-it notes and a little note pad.

Tomorrow is the next Friday Night Sew-In organised by Heidi and Bobbi. You can sign up here.

Cricket, A Trip to Geelong and Sewing!

 Last Wednesday I took Mitchell into the MCG for a cricket clinic with David Hussey and the Melbourne Stars T20 Big Bash League (Twenty20 cricket). That's Mitchell with David.

 They timed Mitchell's bowling speed. I think his

 top speed was 87km per hour

.

After the clinic, everyone could get autographs. With Cam White, the captain of the Melbourne Stars.

 Mitchell under the new Shane Warne statue.

 Friday we headed down to Geelong and met up with 

our next door neighbours.

After a pleasant walk along the foreshore, we had pizza for lunch. Then Colleen and I just had to skip off to a couple of quilt shops! I don't know if Greg's very happy with me as I showed Colleen a quilt shop she didn't know was there! lol

 

I finished off my Sewing Case. I'm very pleased with how it's turned out. I'm even pleased with how the zip went in. I don't usually do zips!

I've been Sewing!

I've had two days to myself as Noel, Austin and Nelson went camping and Mitchell was with his Nana. So how did I fill in my time? Sew, of course!

Maria sent me some scraps from the sewing machine mat and thread catcher that she made me for the Santa Sack Swap. I put them to use and made a matching sewing machine cover, something I've been wanting to do for a while. I used the pattern from Australian Homespun (Volume 11, No. 11).

 As there were owls on the main fabric, I decided to use the owl buttons I won from Incomparable Buttons.

I also made a little pin cushion to match. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. This is my first time of making and using piping.

Something else I've been working on is the sewing case from Some Kind of Wonderful. All the piecing and stitchery has been done. 

Now to put it together.

Bits and Pieces!

We have a resident possum who lives in one of the kayaks stored in the rafters of our carport. The beginning of the week was very hot here in Melbourne and our possum felt comfortable enough to come and lie outside of the kayak all day. 

Then yesterday we spotted these two Tawny Frog Mouths in a tree at the top of our drive. They sat there all day, just checking us out!

 I received a surprise package this morning from Michelle of  

The Raspberry Rabbits.

 The colours of the Valdani thread are so pretty. Shell even sent the boys a bag of candy each. Thank you Shell and the Bunnies.

 This is a little fat quarter bag I made for a friend of Mitchell's. 

The fabric is so pretty.

I finished stitching my Rosalie Quinlan stitchery last night. My friend Jennifer found some of the missing threads in her sewing room (see this post). She thought she had some, so she got stuck into looking in her sewing room. What they have now is a totally different colour of thread, even though it is the same name and number. What is grass green on my skein is now a very light aqua! 

 

I was going to unpick the little needle book stitchery that I had done first to use the thread to finish the big one but now I don’t have to. Jennifer rang straight away when she found it hoping that I hadn’t unpicked yet. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it and was going to wait until I searched some more.

Here are a couple of patterns I won from Jennifer of Shabby Fabrics. Thank you Jen!