WIP Wednesday

Fixit Guy and I arrived home last night having been away for 2.5 weeks.

I haven't kept up with my blog very well whilst I have been away. I had limited internet access for the first 10 days and then the last week the internet was at the main house on the cattle station and we were staying in the smaller cottage. I was free to use it as much as I liked but the speeds were slower plus I didn't want to impinge too much.

So... only the one blog update whilst I was away.

Now I am home and have lots to tell you... but for today I'll stick to my wips

I continued to work on bibs and aprons whilst away I made a total of

16 bandana bibs

Most of them had plain white lining but one of them got this lining cause as you can see I cut it out upside down..... oops

10 8"x8" bibs

6 of them are Christmas themed, using some of the funky Michael Miller baubles fabric I bought and co-ordinating colours

The cross hatching looked really effective on the bibs. I made the green spotted binding myself... my first attempt at my own bias binding and it worked out really well. I used it all up too.

4 8"x10' bibs

These Christmas bibs were my favourites Hopefully they will be really popular on the upcoming stalls

and 7 aprons.

Now I am home again I've stitched on the Handmade Love labels on most of them - I've run out of labels so I'll have to check if our co-ordinator has any left or if I need to buy some more fabric to print out some more

I had lots of opportunities to do hand stitching whilst away. As well as the long car trips I also had time sitting around talking to family and friends. I had counted them early on in the trip and then just kept adding to the count with each batch I finished... I recounted everything once I got home and the totals didn't tally... I had less than I thought.


 Still I have made 1 117 of them which means I have 418 of them to go... plus there will be half ones and diamonds to fill in sides. I'm going to have to cut some fabric to make the rest of them as I don't have suitable fabrics left in the 3" strips and squares.

I made 2 hanging towels whilst I was at my in laws which I gave to my SIL but didn't take a photo of.  I also hemmed a table cloth for her and did a heap of mending. I spent a while day fixing tears in work shirts, jeans, and shorts. My mending won't win prizes in the show but it put a heap of garments back into the usable piles.

  

Catchup

Hey Guys

Been off the radar for a while now. We are currently on holidays visiting my husband's brothers who live on cattle stations (ranches for you American readers) in North Queensland. We had a week with one bil during which time we helped get ready for my niece's 21st birthday which we had on Saturday. Since then we helped clean up and then moved over here to the other bil's place. They have wifi so I have been able to link my computer up hence being able to post this (I couldn't do that at the other property as they don't have wifi and I couldn't remember my password to access it on the net... big oops)

Internet download here though is limited and slow and I don't want to burn it up too much so won't be on here too much.

Just a bit of an update.

I have done some sewing. I got the bias binding on some bibs (5 ) and also on some aprons (again about 5) I had sewn the bibs before we left home and the aprons were all cut out and ready to go. They are a super simple design - apron shaped (the kind with a bib) They have a pocket on the top part (top edge finished with bias, the rest just folded over and stitched down) There was another pocket along the hem line. Again the top of the pocket was finished with bias. Then a piece of bias was stitched from where the ties start  down the sides, all around the bottom of the apron (securing the pocket sides and bottom) and back up to the tie on the other side. The top of the bib was finished with bias. Then another piece of bias was stitched from where the other finished (with enough tail to be the tie) up to the top of the apron then a loop big enough for the head to go through was left (well bias sides sewn together) then stitched down the other side to where the ties start and then a tail long enough to tie was left (again stitched down into ties) Reall easy. I used purchased bias but am trying to learn how to make my own to be able to make them more ecconomically and also be able to use a variety of fabrics.

Aart from that my sewing has been hand stitching hexies. I have made a couple of hundred these holidays... up to 1031 done... whoo hoo. That's 2/3s of the way through it.

Hope to get my sewing machine set up and more sewing done whilst I am  here. I have a cute pattern for Bandana bibs I'd like to try and also make some more bibs using some Christmas fabric I bought in Machay. But we will see how I go.

My Sister in Law has hurt her shoulder and torn ligaments holding her scapula down. She has very limited use of her right arm at the moment so I'm her right hand man this week... literally!! She hurt herself 10 days ago so its not a fresh injury that I caused (in case you were wondering)

This morning as well as laundry duties I've made a double batch of biscuits using a recipe my other sister in law's mother Gail gave me. They look pretty good although not quite as good as her's. Next up I am going to make my dad's rock cakes. Usually my husband Fixit Guy makes them but they have him busy mending other things (living up to his name) so its my turn. First have to locate the recipe... stay tuned.

Hope you have all had a great week. If I manage to get the photos to up load I will add some to this post but will get this up now and see if I get back to edit it.

Hope you are all having a sucessful sewing week

Sunday Stash report zero in zero out

Its been a nil nil week for me (sounds like a score from World Cup Football) No finishes and no purchases. Well not NO finishes. I did finish an apron but since it was bought already made and then adapted not sure I could really count it. I did add a bit of extra fabric in an applique decoration but the grand total of that might (MIGHT) add up to 1/16^th metre!!

The apron was a $2 cheap one from a dollar shop. I unpicked the pocket,

 added an applique and then reattached it higher up.

I cut 8” off the bottom of the apron,

added applique to that and then reattached it so as to make a pocket along the bottom of the apron.

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 It’s a workshop apron, one to carry the bits and pieces you need when sewing and moving between spaces – scissors, cutters, pencil, small rulers etc. So I added some wadding behind the pocket to give it some body.  I am sure it is going to be very useful. I made a few mistakes along the way but I won't detail them here. IF I ever make a better one I might do a better tutorial. The tutor at a recent workshop I attended had one and explained to us how to make it very simply. Hers was a good deal more fancy than mine.

I had hoped to have a couple of finishes this week but Teddies and Pinwheels and Twist and Disappear are both still waiting pinning and quilting.  I made some progress on Disappearing into the Blue. Currently putting the backing together for it.

I have been working on a banner for church. That has been absorbing my interest and time. There are a few blog posts about it. I am currently working out an issue I have with the dark green along the bottom but think I have a solution now. Its going to include unpicking and resewing but should mean a result I am happier with. I think that the dark green is too straight and hard. I want to integrate it a little more into the rest of the quilt and think I can do this by adding some medium and lights to the rows of dark green

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Non quilting finishes

Have had an almost finish. The family bathroom was finished off on Friday - the builders had to do a bit of work with the tiles and shower screen. 

They also finished their part of our en suite. Just waiting for Fixit Guy to paint it. He started taping it so will be able to start when we get home from our weekend away.

The big finish we had in our family was... Fixit Guy finished work. Retired Friday (see more here) Have had lots of negative comments re how that is going to cramp my style and he will always be under my feet etc. Lots of lovely positive ones as well. We know it is going to be an adjustment but looking forward to it. He has lots of projects lined up and we have plans to travel as well.

so Summary for the week and year

Used this week:                        0m
Added this week                        0m

Year to Date Used                     89.32
Year to Date added                   72.27
Net Used                                  17.05

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