OMG Finish

Now that Christmas is over and presents given and received I can finally post about my secret commission which was my OMG (One Monthly Goal) project.

I had selected making a messenger bag as a carry case for my friend Suzy for Christmas as my OMG. In my original posting when setting my OMG I hadn't at that stage chosen what the pattern would be. I had several different ones to choose from.

My final selection was the "Kid Messenger Bag" by the Merriment Design Company.



I ended up making 3 of them over the course of the month. Whilst waiting for the Doctor Who fabric to arrive I made one out of cat fabric. My friend, for whom I was making the Ipad bag loves Doctor Who but she also adores cats so if the fabric didn't arrive or I stuffed it up then this would do instead. It was also a pattern test. I had plenty of cat type fabric but would only have a little Doctor Who. It worked just fine.

I then made the Doctor Who bag for Bek to give Suzy for Christmas. 

And to top things off I made Bek a Rugrats one. I even got fancy in the end and used magnet clip fasteners.

I used the original bag I had made as my contribution to the Secret Santa at our Christmas Lunch/break up for Handmade With Love. I was so pleased when my friend Di ended up with it. She was just hoping her grand daughter didn't spot it and claim it for herself.

I was really pleased with how my OMG worked out.

Linking up 
 Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal.

Stash Report with 2 fabulous finishes

Its been a great week for me - finally feeling better and able to get in and get stuff done - mostly quilting but that's good right?

I tried out a new for me zipper pouch pattern - from Sew So Easy - called Easy Cosmetic Pouch. She has both a written and a You Tube Tutorial for making it. I made 2 - one at home using my fabric and one at Handmade With Love on Tuesday using fabric from there so I only get to count one lot of fabric in this stash report. It went together pretty easily although I must admit to struggling to get the zipper end/top looking nice at the side seam. I am going to try using tabs and see if that comes out looking neater.
They are ok in this bag but in others they look quite messy.

I finally finished a baby quilt that I am making for my niece. The baby isn't due till the end of this year so I am well ahead there - the last baby quilt I finished was for a baby born May last year! I've called this one "Bessie's Stars".

My mum Bessie did the embroideries that are the centres of some of the stars in the quilt, the design of which is based on Missouri Star's "Sparkle" quilt. 

I quilted it on our club's longarm machine yesterday. It was only whilst quilting it that I realised that I had put one row on backwards and thus the stars are not lined up in the correct fashion. However I decided babies don't care! (and I wasn't unpicking the quilting.) The annoying thing is that I had this top finished for a couple of months before quilting it so I had plenty of time to correct it. Ho hum.

The backing is from a doona cover I was given and the binding is a bright square design that ties in with the squares on the backing and the colours on the front.

I also finished off the Twilter Birds in the Air swap quilt. I had put a wider border on it initially but I didn't like it... it seemed to swamp the centre so I cut it in half and added a narrow white border and then the other half of the original border. I fussy cut some birds from the backing fabric to go as corner stones.

 I quilted it on the long arm too - nothing fancy - just an all over meander. I used 2 different striped fabrics for the binding with white, lime green and blue in them and I am very happy with the way it looked.

So 3 finishes for the week and NO fabric purchases! That is an double bonus. I need a few more finishes to make up for the huge fabric purchases last month at the Gold Coast.

So my statics for week 38  are

Fabric used               10.61m            
Fabric added             00.00  
Net                          10.61m

Year to Date
Fabric used               128.32
Fabric added               78.62
Net                            49.70m

Linking up with Patchwork Times

Sunday Stash Report - major catchup

The last Stash Report I completed was on August 14th which is a 4 weeks ago and there has been a lot of action since then and mostly in - very little out. But it was fun.

My big blow out was when I was on the Gold Coast at the end of last month when a good friend from the internet and I got to meet up in person and she kindly took me on a lovely shop hop. One shop she took me to had fabric at a very reasonable price - $11m (In Australia that is cheap!) so I bought more than I otherwise might have and then after lunch she took me to a place that was having a major sale and it was $5.95 m so I went overboard there. Jodie teased me cause the shop lady got me a trolley for the bolts of fabric I was pulling out. In total I bought over 20 metres but it was all lovely stuff and such a fantastic price. I detailed what I bought in this blog post so I won't go into more detail here. 

I also received an order from EQuilter of some Pokemon fabric (3.31m) and got a few bits from the c

I also visited a 2nd hand craft exchange in Sydney whilst I was visiting my mum and I got a few bits there too but was pretty restrained. (.82) I got a few embroidery patterns there as well.

In these last couple of days I have managed a couple of finishes - 2 quilts that I have had pinned ready to be quilted that I kept avoiding. 

The baby quilt was for my girlfriend's grand daughter. I called it Twinkle Twinkle. It was based on the Missouri Star pattern Sparkle and has been very popular with the new owners big brother. I blogged about this quilt in my TGIFF post here

I also finished off My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes. I haven't decided where this quilt will go. There are a few cat lovers in my life and one of them will love it I am sure - unless I have an unexpected need for it elsewhere.

The top is a mixture of a panel of cat pictures which have just been sashed and the co-ordinating fabric used as the centre of a variation of the square within a square pattern from Quilters Cache  Square within Squares 2  .  

The piano key border looks great I think. I love making these borders and using up leftover bits that have been cut for the top. I used 2 different green patterned fabrics in the bindng. I didn't have enough of either one to make it all from one and then I decided I really like the two different ones.

The back was a mixture of left over fabric from the front and some 6.5" squares from a cat fabric swap plus another cat panel.

I finished the quilt on the day that our cat who had been missing for 36 hours returned and was recovering from injuries received whilst he was away (probably in a cat fight) He's actually rather timid and not much of a fighter so its no wonder some other Tom was able to give him a hiding. He hasn't stirred out of the house since! It was good to have him home and recovering and I got a photo of him with the quilt

So my statics for the month last while are

Fabric used               11.12            
Fabric added             24.84  
Net                         -13.72

Year to Date
Fabric used               117.71
Fabric added               78.62
Net                            39.09

Linking up with Patchwork Times

Sunday Stash Report

I am delighted to be able to report another finish this week... 2 weeks running I have finished a quilt. That is exciting!

I finished off my Twilter Hash tag quilt which was a great thrill. I started to write it's own finished blog post but didn't get it completed. The blocks were from a block swap with the Twilter group, a group of quilters united initally on Twitter but now on Facebook as well. We all listen to podcasts, particularly Hip to Be a Square, Quilting for the Rest of Us, Lazy Daisy Quilts (and reads), Weezyworks, The Offkilter Quilt and Nonnie's Quilting Dream (I think I have missed one out... hmmmm) Oh Yes Quilt Cabana Corner, The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady and The Quilting Pot.

Anyway last year we decided to do a block swap and chose the hashtag or pound sign # block from Amy Gibson's free craftsy block of the month class from 2012. I got my blocks put together earlier on in the year and got the quilt pinned in March but with being away for 6 weeks over April and May I didn't get to sit down to work on it till last week. Now its done. 

Yay. I quilted a different design in each block, basing my design choice on the either the back ground fabric of the block or that of the hash tag itself. Some worked well.... other not so much. However it was fun spending the time on it.

My other finishes this week have been fabric baskets. I've made 6 of them so far. They are all for the Handmade With Love Stall at the Christmas in July craft fair next month. Some one asked me about Christmas in July after she saw a picture of my jars of savoury sugar coated peanuts with a Christmas caps on. 

In Australia Christmas occurs in the middle of our very hot summer. Now whilst some people are still sticklers for the traditional hot roasts associated with Christmas in northern countries, many of us opt for cold meats and salads. However the tradition has sprung up with many people to celebrate Christmas in winter and so be able to enjoy the hot dishes and puddings. July is our coldest month. A craft show at this time of the year is also a chance for people to stock up on some Christmas presents ahead of time.

The parent group (P&C) of a school in a near by town has been running a craft show for a few years now. Handmade with Love is going to have a stall for the first time this year. I have started to make a few extra things. As well as the baskets (some of which are made out of Christmas fabric)

 and the savoury peanuts I have made a couple of pencil pencil cases and have 6 more cut out ready to be sewn. I had better get on with them.

How is your sewing going? Hope you have made some good progress this week

Stash Usage for Week 26

Fabric used                       10.32 m
Fabric Added                     00.00m (Yay)
Weekly Net                        10.32m

YTD
Fabric Used                      60.93m
Fabric Added                    36.35m
Year Net                            24.58m

Linking up with Patchwork Times

WIP Wednesday

Busy week this week. I got those quilts I was working on last week done... one in time for Stash report on Sunday and one since. Yay. Go me.

Then I got sucked into the vortex known as fabric baskets. Found a great pattern and have made 6 since Sunday. These are all going to Handmade With Love (I have a blog post half written about them) I got the pattern here from Tina at Seaside Stitches

Today at Patchwork I finally started working on the backing for "My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes" a 72" almost square quilt. 

As is usual putting the back together has taken me almost as long as the front (well not quite but still.....)

I was discussing my backing making with another quilter one day and described it as.. constrained improv... I don't really know what I am going to do with it... just that I want to use certain fabrics and that I have to make it to a certain size.

I built it gradually - putting together strips of similar width fabric pieces. The first strip was about 20" wide.

 The next one was made from a combination of whole fabric pieces and "made" fabric - left over pieces from the piano key border. Some were 3" wide, some 4" and some 5.5". I also made a strip out of 2.5" squares. 

The final pieced strip was based around a panel featuring some kittens playing. 

The rest of the strip was made up of 6" squares featuring cats. 

These were from a swap run at a patchwork retreat years ago. The two sides strips were plain green fabric. They extend the back out past the width and length of the top and will be trimmed down. I'd rather trim down non pieced fabric rather than the pieced stuff. 

All in all a great busy week with much accomplished