Crazy Towel Lady

I wasn't going to.  

Nope.  Not any more.  That was more than enough.  

So the stack of towels was still sitting there.  I didn't know what to do with them really.  So I finished them off.  

Another 12 to add to the pile.  28 hanging towels all up.  It will be interesting to see how many go won't it!  I guess if they don't go at the fair they can be saved for the mothers day stall.  Would you want a towel for Mother's Day?  Probably not.  

Long Time Project

Ages ago I started a cross stitch picture.  

At the time it was tricky to get into.  Not really my kind of thing either which makes it even harder to do.  The last few years were tricky for serious cross stitch work though too.  The boys are big enough now though for me to leave it about a bit more like I used too.  

Anyway, I pulled it out on January & got it finished today.  I am very pleased it is completed.  It is going to it's home now so I can stop looking at it & cross it off that list of projects to do at last.  I hope the person it is for likes it still!  

Don't Fence Me In

It's been a big few days on Fell Farm.  

Stuart had some days off, firstly to go to the school sports day that he hadn't had a chance to get to previously.  So that was cool.  But then he also planned to get working at home.

The work extended into the weekend & this is the result - a partially fenced orchard but an almost complete chicken run.  We even managed to get the chicken house down there.  So finally after about 4 months it is out of the garage!  It looked big in the garage, but suddenly it seems small.  

Only a couple of things to do now & we are ready for the chickens.  We only have to get them from next door!  

Thursday Thanks

• terrific holidays.
• Fun family times that are hopefully memorable.
• A good start to the school term...  
• A huge quilt that I managed to make & finish!  
• Supportive & caring family.
• Fun memories of things with my sister & brother.
• A husband that is good at making stuff.
• A husband that is doing a great vegetable garden again.
• Meals from the garden!
• A great sports day!
• Lots of crafty inspiration when I need it.

626/1000

Hit of Colour

Do you know the designer Kaffe Fassett?  He's been well known in designing for a long while now, being a very quirky knitter with loads of colours & crazy patterns.  Quilts & fabric are also a great thing of his.

To be honest I never really liked it.  But the fabric has grown on me over the years of working with it, or rather selling it & seeing so many cool things that people create with it.

I know a couple of people that love it.  A lot!

Having been on a roll of towel making last week I thought I would make a little gift for a friend.  She will laugh.  These are some of her favourite fabrics.  I actually took the fabrics to the towel factory with me to find towels to match it.  The fun thing with this fabric is you can go almost any colour!  Even with the buttons!

As I still have half a towel of each of these left over I am going to make myself a pair too.  We have one of the other towels hanging in the kitchen & everyone loves it.  Only because you know it will actually be there where you left it!  lol  But I need more now.  These will be on high use which means high washing rotation I suppose.

Tablecloth Addiction

I really love how that apron came up the other day.  I did buy a couple of tablecloths at the same time.  The only reason I bought three was because the one I liked the most had a pretty crocheted edge on it.  It looked so good I thought it would be too pretty with that to pass up.  I am still thinking on that one though & how I can best use it with that edging.  Do you do that too?   Process it for a few days to make something work the best.  It's good.  Talking it over with someone is good too if you know of a like minded person.  But I usually know when I have the right solution. 

It didn't take me long this morning to play with these though.  This is the second one from the table cloth that I used the other day.  This time I used the design in the centre for the front panel.  I also cut the border off & used that for the waist band!  It looks really cool I think with that.  It's not perfect, accurate, exact or anything.  It's not easy to cut strips off odd shaped fabric.  I do cut them as straight as I can but as they are used cloths they are a bit off, so hey, it's all part of the fun or re-purposing isn't it?  The back has the great big flower print on it like the one the other day had on the front.

Edited - I kept this one... :-)

Another cloth turned into 2 more bags.  I tried to change the design on these but it was a smaller cloth so had to cut them where I got the pieces to fit.  Again for this I used the borders for the waist band but for all these I did have to add pieces to either end to make them long enough to tie.  They really are pretty though.  

It will be interesting to see at the school fair whether they will sell now or not.  My crystal ball is broken so I don't know what the customers will be looking for this year.  

Being that the school fair is right before Easter, it's nice to add a little rabbit theme in too.  I still had 7 fat quarters of this rabbit fabric in my fair stash box.  I did draw string bags a couple of years ago, but now the school will have new families, new little kids coming through, which means people that haven't seen them before.  So I have another 14 bags that maybe some lucky kids with score at Easter full of eggs.  

Now I just have to wait until Wednesday when I get a chance to go op shopping again.  On the hunt for table cloths!

Budget Sewing

There is nothing quite like a bargain is there!  Most people love them.  

Sewing for a fundraising thing can be tricky.  We usually have a budget for our own sewing but when it come to sewing to donate to a fundraising thing you really want to get the best deal you can.  

Well I know I do.  After 4 years of sewing for the boys school I have learnt a little.  Firstly I can't over do it.  I could sew & sew & sew a million things.  I need to be realistic though in what I am giving.  Everything ends up costing money & you end up giving such a lot in time & money by the time a school fair is over, with donations, time spent on making, more donations in other areas & then time on a stall if you can.  Then on top of that, there is the actual fair itself that you go to & you need to pay for stuff there.  It's never ending some days.  

So, what can we do to minimise costs?  Go op shopping is a good start!  

It does depend what you are making of course but there are things you can do quite cheaply.  Yesterday, I did manage to get some experimenting done on a peg bag.  A dear old friend of mine is also sewing for her church fair at the moment.  We swapped ideas the other day.  I drafted a pattern off her peg bag.  So with some calico & bias strips I made I whipped up this first peg bag.  It's pretty good.  I like the size of it & it looks quite pretty.  

But I also went to an op shop.  I found a couple of reasonable table cloths.  I decided to hack those up.  The result was this first one.  

I am really rapt with that one.  It's a bit different.  Was less work as I didn't use bias tape for it.  But you know the best bit?  It cost me $1 for the table cloth!  Plus I get 2 out of it!  Woohoo!  Fifty cent fabric can't be bad for one peg bag!  I have cut out another one ready to sew up but will save that for during the week I think.  Stay tuned for more re-purposed products!

Now I just have to try to keep out of the op shops & buying more cloths!  There is still a limit on my making.   I hope I don't get too enthusiastic!

Footy Day

Did you know that the Hawthorn Hawks are kind of a Tassie team?  Well the Tassie government give them lots of money, so Tassie is kind of their home ground.  They had a match in Tassie on Friday night apparently.  

Saturday morning saw a kids coaching clinic in our town!  So being a family of mostly Hawks supporters, Stuart was happy to drag the boys along.  Actually they went willingly.  (as did I!)  The boys joined in in the 2 hour clinic which was fun to watch.  There were 4 groups of kids & 4 Hawks players split between them.  

It was really a great day.  What a great thing to do for people though.  I imagine it would be quite a struggle for the players at times to put on a happy face for something that becomes quite frustrating, boring, repetitive for them, but they did a good job, especially after coming after a practice match the night before.  

Heck, I even got a bit of coaching done with Ben myself.  Hahaha...  yeah, watching a group of 4-5 year old's trying to follow instructions from way above their level is funny, so umm...  I helped.  I don't know if Ben was happy about that or not, but hey, I can send them off in the right direction so the plan of the footballer kind of works.  Four & five year old's just don't get it.  

We managed the autograph session where Stuart managed to get 2 of his hats signed, but the boys were wearing them of course!  lol  Plus the photos...  awesome fun.  Apparently this is worthy of "journal writing" come Monday at school!  

Boys & Ben McEvoy

Boys & Kade Stewart

Will Langford & Shaun Burgoyne

Present Pressure

With the school year comes children's birthday parties doesn't it not?  Have they started for you yet?  We have a surprise one thrown in for the coming week.  I don't mind really.  Because I have a plan.

... insert evil laugh here...

I had decided the other week what I was going to do for the birthday children this year.  No traipsing around shops & indecisive givers.  No $$$ going to crap that I know parents will probably cringe at, even though it shouldn't matter as after all it is the thought that counts isn't it?

But present pressure is high.

• It's got to be trendy.
• It's got to be something to suit the child.
• It's got to be something they don't already have!  (Impossible!)
• It's got to be expensive by all accounts.
• A parents pocket doesn't stretch to all the party expenses all through the year.  

I don't mind shopping for gifts really.  I actually love it.  I am probably exhausting the ideas though for 9 years old.  When most kids have more than enough, even Lego sets, although a great item to get & is usually much loved, it is starting to feel like a cop out.  

So once more the sewing page I follow has given me the inspiration & the courage to bust out handmade gifts for the kids this year!  

What do you think?

This is for a girl.  It's a cushion....  apparently she loves Pokemon.  She isn't into really girly stuff.  Handy that I had Pokemon fabric huh?  This post has actually taken me longer to write than it did to sew the cushion cover.  I sewed the cover after tea.  I think it took 20 minutes.  BJ is rapt.  He wants one now of course but nope that isn't happening right now.  He needs to learn to give stuff he wants first.  

So I am prepared.  I have Star Wars fabric.  Some more Pokemon stuff.  Race cars, will probably pick up some tractor stuff sometime too.   In the meantime I will keep work in stock of cushion inserts so I can buy them as I need.  When I get bored sometime I may even run up a few at once.  Oh, but I need some longer zips I think.  Darn it.   But I will work on that bit too.  Each should get a little better than the last I think. 

Superwoman Aspirations

It's crazy how fast the days go by.  Where do the hours go that the boys are at school?   I had so many things to do today!!!  I am annoyed that I didn't get more done!

On the upside I did get one job completely complete!  Realistically it basically consumed my day.  So I didn't get to work on some of those other projects AS WELL.  It becomes frustrating that I can't do two at the same time.

With the new school year having started it is inevitable that the school fair follows along right behind.  So once again I crack out the machine (which I thought I broke today but thank goodness I hadn't!)  I am on a group full of sewing inspiration & recently came across an idea for hanging hand towels.  Crazy me thinks it will be a nice change for the craft stall at the fair.  Crazy me gets a bit excited.  I managed 18 towels complete today.  So 16 are off to the fair.  If they don't sell at the fair they will probably go on the mother's day stall for some poor mums to receive on their day.  Two I am keeping.  I ruined them a bit so I can't have them on the stall.  So they are mine - the 2 below hanging on my oven door.  How cool is that for an idea?  They won't disappear in a hurry as no-one will take time to take if off & walk away with it.

Towels I picked up in a couple of different places at good prices.  Fabric is all out of my stash that I am working through.  Buttons are out of my button tins!  Yay for cool buttons to coordinate with cute hand towels!

So it is nice to make something different.  The things I had made previously we definitely need a change from.  I hope I can come up with another couple of ideas now just to give the stall a change.  I guess if they don't sell I can gift them to all my family instead!  Look out!

Another Finish

Wow!  I'm on a roll here!  I finished that quilt yesterday!  That was followed by a new pair of socks last night that I had been working on over the last couple of weeks.  

These are too big for me.  They are for Stuart.  Although I do like knitting socks for him I also dislike as they are bigger so take longer.  lol  Another nice pair though & I did a contrasting heel as I can remove it more easily when he wears that bit out.  

IT IS DONE

I did it! I actually DID IT!  

The Town & Country quilt is complete.  The binding was finished off this morning!  A year in the making & it is over.  

It's weird really as it is good it is done.  It's weird to think it is over.  It's odd that I ever managed to keep up with it & to realise it is completed within a good time frame of the end of the year when we got the last of the blocks.  

Now I can tuck it away & give it a rest for a bit.  I will appreciate it again after I haven't looked at it for a while.

School Already?

Not Far Now

I am doing serious battle quilting this big quilt!  I managed though on my little home sewing machine!   I was excited to have it done in just one afternoon.

Nearly There

Basting process on this ginormous quilt...  

All About Zucchini

So the influx of zucchinis has begun so I have had a frenzy of new recipes.  These were todays...

Zucchini, Cheese & Corn muffins - good.  They went in no time.  Would be nice with some bacon added.

Apple & Zucchini Muffins.  Boys loved these.  Apple flavour quite strong so were a hit.  Will make these again for lunches I think.

Zucchini Chocolate cake - this disappeared so fast.  Not sure that the boys knew about the zucchini inside.  I used Dutch cocoa too which made it more chocolatey I think that it would be with normal types of cocoa.

Zucchini Fries - I won't share this one.  It wasn't great & won't be something we try again.  lol