Sunday Stashing

Happy Sunday!
(I usually Link up with Molli, but for some reason I cannot find the post this morning. I will link up later when I figure out what's wrong.)

I love a good giveaway. I occasionally win, which is where most of this weeks Sunday stash comes from.

Early in July, Alison over at Little Bunny Quilts participated in a blog hop for Folk Art Fantasy.

I was playing with the idea of placemats, similar to Alison's, with Sunbonnet Sue. However, I am working on a few projects and will wait on this one. They might end up part of my quilt for Sarah Fielke's Down the Rabbit Hole BOM. We will see.

I also like to embroider and sew, crochet, etc. One of the places I follow is the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. Nancy does giveaways fairly often, but since they are very popular, they are also hard to win. I lucked out a few weeks ago and received the lovely Limited Editions box of embroidery thread.

Connie at Freemotion by the River shared some lovely charm packs with me. One she had gotten as an extra with an order and a couple from her stash. She also included a lovely note.

I love the pillows with candlewicking thread. I used to get them from Herrschners, but I'm sure Amazon has them. I love the ones Janlynn makes, they have such beautiful patterns. But I have found the candlewicking thread is easily worn through when sewing and tears apart. I am midway through one pillow and stopped working on it because of the thread issues. My friend Shari also likes these kits and she suggested substituting the candlewicking thread with pearle cotton. It is a similar thickness, but a bit shinier. We will see how that goes when I get back to it.

Hussif or Sewing Kit

For our mid January surprise, Sarah gave us a pattern for a sewing kit, or Hussif. This has pockets on the sides to hold all your sewing notions while traveling, including a pincushion. We had a few options, but I wanted a floral theme and shaped my pincushion as a large leaf. It can lie flat, or over your leg or arm of your chair and rolls up, with a strap, when not in use.

I don't have much to show for the actual BOM quilt, right now. My camera is refusing to send pictures, now, and I am waiting on my templates for the center section. We had the option to preorder, but I thought I could do without. Until the first pattern arrived at the end of January and I tried to source template plastic and discovered how thin that stuff is. Oh, well, first BOM, bound to make a few mistakes =) Mine are otw, shipping will take 2-6 weeks, so I will wait...somewhat impatiently, as the next part is being released next week.

Happy January!

I don't do New Year's Resolutions, simply because they don't work for me. If i'm going to do something or not do something, the time of year doesn't factor in.

Hubby got me a year long BOM for a present. It starts the end of January and it is Sarah Fielke's Down the Rabbit Hole. Until January 15th, 2017, you have the option to sign up for monthly payments.
We can't post too much and I'm a little fuzzy on what we can post, right now, so click through and scroll down a bit to see the illustration of the quilt. I am doing a color palette in greens, blues, yellows, reds and oranges, with black or grey bunnies, depends on which I have enough fabric of. I am planning on making the dresdans have a fan appearance, which will require a small change in the original design, so I will have to see if that plan works or not much later.
I really love that we can see a representation of the finished quilt before starting the class, as I am rather particular about what I make. The mystery is what keeps me away from a lot of the BOMs, as I really need to see what I am getting into.

A couple of winnings: Gigi's Fabric Shop, from the 12 Days of Christmas event they hosted on facebook. I chose a yard of Rising Tide in Tangerine. I plan on using this for my sunflowers and an outer border. (i borrowed the image from Gigi as the package is on it's way)

The 2nd winning is this lovely stack of Allison Glass 76, that Aurifil was giving away.

Complete with matching Aurifil threads! (of course) They do Meet the Designer interviews on AURIbuzz, with a giveaway for the designers newest fabric collection and a matching set of Aurifil threads. Alison Glass did an interview for the release of 76, early in December. Very happy, as there are several colors that are perfect for my new BOM fabric choices and the orange should match the Rising Tide in Tangerine perfectly. I am still deciding if I want to incorporate some of 76 into some of the flowers and leaves for the BOM.

And! I am close to finishing my fairy wallhanging.

It might be hard to see the difference from the last picture. It is sandwiched and I have my motifs marked with colored chalk. Which will, hopefully, stick around long enough to finish the quilting. I appliqued all the pieces down with just edge stitching and am using the quilting to add details to areas like the wings and skirt.

Sunday Stashing

Good Morning,

This weekend is the 200th post for Sunday Stashing @ Molli Sparkles. (sorry, running a little late) A few weeks ago I got a lovely $25 Gift Card to the Fat Quarter Shop. Well, you know how hard it is to stop at one fabric, so I ended up with several beautiful yards.

I adore the metallic fabrics and these are all metallic (except for the small pouch on the right). The uppermost print is Suffolk Metallic Black Floral, the middle fabric is Holiday Flourish Holiday Holly & Ribbon, with the bottom print being Holiday Flourish Frost Branches in Ivory. 

Now the reason that the Suffolk yardage looks so thick, is because I grabbed 3 yards to make a skirt. The other 2 are about a yard each. There is actually a 4th piece that I do not have a proper pic of, because it is a panel, so I grabbed this pic from the FQS. 

The 2 Holiday Flourish prints are for borders and binding, so this becomes a Christmas lap quilt. (trying for 44" square)

Along with my order, the Fat Quarter Shop nicely included a Block Nine kit from the 2015 Designer Mystery Block of the month. A very delightful surprise!

Linking up with Molli Sparkles to celebrate his 200th Sunday Stash!

Garage Sales and Things

I like to go to yard sales & garage sales. There is always something interesting to look at and you never know what you will find. I have been wanting more bobbins for my featherwieght, but haven't gotten to buying them. Last week there was a sale at an apartment complex nearby and they had this little chocolate box.

Inside were a bunch of bobbins.

Only 3 for the featherweight.

But for $1, who can say no? 3 original featherweight bobbins are definitely worth $1 to me. Now I would have no idea what the others go to, but these 2 are still in their packaging.

In case the picture is a bit small, it reads: for 290, 1411, 1425, 600 & 700 class Athena Touch-Tronic 1060 sewing machines by Singer. There is about 14 of them, altogether. So, I am giving them away to whoever wants them. You can even have the little pink buttons, if you like.

I will leave the giveaway open until Sunday, October 9th. Just leave a comment on this post. (please note: candy box not included)

My New Purse

My latest finish. I finally found a pattern with the design similar to what I wanted. The design is great, with 4 inner pockets. 3 slotted and a zippered pocket. Very light and holds everything I need, although I would have liked it a tad larger. I chose several batik fabrics, the lining is a white floral batik. The zipper pull is from Zappy Dots. They are quilt buttons that are attached to a strong magnet. I have several sets, so I can pick a new one every day, if I want. They are really pretty and they add new designers fairly often.

This is the pattern I used and I will say that I had a few issues with it. Wide and Long are often interchangeable, so when you use Wide instead of High, things get very confusing. (also, in 3 dimensions we have wide, high, and long, so no, no, and no) Some of the cutting directions are not very good if you are using directional fabric and they did not point out that you will need to cut the pieces out differently. (They have quick cut instructions that result with pieces being cut on their side) Towards the end, when attaching the strap, the instructions direct you to attach the one strap end to the right side of the back and the other end to the opposite side on the front. The issue there is that if you do not look at the picture and instead follow the instructions literally, you will end up with both ends of the strap on the same end of the purse when finished. As I am rather new to purses, I found the instructions confusing and frustrating. I did read the instructions through before beginning, but did not see the issues until I started trying to follow them. Would not recommend.

Blue Pouch

I am still making pouches.  I post occasionally over on instagram(@minse25) and this was posted over there also. For reference, the tutorial is available at Three Bears.

I wanted a sturdy pouch that would hold a decent sized project and also other items that are often heavy. I often carry bottled water, a gameboy and a few games or other things I need. These are much heavier than a project and the last pouch would not have held the weight. This one is lined with decor bond and than a layer of fusible fleece, so I could get an idea of how they work with each other. 

I am working on a new purse and wanted an idea of how to handle them, without burning anything. All went well, so I am about to start sewing the new purse. The handles are also fusible fleece and decor bond, which makes everything plushy and stiff at the same time. A very nice touch for handles, which I just discovered.