Challenge Yourself - March

It's been a month already (well it's not until tomorrow but I was getting in early).

How did I go last month?  My challenge was to have a market by the end of the year.  Obviously we're not at the end of the year yet, but last weekend I did some 'Market Research'!  I went to a few local markets to see what they are like and if they would suit me.  One was next to useless for my purposes, another was suitable but looks like it wouldn't have many people walking through.  Two were promising!  One is inside a community centre, the other is along a public footpath.  Both have their merits and their drawbacks, but I I've decided which I will approach first.

Wont give too much away though ;)  We'll just leave it at that for now!

Oh, and as for the February bonus round, I donated  to the Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria.

And now on to March's Challenge...

Since I've decided I'm going to have a market stall by the end of the year, I'd better get busy and make things to sell.  By this time next month I want to have three different items I can sell.  And that means versions I can actually sell, so no "I'll just fix that bit next time and then it will be right".  Hopefully I will have more than one example of each but I'm not going to set myself a target above one.

Add your link below if you want to challenge yourself this month.

I'm grateful for...

Okay so it might sound like I'm pandering, but every week now I spend many spare minutes here and there trying to think of what I'm going to be grateful for that weekend so I can blog it.  I realise how many things I have to be grateful for, small, big, silly, personal, public, all sorts of things that I wouldn't want to be without.  Many of them seem too small to list here (but I guess that's the point) and some seem so big that they should be obvious (again.. that's probably the point), but these are things which could otherwise go for granted.

I'm going through some trying times at the moment, adjusting to being a new mum still, and discovering more of myself every day, so it's really helpful to think of the things I have, that often get overlooked, and be grateful.

What are you grateful for this week?  See what others are grateful for over at Maxabella Loves

We all love beautiful fabric

but what do you do with it?

I see lots of fabric that I want to buy because it is just so pretty (or interesting, or colourful, or whatever), and sometimes I do buy some of it if I have the money but then I can never decide what to make from it.

My first thought is that I want to make something for myself, after all, I bought the fabric because I like it, but that would ultimately result in me just shifting my stash from the sewing room to the rest of the house.




This came about because two years ago my husband bought me some nice fabric for Christmas, and I put it in a box saving it for something 'special', not wanting to use it for gifts because he had given it to ME.  Consequently that fabric was still in said box until last night, when I decided I'd better dig it out (and a few other pieces I'd been savouring) and pre-wash it ready for use.



I could use it to make something for myself, but if I make something as a gift for someone else, I'll still get the enjoyment out of sewing the item (which, let's face it, is the really fun bit of great fabric), or even better, if I make something to sell, I can use the money to buy MORE beautiful fabric!




What do you do with fabric you love that you bought just because?  Do you make things for yourself?  Or do you have the enjoyment of using the lovely fabric but then give away or sell the finished item?

Club Retro

I'm starting to catch up on my retro... the Nine Patch, not the music, although I should listen to some retro music again, it's been ages.

As mentioned before, I've decided to do this as a 5" square rather than 10".  All my stitches are backstitch and satin stitch.  I think chain stitch would be a bit much on the smaller scale.  I've never been very good at hand satin stitch, so I was a bit worried about getting to it when I started.  The first bit I did (the orange circle), I forgot it was satin stitch and outlined the circle with backstitch, then had to go back and do the satin stitch.  I forgot the second circle as well so had to do the same.  By the third circle I remembered so I did satin stitch first and then outlined.  I think the others came up better, so I'm going to stick with outlining first and then satin stitch.

My flower looks a bit wobbly too, now that I see the photograph.  Not sure if that is my stitching or my marking of the design.  Will have to be more careful on the next one.

Speaking of the next block, I've already started it, better get to and finish it before the 15th so I don't fall further behind.  Also gotta catch up on Birdie Stitches!

From this....

To this:

I thought 14 and a half metres of fabric would look a lot bigger...

After overlocking all this fabric the other day, I thought it would take me an age to iron it, but it didn't.

Now I have to decide what to make with it all!  I'm thinking I might use some of it for next Civil War block, and the last pile down the end already have a purpose picked out, just have to get around to it!

Civil War block 9: Birds in the Air

Barbara's block this week is more triangles.  I think I'm going to be good at piecing triangles by the end of this year...

Barbara's blog shares a wonderful story of a quilt made entirely out of this block which included an anti-slavery motif in the centre:

After Deborah's death in the 1880s, her offspring cut the abolitionist quilt in half, one side for each branch of the family. When their descendents decided to rejoin the pieces, they removed the binding and found the small image of the African man, which had been cut in half and hidden for decades.

How wonderful it is to find hidden treasures such as this, and especially one with such historical emotions.


My block doesn't contain anything so historically significant, but the fabrics I chose this week are ones I used to make the softies to be donated to the Qld Flood and Christchurch Earthquake victims.  The 'birds' (the three smaller trianges) were meant to be from dark fabric but I wanted to use both the prints in the block, so they've come out a bit light.  I guess they can be light coloured birds like doves or something ;)

My Creative Space

The other day I received some more fabric in the mail, and sat down to overlock it ready for pre-washing.  Then I decided that I should did out some other fat quarter bundles I'd had sitting around since last year and get them all pre-washed.

This morning I have overlocked three sides each of approximately 50 fat quarters!  Plus there are the dozen or so I did last night.

I think my overlocker needs a good clean and a little lie down for a while now.

This afternoon it is on to washing and I guess that means tomorrow (and probabably the rest of the weekend) will be spent ironing.

Pop over to kootoyoo and see who else is playing along this week.

Block Lotto

I've been following the Block Lotto blog since late January but hadn't joined in the February block because it didn't really appeal to me.

The idea is that you make 1-9 of the specified block, fitting into colour requirments etc, and for every block you make you get one entry into the lotto.  At the end of the month they pull out some winners (how many depends on how many blocks were made) and then those winners get sent blocks from all the other people who entered.

How simple is that??

The March block has just been started and it's a really simple block so I figured I should join in.  If nothing else, it's good practice with piecing, and a change to learn new blocks/techniques.  Plus I get to use up some of my stash!

So here are my blocks:

I could only do two because I only had two red fabrics in my stash (and you had to use a different red fabric for each one you entered).  If I acquire any other red fabric during the month I might do another one.

It's called a Disappearing Four Patch.  This is because you start out by making a Four-patch block and then chop it up and re-sew it.  I'd only recently seen this technique done on a Nine-patch block and I think it's fun.  The instructions say to cut 5" squares to start with but I wanted to make sure my block came out the right size so I cut 5 1/4" squares and trimmed the excess of when I'd finished.  I wasn't far off from being right because my blocks were almost exactly 9" square before I trimmed them.

There are a lot of little crossed seams at the back and I eventually worked out how to do it so they all press nicely, but one of the blocks I unpicked are re-did a bit of seam 3 times because I kept pressing the seam the wrong way.  Probably partly due to the fact that I was only finger pressing, because my iron is currently set up in the other room whilst I'm making curtains.

It was actually a really fun, easy block to do and I think I might do more of them for myself in different colours some time.

I like the block so much I'm considering making some cushions out of it... but I guess that will just go on my 'to-do' list for now.

Softie Donations

All my softies are finished!

These, along with the bears I finished the other day will be sent to Queensland for Mon Petit Poppet's Hope Softies and monkeemoomoo's Dolly Drive and one will go to Christchurch for the softie drive Leonie is running over at Kiwi At Heart.

The softies above all come from the Softies range of books. You can now get them in one big volume, but I've got the last three books on that list (actually I've got the first two as well).

The Dinosaur is made out of red tartan which is left overs of a skirt I made years ago.  Elsie the Little Dog is made out of purple fine corduroy, but I can't remember what that was from.  Lucy's Monster is made out of a red fake fur which is sort of curly.  I'd decided to concentrate on toys for boys because a lot of people would make "dolls" which usually appeal more to girls.

Now I just have to decide which ones are going where, and get them to the post office to start their journey to new homes.

Stacks of Skeins

In preparation for the Retro Nine Patch I am working on, I needed to get some embroidery thread.  I prefer Anchor over DMC for no apparent reason really.  I have a growing dislike for the large retail chains where I normally purchase such goods, so decided to order some from ebay.  Of course the bulk lots make it cheaper.

I now have more thread than I know what to do with!  When it turned up I discovered that this lot is made in India and Pakistan, rather than Europe where the others I already have are made.  They still have all the same labelling regarding colourfastness, so I hope they are!  Other than a slight variance in the label, I can't see any difference with the threads.