More OPAM Finishes

I have been busy over the last couple of weeks and have managed to finish off these projects.

This is a mug bag that I made with my two stitching friends Raelee and Caron. We had a lovely night on Friday night stitching and laughing together (until midnight).

William's quilt came back from our local quilter, Alison and she did a wonderful job. I have completed the binding and William is enjoying it on his bed (finally!!!).

I have a thing for red at the moment and have decided to add a few red bits around the house. I recently purchased a charm pack and yardage in this range which is from Moda called Pashmina. I made up this quick and easy tablerunner for my coffee table and am very pleased with it.

The kids are back at school now so life has returned to normal (and very busy) but I am determined to put some time away each week for stitching (just to keep me sane).

Chat soon

Kylie xxxx

OPAM 2010

Yes I have done it - I have joined the OPAM 2010. I think this is a great idea to keep me motivated throughout the year and get so many more projects completed. As I have said before I have really good at starting things but not so good at finishing so this will hold me accountable. I have already added to projects which I have finished so far this month.

So if you are interested pop over and visit Peg

or Kris and drop them an email to join.

Chat soon

Saving Money

Look at me - two posts in one day - can you believe it!!!!

A few days ago our family decided to follow my brothers idea from last year and start saving all our $2, $1 and 50c coins to buy a special family gift (or at least putting it toward christmas presents). Last year my brother was able to buy a new Plasma TV for this family with his savings. So today we went to the Reject Shop and purchased one of these daggy money boxes. On bringing it home we were trying to find a suitable place to put it where we could see it and be reminded to place our coins in it. I do not have a lot of cupboard space and it was just way to ugly to sit out on display. Anyway this afternoon I was doing a little blog surfing and jumped onto Fionas blog to check out her frugal tips and low and behold she had a post about covering an old tin to make a money box. I dug around in the kids craft box, found some pretty fabric in my stash and off I went.

So after only about 15 minutes I have now turned this....

Into this...

I was a bit lazy and did not do a lovely label like Fiona has but I think it looks pretty smick nonetheless and now I am more than happy to have it sitting out on the dresser. The kids are very excited about it to and have already dug deep into their pocket money and have contributed $10 already - way to go kids!!!

I think this would make a quick and cheap gift idea for someone and you could also cover small containers to make pen holders or long skinny holders with lids for knitting needles - the possibilties are endless.

So why not jump over and visit Fiona at Mums Cupboard for her instructions to make this money box and while you are there also check out her other frugal tips.

See ya soon

Kylie xxxxx

Another Finish

Just a quick post to show you another project which I have finished so far this year. The centre of this tablecloth started out as a Wildflower Serenade II Turnover which I bought at the Craft Show in Newcastle last year. I had no idea what I was going to do with it so at a recent quilting weekend I decided to sew them together and see what would happen and it just grew from there. I ended up ordering some metreage from the Fat Quarter Shop when they were having a sale and added some borders and backing. I decided to make it into a tablecloth and I think it looks very festive so I think I will use it on the table at xmas - what do you think?

Hope you are all having a great day.

Cheers

Kylie xxxx

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you All

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I wish you all a fantastic 2010. I know I am a little late. I had all good intentions of blogging on New Years Day but, oh well, my intentions were good. I have been busy cleaning up my sewing area and getting myself organised for a whole lot of stitching this year.

This is a picture of my very organised stitchery projects all waiting to be worked on. Each one is in some state of progress and I am going to try working on each of them a little at a time. They are all big projects so it will take me a while.

This is a christmas quilt which I SHOULD have started way way way before christmas but, well, I didn't so I thought there is not time like the present and maybe (fingers xxx) it will be finished for next christmas. The pattern is by Me and My Sister Designs called Cake Walk and I am using the Crazy 8 range by Moda. I have cut up all the 10" squares into 41/2" squares and now I need to cut the jelly roll strips into 21/2" squares.

This is a UFO which I have had sitting in my baskets for a long time so on New Years Day I decided to just get it finished. I was up to the quilting stage and could not decide how to quilt it. I really wanted to try stipple quilting but I am having heaps of trouble with my machine with the bobbin thread being very uneven and pulling on my practice attempts so in the end I just decided to sew buttons on to get it finished. The range of fabrics is called "Sultry" and I have just used homespun for the binding and backing. It is very pink and not really my colours so this is the first project to go into the gift bag for 2010.

I have also finished a tablecloth but for some reason the photo has not come over to this post so I will add it to my next one.

Well until next time I hope you are all enjoying the school holidays and gettings heaps of stitching done.

Chat soon

Kylie xxxx