My Shoebox is ready to go

I have everything ready for my Christmas Shoebox appeal. I have made a collection of items with a 2-4 years old girl in mind.  There are quite a lot of restrictions as to what can and cannot be included in the parcel so this is what's in mine:

 

It includes 3 homemade items.

All nice and colourful - very pink!  And I managed to get them all into the Shoebox.

It will be interesting to know how many Shoeboxes our Church collects on Sunday.  250 were gifted last year.

UFO Challenge

The Patchwork Group I belong to is making a Spider web Quilt for one of our members. 
Last year we made one for another of our group (different colours so it will look quite different) and I made a set of blocks at different stages of construction so members could see how the quilt was made.  This bag of parts was put away. It saw the light of day recently when I was reminding one of our group how the blocks are constructed.

I decided not to put it back in the cupboard but to finish it so for the past few days I have made a start on the blocks. 
I already had two completed blocks:

 and have now finished 4 triangles which will make up another block. I also have several triangles at various stages.

Here they are:

UFO Challenge

 

In order to make sure I finish this UFO I am linking with Jo's Country Junction's UFO Challenge.

 

The UFO should be completed before Bonnie Hunter's new mystery quilt begins just after Thanksgiving.  It seems appropriate to choose this UFO to complete as the quilt is similar to one of Bonnie Hunter's free patterns on her blog.

A little "Thank you" gift

I am going to my best friend Barbara's tomorrow for a few days whilst DH is away on a course.
As I am going by train I have to travel light - three trains there and two trains and a tube on the way back.

So, as a little "Thank you" gift I have made Barbara a drawstring bag for her battery chargers.
DH and I have found these bags so useful.  We know instantly which are our chargers and when we go away just toss the bag into the luggage and off we go.

As always, made from stash, using some of the pretty blue ribbon I brought back from NZ that I bought cheaply in Spotlight.

 

I used the same fabrics on the back but rearranged in a different order.

 

As before I used Amy's excellent tutorial on her Pink Penguin Blog.

Wonky Stars Quilt is finished!

On Thursday evening I finished hand sewing down the binding on my Wonky Stars Quilt.
I have wanted to make one of these quilts (Bonnie Hunter's free pattern on her blog Quiltville.com) for a long time.  I love scrap quilts and always have a stash of 2.5" squares which are needed for this Quilt design.  However you do need a lot of neutrals for the stars and I realised there is a big gap in my stash where neutrals are concerned.  This quilt pretty much cleared me out of neutral scraps although I have a lot of neutral 2.5" squares leftover ready for another Wonky Stars Quilt.

 

Close up of a block:

 

I did a lot of hand quilting with variegated pink Perle thread so it took a long time to complete.  But I am really happy with the result, well worth all the time and effort.

The quilt is a large quilt, much bigger than the normal sizes I make baby quilts but this should be very useful for a long time as it will start as  Playmat and snuggle-time blanket, then it could be used on the child's first bed.

It measures 42" wide and 55" long.

The piece of Froggy fabric I had in mind for the backing wasn't big enough so I rooted through my larger pink pieces and found a pretty flowered fabric which was exactly the same shade of pink as the background of the Froggy one.  Although they are different patterns they really merge into one!

And here's  a photo of the whole backing:

 

 

It is finished just in time for our Step granddaughter's baby which is due tomorrow.  If it's a girl of course!  I have a boy quilt ready as well.

 

So, that completes all of my "To Do" list.  I am very pleased with myself!

 

 

Last craft item finished!

On Wednesday evening I finished knitting the pink and lilac beanie I am putting into my Shoebox.

Here it is, bright and girly!

 

 

And here it is again, beside the knitted Shoulder bag:

 

 

 

I think it's fascinating how knitting two colours together gives you a completely new colour.

Look at the contrast between the beanie and the bag, yet the lilac and pink yarns are the same!

 

 I have now finished all the handmade items I intend to put in my Shoebox so it's almost ready to hand over at the special Church Service on 1st November. A few sweets to buy when I am in town tomorrow and then it's done.

And, no last minute rush!

 

Last night I completed hand sewing the binding on my Wonky Stars quilt.  I am going to try to photograph that today but it rather grey and overcast so we'll have to see.

With a bit of luck I'll write another post later today.

 

A little gift

Next week one of my Patchwork Group has a birthday.  We exchange small gifts and a birthday card. As part of my gift I am including one of my "signature" needlecases.

The front:

 

 

And the back and front:

 

 

 

Made today, using fabrics from my Needlecase Project Pack so it was quick to make.

 

 

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!

No I am not fighting the battle of Agincourt with Henry V, I am fighting the Battle of the Post that will Not Appear!

So in the spirit of " Let us try again one more time" .......... Here we go!

Last night I spent a frustrating hour trying to get my post published.
Three parts to it: my knitted Christmas Bell, the little knitted shoulder bag and 2 more Spider web Blocks.

First of all the whole post seemed to be OK, then mysteriously the first part about the knitted Bell disappeared and it seemed as though the last 2/3 of the post was OK, so I re-wrote and published the bit about the Christmas Bell.  THEN I discovered that that was the only piece of the whole thing that had been posted. At that point I admitted defeat, the computer had won, and off I went to bed.

New dawn, new day, so I am going to try again. My generation was brought up on the maxim; "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again'!

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

At the weekend I knitted a pretty little shoulder bag to add to my Christmas Shoe box.  It uses two colours of wool that you knit together which gives a pretty marbling effect.  I chose a deep pink and a lilac.  Together they create a completely different colour.

 

Last week I made  a Spider web block for my Patchwork Group's quilt that we are making for one of our members.  It was then decided that we needed more blocks so I offered to make two more. 

 I enjoy making these blocks and as I already have a stash of strips they are quick to make.

Here's the two extra I made yesterday afternoon:

 

Nice and bright and scrappy, just what I like in a quilt - and, more importantly what the recipient of this quilt likes.

I also trimmed my Wonky Stars quilt and sewed on the bindings.  That's ready for me to hand sew whilst I'm at my Patchwork Group on Thursday morning.

I have just looked back at the To Do List that I posted on 19th September.  I'm really rattling through that list.  Once the binding on Wonky Stars is sewn and I have finished knitting the beanie I started yesterday whilst watching TV, I will have ticked them all off the list.  Hurrah.

Now I am holding my breath as I try to publish this post. Here goes!

 



 

 

Trying again!

Well, I am not quite sure what happened to my last post - the first part has disappeared so I am
trying again.

I knitted the Christmas Bell decoration for the Upton House Christmas tree. It worked out well.  Easy to follow pattern and actually looks like a bell!  My daughter was very complimentary and suggested I knit some more - for her tree as well as ours.  I'll see if I find the time!

I will post it off to Upton House tomorrow.

Noah's Ark is on its way!

Little Tobias (Toby) has arrived in New Zealand so my Noah's Ark Quilt was posted yesterday and is now on its way, on the long journey to Aotearoa - The Land of the Long White Cloud.

A reminder of the front:

I was very pleased with the pieced backing, using up lots of leftover scraps from this quilt and others too.

The Pieced  Backing: 

 

 

Granny Rose emailed us a lovely photo of the wee boy, at the very new age of 6 hours!  Hope he loves being snuggled in his quilt and spends happy times kicking on it on the floor.

Welcome to the world, Toby!

Another drawstring bag, another finish

I am gradually working through the To Do List I wrote about on my blog on 19th September.

Item 5 was: Make a little drawstring bag for my Christmas Shoe Box Appeal gift.

I love making these bags, using 2.5" squares from my Box of already cut squares.
As it's intended for a little girl, aged 2 - 4 years, I chose bright pretty squares.  A largish scrap of fabric was ideal for the lining and a bright yellow spotty 1.5"strip (also in my pre-cut stash) was used for the casing.  Pretty ribbon I had bought in New Zealand and 2 yellow buttons from my Button Stash completed the bag.

Here it is:

 

I used the same 16 fabrics on each side of the bag but rearranged them in a different order.  I like playing with colours and placements!

And a little view of the lining - I love this fabric but can't remember what it is called.
I cut the pieces left over from the lining into a few more 2.5" squares and one 2.5" strip which are already stashed away.

 

Another gift finished and added to my Shoe Box.

I also bought a couple more things yesterday; a bright orange castanet and a glittery silver star Christmas decoration.