A little llama gift

My granddaughter is a big fan of llamas...... they seem to have taken over from the unicorn theme that all the children raved about a while ago.
At Christmas I gave her some llama patterned leggings which she adores and last week I discovered some llama patterned fabric so decided to make a pillowcase using the YouTube Easy pillowcase tutorial by Jennifer at Shabby fabrics.  It’s a very clear tutorial and I followed it easily.

It my granddaughter’s 10th birthday on Sunday so this an extra surprise from Granny.

I was a bit disappointed with the fabric when I saw it (I had had an advertising email about it) as it’s rather a wishy washy pale pink and the llamas are either white or a strange green. It made finding the 

“accent “ and “cuff” fabrics difficult to choose. I managed to find a solid green fabric very close in tone to some of the llamas and a white on white spot fabric for the “accent” strip.

I did enjoy making it though and will use this pattern again to make little gifts for various friends’ grandchildren.

QAYG blocks on their way to Australia

I made 20 QAYG Strippy Blocks for Jan in Victoria to help with her Oz Comfort Quilts Appeal.

I got them weighed at the Post Office ( we have a very helpful Post Mistress) and realised I could make a few more and post them for the same cost as these 20 blocks.

So I went home  and made 8 more, using lots of the strips Wendy recently gifted to me.
Back to the Post Office yesterday and all 28 Blocks are on their way. Looking at the weight again I realise I could have probably squeezed in another 2 blocks. I must remember that!

First quilt finish for 2020

My first quilt finish for 2020 was begun on 8th November 2019 starting with some scraps gifted by a friend. The scraps made me think of a Chinese Coins quilt and that was the path I chose.
I have loved making this quilt, the colours are beautiful and reminded me of bright sparkling jewels.
I had a piece of navy with a small white dot fabric in my stash and it was perfect for the backing and binding of the quilt. I was literally left with a couple of strips which I have already used in QAYG blocks for the Oz Comfort Quilts Appeal.
I’ve named the quilt Jewel Quilt and decided to keep it for myself, the first ever quilt I have kept for myself. It’s only small, around 38” square but it’s lovely. The colours are my favourites and I know I shall love it.
Here it is:

And showing the backing fabric:

RSC Green1.5” squares

Not much time for sewing this weekend, two sets of visitors for meals but I did manage a 49 Patch block and a few more small 4 patches which I made as Leaders and Enders.

Linking up with Angela’s SoScrappy RSC blog.

Great fund raising effort for animals caught in Bush Fires

Popped into town this morning and saw a big table set in front of a flower shop. Lots of posters like this plastered on the shop windows.

Manning the table were a young teenager and his Dad, selling cakes the young guy had made himself, proceeds going to help the poor animals caught in the ongoing Australian Bush Fires disaster.

 I chatted to Dad who said his son had made all the cakes in two sessions after school. I think it would have taken me at least two days!

What a great young man, nice to see his Dad supporting him too. I found it hard to choose ones to buy, all the cakes looked delicious and very well made. I hope he did well, he deserved it. Everyone was stopping to buy and all saying they didn’t want any change so I think he might have raised a good amount.

My choice , slices of Chocolate Brownie Cake.

 

Came home with a real Feel Good factor, how good it felt to see a young chap determined to do his bit to raise money to help animals suffering at the other end of the world. 

Oz Comfort Quilts

Jan of Sew many quilts too little time blog is always making quilts and crochet blankets for a number of worthy causes. At the moment Jan is putting her energies into making Comfort Quilts for people who have lost homes in the currently raging Australia bush fires. She is an Australian citizen and is appealing for help with her project. Have a look at her blog and see if there is a way you can help.

One of the ways to help is to make 10.5” strippy QAYG blocks. Over the past few days I’ve managed to make 20 which I will be mailing to her. Mostly my scrap strips but I also added some 1.5” strips gifted to me by a quilting friend last month.

Bright and cheerful. I’ll make some more soon. Fun to make and literally anything goes, whatever mix of colours and fabrics all seem to work somehow. As you can see there are some children’s fabrics in there (elephants, owls etc) as well as a few batiks, solids and so on.

Do take a look at Jan’s blog and see if you can send her something too.

Also take a look at Jo’s Butter Z blog where she shows ways to help animals injured in the bush fires. Jo is also a Jan supporter. So lovely to know Quilters all around the world are helping with this unbelievably tragic disaster.

First RSC 2020 Blocks, hurrah!

New Year, New RSC 2020 and some New blocks!

New start for this RSC year for me are Sailing Ships Blocks. Two kinds, two layers of sails and a Tall Ships Block. I made a mistake with sizing so I now have an Orphan Block ship too. Bonus!
In between as Leaders and Enders ,I made some 4 patch blocks from 1.5” squares from my stash tin.

Linking up with Angela on her So Scrappy blog. Thanks Angela!

RSC blocks and ideas

Happy New Year!

I looked at my ongoing RSC blocks yesterday and discovered I had 5 sets:

1. 32 Twinkler Blocks . Need to work out which colours I’m missing so it can be turned into a top
2. Crumby Yummy Blocks which have 4” Crumb centres. Check colours needed
3. 49 Patch Blocks using 1.5” cut squares Decide which other colours I want to make.
4. 39 Roman Stripe Blocks. Decide which other colours I want to make
5. 111 x 7” Strippy Blocks. May make 2 or 3 smaller quilts: one Hot colours (pink, red, orange, yellow), one Cool  colours (blue, green, purple ( and another using the Neutral and Brown Blocks.

I would also like to make one or two Sailing Ship blocks in each month’s colour.