Zakka sew along - week 4 sewing kit

These Zakka projects are so much fun to make! I keep flicking through the book and thinking of the projects that I would like to make and which fabrics I would choose for them. Anyway, this weeks project was the sewing kit and I decided to make it with some of my Echo fabric. As it has been raining here for the past few days weeks months, my sons sport has all been cancelled and we have a "free" weekend so I had time to make the sewing kit today.

I saw Debbies lovely sewing kit earlier this week and loved her idea of stitching along the front. I had some green variegated Gutermann thread which matched the Echo so I used it to sew some "organic" straightish lines on the linen.

And, after rummaging through my scrapbooking supplies I found some black Versacraft ink which I used to stamp a folk heart onto the pincushion.

Even Gemma said it was cute. I know that I will really love using this little sewing kit .

Linking to LR stitched , to Sew Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations and to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory. (buttons in sidebar).

Kirsten.

For the Love of Solids Swap (2)

Now my swap partner Leona has received her FLOS swap parcel after it was travelling around the world for 8 weeks, I can finally share a few more pictures of what I sent.

I made a colourful pillow cover in solid HST's backed in her favourite shade of Tangerine.............

to go with the main item which was a rainbow mini Swoon quilt. 

I also included some 6.5" squares of organic cotton solids and a felt needle book.

I am so relieved that this parcel finally made it to Leona as I have been unable to track its progress from Australia and was sure it had gone missing somewhere along the way. 

Kirsten.

Zakka Style sew along

The Zakka Style sew along started a few weeks ago so I am a bit late joining in,  but after seeing all of the lovely projects coming up in the flickr group I finally bought the book yesterday so I could sew along as well. 

When I got home yesterday, I made the pincushion from the book for my partner in the DSDQ swap as she likes them. I also covered a button with some Hometown fabric which Debbie kindly sent to me earlier this month as part of a fabric swap.

What really attracted me to this sew along was that I love sewing with linen and it is used in nearly all of the projects in the book, which range from a number of simple items that could be used for gifts or in a sewing room, to a tote bag and quilt. 

The next project is the sewing kit on the front of the book so I hope to make it this week - I am thinking of making it in some Echo fabrics and the Quilters linen. I adore the Echo but it is quite difficult to find it in Australian stores - I have been able to purchase a few prints from Fresh Fabrics Aust and found the navy Moira yesterday at a LQS.

I don't know if I will make everything in the book right now but maybe someday....................

Linking to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory and to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced (buttons in sidebar).

Kirsten.

Winter stitching wrap-up

I joined in the Winter Stitching challenge with Sarah at Fairy Face designs and as it is now the end of Winter , here is my list of projects done over the past few months:

1. Finish my Amy Butler starflower quilt – done

 2. Sew a table runner for the Modern Christmas Table runner swap –done

 

3. Make a christmas decoration for the above swap too - done

 4. Make a quilt for a baby due early next this year- done (just in time - they had a baby girl a couple of weeks ago)

5. Make a “plus” quilt with the DS fabrics – done

 6. Make a “Surf” themed quilt for my Brother-in-law and his family - done

 7. Make a fabric basket for a Christmas gift - done

 8. Finish my "Quilt Process" mini quilt –done

  9. Make a quilt for my friend V who should be was back visiting here over the holidays – done

 10. I would like to make a quilt with predominantly red and aqua as I really love this colour combo , maybe a Sparkle Plenty quilt using some Ruby fabric leftover from the tote bag I made - done

 Other items done but not on the list: a quilted tote bag, mini starflower quilt, DS log cabin pillow, a Mango tango quilt for the Tangerine Tango challenge, have made 3/9 blocks for a Swoon quilt, made a couple of "plus" table runners and wrote a tutorial on how I made them, For the love of solids swap round 2 items made and sent, a Mini quilt for the Modern Mini quilt challenge at Ellison Lane, a pillow using the leftover HST's from the Swoon geese,  and a fabric basket.

Thank you for holding the Winter stitching Challenge Sarah - it is good to have a set of goals or I would loose track of what I need to do:)

Kirsten.

WIP - DS Doll quilt

I signed up for this DS doll/mini quilt swap again recently and now have my received my partners details. This time we were asked for our favourite colour so that our partners could choose to make a mini quilt in that colour range. My partner likes blue and fortunately I have quite a lot of blues in the Denyse Schmidt fabrics:

I cut the blue fabrics into small strips and organised them into shades of darker/navy, middle/aquaish and lighter/white based tones.

Then they were pieced into this block using this tutorial. I haven't tried paper/foundation piecing before but I thought I would try a fairly simple one to start with. Just need to make a few more now to complete the mini quilt.
Linking to LIttle Quilt Monday with Elizabeth at Pieceful Life, to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory, and to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced (buttons in sidebar).
PS. thank you to everyone who contacted me to let me know that the blog had disappeared after the post this morning - hopefully I have sorted it out now but I am still not sure what happened???
Kirsten.

One thing - one week :Scrappy Pillow

Happy Easter! We have had a fairly quiet weekend as I worked on Good Friday, and my husband went away for a few days to play Rugby in a town nearly 1000 km away. So along with trying failing to put a new bicycle together for my daughter, I managed to get a little bit of sewing done.

This block was sewn together using some of the leftover HST's from my Swoon blocks in this arrangement which is quite similar to the Swoon blocks, but has extra HST's instead of geese.

After seeing the effect on this gorgeous pillow by Knotty Gnome on flickr, I decided to quilt it in straight lines in a lovely orange thread and then made it into a pillow which is about 20" square. 

I have used every fabric from the Denyse Schmidt "Daisy Mae" range in the pillow, adding in pieces from the Australian release to the original ones from the US which are the ones I am using for the Swoon quilt. 

I really love the citron/chartreuse colour in this range - it looks wonderful with the oranges and blues.

Linking to the  One thing One week (12) challenge at Amys Creative Side, to Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory (button in left sidebar) and to the Festival of Half Square Triangles at Canoe Ridge creations.
Kirsten.

Just three things.....

I saw on Traceys blog that she was encouraging others to list 3 achieveable goals for the month of April so I thought I'd join in as I do like to try and finish off projects before starting on another one. 

So my 3 things are:


1. Finish off the Scrappy Swoon block and make it into "something"........

(ETA: managed to get this block sewn up inbetween work call-outs today)

2. Make at least one more Swoon block - maybe even more than one:)


3. And borrowing an idea from Tracey- make a happy sewing project, just something pretty that I like and can use.

Have a happy Easter:)
Kirsten.

WIP Wednesday - Scrappy Swoon

As I sewed the geese last week for my remaining 6 Swoon blocks,  I stitched an extra seam on the other side of the geese unit so that when they were cut, the HSTs' were already sewn and only needed pressing then a bit of a trim to square them up again.  

There are quite a few leftover HST's from a 9 block Swoon quilt - 144 to be exact! There are quite a few ideas in the flickr group on how to make use of these "leftover" HSTs, including  this wonderful smaller quilt. I have split mine up into 4 groups of 36 and am going to use them to make up a few blocks which I can then make into mini quilts or pillow covers.

So, this is the first layout I am playing with - yet another Swoon block (!) but with a slight variation that I saw here. It is mainly HST's and I just need to cut a couple of small pieces to make up the rest of the block.
I am going to try and finish this over the Easter weekend and for the "One thing , One week challenge #12 at Amy's Creative Side.
Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Kirsten. 

Tuesday at the Table - Chicken parmigiana

My daughter does cooking at school and we often try out the recipes at home beforehand. She was assigned a "allergy free" recipe recently and chose to make this yummy Chicken parmigiana, which is both gluten and egg free.

Gluten and egg-free Chicken Parmigiana
1/2 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1 kg vine ripened tomatoes, chopped
3/4 cup basil leaves, chopped
6 slices (250g) gluten-free bread, torn
1/2 cup gluten free plain flour
1/2 cup reduced fat plain yoghurt
4 (500g) chicken schnitzels (uncrumbed)
100g mozarella cheese, grated    baby spinach leaves , to serve        


1. Heat 2 table spoons oil in a non-stick frying pan over med-high heat. Add 2/3 garlic . Cook for 30 seconds then add tomato. Cook, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes or until tomatoes have just collasped. Stir in 1/2 cup basil
2. Process bread and 2 tablespoons flour until fine crumbs form. Add remaining basil. and process until finely chopped. Transfer mixture onto a large plate. Whisk yoghurt, remaining garlic and 2 tablespoons water together in a shallow bowl.
3. Coat 1 schnitzel lightly in flour, shaking off excess. Dip in yoghurt mixture, shaking off excess. Coat in bread mixture. Place on a plate and repeat with remaining schnitzels.
4. Heat remaining oil in the frying pan over medium heat. Cook chicken in batches for 2-3 minutes each side or until golden, adding more oil if needed.
5. Arrange chicken in a single layer in a baking tray , top with tomato mixture and sprinkle with mozarella cheese. Bake for a few minutes or until cheese is melted.

We served ours with pumpkin risoni (which may not be actually gluten free) but was still delicious.  Our boys don't like the tomato topping so just had some pieces of the crumbed chicken in a salad wrap - not sure if it is the yoghurt in the coating but the chicken seems to stay really nice and tender.
Linking to Debbies "Tuesday at the Table" at A Quilters Table.
Kirsten.

"Other" sewing projects....

I have only started quilting in the past couple of years, but when my children were younger I used to make clothes for them - dresses for Gem and simple elastic waisted shorts for the boys. Now Gemma does jazz/modern dancing and I have occasionally helped out with the costume making. 

This circular skirt was made for a routine from "Grease" - this was quite easy really and the poodle was a ready made applique from Spotlight:

Recently, Gem asked me to make a tulle tu-tu for their school swimming carnival which was held recently as the kids all dress up in their house colours and have a fun day cheering each other on. Their house colour is orange and the only orange tulle we could find was either a pale apricot or a very bright fluorescent shade - guess which one we bought:)

I used an old blade in my rotary cutter to cut about a million lots of 1.5 inch wide strips then tied them onto the elastic using a slip knot -  there is a tutorial here . We also made one for Gemmas friend (so they would match) and found some orange leggings to go with them. At least she can use it next year too - and then maybe one of her younger brothers might be crazy enough to wear it.
How about you - do you do much other sewing apart from mainly "quilting" projects? 
Linking to {sew} Modern Monday at Canoe Ridge Creations and Fabric Tuesday at Quiltstory.(buttons in left sidebar).
Kirsten.