Christmas Gift making.

Well whilst I've got the sewing machine out, I figured I might get some more sewing done. Back in early August when we were up in Brisbane, I spend a couple of days out at my brothers place. They purchased a little pop top van. I made new curtains and a table cloth in matching fabric for Donna. I took the scraps and promised I would make her some accessories for her and Peter for Christmas. So this is what I made with the scraps. Two place-mats, two drink coasters, two tea towel hanging towels and a pot holder. I did buy some extra fabric to match. The fabric that the curtains were made from is the same in the top of the tea towel holders. Love the colours, very bright.

 This shows the full set.

 The coasters

Two place mats

 A pot holder that was very fiddly to make. Certainly won't be making another one.... ever.

And two towel holders.

I'm pretty sure Donna will like them, as she is always appreciative of the things I make for her.
Arlene

Last drawer now finished.

Last big drawer cover finished. The block I used for this one was from a round robin I did a few years ago. The work is exquisite, I think it was the Pearls and lace one, Kathy Shaw was one of the participants, along with Nicki Lee, Susan Locke and Rita Cruz. This one is my favourite, mainly due to the block and the colours, just love it.

Thank you ladies for giving me such a wonderful keepsake.

And close ups:

I will followup in a few weeks once they are placed in the van.
Arlene

What to do with CQ Blocks?????

I've been doing the  courses that Kathy Shaw has provided FREE of charge over the last year.

Well I emailed Kathy to say she hadn't sent me the next lesson of the last course, not realizing there wasn't another one to come.  So she suggested I go back to the start and redo it.  Well not quiet, but what does one do with all those blocks we've just embellished.

Well we have purchased our next 'mobile home' to continue our travels around Australia.
Old one:

New one:

My 'Craft room' consists of four plastic drawers and a sewing machine. In the previous van hubby had pulled out the lounge and my 4 drawers sat nicely there with a curtain that come over the top and latched into the wall at the bottom. This stopped movement whilst we were traveling.

But as this has a different floor plan we've had to re-think where to put my 'Craft room' - four drawers. So two will be situated at the front of the van in the bedroom area one either side. The other two will fit under the kitchen table. Now that they are separated we can't use the same curtain set up. This photo show's the back of the van where the table and lounge is. Can't pull the lounge out on this one, too difficult.

So I thought about it for a while and came up with the idea of individual slip covers for them. This way if they fall over during travel the drawers will stay in and the contents won't spill over the floor.
So using the blocks from this course I am making four covers. Here is the first one, three more to go.
Front view:

 The top, I will eventually embellish this, as it's also lined.

 Sides have the same fabric, the back is just calico (muslin).

 Close up of the block. Didn't end up putting a beetle on, would have gotten caught on a lot of things.

There is always different uses for our blocks, not just quilts or covers for books etc. Think outside the box everyone.

Thank you Kathy for another excellent class.

Arlene