Quillow is finished

 I was having so much fun with this quilt I didn’t stop until it was finished.

I quilted it each side of the road. Simple stitching.

Spending Sunday night sewing down the binding

It looks fantastic out on the grass. 

I just love this backing. I have had it in the stash for about 10-12 years. It is perfect for this quilt.

You can see a pocket with a zip on the back too. This is the pocket to transform it into a quillow.

I added the extra zip pocket to put some cars in it to take along and play with.

All folded into a cushion for easy storage and cleanup.

With the hidden pocket on the inside.

What is a quillow?

It is a quilt that folds and stores away into a pillow. Making it a QUILLOW.

And the 3rd good thing about it is that it is also a playmat. So this is a triple winner. 

Going to be a gift for my friends grandsons.

 

Another quilt started

 I am making a quilt for a little boy. A ROAD quilt to play with cars. I bought a die for the go cutter which made it so much easier.

Coming together nicely

I have decided to make it into a quillow with a pocket too. These are for the pocket.

Here are all the blocks made and layout decided.

No borders needed and the binding will be red.

Each block measures 10”. The quilt measures 50” * 60”. A nice playmat size.

Another find. Kristy’s baby quilt

 My daughter started making this baby quilt in 2007/8. It was bought as a kit.

She made all 4 log cabin blocks. The seam allowance isn’t very accurate but it was her first go. These can be trimmed down to size. Or I can add an extra round to make it up to the size required.

The first appliqué block was stitched. She was good at blanket stitching.

She fell pregnant and found out it was a boy. So the sewing stopped because she said she wouldn’t use it as it was more of a girl colour/style. Into the back of the cupboard it went. She has shifted many times over the years. Eventually all her sewing supplies came to me. So I got it all out to see what I needed to do. I know she had started another block but that was nowhere to be found. There was 3 background fabrics left. I traced out all the blocks.

Ironed them on to the background fabric.

These are very cute. I was careful with all the fabric as I needed to make the last block up out of the scraps so the fabrics were the same.

Here they are together. There is 2 different background fabrics. I need to buy another fabric. It will be one from spotlight. It is only a thin tone on tone in a pale cream. I have. White one but it is too noticeable. Off shopping I will go. I have prepared the appliqué to be ironed on when I have bought some new fabric.

It’s not a very big quilt so shouldn’t take too long to make. I won’t be doing it by hand and will machine blanket stitch the appliqué blocks. All the eyes are little buttons but I think I might stitch them on. Once together I just have to find some binding that will match. That shouldn’t be too hard. Then it will be put away for her first grandchild/daughter as a surprise.

Fabric shopping and fun finds

 I thought I’d have a wander through spotlight as they were having another good sale on fabrics. As I was walking in and given it is Halloween time, I saw this.

A spooky little sewing machine. That’s a fun decoration. No I didn’t buy it.

 I loved making the alphabet letters so I want to build up my stash of novelty prints. So for $24 I got quite a few cool ones. Ranging from 15cm to 1/2 metre.

I have another idea to make for a gift. This is going to a friend before Christmas. When I was talking to her to arrange our visit she had recently been to a friend’s 70th birthday party. They had jelly cakes (cut up sponge cake dipped into jelly and rolled in coconut. Sometimes cut in half with whipped cream in the middle) and fairy bread (hundreds and thousands sprinkled onto buttered bread). Both are basic children’s party food. Did you notice the fairy bread fabric. She hadn’t heard of either of these. Just had to buy that and use it for her gift. 

We always play cards when staying with her. I thought these were a fun idea to use some fun fabrics. Some of her favourite things.

Tilda Kawandi pouch

 I got around to stitching my Tilda Kawandi project that I started when in Darwin.

This is how far I got when I was away.

All the fabric is pinned on so I could have it beside my chair.

I have enjoyed slow stitching this. It is so mindless

Time to make it into a pouch but I need a zip. Out came the zip box.

Look at the price of this 64 cents. Now that’s old.

I covered both ends of the zip. I made them so they stuck out further than the pouch. This made tabs to hold when opening and closing the zip.

I decided I didn’t want to keep it a flat pouch.

Then added the Phula onto the zipper pulls. I also dog eared the base.

Slow Stitching Sunday.

No. 1 chookshed challenge

 I decided my Xmas stitchers project was to be one that I started about 2011.

The pattern was a Rosalie Quinlan design from 2010. The shop I used to go to often was Quilters Bazaar in Gisborne. They had a block of the month and I just had to do it.

All I had done is the 1st month and had started the 2nd month.

I stitched the wings and hair on this block. It just needs its little numbered pocket on it.

My daughter bought it too but didn’t sew very much at all. When she gave me back all her sewing supplies this was amongst it. At least it was altogether in a folder but no threads with it.

This 1st block is stitched. The pockets have not been attached.

The 2nd block was started.

Looks like I’ll be finishing both projects. 

These sew up to make a lovely advent calendar. Each block has a little pocket with the days number on it.

My grandsons are now 17 and nearly 15 so by the time these are finished they will make nice gifts for their homes in the future.

Linking up with https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2025/10/slow-sunday-stitching_01313302528.html

A new mystery, SAL, finish and VERY PHOTO HEAVY.

 Oh the days are getting away from me. BUT. I have been busy spending all my spare time on catching up and working on my mystery 

SPRING FLING with STRINGS

Every Wednesday a new clue is out. We have been told there are 12 clues and it finishes mid July. We have just done clue 9 and I have just caught up. I have spent 4 days sewing, ironing and trimming…

Here is where it started. Using the old phone books to make my string blocks.

And using up my green scraps

Scrub Stitchin Kawandi project

 I have been ing some finishing off sewing days at home.

My kawandi piece has been finished for some time but it needed making into something.

We all need pouches for our bits and pieces, marking pens, pins and glue. 

My finished fat quarter size piece is all stitched. Now I am marking DOWN 5” on the left side and UP 5” on the right side. Draw a line joining the 2 marks.

With a smaller stitch sew each side of the drawn line.

Cut on the line. This now makes 2 pouches. Measure the length of the edge and add about 4”. Cut a continuous zip and have 2 zipper pulls ( or you will need 2 zips ). Mine was 25”

Attach one zip to the cut edge on the right side. Iron over and top stitch along the edge of the zip at the back. This will hide the raw edge fabric and will prevent anything caught in the zipper when opening.

Fold in half and feed the zipper pull on. Trim the zip level with the edge of work. I actually covered the end with a tab on one and folded the zip to make a tab on the other.

With the edges already tuned under and hemmed due to the Kawandi technique the side and bottom seams only need to be topstitched closed to make the pouch. 

I put little dangly things on the zipper pulls for decoration.

I didn’t want mine left flat so I turned inside out and sewed dog ear corners. Turn it back out and a base is formed so they stand up.

All ready for show n tell next April 

Alphabets

I wanted a different baby gift than I usually do. This was going to a family I had already made a quilt for.

I had seen this idea on a blog somewhere (sorry, can’t remember where) and thought it was a great idea.

Print out the letters and trace on to fabric. 

I tried to find fabric that matched each letter. This was a bit tricky and my room was a mess.

Layer with wadding and a backing.

Stitch

And cut out. Then you have a whole alphabet, with some extras, so they can spell out some simple words.

This is the whole gift that has been posted to the new baby.

I also made a cute lined bag, with alphabet fabric, for the letters to be stored in.

Sit n sew at Just Stitchin, Humpty Doo

 While visiting my brother in Humpty Doo, NT I came across this little sewing shop.

Just Stitchin. 

Louise said she held a sit n sew on Friday mornings. 10:30-1:30. I went along and joined in.

I took along my sashiko to work on but left my thread in the caravan. Mmmmmm.

Off to buy some fabric so I had something to work on. I bought this pack of beautiful Tilda fabrics. I decided to make a little Lawanda piece which later can be made into a pouch.

Jean, from Berri Springs, was making some placemats for her grandchildren. She was a beginner sewer and this was her first project. She had machine quilted these as well.

Chris, from Brisbane, was staying with her son while her husband was recovering from a hip replacement.

She bought a little pattern to make a needle case, scissor keep and a bag to put them in.

Louise kept all her little Tilda scraps and put them on to a backing. Stitched them with lines very close together with her machine. It looks like a BORO piece.

She cuts these strips into panels and uses them in little pouches and bags.

They are very cute. I love the little zip tag too. It’s like a thread bunny/thread scrap.

This is where my piece ended up at the end of my sewing morning.