Tablescraps zippered cutlery placemat

 I have spent the day making a fun little cutlery placemat roll.

Now in the world of COVID we have a no share food policy or sharing of cutlery. How many times do we buy takeaway and don't like using the plastic cutlery or we sit at a dirty public picnic table in the park. Well this idea is just perfect. 

I have made this placemat so I can take it to my sewing group for our sit n sew days .... When not in lockdown. I will need to go to an op shop to buy a cutlery set for one so I can have it in the pocket permanently.

I started with this pile of selvedges scraps

I sewed them all together as a QAYG project.

I have put a zipper pocket in it so the cutlery doesn't fall out when you roll it up. If it gets dirty, just wash it when you get home.

I used up some selvedge and batting scraps so it didn't really cost anything.

and because it is food related I used a fun fabric for the backing.

Now I can have it rolled up at the bottom of my sewing bag ready whenever needed.

I am linking up with The Joyful Quilter and many others for TABLE SCRAP CHALLENGE even though mine is not a table runner or cloth. To me it is a serviceable placemat that will be used on many a sewing occasion. 

TABLE SCRAP CHALLENGE

Why don’t you go have a look at what others did and think about joining in.

Tea bag string art

 You all know I must have lost the plot knitting with tea bag strings. I did make a beautiful scarf and gifted it to a special friend. I have started another. 

Removing the tags, tying the strings and knitting away.

Look at what a friend has made with them. Aren’t these Teddy Bears gorgeous.

Progress of the HARLEY quilt

 I know I have shown you 1 or 2 photos of this quilt . You have definitely seen the finished quilt but here I’m going to show you my progress photos.

Cutting to see what I’m working with…

Now I have started cutting

Centre of the top is done.

Borders are on.

Quilting is done.

Look at the finish

Then we gather at our motorbike group. There were about 30 bikes join us for the days ride.

I have donated this quilt for their special 30 th anniversary AGM day.

And the quilt is auctioned and raised $600

Not bad considering no one knew it was happening. We did have about 70 people attend the night. Mostly couples. A beautiful dinner, a live band and a great group of people.

Look at this beautiful stop we had at Euston.

We are in the middle of winter and the weather was just perfect.

And we had a great day….

Some more holiday photos

 We were so lucky to be able to have a holiday amongst COVID restrictions and lockdowns.

So here are just a few to show.

My first one was at Daly Waters. That’s an interesting little stop. You pull up and really all that is there is a camping, caravan spot. It has a great pool, a bar, restaurant and interesting things to look at. Like bras hanging from the roof. We wanted to book for the following Friday night on our way back but they don’t take pre bookings. They have 300 different type of sites available.

The only thing is they grey nomads ( older travellers) pull up and settle in about lunch time every day. So by the time we would get there would have been about 5pm so we passed on the idea.

But here was the fuel pump. You could fill up. Take a photo of the bowser and go into the bar. Show your photo and pay. Very different.

Luckily we didn’t stop there on the way back. The night before we wanted to stay a drunk went crazy and attacked some people in the bar with a chainsaw. All because he was refused more dinks because he was too drunk and told to leave.

Any way. Next was a week in Darwin. We had a walk along the harbour pier.

Then also enjoyed the Mindel sunset market. It I just love sunsets.was a beautiful view, feeling and mood. The weather was gorgeous.

COVID-19 in MILDURA…….FNSI, SCRAP HAPPY SATURDAY & SLOW STITCHING SUNDAY and a little UGLY fabric I sent

 UPDATED….

MILDURA has now got its first case of COVID in 15 months. All because of some idiots & the crowds at an AFL football game at the MCG in Melbourne. People don’t think this is serious. We have to sit and wait how this will spread. As for me I am just going to work and keeping my mask on, using lots of sanitiser and keeping away from everyone. I’m fortunate that the supermarket is next door to where I work. I don’t have to go into town at the moment..

I’ll be keeping safe and to myself.. UPDATES WILL FOLLOW.

I am catching up on a few posts at the same time here… 

How I spent my Friday night for FNSI & Saturday playing with scraps. Sorting my scraps into strips & crumbs, cutting 2.5” squares and preparing Fishy School blocks for my leader and Enders project. There are lots of blue scraps here hidden in the piles of mess.

FNSI

https://www.sugarlane-designs.com/2021/07/sign-ups-for-julyalready.html

SCRAP HAPPY SATURDAY

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2021/07/scraphappy-saturday-lazy-days-of-summer.html

BONNIE HUNTER - QUILTVILLE - Leader and Enders.

https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2021/07/july-2021-leader-ender-challenge-fish.html

And just to show I still do a little bit of slow stitching. Here I was last week finishing the binding on my ugly fabric quilt

SLOW STITCHING SUNDAY

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/

UGLY FABRIC SWAP.. the other way

The swap I have been involved in has been great. You have seen the quilt I made with my UGLY fabric in the last post. Here is what I sent to my partner and what she did with it.

Amazing…….

And the finished quilt

Our rules were. 

To use the fabric in the centre of the quilt and not just the border. It had to measure a minimum of 36” * 45”

 

MOUSE ESCAPES THE WATERMELON PATCH

 Ooohhhh how exciting. Here is my finished UGLY FABRIC QUILT.

It is very different to everyone else's quilts. When I received the fabric I thought I wanted to make something for a little girl. I had an idea in my head. I searched Pinterest. I found a card cut out and took it from there. I like using up my scraps so I went with it.

It is bright and the colours remind me of a watermelon patch.

Here is a closer look at the centre.

I wanted the fabric to be the centre and highlight..

So I think I'm going to call this one THE MOUSE ESCAPING THE WATERMELON PATCH. It measures 37" * 62"

And here is where it all began. My UGLY fabric from Tracy... Cosmocat

FNWF, Chooky’s Zoom & a challenge top done.

 I have been doing a little sewing over the past week but I really got into it on Friday night and sewed along with many others in FNWF.

https://stitchingcubbyhole.blogspot.com/2021/07/friday-night-with-friends.html

So here is what I was working on. My ugly fabric challenge.

I decided on a pattern to use most of my fabric with appliqué. So pattern was drawn out, ironed on to the background and then stitching began. The stitching made the shape stand out a bit better.

Look at all that I had left.

Of course, I had to make lots of 6.5” crumb squares for the background. They went on for a while.

This continued into Saturday where I went to an all day sit n sew with my quilt group. Only 5 of us turned up so it was a great little group with plenty of space.

Earlier in the week at our charity sewing night I got the girls making laundry bags for Aussie Hero Quilts and these continued on Saturday as well.

Projects worked on were a yoga mat bag, Bonnie Hunter mystery, Aussie Hero laundry bags, a fantastic quilt of houses (I can’t remember it’s name. Sorry Chris), mug rugs and my Ugly mystery.

We did have a great day. All packed up and on the way home I stopped and bought noodles for dinner. No cooking today. Unpacked the care, ate dinner, sat down again to sew and join Chooky and the gang for a ZOOM sewing night.

https://chookyblue.blogspot.com/2021/07/zoom-zoom.html

Using up my green scraps for the crumb crazy background blocks.

I got my Ugly quilt completed. It measures 37.5” * 64”

Can you see the pink mouse hanging from the balloon?

I was going to call it Mouse in the strawberry field but Janice said it reminded her of watermelons so now it might be MOUSE ESCAPING THE WATERMELON PATCH.

Thanks for a great day to all my sewing friends from far and near.