Celebrating my Brothers 60th birthday

 The whole reason we did a road trip to Darwin was for my brothers 60th birthday.

Unfortunately during the day his chair didn’t hold up. We could not help him up as he was recovering from a broken collar bone. He had to get out himself.

The family did a great job with cooking up a feast. They really looked after us.

My family snaps. Brother opening a gift.

My brother with the family. All 3 of my brothers & I  were together for something good for a change. It has been just over 2 years since we had seen each other.

My brother thanking us all for being there

A family Thankyou and emotional hug

Me with 2 beautiful boys. My brothers step sons. I remember meeting them at the airport for their first day in Australia when they were only about 8 & 10 years old. I think they were so scared but beautiful. They are amazing young men now and great hosts too.

My grandson with my brothers grandson. They had a great time together.

My brother with his step daughter Gok. When she first came to Australia when she was only 17 yo she was heavily pregnant. She could not speak English and I was there in the hospital when she had her beautiful baby girl who is now 12 years old. A magical moment. Then 6 weeks later our daughter had our first grand child and I was with her too. A very special moment so long ago.

JO’s ZIPPERED PLACEMAT - QAYG style

 JO’s ZIPPERED PLACEMAT - QAYG style

First up you need to decide what size you want your placemat.
Mine was 11.75” * 14.25”

Cut a piece of backing and batting an inch bigger than required.
Layout your pieces you want for the top. You need to cover most of the left hand side, a zip, a piece for the right edge and a 8” strip for the cutlery pocket.



Now to start sewing. I’m not too good at explaining the steps so hopefully you can work it out with the pictures.
You need to lay the pocket piece right sides up with it folded so the side edges meet in the centre. The right fold should overhang the batting a little. Quilt a few lines through all layers to hold it in place.. about 3”. 

Start attaching one side of the zip. The left side.

Finish attaching the zip and sew the outer fabric, zip and pocket lining. This will form a tube where some of the pocket is secured to the batting. Top stitch the fabric either side of the zip. Yes, this is tricky.

Give it a good press. Top stitch the right hand side in place catching the top strip, pocket piece batting and backing. Trim the excess.

On the left hand side of placemat (photo is upside down) continue adding your strips sewing the seams through all your layers. QAYG. Press. Continue until the whole piece is covered.

Press, press, press. Before trimming stitch over the zip on top & bottom so it doesn’t pull apart. Now you can trim to square and neaten to the size required.

Bind and you are all done. 

You can use any orphan blocks, a solid piece of fabric or selvedges like I did.


Have fun.

Have a look at other table covers, mats, runners have been made.

https://thejoyfulquilter.blogspot.com/2021/08/august-2021-table-scraps-runnertopper.html

I’m linking with FNWF

https://stitchingcubbyhole.blogspot.com/2021/08/its-fnwf-time.html

Sewing with my grandsons

  We had our grandson sons visit. So I taught them to have. A play with the sewing machine. They loved it.

They were just playing around with scraps. There is an idea going around. If they come again and want to continue we will have some finishes.

They did a really good job.Not bad for 10 & 12 year olds….

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.