Baby Statistics Bears

First two orders received for these adorable bears.  The first one for a little girl called Lara Kate

and the other one for a little boy called Luke.

Design available from Ofnah

Simply Chic Carry All Number 6

After gifting a friend of mine one of these bags, she promptly ordered another one for her knitting and crochet supplies.  I rummaged through my drawers and found a beautiful and colorful Da Gama fabric to use for the outside of the bag. Went to the shops to buy coordinating fabrics as well as all the other supplies needed and started cutting and labelling the 57 pieces of fabric, corlene, batting and vinyl needed to stitch a bag.

Preparation included ironing the corlene to the various pieces of lining, quilting the outside panels of the bag and making bias binding.

I always use a serpentine stitch with a double needle to do the quilting with a variegated thread.

After finishing off the outside of the bag with an outer pouch and ribbon loops for attaching the handles,

it was time to move on to the inside and stitch both pockets.

The next step is to make the gusset and add the back and front panels as well as both inside pockets to the gusset and with that the main part of the bag is complete.

Here the bag is opened up and below when zipped up.

The last item to stitch, was the bag insert which attach to the Velcro inside the main bag.

With the main fabric being so colorful, I bought a whole rainbow of zips which might be a drawback as it means multiple thread changes.

I just loved stitching this bag as nothing is really difficult to construct although it looks complex.  I must also complement our local Pfaff/Husqvarna dealer whose instructions are still clear to follow even 13 years after stitching the original bags - this post refers.

Ronny Rooster found himself a wife

I wrote a few weeks back about some additional roosters I made for the kitchen and added to the collection with a little hen.

The embroidery design is from Embroidery Library and can be found here.

Playful Pyramid Quilt

I saw this quilt on Man Sewing, Rob Appell's Youtube channel, some time ago and bought the fabric in November 2022.  Started cutting and sewing a week ago and the whole top is done.  The fastest queen size quilt I ever made.

It is constructed from 4 shades of two colors to which white is added, cut in 2.5" WOF strips and stitched into strip sets shading from light (white) to dark.  45-degree triangles are then cut and stitched into light and dark blocks.  The blocks are quite large measuring 20" (50cm) with only 12 blocks needed for a queen size.  I made a total of 8 strip sets in each colorway which each yielded 3 triangles for a total of 48 triangles.  A really fast and easy project with a beautiful outcome.

Now just to quilt and bind it.

Strata Star finished

I finished quilting this runner and added it's label.

 I used a combination of embroidery designs, walking foot quilting as well as free motion/meander using variegated thread.

The feathers was done using this set from Embroidery Library.

I then added the circles using the walking foot and meander in-between.

With the label added, the first quilt for 2023 is done and dusted. (For the backing I used Shweshwe fabric, a first for me.  It is a printed dyed cotton fabric locally produced by Three Cats, widely used for traditional South African clothing.)

Big Footed Lamb

I finished another Big Footed Lamb, this time for my son's friend.  She is going to participate at Bloemshow's sheep shearing competitions which will be held between the 27th April and the 6th of May.

The design is from Dolls and Daydreams and can be found here.

The lamb as it comes out of the frame before it is stuffed.

Made from an Original Days and Daydreams ® Pattern

Shopping at Wookeys, Kimberley

My son had a function in Kimberley on Saturday and as he had not driven on main roads since getting his driver's license, my husband suggested we go with, and I could go shopping at Wookeys to which I did not need another invitation.

I visited Wookeys a few times before and are always amazed at their stock as well as prices.  Saturday was no exception with 100% quilters cotton priced between R89 and R100 per meter.  Tie dye 100% cotton which is locally priced R110, is at Wookeys available for only R69 per meter.  It just blew me away.  I can maybe understand that local shops can't compete with Habby and Lace in Vereeniging which might be classified as a fabric shop, but Wookeys is just a normal little fabric shop in Galeshewe?  (Now, I am not referring to local small dealers selling imported fabrics which I consider to be my quilting friends.)

I even found a strip tube ruler which Donna Jordan (from Jordan Fabrics) use in most of her tutorials.  They also sell whole rolls of satin ribbon, packets of ric-rac trim etc.  I haven't even looked at their selection of wool of which they have a room full.

I also bought fabric for our quilting group's next project, a courthouse step runner which we will do under the guidance of teacher Annie du Toit.  I needed only 10cm of 5 different lights, but Wookeys doesn't cut less than 25cm which didn't matter though as it is so cheap.  Had no problem gathering 5 lights which can also be a problem locally getting 5 shades of a particular color at one shop.  They also have a wide variety of solids which is a rare find locally.

A really big find was these baby prints which was on sale for only R25 a meter, so I bought all 3 remnant pieces totaling just over 6m. 

I love doing embroidered items with Chintz which is really getting more and more difficult to find with some dealers not selling it at all anymore.  It is a lovely fabric to make in the hoop items with with a lovely shine and not as flimsy as satin fabrics. I did buy white and cream locally and was able to get these 3 colors at Wookeys as well as white Scuba with which I want to embroider quilted cushions as it creates a beautiful loft.  Now to find grey, black, beige and light brown chintz.  Also for projects on my to do list.

This was only the 2nd piece of Shwe-Shwe I bought and will combine this with orange and blue tie dye fabric to embroider placemats.

This concluded my purchases which will be used to stitch another Big Footed Lamb for a friend of my son.