Toy Story Bits & Pieces

When I delivered the cuddly blankie "thing" that I've just made to Peyton, DD2 thought a few might be good - one for home, one for daycare, one spare.
And she showed me a purchased Toy Story drawstring bag...

And of course I have so much free time now that I don't work , , , and a fair bit of fabric left over . .

So I made two more blankies, 3 small drawstring bags and a backpack drawstring bag.

I still have a load of fabric - but this will do for now.

I also downloaded and used a PhotoCollage App on my iPad.  Makes it easier to upload multiple pics when I don't need detail.

Charity Quilts

I made these two charity quilts.

The first one is from a panel that a few of us found whilst on a recent shopping trip - it was a bit narrow, so I split it and sewed in two strips of white that I "decorated" on the sewing machine using some of the fun pictures and a strip of orange check.

 

(Not a very clear picture)

The end result:

The second quilt was started here and finished off with some simple quilting and binding.

Seems orange is the flavour of the month!

Esk Retreat - Sewing projects

My first retreat for the year - I went to Twight2Twilight at Esk from 10th March, til the 13th.

 Here is some of what I sewed.

A little "thing" for Peyton.  I had asked my daughter if there was anything she wanted made - to use up some of the Toy Story fabrics that were leftover after making the baby quilt for Peyton.
It seems Peyton is fond of grabbing tea towels and wrapping things - toys, dolls etc or just putting them on the floor and sitting on them.  My daughter thinks something like this might be a "comforter" thing as they move her to a new bedroom and a bigger bed. 

So the first project was to make up 9 blocks into a "thing".

I am going to make a few more as "spares".

Not long ago we acquired a (free) toy stroller - we were saving it to give to Peyton later on.  As her birthday is July and around the same time she will be promoted to "Big Sister"  status, we will make this part of her birthday present.

This is the stroller - we didn't keep the toys.

To go with the stroller, I made a small quilt and a matching doll carrier.

There were some adjustments made to the pattern - it was a tricky thing to make.
I do NOT plan to make spares of this.

Another project was to put this quilt top together.  It is 4 1/2" squares - off set by half blocks.  It will go to a DV family.

I also made a number of small projects - BUT it's all secret stuff.  I am not saying how many or what they are, but they are to go with this zippy pouch.

Overall, I achieved what I planned to do.
I had some "reserve" projects...in case.
I came home very tired, (every night was an after-midnight finish)
but feeling satisfied.

I had a fun time - apart from Maureen, the girls are people I only see occasionally.  That gives a totally different dimension to the retreat - compared to the ones I do with people I socialise with all the time.  The other girls are heavily into bag making - the range of bag hardware, zipper pulls, zips & webbing totally amazed me.   I was quite tempted to jump on board with some of the projects that they have or were doing.  But I'm home now and find I am able to resist being totally sucked in...for now anyway.

And to top it off - I have another retreat coming up - just after Easter!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Esk Retreat - Zippy Pouch Swap

At the Esk retreat last year (at Twilight2Twilight) - we decided for 2023 that we would make a swap present - we wrote our name and fabric choices on a piece of paper and we each drew a name.

My giftee was Tracey B (there are two Traceys in a group of 6!!!) and she noted: "Lori Holt, Kaffe, Bright".

I went with Kaffe Fasset.

I added a matching pincushion.

It's a long story - the recipient ended up being Donna 

and she also loves bright & colourful.
She was very happy with her pouch.

My swap partner was Maureen and she made me this lovely pouch.

Plenty of room for a project - it's long but easily folds over - and the pattern can sit in the clear pouch so I know what is inside. . .

And, it just so happens to match a needlebook that she gifted to me in our Christmas Advent Swap . . . funny coincidence......or not.

She also included the left over fabric, so I can make something else that matches!

Thanks to all the girls for making this a fun swap.

I will do a separate post about what I sewed.

Sunday Stitchers - Sisterhood project

A while back, the Sunday Stitchers group (well a number of us...the NON BORING ones...) decided to take part in a group swap project.  We had two groups of friends - and each person had to make 8 identical blocks - one to keep and 7 to give.  We were to then turn it into a finished item of our choice.

The project that we chose was this one:
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/309059593185153462/

We set some rules - the backgrounds were to be low volume - white, the dress was something that represented us...and we added our names.

So I made my blocks - we swapped them late last year   (November maybe???) and by the February meeting, we were to have the finished project done.

I've been wanting a larger bag to take to SS for a while, so decided my block should become the new bag.  and I had some "Paris Cats" fabric that was just sitting around...so used it to make the bag.

I added the tag that was attached to my last SS bag - it reads:

Mess with my bag
and I'll
Rip Your Seams Out.

RSC - March

I was able to scrape up enough green I Spy fabrics to make my two blocks.
(Thanks to friend Inca)

Finishing & posting them early as I have a busy month and don't want to get caught out.

FNWF - March

Today I had a FDWF and a FNWF.  Yes, a Day of sewing, crafting, eating, laughing and celebrating De's Birthday followed by Night time sewing with cyber friends.

During the day, I added cording to these drawstring bags which I had made earlier.
.

Helen has them now - ready for filling & dispensing.   a Quick charity project - 18 in all.

Then I did some sashiko on my tree panel 

and after a while - put it aside and did some crochet.

Tonight, the usual Better Homes & Gardens TV show and some more on the tree panel.

A few of us had been wondering what the RSC colour was for March - so I brazenly emailed Angela and received the reply in time for some cutting tonight.

My friend Inca is bringing her I Spy fabrics to our sewing meeting on Saturday (Yes, another one) and hopefully she has some greens I can add to fill in the gaps.

Yes, the colour is Green (For St Patricks's Day???)

During the show/crochet time, there were a lot of messages back and forth about a project that one of the group had decided on and we were all gradually being drawn in (or is that sucked in???)... Wait & see.  . . .I will just review my long list of UFOs & Planned Projects and hopefully talk myself out of it.
In case you are curious the discussions centered around this pattern:
https://penandpaperpatterns.com/en-au/products/pdf-sparrows-quilt-pattern

Thanks Cheryll for hosting - and happy sewing to all who were able to join in.