Crafty Things

It was pointed out to me that while discussing having a tailor make 2 shirts for B in a previous post, I neglected to include photos of the shirts. So here you go. B was in Cilegon so he couldn't model them. Both Batik, the front one is a traditional Javan Batik, the back one a fairly muted Bali Batik. We bought this Batik in Bali on our last trip.

Get ready to laugh! I was working on my garden quilt (with the quilt on my lap and legs) and as I went to cut a thread, I accidentally snipped my pajamas. What to do? Apply an applique to cover my mistake! Cute little sea turtle.

If you are wondering when the garden quilt will finally be finished, I should have all of my stitching and applique done soon and the quilt finished by early next year. I'm nearly done with all of the applique: 28 flowers and 50 leaves along an undulating vine in the border. I still haven't decided whether I will quilt this myself.  I've been slowed down on the garden quilt due to other projects getting in the way. I've actually started a new quilt (yes, before the other one is completed), and I've put together fabric for a 3rd quilt that will be next in the queue and and am still working on knitting a shawl and a pair of socks. 

I recently hosted and helped teach a paper piecing class to our Needle Nomads group. We have many new ladies and we need help creating those memento mini quilts we give to departing members. It's nice to have the class at our apartment because we have so much space in the living room/dining room area. The second class was held at a friend's house. Several members bring their sewing machines and we all share the machines and tools. I've shown photos of this set up in previous posts.

I am so hooked on resizing paper pieced patterns down to 2 inch blocks. They are so cute! Some pieces get so small with the 2 inch finished size they become impossible to work but here is a photo of the results of the 2 classes. We now have a small stockpile of blocks but need more. This is good because it looks like we have 4 members leaving by early in 2018. In general, each one requires at least 12 blocks. One lady is great at crochet. She did the blocks with crochet designs on them. Unfortunately, she will be leaving in January and returning to Wellington, NZ.