All the fun of the Show.

Hello,

Yesterday I went to the Craft,Quilt and Stitch Show which was held at the Claremont Showgrounds. Of course the first thing I had to do was to fill out the entry form for the door prize,a new sewing machine. A few minutes after that I saw Sue from my Friday Sewing Group,outside the Bernina stand of course. A little way along I saw a neighbour and I told her that she was the second person I knew. Linda told me that she and 14 other ladies from the Embroidery Guild were there for the day. Linda had just purchased some embroidery books so I may have to pay her a visit soon. I wanted to get one of the "curved piecing foots" I have seen these on the net and have been impressed with the result. I managed to get mine from Michele who owns Lavender Quilts. From another stall I picked up some embroidery needles. Yes that is all I bought,I did pick up a few leaflets and will have a look through these. The one thing I was totally awestruck with was the work done by Ken Smith a Tasmanian Textile Artist. Another lady and I just stood in front of his work which was an embroidered waste coat and couldn't believe our eyes. Ken has a website,please check it out.

Our winter veggie garden is producing lots of fresh crisp veggies. I went out after lunch and saw this miniature cauliflower ready to be picked. I think these are bigger than last years.

We have been picking the broccoli for a while now. A fresh head of broccoli each night for tea along with some Chinese Cabbage and English Spinach and Rocket.

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend. It is a Derby weekend here with the West Coast Eagles and Freo Docker's playing. Bonnie is going,she supports The Eagles but will be in the Docker's Member's area. It certainly will be a interesting game.

Have a Happy Weekend.

Bev C

Paper Bag Swap Reveal.

Hello,

I have been involved with a "Paper Bag Swap" with Anita. This was our stitching challenge for this month. In the bag we had to include one fat quarter, a metre of trim and five buttons. You could include something extra as well if you wanted to. Anita threw in a few more buttons and another fat quarter. I managed to make four items out of the paper bag contents.

First I made this Natalie Bird embroidered wall hanging called "Loving Home" I used some of the pink beads in place of the embroidered flowers in the top block. The bottom block I used one of the buttons instead of the flower.

The next item I made was a knitting bag. Anita does a fair amount of knitting so I think this will be useful for her. Plus she can hide her chocolates in here. I used Joy's Toiletry Bag Pattern. I just added 3 more of the strips to the main part. I used a 20 inch zip. Thanks to Lyn who kindly helped me via email about the average measurement of knitting needles.

I still had a few pieces of material left over so I made a pincushion,using one of the buttons. I stuffed this with leftover wadding. There were two strips of material left in both colours so I made a book mark. I used four of the beads on some elastic and another button were attached.
I have never been involved in a paper bag swap before so this was a great way to see if I could do it. I was amazed what could be done with only a few items. I can't wait to see what Anita makes for me.

Happy days.

Bev C

"Makes Me Happy Monday" number 30.

Hello,

Welcome to my 30th posting of "Makes Me Happy Monday'. This week I want to share with you where Ian and I sometimes go for a walk. Around the river. You may be wondering how we can go around the river. Well there are three bridges that can be crossed,so therefor we go "around the river." The photo above shows the "suspension bridge" and the fountains that aerate the water. The fountains are formed in the shape of the "southern cross" the stars on our Australian flag.
This is the oldest of the three bridges. This bridge has been replaced three times. I think the first bridge was built in about 1858.
The flour mill is right beside the bridge. The flour mill still operates today. This building would have been one of the original buildings when the town was settled.
We have lots of sea gulls around town. The sea is a long way away. Lucy calls these river gulls. Which is more appropriate name for them.
There is a huge amount of bird life on the river. This island was home to a huge variety. We even have white swans on the river but they must have been upstream or over in a pond that the council made for them to breed in. Lots of people use the walking path around the river for exercise. The only thing I find it is flat so you really don't get a work out. I didn't get a photo of the third bridge,this one is one of the first bridges to be made of concrete. Some repairs were done on it last year so it is in top condition now.
I hope everyone who visits today has a great day and thanks for visiting "Kainga Happenings."
Happy Monday.
Bev C

Secret Sewing and Friday -Night- Sew -In.

Hello,

Welcome to the weekend. I have had a busy week doing lots of sewing. I can't show a lot of it because it is all for swaps. So they are a secret. I did make a start on the ornament swap. I got to try out a new embroidery disc I bought about two months back which has been sitting in my sewing room,waiting for me to try it. I have finished the ornament but you will have to wait until it arrives in its new home. I will be posting this off to ****** on Monday.
Last night was Friday Night Sew In. I didn't get a chance yesterday to post what I was going to be doing because I had my Friday Sewing Group. I worked on something secret there to. To finish the day off I went to the Bookshop Cafe to have a cuppa and a slice of Passion fruit Cheesecake. Yum. I enjoy going to this cafe because the cakes and slices are all homemade. Just perfect. So last night I made a start on the "Angels" in the row of the month quilt Anita and I are working on.
I did manage to get a block done and I also worked on the table centre Tulips in Bloom. I enjoy joining in the Friday Night Sew In. It is a good feeling to think that other people are doing the same thing as you on a Friday Night.

Enjoy your weekend. I wonder who will win Master chef?

Happy days.

Bev C

Joy's Toiletry/Sewing Bags.

Hello,

I can now mark Joy's Toiletry Bag of my list of things to do. Have you made one of these? I made the first bag in Spring colours. I even used up a very very old zip that I have had in my sewing room for such a long time. The zip was metal and the material was made of cotton not man made material like they are now. That is how old the zip is. The zip was recycled from another project, I think it probably came from a cushion,it was too long but the good thing with zips if they are to long you can just chop them off where you need to. Old habits are hard to change. I only realised when I was making the second bag I had cut the binding 2.5 inches instead of 2 inches. It worked out well I didn't need to mitre the corners. I will be using my Spring Toiletry Bag as a Toiletry Bag. I wonder if I say to Ian that we need a weekend away because I have a new bag to test out will he book us in somewhere nice!!! I can only try.

After making one I decided I would make one in Autumn colours. This one I did use 2 inch binding. It pays to read every part of the pattern. I will be using this one for those sewing supplies like scissors,quick-un-pick pins etc to take to sewing.

Thank you Joy for sharing your pattern with us. That is two more projects completed for the month.

Happy Sewing.

Bev C

"Makes Me Happy Monday" number 29.

Hello,

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We had a rather full one. It started on Friday night with a dinner for "Uncle Bob" one of Ian's workmates. It was Bob's last day of work and his close workmates went out for tea. Saturday morning was back to the garden and doing lots more rose pruning. In the afternoon I went to Garden Club at Anne's. We were lucky enough to have a look at her neighbour's garden as well. Here we saw some Sturt Desert Pea's in flower. This flower is the floral emblem of South Australia. On Sunday Ian and I went across to Toodyay for lunch and a good look around the shops. The town was full of bikers so finding a place for lunch was a case of going from one cafe to the next cafe until we found a seat. Before we went across to Toodyay we went for our usual Sunday morning walk down town . This brings me to my "Makes Me Happy Monday" posting. In one of the craft shops was a sign for 30% off everything. Now I wasn't going to buy anything this month. I even told Ian that. He said its 30% off you may as well go in on Monday and have a look. Well when I got to the shop this morning the sign said 50% off. I couldn't believe my eyes. 50% what a bargain. Unfortunately the shop owner has a lot going on in her personal life and has made the tough decision to close shortly. I managed to get a new cutting mat for less than $12.00 which I really really needed. One day I will post a picture of my very much loved and used mat. I picked up a roll of blue ric-rac to match my mat!!! A roll of Homespun in Ivory some zips and a marking pen some vliesofix and some pellon. Even though this means we have one less shop in town it was a "Happy Monday" for my wallet.

I hope everyone has a very "Happy Monday".


Bev C

50 cents and a charity quilt.

Hello,

I am gradually working down the pile of projects I want to get done. I picked up this piece of printed material at Good Sammy's (op-shop) a while back. I paid a whole 50 cents for it. It was marked down from $1.00.

I machine embroidered a few butterflies on it in different sizes. I have just noticed the different colour of the material in the different photo's.

Some simple quilting around the butterflies and it was done. Some black homespun for the binding and backing was used from the stash.

The table runner will be a present for Ainsley and Julian's new home. I think the table runner will be right at home on there dining table. Did you notice the candle holder on the runner? Ainsley got one of those dreadful palm leaves that fall down and varnished the inside of it. A perfect candle holder for her table.

I dropped this quilt off at PMH last week along with the Teddy Bear. The ladies at the shop were so grateful for these donations. Sue one of the ladies who attends sewing with me made the quilt. Sue spends a lot of her time sewing and does test sewing for a few designers. So she has lots of squares to use up. Thank you Sue.

I started the huge job of pruning the roses this afternoon. So I will be out in the garden during the day over the next few days.

Happy days.

Bev C

"Hearts-a-bloom" is now finished.

Hello,

Yesterday I finally finished the "Hearts-a-bloom" quilt. I worked over the weekend doing the stitchery blocks.I didn't have enough of the pink thread so two blocks the one in the top right end and the one on the left in the bottom row were done in the light pink I used lots of rose prints.

The other blocks had the darker pink thread. I used some DMC Cebelia a size 20 crochet thread
to attach the ric-rac. Following the theme of "budget" this month I made four suffolk puffs to cover the ends of the outside row of ric-rac. I only found four pink buttons the same. The pattern called for a button on the hearts and the ends of the ric-rac. I don't think this made any difference. I button holed the suffolk puffs on with some thick silky thread that I had on hand. I think this was originally for use on my over locker but I have used it for crocheting around flannels.

I did some quilting around the hearts and followed the lines of the other blocks.Along the side I used a quilting pattern called"Renaissance" which I got from a book called "Treasury of Quilting Patterns" by Cheryl Fall.

I am really pleased with how this worked out. I have some more patterns by Sally Giblin I want to do including a bag and a cushion or two.

Happy Sewing

Bev C

"Makes Me Happy Monday" number 28.

Hello,

Happy Monday to you all. We are very happy here. It has been raining for the last couple of days. We have had 47mls of rain. Our rain is measured at 9.00am each morning. That is one job I enjoy doing. Our water tanks are filling up and the garden certainly looks refreshed. So onto what "Makes Me Happy" this Monday. I thought I would share with you some items I
have procured at Garage Sales over the years. I found a bundle of four pieces of a Singer sewing machine for the princely amount of $3.00. No-one was interested as they were a bit broken. Well I thought to myself for $3.00 even if I hang them up somewhere it will be worthwhile. One day I was sitting inside and thought we will need some balustrade's for the back step. I arranged for a welder to come and take measurements and now we have a most unusual balustrade. I am sure there wouldn't be another exactly like this one anywhere.

There are always some garden plaques at Garage Sales. This one I put in some paving. We got the red recycled bricks free from one of Ian's workmates. His son used to run a gravestone making service in town here and these bricks came from the old house.

I have shown this gate before on my blog. I purchased this for $15.00 from a B&B that was having a garage sale. The pine log and the white post came from two different garage sales. The white post is actually an old verandah post. There were three for sale and this one was left.The paintwork is flaking but I think that adds to it. The wood is either jarrah or wandoo. Very tough native woods.

This little gate is really just a feature as the pathway is wide enough to walk without having to open or close it. The bricks in the pathway behind have come from leftovers when we got the paving done around the house. One of Ian's workmates was having similar paving done a while after I started this crazy paving. So we were able to pick up his leftover bits and do a bit more. There are lots of poppies coming up in the paving. I will leave these there as they won't really be in the road. Plus a splash of colour on the paving is nice in Spring.

This last one is of some lacework I picked up about fifteen to twenty years ago. I went to a garage sale. There really wasn't anything interesting but I saw the two pieces of lacework away from the items for sale. I asked about them. The man said I could have them. Bargain!!! He was modernising his house. Silly man. I did find a book at the library and got lots of information about the maker and what the different patterns meant and the time they were manufactured. We had the lacework on our previous home and took it off and now it is out the front. I hope you enjoyed looking at my Garage Sale finds.
It is wet and windy outside. A day for staying inside here.

Enjoy your Monday.

Bev C

A Birthday,budgeting and welcome a new blogger.

Hello,

Welcome,I hope you are all having a great day. I left for my walk this morning at twenty to nine and it was only five degrees. Boy did my fingers feel the cold. Back home an hour later and it was 12 degrees Celsius. I went inside and added some more wood to the fire and it is warm inside now. There was supposed to be rain and storms but nothing but clear skies outside. We can hope for some rain. We certainly need it,we have only had 81 mls of rain so far this year. Way below what we normally have. We celebrated Lucy's 17th Birthday on Tuesday. We both went to a local cafe called "Lucy's Tearooms" for lunch then for tea we went to the Tavern. Ian Bonnie and Ryan joined us. You always get a giant size meal at the Tavern,you certainly never leave hungry. The rose in the above photo is called "Many Happy Returns"

This month I have decided to have a "budget" month. I will be very careful what I spend on craft. I did purchase this bag of squares from a garage sale for $5.00. In it were 29 8 inch squares and 13 7 inch squares. I think that is a great price and it is all cut up for me.

Continuing on with the budget theme. I have made my own light box. We had this fish tank in the shed collecting dust. I had saved this light fitting and found it. Now I have my very own light box. Though Lucy would love to have some fish in the tank.

You may wonder what a cross stitch ,a cushion , a ladybird heat pad a bucket and some folk art boxes have in common. Well I bought these all from Vicki when she had her shop in Mundaring. Vicki's shop had the best things in there plus Vicki and her staff were so welcoming. I have yet to see that in another shop since. I always bought my candles from her as well. There were always some burning in her shop. A while back Vicki decided to shift down south so her shop closed. The good news is Vicki has decided to start a blog. Vicki also has her website set up and has some great things for you to buy. Check out her postage deals as well. Welcome to the world of blogging Vicki and have fun. Please hop over to Vicki and welcome her.

Now I better get onto some sewing, I haven't done any sewing for the last couple of days.

Happy Days.

Bev C

"Makes Me Happy" Number 27

Hello,

"Happy Monday" to you all. A bit later posting today, had a awful smell in the fridge which meant finding the culprut. Who new that a piece of carrot and some yucky stuff under the veggie crisper could smell like that. All clean now so that makes my happy! Gosh I must be desperate if that is what makes me happy today but you know what I mean. Onto what is making me happy today. Over the weekend I found this fabulous website that makes your photos into quilting patterns. The Victoria and Albert Museum has a Patchwork Pattern Maker which in three simple steps turns photo's like mine above into

a pattern right before your eyes. How cool is that. I had a play around and made some with photo's of my sunflowers which turned out so real. You have a choice of how many colours you can have in your quilt. Even if you never get around to doing them it is inspiring to watch what could be done if we had a few more days in the week.

I hope you all have a very Happy Monday.

Bev C

A Goody Bag and some Loyalty/Library Card Holders.

Hello,

After my effort sewing the zig-zag basket I felt I needed to make a few quick projects. It is wonderful to use up the little pieces we have in our scrap bag. Mind you it will take years to empty the scrap bag,but that is OK. First I made the Goodies Bag that was in Natalie's book. I changed the centre design of the applique. I replaced the mouse with a Christmas Tree. I am not a big fan of mice but love Christmas trees. I didn't put the ric-rac all around the top of the bag because I had just the right length of ric-rac left over from another job.

The other project I have worked on are Joy's Loyalty Card Holders. These holders are really addictive,you certainly can't stop at one. I decided to make one because I am always searching in the centre console of my car for the Library Cards. The red floral one will be used for this.

Joy used Fast2Fuse in her holder. I was unable to get anything like this locally. When we went to the movies the other day I called into Spotlight to see if they had anything I could use. Two very helpful ladies were on hand. They didn't have the double sided fusible. I got some of the single sided fusible and this worked out well.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend and that Americans have a Happy 4th July.

Happy days to you all.

Bev C