July disappeared!

Finally another post.  We were away a lot during July and into August - Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Geelong.  And I worked in paid employment far too much, and we had our granddaughter stay for a week of the holidays.  All this to explain why I've had nothing to show for so long.  

The wallhanging for my friend was finally finished.  I could have kept on embellishing it, but was putting off the inevitable handover.  It is always tricky to hand over something you've spent so much time and effort on; hoping that the recipient will love it like you do, not see the flaws in it, and not hide it away in a back bedroom.  It finished about 44" wide by 22" deep.  It grew around the five batik elephant squares.  I used foundation paper piecing for some blocks and filled in "organically" with more patchwork cotton batik pieces.  It is embellished with big stitch quilting, as well as buttons and beads.  I had intended facing it rather than binding it, but I wimped out of that as I've never done it before and didn't want to stuff it up. 

And here's the wallhanging in my girlfriend's loungeroom. 

I've been working on finishing the top of Mason's quilt this week also.  When I finished the "confetti" part of the quilt, I realised that it was a little short.  Rummaging through my stash, I found a Laurel Burch border print which seemed to tie in with the main quilt blocks.  I added a strip at each end of the top and then realised that it was too wide and overpowered the other blocks.  So I cut each strip in half and, I think, it seems to work better.  What do you think?  

August 2024 Scrap Happy update

Another Scrap Happy Day update showcasing work done with scraps.  

Not too much scrap patchwork sewing done these last two months, but I am in the middle of making small hand towels for kitchen and laundry, using old towels and fabric scraps.  

A bit dark, this photo was taken at night.  

I've cut the old towels into smaller pieces and edged them with bias binding made from an op shop sheet.   I'll use another op shop sheet to make the part that attaches to door handles.  Buttons to close the handles will come from my large button collection.  (I can never resist the allure of a button box!)  The blue one is one of the older ones I've made.  They need replacing regularly as the towel wears out.  The blue/yellow top of this towel would be about 20 years old, made from scraps of the curtains we had made for our familyroom in the mid/late 1990s.  Those towel tops are all wearing out, not as fast as the towelling parts though.  I keep on replacing those.

The bloggers below are all ScrapHappy Day participants, maybe not every month, but their blogs are worth looking at.  Hopefully I will be using my scraps up and can post at least one block done in a month.  We will see how I go.  

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 
Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 
 Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,
Lynn, Tierney, Hannah and Maggie