A few gifts...

A couple of my friends have had birthdays recently ..what does a crafter do, but get out some fabric and sew up a storm!
Sharon introduced me to this pattern when I was at her place; at the time I thought it might make a useful gift. It's the Goody Goody Binding Kit. The idea is that it has everything in it that you need when binding a quilt...you just grab it and sit and stitch that binding down!

Barb likes French General fabrics so what else would I use?

It gets it's name from the Goody Goody yum yums that are tucked into the
spare pocket - sustenance is always a good idea when sewing down binding! 

The pattern is found *here* on Lella Boutique.  I added a small piece of elastic and button to trap the scissors in their little strawberry.

And I made this kitchen set for another friend, Leeanne —

Handtowel, pot stand/oven mitt and a fabric microwave bowl.

After yelping and nearly burning my hands with a bowl of soup in the microwave recently I decided I needed one of these fabric bowls.... so now I've made one for Leeanne but I'm still waiting for mine!! Typical, huh?! There are various tutorials around; I used *this* one from Tamarack Shack.

(Note that if you want to make one of these you do need to use 100% cotton materials - including the thread. And we're advised no longer than 3 minutes in the microwave, too.)

The pot stand was a clever little design with a smaller sqaure also
quilted and them sliced on the diagonal and the centre edges bound.
 It has created a handy mitt to make it mult-purpose.

A decorated hand-towel completes the set.

My stitching group had our monthly get-together last night; I made some progress on the latest Anderson's Farm block.

Block 5. I decided to applique the dog rather than stitch him. And I quite like how
 he turned out - although the collar was a bit of a challenge!

And because Barb had a special '0' birthday we'd made her a friendship quilt which we gave to her last night. We each made a 'special' block and then 2-3 extra blocks. And, as her contribution, it was lovingly quilted by another member of our group, Leeanne.

Barb and her quilt. I think we managed to surprise her!

These are the blocks that I had made -

The fabric (carefully joined) in the centre of the stars is the one used in the
border.

This is my 'special' block. A fun one to make.
I think I'd quite like to make some more of these :-)

It looks like it's going to be another soggy day today..... guess I might be hibernating with a pile of fabric....

'till next time,

happy creating,