I'm a little teapot part two

I just realised I forgot to post a picture or two of the finished teapot 'trivet' I made for my FIL's companion for Christmas.

She was thrilled to bits to receive it (even though it was a leedle bit late!). Poor thing still hasn't had the operation to remove her gallstones, although she's on the countdown now, as she has a date of mid-March. Fingers crossed she gets the medical attention she needs without any more delay.


Anyway, as you can see, I handquilted the whole thing, and used Perle 8 cotton for the first time. Boy that was a challenge to get through all the layers, seams and try to maintain stitch length. Thankfully the quilt police won't be looking at the back of it!


Didn't remember to measure it either, although it's around 20" by 13". Turns out Robina has a modern, funky white teapot, so the trivet and teapot are in pride of place on her kitchen bar. (That is not her teapot above - it's one of mine!)

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Thanks for all the quilt love on my first attempt at abstract. It was lots of fun! I was also finally inspired and motivated to join the Canberra Quilters - my first meeting will be on 6 March. Debating over whether I will take anything for show and tell! Probably not, as I've given all my quilty stuff away apart from the sampler quilt I made for Rom's bed and the unfinished landscape. Doubt it will be finished by then, as I have a disappearing 9-patch cot quilt to start and finish by then! Maybe that will be finished and I can take that! We'll see.

A new finish for the New Year

Happy New Year!


We farewelled Carl's Dad last Thursday - we all really enjoyed his visit - Romily in particular, but after 11 days he was very keen to get home and we were of course happy to have the house back to 'normal'. Don't get me wrong - he's an absolute pleasure to have come and stay, but there's nothing like being able to walk around your own house in your knickers, if you know what I mean!


Thanks for your comments on my last post - I guess when you put them all together like that it looks like a lot! I think a lot of us are probably more ambitious about the number of projects we'd like to complete than we can actually manage :)

Anyway, I did finish a project I started last year - some baby shoes and matching appliquéd onesies for a friend in my mother's group who had her bub just before Christmas. I was anxious to finish the present, as she makes big babies and this one was no exception! Over 10 pounds (5 kg) - yeeouch! I wanted to get the gift to her before Liam outgrew it all :)

(Click to enlarge)

Both ideas are from Stardust Shoes patterns - freebies available here and here. You could make endless numbers of appliquéd onesies - they're actually pretty easy, you can customise them any way you like and they look great! Let's just hope they all still fit!

We had a very quiet New Year's Eve and Day - I spent most of it sewing! I've also finished the second of three table runners, as well as finished off the teapot table mat. I'll post some pictures over the weekend.

I was back at work Wednesday through Friday this week and have all next week to get through before we're finally off on holidays! I can't wait - I really need the break. Work has been very busy these past nine months, and while I achieved a lot, I need some downtime with my family. Not long to go now!

Sing with me! I'm a little teapot...

...Short and stout!

Well this teapot sure is :)

Being the thoroughly modern, liberated woman that I am, I have embraced semi-wonkiness (the non-flexible part of my personality won't let me go all the way towards wonky just yet...it's a work-in-progress) and am letting myself have some more fun with piecing. I have taken a (tea) leaf out of Tonya's book...er blog...and decided to go for it in designing and piecing a wonky teapot.

I wanted to make a little something for a Christmas present for my father-in-law's companion, who is going though a particularly rough patch with her health at the moment. She needs an operation to remove some gall stones, but, not having health insurance, is forced to wait for the public health system to look after her. It could take up to 12 months for her to get the operation she needs, which is not much fun at the best of times, but when you're nudging 80, it's even more difficult. Thank goodness we can afford health insurance. I would hate to see Carl or Romily go through this. It's bad enough seeing the pain it's causing my father-in-law.

Anyhoo, I thought a little teapot mat for her dining table might be a good idea.

So, following Tonya's idea that you can piece anything - you just have to look at it the right way, I drew up a little teapot design straight out of my head, used some of Rom's crayons to colour it in, and voila! (The scribbly crayon is Rom's contribution)


Of course, I'm so new to working angles, that I didn't follow Tonya's fab instructions completely - I took a slightly different approach and used horizontal planes, which meant I could use angles learnt through through joining binding strips. Once I get a bit more comfortable with sewing angles, I'll loosen up a bit more...I hope!

Once I was happy with the design I set about piecing it. As you can see, it turned out a little large/wide, and the handle on the 'lid' is a tad small...BUT, I like it a lot! It's not perfect, but I think it works quite well, and, although the colour scheme is a little muted, it will suit Robina and her house very nicely.

21" wide x 13" high

I'll back it with some hand-dyed royal purple fabric and will bind it with some cream fabric I've got in my stash. (I actually have a tiny one these days!)

I'll embroider some steam curls above the spout and will probably hand quilt it, as I'm currently short of an evening project :)

That's another Christmas project started! I must get onto the Christmas Stars table runners again and see if I can make some more progress!

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We had a very busy weekend, catching up with lots of people we haven't seen for ages. Romily didn't have a sleep today due to a combination of overexcitement and overexcitement! She was absolutely stonkered by tonight, so went off to sleep 45 minutes early without so much as a peep.

And our busy period shows no signs of stopping, with me travelling overnight to Adelaide Tuesday/Wednesday then Christmas drinks with work people on Friday afternoon and then more Christmas drinks on Saturday night. I'll need a holiday before Christmas at this rate!