Hexiecase

Before we headed off on holiday I (just) managed to get my June blocks for the SMQ Bee finished and in the post. One of the blocks was for my lovely Bee mate Martha, who takes the most wonderful photographs, if you haven't come across her blog before it is definitely worth checking out.

Martha came up trumps in the Crafty Cooks Swap, when a swapper let her partner down, so this was my chance to repay her in a small way for her generosity. A sewing-themed Hexiecase, as I know that a girl can never have too many pouches :)

The pattern for the case is by Amy from During Quiet Time and is available in her Etsy shop. The pouch is really straightforward to put together and is a great way to use up fabric scraps. I made life harder for myself by using fusible fleece for the interfacing, which made attaching the hexagons at each end more of a challenge, but other than that it was a dream to make.

This is the third Hexiecase I have made and they have all been a cinch to put together. The blue one in the photo above is currently in use as my make-up bag. It holds a deceptively large amount for its' size.  Fortunately,  it was not in the vanity case when it came into contact with the crane :)

So this is my Friday Finish which I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts

Crabs, Cranes and Consumption

There has been a lull here in the randomness for the last couple of weeks and here are some of the reasons why :)

Did you know that the puck in Deck Shuffleboard is called a biscuit? I didn't either but I suppose when you look at it it is not that difficult to imagine why they decided that. Apparently the game was played by Henry VIII, who is recorded as having lost £9 to a courtier over a game, which sounds like a lot of money for the time.

I don't know how many biscuits my 800 fellow passengers and I got through ( I am guessing a lot!) but I do know that between us we managed to consume:

25.75 Litres of Cream,
510 Litres of Ice-Cream,
240.96Kg of Cheese,
825 Kg of Potatoes
and
1,417.93 Kg of Fish!

All in the space of 9 days, so we didn't go hungry :)

This magnificent creature didn't feature on our menu, although he presumably has on another menu by now. He was for sale along with his fellow King Crabs and other wonderful seafood  in the Fish Market in Bergen, Norway and this photo was taken especially for our youngest son, who as you know doesn't like food that moves!  Apparently these King Crabs can grow to have a leg span of 6 feet, now that really would freak him out :) Showing him a photo of one that size would have been cruel!

Not as cruel as the local dockers who, whilst doing this on our return home,

managed to do this to my case!

Incredibly the glass cosmetic bottles inside survived intact. I have had this case for several years but until now, had never had an opportunity to use it so this holiday was the one and only outing :(

Linking up as ever to

The Scrap that was June!

It seems like I have done nothing but Scrappy Trip Around the World blocks for weeks and when I look at my mosaic of June makes, it turns out that is what I have been doing all month :)

1. Scrappy Trip Block 3, 2. Scrappy Trip Block 1, 3. Scrappy Trip Block 5, 4. Scrappy Trip Strips, 5. Scrappy Chevron finished, 6. Scrappy Trip Block 2, 7. Scrappy Chevron folded, 8. Scrappy Trip Block 4, 9. Cindys Giveaway

 There's a lot of Scrappy in that mosaic!

Sneaked in at the end is the great bundle of Halloween fabrics that I won in Cindy's recent giveaway. There was also a packet of Jolly Rancher sweets in the parcel, but I am afraid that they didn't hang around long enough to be photographed. The watermelon flavour sweets were especially delicious :)

Maybe I should plan a Scrappy Halloween Trip quilt next! Although given that I had aimed for 4 finishes for Q2 of the FAL and only managed one, maybe not!

My one finish was the Scrappy Chevron Quilt

which was actually the least advanced of all 4 projects at the beginning of the Quarter. So,

The HST BOM quilt still needs to be quilted and bound

The blocks from the first round of the Sunday Morning Quilts Bee still need to be turned into a quilt top! If I don't get this one finished soon it will be joined by the blocks from the second round which have been arriving over the last few weeks!

The Paris cafe embroidery has yet to be turned into the cushion I promised myself too! No prizes for guessing what I will be working on next quarter :)

I have discovered that I am much more likely to get a project finished if it is not for me, so with that in mind I have joined another Bee with the express aim of completing some projects for me. The aptly-named Me Me Me Bee . Check out Kettleboiler's post if you could do with some Me Me Me sewing motivation too.

All of this month's Scrappiness has meant that I was in danger of falling even more behind with my Bee blocks, so the last couple of days in June saw a burst of Bee block activity. 

 

Both of this month's Bees in the Sunday Morning Quilts Bee asked for the same "High Five" block, but in different colourways. Jacqueline asked for a bright block

Whilst Martha wanted low-volume, neutral blocks with pops of colour. It will be fun to see how the two different quilts turn out.

With these two blocks in the post I am up-to-date (just) for the Sunday Morning Quilts Bee but still way behind with the Star of Africa Bee, maybe I will finally catch up with them in July!

Linking up to

Lily's Quilts