pineapple block {tutorial}

Once a week Zoe has a cello lesson. It begins before school and finishes about ten minutes after I exit Eli's classroom. Rather than leave Zoe's cello at school all day and then fit it in the car along with all the school bags, box constructions and precious tree branches that absolutely have to come home with us at the end of the day I wait around and take it home with me in the morning.

I like waiting around for Zoe's cello. I sit under a tree and do a bit of doodling. Quilt block doodling.

This pineapple grew from a bit of doodling. Isn't it sweet? Or is that pun making you groan?

Pineapple block design in progress.

At 17" (43cm) square it is a big block, but I decided that I didn't want those half square triangles any smaller. I wanted this block to be easy and quick to put together.

If it isn't too big for the other members, I think I'd like to use it as my bee block later in the year.

So, let me show you how to sew it up.

Fabric Requirements

Orange - 1 @ 6.5" x 8"

Green - 1 @ 3.5" x 5"
8 @ 2" squares

Background - 14 @ 2.0" x 2.0"
 2 @ 6.5" x 2.0"
2 @ 5.75" x 17"
**if you do not want your pineapple to be centred on the block, substitute the 2 @ 5.75" x 17" for 1 @ 2.75" x 17" and 1 @ 8.75" x 17" for an off centre pineapple.


Sewing the Block

Before you go near the sewing machine, draw a diagonal line across the middle of each of the 2" background squares.

1. 'Snowball' the orange rectangle (6.5" x 8") by placing a square in one of the corners. Sew on the diagonal line. Repeat for the three remaining corners.

2. Trim 1/4" from each sewn line.

3. Press corners open. This is the pineapple base.

4. Pair a 2" background square with a green 2" square, right sides together. Sew on the diagonal line. Do this seven more times for a total of 8 pairs of background/green squares.

5. Trim 1/4" away from the sewn line. Use the triangle shaped trimmings in another project!

6. Press/iron open.

7. Using a 1/4" seam, sew six of the half square triangle blocks together as shown below:

8. Using a 1/4" seam, sew a half square triangle unit to each of the long sides of the green 3.5" x 5" rectangle as shown.

9. Using a 1/4" seam, sew the remaining two HST's (half square triangles) together as shown below. Press/iron centre seam open. This will reduce bulk when sewing this unit to the rest of the pineapple top.

10. Using a 1/4" seam, sew a 2" background square to either side of the joined HST's. Press/iron open.

11. Using a 1/4" seam, sew the small HST unit to the larger unit.
 
12. Carefully trim away the half of the seam allowance where the three seams meet (at the point of the triangle) to reduce bulk. If this step doesn't make sense, it is quite okay to skip it!

13. Press/iron open. This is the pineapple top.

14. Using a 1/4" seam, sew the pineapple top to the pineapple base. Press/iron open.

15. Using a 1/4" seam, sew a 6.5" x 2.0" background rectangle to the top and bottom of the pineapple. Press/iron open.

16. Using a 1/4" seam allowance, sew a 5.75" x 17" background rectangle to either side of the pineapple. Press/iron open.

And you are done!

So, do you like pineapple? Do you put it in your tuna mornay or your home made burgers? We do!

Update: A lovely friend made me three pineapple blocks! I know I should have ironed them first, but I was too excited.

snowball quilt kit {gift}

After seeing this post on Terry's blog I decided that I needed a snowball quilt. It was the perfect 2-for-1; use up lots of scraps while making a lovely quilt.

I chose this layout, as it used the greatest number of scraps in the layout.

Photo from Terry's Treasures blog post.

I don't particularly enjoy the cutting part of the quilting process (though I like it more than basting!), so I knew that if I wanted to ensure that I finished this project I should cut all my fabric first. That meant cutting close to 600 2.5" squares.

No problem. The excitement of a new project always overcomes any less enjoyable aspects of it. I was doing quite well about two weeks after I started cutting. And then cutting 2.5" squares of fabric became complete drudgery.

It was then that I decided that my friend would love one of these quilts too. And it was her birthday soon. So I switched my focus to cutting up squares for her. The timing was perfect, as my initial enthusiasm had started to wane totally gone. A new motivation got me back into gear and I finished cutting 590 2.5" squares from scraps and 45, 6" white-on-white squares two days before her birthday.

This is how I kept my sanity track.

My idea was to gift a snowball quilt 'kit'. I sewed up a sample 9 patch and a snowball blocks.

I popped the components in a box so that my friend could keep her kit contained until she was ready to begin.

The box was a tad small, but everything fitted in eventually.

What do you think? Do you like the idea of quilt kits where the fabric is pre cut? Or are you a bit crazy and love to spend hours cutting up fabric?

diy kids watercolour paintings {using food colouring}

I love simple, fun and creative activities. Particularly when they involve reading a book.

We recently read the book The Three Monsters Big Night Out by Laurence Bourguignon and Michael Derullieux after borrowing it from our local library.

It is a lovely, non scary story about monsters that was enjoyed by our 5 year old in particular. I wanted to keep the enthusiasm going so I got our water colour pad out of the craft cupboard. Our pad is A3 in size and cost a few dollars.

I used food colouring for paint; a teaspoonful added to a bit of water works well.

After drawing our monsters with lead pencil the painting began. We were working at our dining table, so I tore off some sheets of aluminium foil to place underneath the paintings. I'm sure there would have been a bit of seepage through to the tablecloth otherwise!

The idea was to draw and paint roughly; lines didn't need to be exact and neither did the painting.

 Everyone did a painting. These are Eli's four monsters.

Lily opted for a Star Wars painting.

These were a lot of fun and clean up was only a matter of washing out the paintbrushes and glasses used for the food colouring.

These paintings also look great if you outline them in black marker once they are dry.

So, if you have younger children or are looking after children and need an activity give this a go!

gift idea {melty bowl}

 It's been over a month since my last post. Not because there hasn't been anything to share, but because we have been so busy! School finished last week and making teacher gifts was one of the things that kept us busy.

Eli made some melty bowls using Ikea beads, oil spray and a Pyrex bowl. This idea is floating around Pinterest and is a quick, easy and very fun craft project.

 We sprayed the inside of the Pyrex bowl and poured some melty (perler) beads into the bottom.

 Eli pushed the melty beads up the sides so that they were in a single layer.

 We checked to make sure that the top of the beads was fairly even in height all the way around.

And then into a preheated oven (180 degrees Celcius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit) for about 10 minutes.

 When it came out it the melty beads looked fabulous!

Lots of colours and a wonderful texture.

We waited for our colourful creation to cool before taking it out of the Pyrex bowl. We had oiled it well, so it slipped out very easily.

 A bit of a wash with dish washing liquid removed the oiliness on the outside.

And it's done!

While these are obviously not recommended for use with food, they are great for storing bits and pieces like keys or other small objects.

Eli couldn't bear to part with it, so we made a few more to give away!

Easy Origami Gift Bag

I have a really long list of projects that I would like to make. Some are big and time consuming and some are small and quick. Last year I saw these origami fabric bags popping up all over the place (well, mostly on Pinterest!) and I finally sat down to make one. Because they looked quick.

They are easy peasy! Two fat quarters and a bit of ribbon are all that is needed (and, of course, a sewing machine).

There was no point in me doing a tutorial - there is already a fabulous one at the crafty mummy.

I think these would be wonderful for gifting home made treats like biscuits, toffee or popcorn balls.

I know this origami bag design has been around for a long time. Have you made one?