fnwf.....

Hello!  I hope a lovely evening was enjoyed by all, both FNWFers and non-FNWFers!

 

I worked on a mini quilt I am making for our lovely friend Jenny in NZ, to send to her for Christmas.

 

Unfortunately, I am internet-less at home at the moment, so am writing from my computer at work, and hopefully I will be able to upload some photos later in the week.

 

Until then, have a lovely week all.....

 

Tania & Ollie xxx

friday night with friends - december

Hello friends!

 

Tomorrow night I'll be joining here, with lots of other lovely FNWFers - and I'm soooo looking forward to it!

 

 

 

Swap Mama Cheryll does such a wonderful job of organising this fun evening.  Why not join in the fun too!?!

 

Whatever you are doing, have a lovely evening!

 

Tania & Ollie xxx

fnsi.....

A lovely evening was had here..... catching up on some favourite tv series' on ABC iview, and continuing to beaver away on this -

handquilting the Halloween wallhanging which will be sent off to our friend Jenny in New Zealand who just l.o.v.e.s Halloween

I hope you all had a lovely evening - joining in with FNSI or not! To see what all the other crafty participants got up to, you can see the list of who joined in on Wendy's blog here.  Thank you Wendy for organising this fun night!

Have a great weekend xx

friday night sew in ~ october

It's that time again.....

this Friday, 18 October.....

 I'll be joining in ~ YAY!

another beach holiday part 2 ~ the sewing edition.....

Sue and I did both get quite a bit of sewing done while we were at St Leonards, and I think we were both quite pleased at the progress we made. 

We both worked on - and finished - our Wednesday night challenge project ~

I had a lovely morning on Tuesday, getting up early, making a lovely, hot cup of tea, and sewing the binding down on this tablerunner.  I also finished the book I have been reading and really enjoying.

a perfect Tuesday morning.....

I did get sidetracked into a mini quilt (which was not part or the sewing plan), using some of the new fabrics I had bought at The Blanket Box, plus a few I had taken along from my stash. Sue's Toy Voyager friends were most interested to see what I was up to, and kept a close eye on the proceedings.....

Sue worked on binding a couple of Christmas wallhangings and a Halloween tablerunner for a friend in New Zealand, and finishing (yes, FINISHING- finally!!!) the huge hexagon quilt she has been repairing. It took some convincing, but I made her do the Happy Dance to celebrate...

 

Sue also very kindly helped me baste the Halloween wallhanging I am making for the same friend in NZ after I had made a pieced back from some scraps, as the backing I had brought with me was not big enough.  It was then on to the hand quilting I am doing on this project.  

At the moment I am also doing leaders and enders on my sewing machine, and I was pleased to have got through quite a few of those over the few days we were there.

It was a wonderful few days away (thanks, Sue!), and too soon it was time to go home again - 

until the next time.....

another beach holiday.....

Sue and I once again headed off down to St Leonards for a few days of sewing, reading, relaxing, eating and just doing whatever else took our fancy.

We had a couple of must-do stops along the way - a visit to the lovely Sophie at Red Desire in Market Square, Geelong, where we also discovered a new shop, Made. by Typo, an offshoot of Typo specialising in craft products, and also  The Blanket Box in Belmont, a newly-favourite quilting shop found on an earlier visit to St Leonards, stocking gorgeous fabrics and a great range of patterns.

my Blanket Box purchases

We also took a detour through Clifton Springs and found a lovely spot on the beach, although, as evidenced by Sue's hair, it was blowing a gale while we were there.  We discovered in our travels that Clifton Springs has a very interesting history, which Sue has written more about on her blog here.

As always, it was exciting to arrive at the St Leonards house, ready to get into some serious Relaxing and Enjoying of Life.  

Usually we try to get in at least one walk on the beach each day, but not many walks were to be had this time, as the weather was rather unreliable.  We did get out a couple of times though, getting caught in a rain shower the second time around.

One of the things I really love about staying at St Leonards is being able to watch the sea and sky, and how they change with the different weather conditions, and we had some some amazing stormy-looking skies this time.

Tupai, along with Sue's husband David, came for a visit while we were there.  Tupai, was such a patient doggie, waiting for a walk on the beach...

and for his Mum to share some chips with him at dinner time - pleeeeease, Mum......

Sue was very industrious during our stay, writing blog posts, writing postcards, sewing, free motion quilting and getting in some reading time too.

I really loved the fabric Sue was sewing in the top right photo.  She was checking my bags regularly just to make sure it had not accidentally found it's way into them....

More on our sewing industriousness in the next post......

friday night with friends 04/10/13.....

Well, I'm a goose.....

We had a lovely Friday Night with Friends get together. Sue and I went to Marg's gorgeous home, but I forgot to take my camera..... 

I worked on the hand quilting of my Halloween project which I am making for a friend in New Zealand, Sue played with her hexies (I think she was just having lots of fun, having finally finished the HUGE quilt repair job she has been doing for an acquaintance which has taken a very, very long time), and Marg worked on her lovely Christmas stitchery project.

It was a lovely evening, and some photos can be found on Sue's blog, here.....

I hope the other participants in FNWF had a lovely night, and everyone else had a great Friday night too.

friday night with friends.....

YAY!!!! Time for FNWF again.  This time Sue and I will be at Marg's beautiful home, chatting, drinking tea, and sewing to our heart's content.  Sadly Tracee cannot join us this time, but I am sure she will be there in spirit!

I hope you have a lovely night whatever you are doing x

mill rosie friends ~ september 2013.....

Our third get together for the year, meeting at the gorgeous Mill Rose Cottage in Ballan (as we always do, hence the name of our group, the Mill Rosie Friends), was soooo much fun, as always.

Mill Rose gorgeousness 

There were (I think) 16 ladies this time, and much laughter was enjoyed, sharing of crafty doings, eating, drinking, and having a wonderful time.  There was a lovely swap of designs made from Michelle Ridgway patterns, and although I had opted out this time, once again some of the ladies had made really beautiful swap gifts.

such beautiful and generous swap gifts

Some time after our last get together, Sue, Marg, Tracee and myself saw a mug rug book, and as we knew how much Shez loves mug rugs - NOT - we bought it for her, and also each made one of the patterns out of it.  It was a fun and cheeky joke, and Shez played along so well.  Sue and I laughed so much our faces were hurting in the end, and I think everyone else really enjoyed our joke.

doesn't Shez look thrilled....

After lunch we had our usual session of  show and tell.  My goodness, these ladies are talented; we saw some of the most beautiful crafty makes, and were very inspired by these lovely and clever ladies.

Elyte's gorgeous minis - I LOVE mini quilts

just a few of the amazing and beautiful show and tell items

We all again indulged in a bit of retail therapy - actually I don't think it is possible to leave Mill Rose without buying anything - and I was very happy with my purchases, some William Morris fabric and some taupe, red, and dark blues I am collecting at the moment for a couple of future projects.

a William Morris fat quarter bundle, very cleverly presented

All too soon our lovely day came to an end; but we are soooo looking forward to the next one in November.

Thank you ladies for such a wonderful day xxx

fnsi september '13.....

Well, I did have a lovely evening, enjoying my first FNSI.....

I started earlier in the evening before dinner, quilting, trimming and machine sewing the binding on this mug rug for Shez ~

After dinner, with FNSI now in full swing, I hand sewed the binding down.  I must admit, I love this; this pink floral is some of my most favourite fabric ever.  I might just have to make one for myself!

Next up was sewing these hexies for Sue ~

Sue was asked to repair this quilt below for an acquaintance, but it has turned out to be a HUGE job, which has now gone on for a very long time.  She is on the last stretch now, but it has become a bit tedious, so I have been helping her out a little with making some of these hexie flowers using 1/2" hexies.  I actually really enjoy them (in fact, I can see a 1/2" hexie flower quilt or two somewhere in my future...), so these were sewn on Friday night.

and lastly, I made these hexies, ready for glue basting and sewing at our Mill Rosie friends get together tomorrow - more on that to follow.

I really enjoyed my first FNSI - it will definitely be in the diary from now on!

friday night sew-in.....

Tonight I will be playing along here for a lovely evening of sewing,

snuggling with Ollie and generally just relaxing and enjoying the

end of the working week.

Plans are afoot for some quilting and binding, sewing a few hexies, and sewing for a group challenge.....

Have a lovely evening, whatever you are doing!

xxx

crafty hijinks in ballarat

We all had the most brilliant day yesterday at the inaugural Crafty Hijinks get together. 

Superbly organised by the fabulous and hysterically funny Gillian and Jodie, it was a day filled with fun, friendship, sharing, and generosity.

gillian & jodie 

Giveaways and raffles were organised with fantastic items generously donated by some wonderful people, classes given in colour theory, rag rug making (a hilarious tutorial given by Jodie) and Bec showing some of the ladies the technique of making hexie flowers using the glue method (which incidentally is my favourite way of making them too).

There were several stalls selling all sorts of crafty goodness - Emma of Ballarat Patchwork (who will soon be closing the doors of her lovely shop for the last time, sadly), Nicole Mallalieu of You Sew Girl, Camille Condon of Curlypops, and Claire Gee of Matching Pegs.  

I won this gorgeous pattern in the giveaways, generously donated by Claire of Matching Pegs - thank you Claire!.

I was actually astounded by the sheer volume of items donated for the giveaways and raffles, and the generosity of the people who donated them.  Not that I should have been; quilters are among the most generous people I have ever met.

Bec

Marg and Tracee concentrating hard on learning to make hexie flowers

Sue enjoying her day

a room full of crafty ladies

our friends Christine and Melody, (great photos of the day also on Melody's blog) from our Mill Rosies bloggers group 

Marg and Tracee having a great time

 Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea was provided, and there was more than ample for everyone.

The day was concluded with a visit to The Crafty Squirrel, the gorgeous shop of Morgan Wills, who opened her doors especially for our visit.  This shop is absolutely well worth a visit if you are ever in Ballarat.  Morgan is very talented, and the shop is a small but fascinating place with so much to look at, and of course buy, and we all could not resist bringing something home with us - for me some gorgeous red and aqua buttons (including the cutest little red squirrels), some plastic sewing needles for rag rug making, some beautiful Valdani thread, a babushka gift tag which I plan to use as a bookmark, and a bag of buttons for use in some future crafty doings.

The consensus was that a wonderfully fantastic day was enjoyed by all, and we would all be back next year - with bells on!

Thank you Gillian and Jodie!

crafty hijinks.....

Tomorrow, Sue, Marg, Tracee and I are off to Crafty Hijinks at Ballarat.

I am sooo looking forward to it - it sounds like it is going to be a great day!

another weekend away ~ part 2.....

So, on our wonderful weekend away, although I didn't end up sewing all that I had planned, I did get a 'Blanket of Love' mini quilt quilted, and made a few blocks for Sharon's 'I Spy' quilt which she is so kindly and thoughtfully putting together for a very sick little boy.

We had a really gorgeous walk along on the beach on Monday, seeing pelicans, starfish and jellyfish in our travels. 

 

The beach textures were really interesting ~

We did hope for some dolphins, but sadly none were to be seen.... 

The day was really hazy, and it was hard to see where the sea ended and the horizon started.  It was just the perfect day - I felt like I had a little glimpse of paradise..... The little dots are boats in the distance ~

Although Ollie is not a rescue dog as such, he did have one home where he was badly mistreated, and is now a very timid and nervous little doggie, even though he has come out of his shell a lot in the two and a half years I have had him.  All the same, I was not sure how he would go on the weekend, as I hadn't taken him away before, but he surprised us all, and even got his feet wet in the sea water on Monday. 

doggies contemplating the ocean.....

Sue's Toy Voyagers had a lovely time enjoying the sun too, relaxing in their deck chairs ~

All too quickly it was time to go home.  Sadly, Ollie has quite a phobia about going in cars, shaking, whining and whimpering even before he gets in the car. You wouldn't have known that though, looking at this photo ~

Luckily he did cope better than I thought he would in the car, both there and back.  Tupai just snoozed his way home in the back of the car.....

We had a quick stop to stretch our legs on the way home and found this beautiful scenery late in the afternoon, not far from home ~

and, sadly, that was the end of another gorgeous weekend away......