Huckleberry Stitches/Kathleen Tracy quilt along - june 2014

As you know, I joined in with Tilda at Huckleberry Stitches in her Kathleen Tracy 'Prairie Children and their Quilts' quilt along.  

June's project was the gorgeous little log cabin quilt, and here is my version - just a flimsy at the moment....

I really enjoyed making it.

Size:   14 1/2" x 18"

All the fabrics are from my stash, with the exception of the pink centre squares and some of the olive greens which came from a charm pack of Primitive Gatherings 'Floral Gatherings' fabric.  Just love the pink...

I haven't yet made up my mind whether to machine quilt it or hand quilt it. I think hand quilting would really suit it.   In any case, I better make up my mind soon before it ends up in the UFO pile!

Can't wait to see what we are making for July.....

xx

some more randomness.....

I've been having a lovely time, over here in my little corner of blogworld.....

 

some more lovely quilts from the Sunbury Quilt Show... 

I LOVE minis.... and here is a whole display of them!

 

 an amazing 'Farmer's Wife' quilt

 

 another of my friend Carolyn's beautiful quilts

 

enjoying being at home...

 

a relaxing Sunday morning in bed with some knitting and my favourite magazines

 

 a delicious fruit loaf

 and some cheese & chive scones

 I really enjoyed this book

 

and this one

 

and browsing through this one

 

there has been some sewing...

catching up on my 'Market Day' quilt along sewing 

and watching...

a gorgeous series, I just love it
 

there have been beautiful sunrises...

 

and happy mail...

bought with birthday money, I have been waiting for this with

barely-contained excitement.....

 

and lunchtimes from work spent at home having something
warm and yummy to eat ~

 some delicious risotto - I am so lucky that my job is only 5 minutes from home 

life is good.....

 
xx

fnsi & another lovely weekend.....

It's been another lovely weekend here, starting with FNSI, and continuing through until tonight.

There has been lots of sewing - FNSI saw me making my 'homework' block for the underground railroad quilt project, a log cabin block - actually it's been a weekend for 'building' log cabins(!) as I worked on some of my small log cabin blocks too.

homework block

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am taking part in the Huckleberry Stitches 'Kathleen Tracy/Prairie Children and Their Quilts' quilt along, and I have now finished the 12 blocks needed for this quilt.  This mini quilt has a total of 156 pieces, so there has been lots of cutting and sewing.  My blocks are now ready to put together.

I did struggle with putting these together.  By the time I started the second 'round', they started to get very wonky, so I actually drew up the log cabins as a foundation piecing pattern and made them that way, and am much happier with them.  I also tried to make them pretty scrappy, so I will see if that worked when I put them all together!

I also made a bag..... I have a bit of a love of foxes, both real and the crafty kind (show me a really cute fox softie and I nearly swoon lol!), so when I found this fabric last week at Lincraft, I could straight away imagine it in a bag -

During the week I looked for a bag pattern I liked and came across the '32 Minute Messenger Bag', a free pattern and tutorial on Amy Smart's 'Diary of a Quilter' blog.    Having not really made a bag before, I decided to make a practice version, before I cut up my cute foxy fabric and quite possibly ended up wrecking it.

Here is the result;  I used these fabrics from my stash

and ended up with this bag.....

I have to say, not being very experienced at bag making, it did take me quite a lot longer than 32 minutes, but I mucked around with the strap a bit.  I'm sure it will take me a lot less time next time..... but I am happy with how it turned out for my first attempt!

There was also my usual Saturday activity, watching my nephew play basketball, they had a good win yesterday which was great, and then this morning I took my nephew out for breakfast to our favourite cafe, 3 Little Pigs.  We had a fantastic time, my nephew is such great company and very funny.

So another lovely weekend has flown by; I hope your FNSI and weekend plans were fantastic too!

xx

fnsi.....

It's time for FNSI again - my favourite night of the month!

Well, along with FNWF, of course!

 

I've signed up with our wonderful organiser Wendy, here.  Are you joining in too?

Sunbury Stitchers & Quilters Quilt Show - June 2014.....

This weekend just past saw the Sunbury Stitchers and Quilters hold their quilt show, the theme of which was 'Old Days, New Ways', and what an enjoyable morning I had visiting the show.  A group of friends - Sue, Tracee, Marg, Marina, Elyte, Robyn, Ann and Jo - and myself had a great time chatting, laughing, looking at quilts, enjoying a delicious devonshire tea, buying fabric, and generally having a lovely time. Afterwards it was off to the Olive Tree Hotel in Sunbury for some lunch.
 

As Sue has done two extensive posts on the show, I have just included some of my favourite quilts here.  I also have to thank Sue for providing these photos, as my camera appeared to have died while we there, after I had only taken 3 photos - most frustrating!!
 

 I always love a quilt with some stars...
 

this quilt was just stunning - as Sue says on her blog,

the photo does not do it justice...

a tumbler quilt made by my friend Carolyn - I love the colours...

 

 a gorgeously colourful mini by my friend Annie...

 

another favourite combination of colours...

 

just love this mini, also by Annie - stars and houses, two of my favourite quilt blocks... this quilt was tiny, maybe 10" x 12", or 12" x 14"?

 

a lovely clamshell quilt...

 

this two-colour quilt looked amazing...

 

another of Carolyn's quilts made from Irene Blanck's pattern 'Floral Beauty'...

 

an amazing 'Dear Jane' quilt...

 

and another of Carolyn's quilts - this was made in a Round Robin which I was also a part of... just love this quilt of Carolyn's... well, all of Carolyn's quilts really lol!

 

Carolyn also arranged an amazing display representing the theme of Old Days, New Ways, and Sue has quite a few photos of this on her blog, it was really clever.

 

 

I love this old fashioned pairing of cheddar and pink in a nine-patch quilt... another of Annie's quilts

 

more lovely clamshells...

 

...and some fun and silliness at lunch afterward...

thank you ladies for such a wonderful day, I really enjoyed it!

xx

a bit of randomness.....

I need to delete some photos off my camera, so today as I was going through them, I found quite a few to share that had not been on my blog previously -

fun Halloween decorations last year, outside my favourite house in Gisborne (not mine, sadly!)

an amazing and beautiful sunset

 the beach at St Leonards - on holidays with Sue

 flower mini I made last year and sent to Maria, in Cheryll's swap

a get together of blogging and sewing friends in April - much hilarity was the order of the day

 taken on the same day with a few of us ladies from the Mill Rosies group

my gorgeous nephew playing basketball -

just about my most favourite activity for the week is to watch his basketball games

my gorgeous boy

you may not know that Ollie also comes to work with me... in his basket next to my desk at work and looking very handsome, having just been to the groomer

my sister's and niece's gorgeous dog Scout... she has the most beautiful and affectionate nature

a delicious lunch last weekend.... home made vegie soup and a cheesy toastie on a cold day

  

 ... and some delicious afternoon tea, a homemade banana cake just out of the oven...

being the nature geek I am, I loved this beautiful lichen on a tree at work

xx