friday night with friends - april 2014.....

Another lovely, fun night was had here, sewing along with Sue, Tracee and Marg.  We worked again on our Underground Railroad quilt, making block 4, Wagon Wheel.  Happy faces so far!

Tracee had a bit of a stressful night, first running late because of recalcitrant chooks, and then having lots of problems with her block.  

For this block, I chose to put it together in a different way than the instructions in the book, and I was so glad I did, my block came together much faster and easier than for the other girls.  As I said in a previous post, the instructions in this book are appalling and we have all struggled to understand them at different times.

In trying to follow the instructions for making this block from the book, confusion reigned once again.....

Poor Tracee had a  lot of problems with hers.  The method in the book for this block is to use interfacing, and when Tracee ironed her wagon wheel, the interfacing shrank and distorted the block.  Some unpicking and resewing was required, but all turned out well in the end.

Our finished blocks -

The evening was finished with a lovely dessert made by Sue, berries in jelly with cream.  Yum!

I made a start on the next block, but it was my turn to be confused..... not much progress was made, so we have homework for next month!  Looking forward to our next get together.....

And thank you to Cheryll for another great night!

friday night with friends.....

I am joining in here tonight for Friday Night with Friends, hosted by the amazing Cheryll.

I am sewing along with Sue, Tracee and Marg at Sue's house, for more underground railroad hijinks. 

Back with results tomorrow.....

Have a fantastic night all - both FNWFers and non-FNWFers!!

let's book it 2014 ~ the underground railroad quilt

A catch up post for some of my recent sewing happenings -

   

Some time ago, Sue, Tracee, Marg and myself decided to have our own little quilt-along, making the Underground Railroad quilt from this book by Eleanor Burns, and getting together on the first Friday evening of each month for FNWF (hosted by the amazing Cheryll), to make each block.
 

Our first block - we are working in order through the book - is the Underground Railroad block.  Sue, Tracee and Marg opted to go with the green/brown/cream colours used in the book, but I decided on red/cream/blue for my colours, although having now seen their green/brown/cream results I am feeling a bit torn!.

This is the result of our first night's sewing ~

We were very industrious ~ look at these ladies hard at work!
 

We do find this book quite hard to follow, the instructions are not well written.  I think Marg's face in the picture above says 'what the hell does that mean'!!

I must admit I am not happy with my block, and am also not convinced I am happy with these colours.  Sue and I got together last Thursday night and made our second block and I tried some different colours - dark blue/mustard/taupe - which I think I prefer.  One of them will have to be remade, I'm not sure yet which....  

As we are doing this quilt-along from a book, I am joining in this month with  Vroomans Quilts for 'Let's Book It 2014'. 

We had originally decided to do just one block a month, but, with 15 blocks to make, have decided we will probably make two blocks a month going forward. 

Now, I just need to make a final decision about my colours, before we go on to the next block .....

friday night sew in - march 2014.....

I'm joining in here tonight with lots of other crafty ladies, and kindly hosted by Wendy.  It's a fun night, and you can pop in over the weekend to visit all these ladies to see what crafty fun we all got up to! 

 

Hope to see you there.....

getting organised.....

To my friends that know me well, and even those that don't, sadly it is no secret that for whatever reason, I have really struggled to be organised over the last couple of years.  I could say there are lots of reasons as to why this was, but at the end of the day, I just allowed myself to get very disorganised.

Finally though, I have started to get myself organised once again, slowly cleaning out, tidying and organising as I go.  And it's such a good feeling.

The thing that had become the most disorganised was my sewing and craft stuff, which had all pretty much ended up in rather a jumble in my spare bedroom/sewing room.  Finally I couldn't stand it anymore, and have started working through it all, bit by bit.

Although I still have a ways to go, for the first time in a long time - and being greatly encouraged by joining OPAM this year - I have got all my UFOs together, as well as some projects which I have 'kitted up' with patterns and fabrics, ready to be cut and sewn.

And here it all is, in bags and boxes and ready for me to get stuck in - sewing, crochet, knitting, the whole kit and kaboodle!

Some of them are small projects which will not take much to get them finished, while others are big, long term projects.   There are a couple of 'leaders and enders' projects, and some scrap projects where I have just made a block here and there.

There are also some new projects for swaps and secret sewing for birthdays and Christmas that I need to do (a couple of which have been started), but at least I am becoming so much more organised and it doesn't feel so overwhelming, as it did for such a long time.  In fact, I had got to the point really where it felt like an overwhelming burden and a huge weight on my shoulders, and I wasn't enjoying it.

Which is of course the point, isn't it - to actually
enjoy it and to get a great deal of pleasure and relaxation from doing it.

 
One of the larger projects is a quilt I started in Machine Applique classes I did about two years ago, and I have finally re-enrolled in that class to work on it and get it finished.  I decided to go back to class to do it as I really enjoyed it and the teacher is excellent, I learn so much from her.  The pattern for the quilt is one of her own designs, with both machine applique and machine quilting using a quilt-as-you-go method.

All in all, it feels so good to start having some organisation happening, and feeling like I can just pick up things and start working on them.  It's a feeling I haven't had for awhile.....

OPAM - february 2014.....

OK, so I am bit behind the times, but my first month as an OPAMer was very quiet, due to some health issues.  However, I did finish a couple of small items - a tablerunner/candlemat and a knitted dishcloth, both for my home. 

I am trying to be a lot more productive this month - I have lots of 'secret sewing' to do throughout the year, and have started on a couple of those that I need to finish in the next couple of weeks.  I am also planning for the rest of the month to try and finish some of my smaller UFOs, as well as continue to work on one big quilt (a secret sewing project) I am making. 

Fingers crossed I have a few more finishes this month!

xxx

lovely gifts.....

Hello!  Here I am, finally back at the keyboard.....

I had to write about the lovely gifts I received today, all the way from New Zealand.

For  Christmas last year, I made my lovely NZ friend Jenny, who I met through Sue, a mini quilt.  In trying to get it off in time for Christmas, I forgot to take a picture, but it was a version of this pattern -

Jenny loves the USA, so as soon as I saw this mini, I knew it was perfect to make for her, and she loved it.

Of course I did not expect anything in return, so I got a lovely surprise today when I checked my mail, to find a parcel from Jen, filled with these gorgeous goodies -

Lots of lovely chocolate, a notebook, a bookmark, a lovely little tin with the cutest little owls, serviettes, because the pattern reminded Jenny of patchwork, some really pretty thimbles which I collect, and a gorgeous little New Zealand dish - all so beautiful!

I feel very spoilt, and very blessed to have such a wonderful friend.  If only we lived closer...

Thanks Jenny!