fridays.....

Apart from the obvious reason, Friday is my favourite day of the week. It's the day I go to sit n sew at my LQS, a couple of times a month it's either FNWF or FNSI, and I usually meet up with my sister or a friend 

for coffee or lunch.

At sit n sew this week, Gabbie shared her amazing and beautiful quilt she has been working on. I LOVE this, the colours are beautiful - and I have claimed first dibs on it if she ever gives it away!!

This week Gabbie was also working on her small quilt which is in gorgeous colours too.....

I have been working on my pincushion kit which Sue kindly sent me - perfect 'Tania" colours, thanks Sue!

Unfortunately progress is VERY slow going as my hand is still quite painful, but I will get there in the end.....

Hopefully at some point it will look something like this -

Last night of course was FNWF which I spent trimming my hexie blocks so I can start putting them together

...and starting a small secret project involving these,,,,,

~

A little while ago I joined instagram, and while I haven't put much on there, I shared these photos of some things I have loved doing recently -

...a fun visit to Typo after my last oncology visit

I just LOVED this 'fox' calendar so it came home with me - aren't the eyes amazing!  And it goes from Aug 2015, right through to Dec 2016

a fun coffee date with my gorgeous niece...

a freezing, frosty morning spent tucked up in a warm bed with a snuggly puppy and playing on pinterest

... and reading this book which I am really enjoying.

Hope your Friday was fun, and I wish you all a fantastic weekend

xx

christmas in july ~ the gifts I sent....

These are the gifts I sent to Nanette in the Christmas in July swap -

a Christmas Cushion - I realised afterwards there is no "D" in Christmas for Decorations lol!  Or I guess it could be "H" and "T" for Hanging Things!!

a Star and Holly table mat

 

and an Inspirational words, Star wall hanging

I also sent a vintage style Christmas mug, but forgot to take a picture of that- but Nanette has one on her blog.

I must admit I was happy with what I made, but very relieved all the same that Nanette liked them too!!

Thanks again to Cheryll for the Christmas fun!

xx 

christmas in july ~ completely and thoroughly spoiled.....

.....by Anthea, in Chez's Christmas in July swap.  I just love everything she sent me, and she was/is so generous!

You may know, if you read Anthea's blog, that she and her family are going through a very sad time at the moment, and I wish her much love and lots of hugs. Anthea has sent me some very lovely, kind and thoughtful emails since I was diagnosed with cancer last year, and I have felt very glad to know her online, and felt quite excited my swap gifts were from her.

Here are the gorgeous parcels, wrapped in lovely paper - yes I unwrapped them while still in bed!

 ..... and here are the gorgeous things she sent me -

gorgeous 'Holly the Dolly'.....

a  lovely 'T' ornament.....

and this sweet bag.....

I got a lovely giggle out of the little note Anthea sent with her bag  - if you can't read it, it says 'a fun little goody bag... do wish someone 'piece' or 'peace'? (Take a good look at the words on the fabric!).... 

maybe it's Christmas fabric for quilters lol!

and these are gorgeous - a 'surfing Santa' knife, an angel snowglobe, and a 'Candy Cane Lane' candle 

I just loved them all.  Thank you so much Anthea!

And now I'm off for a cuppa and a lolly or two..... 

back tomorrow with what I sent to Nanette

xx

an inspiring post - the slow stitching movement.....

I just read this post, found via Pam Buda's 'Heartspun Quilts' blog, and found it really inspiring.

Here is the link if you would like to read it too.....

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

finally, a chookshed catch up.....

I really enjoyed the Chookshed's 2nd birthday party, and once again thank you to Chookyblue for inviting us to celebrate with her.  And, as everyone enjoyed this party so much, I think Chooky is already planning a celebration for the Chookshed's 3rd birthday next year!  I am sure we will all once again be happy to take part in that...

As I am so good at underestimating the time things will take me, I did not get as much sewing done as I had planned - but something is better than nothing, and I was still pleased with the sewing that did happen - some sewing for gifts - more to come on those in the next post - and I dragged out one of my small UFOs, a wallhanging, and did some more work on that -

Most annoyingly, my day on Sunday fell in a bit of heap as by lunchtime I had the beginnings of a migraine, so it was off to bed with some tablets for me.

I hope everyone had a great time partying too.

xx

the party continues..... and a help request

The party in the chookshed continues this morning.  Thanks again to Chookyblue for inviting us.

Chooky has asked if we could help out with something that is important to both her and to many other people also.  You can read about it on Chooky's blog here -

http://www.chookyblue.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/help-please.html

It is PERFECT sewing weather here today, very wet and drizzly with lots of fog around earlier this morning.  Just the perfect day to hunker down in front of the sewing machine!

As I underestimated the time a couple of my projects would take me, I did not get as much done as I had planned yesterday, but I still enjoyed it - and there is still the rest of the day today for sewing!

Photos to come later.....

Hope you have a lovely day, whatever you are doing...

xx

a party in the chookshed.....

It's Chookyblue's second birthday, and I am joining in with the celebrations in the chookshed along with lots of other lovely ladies, for a weekend of sewing, stitching, snacking, sipping, and generally just celebrating!!

Are you joining in? It will be a fun weekend - and hopefully, for me, a very productive one too!  One can always hope at least!!

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

xx

mill rosie friends - may 2014.....

Another wonderful Mill Rosie Friends day has come and gone...

 

It is always a fantastic day at Mill Rose Cottage, Ballan...

 

As always, there were beautiful and amazing swap gifts from this incredibly talented and very lovely group of ladies...

        

 

some of the ladies - which us 'Gisborne Girls' (aka the Country Girls) - Sue, Tracee, Marg and myself - call the 'City Girls', could not make it this time around, as they were on retreat.  Tracee however made sure that they still made their presence known.  They did pop up in some unexpected places -

 

checking out some fabric...

 

and some Christmas sewing...

 

they joined us for lunch at the wonderful restaurant next door...

 

and for some reason popped up in the shrubbery afterwards - perhaps they were admiring the garden...

 

lots of laughter and hilarity as usual... Tracee looks like she is about to cry, but I am sure she was just wiping away tears from laughing so much!

 

 

as always, the paparazzi were in full force...

 

 

there was show and tell - this is Marg's beautiful Quilt Aid quilt, for which she recently deservedly won a first prize for at the local CWA craft show...

and of  course the day would not be complete without a few little purchases...

 

It was another wonderful day with wonderful people - lots more wonderful photos can be found here, here, here and here...

 

xx



fnsi - may 2014.....

I hope everybody had a lovely Friday night, both FNSIers and non-FNSIers alike!

Last night I worked on the next block in the Underground Railroad quilt, our 'homework' block for this month, Basket -

and I also started some knitting, a new winter scarf.  I loved this wool when I saw it in the shop, but am not sure I like it knitted up, at least not in this pattern.  I might try just a plain 2x2 rib and see how that looks....

One of my OPAM finishes for March was a pair of fingerless gloves which I made for my niece.  I had not shown them before now as I had not given them to her.... but I still haven't caught up with her to pass them on, so here they are.  She loves the minions from Despicable Me (even though she is 22!), so minions they are!

Today I am off to our Mill Rosie Friends group at Mill Rose Cottage, Ballan, for lots of fun, probably not a lot of sewing, and a delicious lunch.  It is always a lovely day with much hilarity, and as I have missed the last two, am really looking forward to it.  Hopefully, I will remember to take some photos!

Have a lovely weekend

xx

friday night with friends ~ may 2014

We had a lovely night last night for FNWF at Marg's house, although being the goose I am, I forgot to take my camera.  Photos however are on Sue's blog here.  Sue had a bit of frustrating night with her sewing, otherwise a good night was had by all.  Sadly Tracee could not sew with us last night, but visited for awhile and kept us fortified with supplies to keep our sewing strength up!

During the week I finished my 'homework' block, Carpenters Wheel ~

and we made the Bears Paw block last night ~

I am really happy with how these colours are working, and apart from the occasional frustration following the instructions in the book, am enjoying making these blocks.

Onto block 6 next, a basket block.....

xx