My beautiful Easter swap gifts

My lovely Easter swap parcel from Leanne arrived and didn't she spoil me!!A gorgeous applique bunny bag, he is adorable, as is the little bunny with the orange spots who was carefully guarding some yummy easter eggs that the family enjoyed...... Some pretty fabrics, buttons, some yummy DMC threads in colours that make me think of Easter, some sweet little iron-on birdie patches and a length of the measuring tape that you can stitch onto little projects - I've been looking for some of that for a while.

Thank you so much Leanne, I love it all and really enjoyed our swap......

What are your plans for the weekend?  There really needs to be some serious housework happen here this weekend, our youngest daughter and I are off on her school camp next week, so must get myself organised ..... it should be lots of fun(the camp, not the housework...lol)  

So maybe not too much stitching time here, but I live in hope!

Till next time....... happy stitching.........Nicky x

PS - Thanks for all the comments and advice about how you stitch down your dresden plate blocks. The jury is still out but I will have to make a decision once I get all the blocks sewn.   My FNWF efforts last week got all the 'petal' parts made and a couple more put together, but just never got back here to show them........ what a hopeless blogger I've been lately!

A baby dresden

I'm having a go at blogging from my phone so please disregard this if it doesn't work properly.  This is my first little dresden with all the petals sewn together.... fiddly but fun.  When you make dresden plates do you machine or hand applique to the background?  Ditto for the centre circle, needleturn or machine?  

Till next time. ........... Happy Stitching ............ Nicky x

Easter sewing

 My lovely friend Leanne and I had an Easter swap and this is what I sent to Leanne.  A Hatched and Patched bag, a little bunny, some Fig Tree fat quarters and some other little bits and pieces.  And of course some chocolates that were added to the package later before I posted, I hope Leanne got to eat some of them or maybe she shared them with her boys.........?  I am still watching my mailbox, we posted on the same day - but there are no mail deliveries till tomorrow as we get an extra long Easter weekend - today is Anniversary Day here...... yay, no school!

After finishing my scrappy trip top on Saturday, Sunday saw me finish my little pincushion for the Stitch-A-Long March project.  I'm making the little sewing accessories for the SAL in some of my favourite Fig Tree Strawberry Fields fabrics, will be nice to have a matching set by the end of the SAL.....

And late on Sunday night I started to cut out a new little quilt for dear friends who are expecting a baby in June.  I am using Posy fabric to make Sugar Dish.  I'm taking a gamble here, I have a strong feeling they are having a girl..... so I hope I'm right as this is certainly not a little boy quilt...lol.  I've always wanted to have a go at Dresden plates, so this little quilt will be my opportunity.....

I enrolled in Camille Roskelly's Craftsy class called Pre-Cut Piecing Made Simple last week, and after only a couple of lessons, I have learned heaps of shortcuts for cutting and chain piecing.  This one seems so obvious now, but it had never occurred to me to line up more than one strip at a time with the lines on my cutting mat and cut them all at once.  And with my jellyroll strip folded in half it was doubled as well.   Of course it is probably obvious to most of you - but being mostly self taught, it takes me a while to catch on!!  This is my first experience with Craftsy, I thought the classes seemed expensive, but there are 4 quilt patterns with Camille's class and I did use a 25% off coupon.......we crafters can justify anything if it suits us though.......

So having spent a few hours sewing this Easter I am very pleased with my efforts so far .......

I hope you have had a wonderful Easter too........ till next time.......Happy Stitching.....Nicky x