Nothing to see here

Apologies for those who have popped by to see my Friday Night with Friends efforts, 

there really is nothing to see here today....

About 4 o'clock on Friday afternoon we headed down the road to pick up our daughter from the friends she had enjoyed a sleepover with.... one thing led to another, and before you know it we were feasting on a takeaway fish and chip dinner, a very pleasant night catching up over a few glasses of wine.  So I guess it was Friday Night with Friends, just not the sort in my original plan!

So of course I thought I will sew on Saturday night, and virtually the same thing happened.... some friends phoned at 5pm to see if we would join them for their first BBQ of the season, and so that's what we did!  SO we have had a great weekend being social butterflies, now who knows what will happen tonight.........??

But of course it isn't a blog post without a pic or two, I found these lake reflection photos taken on Lake Te Anau in beautiful Fiordland National Park back in May, in fact I think it was on Mothers Day......

.....so I'll catch you again soon, maybe when there's  

been some sewing finally done...... Nicky x

A Fresh quilt and kind friends

I have been busy with some machine sewing in the last couple of weeks any chance I've had.  I bought Camille Roskelley's Simply Retro book a while back and her 'Fresh' quilt is the one I kept going back to look longingly at.  So I gave in to temptation and decided on a kind of controlled colour palette using all my Bonnie and Camille scraps and a new charm pack of their beautiful Scrumptious range.  This is going to be a big quilt, it was meant to be a 4x4 block layout which finishes at 96" x 96", but I've decided to trim one row off and will end up at 72 x 96, plenty big enough for a single bed.  I have never trimmed Half Square Triangles down to size before, and it is rather tedious, but boy does it make a big difference when sewing them together and matching seams etc, love this technique now!  So this picture is half the quilt top, I have one more row complete and I hope to finish the last three blocks tonight when I join in with lots of friends around the globe for Friday Night with Friends.... maybe you'd like to join in too and sign up over at Cherylls blog here.....

Earlier this week I got a lovely surprise in the mail from dear Deb, who after I mentioned in my last post my lack of hand stitching due to the state of my hands, went to the trouble of doing some research and found this wonderful Aromatherapy Co Hand Cream and sent it to me...... it smells divine, such a sweet citrus scent and it feels amazing, won't be long now and I'll be back with needle and thread in my hand, maybe over the weekend if I'm lucky...... thank you so much Deb, your kindness is so sweet and I have been smiling all week thinking about you and your lovely gift.

Finally I had just the one little OPAM finish for September which was this little mini quilt for friends who have recently built their first home.  They have little twin boys and so this was my loose interpretation of them with their little guys..... my first attempt at the sketchy raw edge applique, and as my friends favourite colour is pink, that's what I chose for the binding....(taken on my own ugly wallpaper, not their beautiful new wall colours...lol) I kind of wish I had done some quilting in the background but didn't know where to start!

Right, had better get myself organised for a quick and easy dinner tonight so I can get sewing like a madwoman once the dishes are done....... have a lovely weekend....... Nicky x