Friday night fun

I joined with lots of others  on Friday night for Friday Night Sew In, which is being temporarily hosted by Wendy at Sugarlane Quilts.  Thanks for hosting us Wendy!

Some of my sewing was of the secret variety, but I did start to join my 1 inch hexagons together for the front of a bag, which will be my SAL project for July. I love these Double Chocolat fabrics designed by 3 Sisters, I got a charm pack and some yardage from The Art of Craft in Gore.

And for the cross-stitchers among you who thought I had crossed over to the dark side quilting side, some stitches were even added to my Christmas Garden piece.  I've been working on this a little lately, the bottom pic is where it was at way back in December.

It's a stunning winter's day here in the Deep South, a day to throw all the windows and doors open and enjoy some beautiful sunshine....prune some more roses, and maybe get some time in the sewing room later too. Thanks for stopping by today....... Nicky x

Stitchalong catchup

I've been enjoying the little projects we've been working on as part of the Stitch-A-Long blog, and here are my May and June finishes.  First is my bag, from the Some Kind of Wonderful book by Anni Downs.  I chose to omit the stitchery once I found this lovely linen fabric.

 And a sweet little fabric covered button to finish it off

A couple of weekends ago I attended a class with a lovely lady, Sharon, who teaches classes from her home studio.  She is a very patient teacher and we were all especially keen to learn needleturn applique.  The project we worked on was, as luck would have it, the pincushion from Natalie Bird's Red Home book which is our June Stitchalong project.  I finally got mine stuffed and finished yesterday, and I'm so pleased with it.  Sharon can be found at O Sew Divine, where you can see some of her beautiful work, it is gorgeous.  Thanks Sharon for a wonderful class! 

 

I'm planning on finding some sewing machine time later today, and some stitching tonight while I watch the All Blacks play, hope you have a lovely weekend too......... Nicky x

Anyone there?

Hello there, I won't be surprised if you've all disappeared from visiting here, much as I have lately.  I have been very absent from both my blog and visiting and commenting on others for the last month or two.  School camp, family visiting, school holidays, winter sport getting under way and lots of busy days on the farm has meant little sewing or blogging time for me.  Hopefully things might settle down soon!

I have finished my feeble attempt at the Tis the Season wallhanging which was the April project for  the Stitch-A-Long blog.  The original has three stitchery blocks joined in a horizontal row, but I have settled for one this time.  

 The only other thing I've really worked on lately has been to finish joining the 'petals/blades' for the Dresden plates for the Sugar Dish quilt.   Time to decide on centre circle colours and how I'm going to attach them to their backgrounds......

I have the fabrics all ready to go for the bag for the May Stitch-A-Long project, and will do my best to get it done before the 31st!  Hope you're having a great weekend whatever you're up to, it is a beautifully warm, breezy day here today, though we are being warned about snow for Monday....... not looking forward to that......

Till next time(hopefully not so long next time though) ........  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

FNWF and some February finishes

Hello there, firstly here is what I stitched last night for Friday Night with Friends(Big thanks to Cheryll for hosting us)  This is about half of the stitchery for this months Stitch Along pincushion.

I have a couple of finishes from February too, this is a little Leannes House-inspired pincushion I made for a lady called Chris whose property was devastated by bushfires in Australia recently.  Chookyblue told me about her when we were emailing about the Caring with Quilts appeal.  Chris had stitched all the blocks for her Leannes House quilt, and lost them all along with all her stitching supplies in the fires.  It touched a nerve with me, as that is one of the ongoing projects I am working on, so I asked if I could put a few stitching bits and bobs together in a bundle and send them over care of Chookyblue.   I would like to say a big thanks to Sandi who owns The Art of Craft in Gore for being so generous and adding some things to this bundle too.  When I was buying the threads she asked what I was stitching with them, and when I told her what I was doing, she very kindly added some bobbin cards, linen stitchery fabric, and a couple of extra DMC threads.  I was blown away by her generosity, thanks so much Sandi..... quilters really are the best!

At the very last hour on the 28th I finished my True Friends Tote bag, the February Stitch-A-Long project, nothing like a deadline....lol....... I'm not sure about the overall colours I've gone with, it seems very bright!  But I am pleased with how the stitchery turned out.....

So along with my little Ruby quilt, that brings me to a grand total of 3 OPAM finishes for February, the most for me in a long time.  

We are weighing 3 mobs of lambs today, so no stitching here until at least tomorrow....... have a great day............ Nicky x

A Winning Week

Earlier this week our Miss 10 had some exciting mail all the way from the Land of Oz.. We were lucky enough to win one of 5 lovely bags that Fiona of BubzRugz was giving away.  And Miss 10 was doubly excited to receive chocolate too!  Thank you Fiona for such a lovely gift, she has stashed a few treasures into it already.......

My winning streak continued yesterday when I won a wonderful giveaway from Linda at Razzle Dazzle Quilter.  I have won the clever quilting skills of Linda who will long arm quilt a top for me, isn't that such a generous gift......Thank you Linda.....

So far this week I have worked on a variety of projects, I quilted and bound my little Ruby quilt for Chookyblue's Caring with Quilts bushfire appeal.  Just need to make and attach a label and it will be on it's way......     This was a great pattern called Between Charming Friends which I found here, and was originally designed by Darlene.  

I made Block 7  & 8 from the FQS Designer Mystery Block of the Month.......... this is Block 7 'Moonlight Serenade', designed by Sandy Gervais...........

......... and Block 8 'Lime Sherbet', designed by Bonnie Olaveson and Camille Roskelley.........

 ......... and I started making some of the Flying Geese units that make up the sashing that will finish this quilt. 

I have also started the Stitch-A-Long project for February, which is a tote bag from Natalie Birds Red Home Book, this is the beginning of the stitchery panel,.  I'm stitching in green, which is something a little different for me!

Last night I stitched the little tulips miniblock in the top right of this block from my Leanne's House BOM.  Leanne and I have been stitching along together once a week on this project(in the virtual way only as we live in different countries with different timezones ..... lol) and I have found it very motivating to know that someone else is getting on with it too.  Thanks Leanne!

So you can see it's been a busy sewing week mixed in with girls returning to school, working with lambs, weeding my vege garden and various other 'stuff' that is always needing done.  

I hope your week is going great, as always thanks for making it all the way to the bottom.........lol

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

A new year?

So have you heard the news, we're in a new year already.......... I only just got the memo....lol.  I didn't intend to take this long to return to the blog, but that's just how it's turned out.  I'm finding it difficult to even remember what I've been up to so far in 2013, there's been some farm work, some nurse-maiding to my ill family who all had a nasty gastro bug, lots of rain, and a little sewing and stitching.   The family are all well again, and I think I have successfully dodged it this time round!

Just prior to Christmas I had a couple of finishes that had been a long time in the making.  Firstly my block from Stitching Round the Block was finally finished into a cushion.  This is the lovely round robin block stitched on by Raewyn, Janis, Leanne/Maria(no blog) and me.  I had it returned to me over a year ago, and it has waited all that time to have me spend about 20 minutes actually making it into a cushion!!

Below is my New Couch Companion, designed by Leanne's House, which has also been a long time in the finishing!  

I have signed up for the new 2013 Stitch-A-Long where we will be making lots of small projects from 3 books, Some Kind of Wonderful, Tis the Season and Red Home.  I have finished my January task and made this little thread catcher. 

And since I made it, it's had a good workout with the trimmings of a little project I've been working on in the last few days...... hope to be back soon with something to share......

I'm not going to make any rash statements about 2013, about finishing everything I've ever started, or not buying another scrap of fabric, or not starting any new projects, because I've decided that this year I'm just going to work on whatever I'm feeling the love for!!  No setting myself up to fail before I've even begun...... yes, it will be a bonus if I do finish any old stuff and I have even been working on a couple of longstanding items recently, but I am putting NO pressure on myself outside of the Stitch-A-Long commitments I've made, and my plans to join in again with OPAM, which will be kicking off later this month.  There are a couple of new quilt alongs I've been looking at, no decisions yet, but it could be fun!  

Thanks for all the kind comments about my Gardener's Journal quilt, it has been so exciting to get it finally finished.  I hope the New Year has been a good one for you so far.......... take care and happy stitching............. Nicky x