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 

Spring is here....

Tomorrow is the first day of Spring in Southern parts, and we have enjoyed a mild winter, particularly August has been warm and great weather for lambing, which got underway for us during the last week.  A tiny vase of pretty little flowers is just the thing to say 'Spring'.......

In my last post I mentioned a retreat I had been on recently, and here are a couple of things I worked on while enjoying uninterrupted sewing time, what a treat that was.... two and a half days of it!!  This is a little Dresden pillow that I finished at retreat, and was part of the birthday swap gifts I sent to Leanne recently.  Without even discussing it, we ended up both making each other gifts from Bonnie and Camille fabrics, great minds think alike right?!

I also made Leanne a table runner in a kind of sampler format using half square triangles.  This was so fun to make, I used some of the bonus HST's left over from my 2012 FQS Block of the Month quilt, and added some more from the Vintage Modern range for variety. I did include some little extras but forgot to take a photo of them.

One of the main things I worked on while I was away was to finish up the Designer Mystery BOM, I have now made it up to this red border, I am unsure about the next white border with the pinwheel corners, I may try something different, or even leave it as is, it's already plenty big enough for me. This means that now I can start the 2013 BOM.  I have three blocks sitting waiting for me already!

 

A better pic of the colours - hanging on the clothesline late this afternoon.....

There were a couple of other projects I worked on, but one of them is still a little surprise so I will share it when it is done.  Since I've returned from retreat, I haven't really achieved much crafty-wise, but I will try and get a few stitches done some evenings during lambing(if I can stay awake that late!)

I am going to use my 'free pass' this month for the Stitch Along blog, I am still working on July's bag, so I don't think I'm going to get the August one done in the next few hours.....   

Thanks for visiting with me today... hope you're getting some stitching time in your day..... Nicky x

Another year older

A couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune to celebrate another year above ground.  My lovely stitching friend Leanne and I are sharing in a birthday swap this year and I was so excited to open my parcel from her on my big day.  Just look at all these goodies Leanne made me, and all in some of my favourite Bonnie and Camille fabrics.  

                                             A sweet little pillow with bluebird stitchery

A needlebook with a matching stitchery. The second photo shows the lovely spotty flannel on the inside of the needlebook and the felt inner for storing all my needles and pins.

There was also this sweet project pouch made in 'Bliss', which Leanne has beautifully quilted....

 And all of my gorgeous goodies together, see those cute crochet flowers and Leanne's House postcard, aren't they sweet!!  

Disclaimer:  There may also have been some Caramello Chocolate in this parcel, no prizes for guessing why it didn't make the photo shoot!  Thankyou again Leanne, I was spoiled rotten, and am so thrilled with my lovely handmade gifts.  Leanne's birthday is coming up soon, so I hope she will enjoy her goodies from me too.

I was lucky enough to attend my first ever retreat last weekend, I had a wonderful time, and worked on lots of projects(no new starts for me, wasn't I a good girl...lol).  Once I get some pics taken I will be back to share soon.  In the meantime I have over 200 blog posts to catch up on and see what everyone's been up to.      Till next time...... happy stitching........ 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

Beautiful gifts & Scrappy stars

Last week I was thrilled to receive a surprise gift in the mail from Clare, a lovely lady who I have 'met' through blogging.  Clare started her blog Craftlady in Kiwiland late last year and she does the most amazing stitching and quilting, and now I've been so lucky to be able to experience it firsthand...... a most welcome and very much appreciated gift, this gorgeous bag, and matching blockroll.  The bag is now filled with the little hexies from my recent post, which I have been working on now and then, it's nice to have them close by in this sweet little bag, when I have a few spare minutes to stitch. 

I've never used a block roll before, but what a neat idea, this will keep my little Butterfly Garden miniblocks together and wrinkle free while I finish the rest of each block.

Isn't this fabric so cute, couldn't help but make you smile to read those cheerful words.... thank you Clare, you absolutely made my day, your workmanship is faultless, and I am so grateful to be the recipient of your wonderful stitching.

I have been getting a little stitching done, and have picked up my Butterfly Garden blocks again. Here are some newly finished miniblocks ..........these bring me to 28/81 completed.

Recently I spotted some scrappy stars over at Terry's blog Terry's Treasures, where she is co-ordinating a Scrappy Stars Sew Along.  In a desperate attempt to tame my scrap bin, I have joined in the scrappy fun.  I think there are meant to be two blocks a month starting in August.  I am late joining, so I've made my first four blocks .........each block is 12.5" unfinished.

These are so much fun, a little addictive, and I've decided to have no rules whatsoever, no fabric will be too ugly/loud/wrong for these blocks!  So who knows what the next ones will look like .........

I hope you've had a great weekend............. Nicky

Not so much breaking news anymore .........

Do you remember this, and this, and finally this last July............... wouldn't blame you if you don't, cos' that is more than a year ago.  Oh dear, I hate losing, but I was very happy to stitch something for Chookyblue as a result of me losing our little wager on the Diamonds v Silver Ferns netball match.  The main part of the stitching was completed last year, but as ever with me, the finishing is what takes me so long. SHAME on me!

Well, finally I got a little something on it's way to Chookyblue a couple of months ago, then I waited and waited to hear it had arrived................ and eventually it landed right back in my mail box.  (A true Aussie boomerang.....lol)  Thankfully it was none the worse for its travels, so I checked address details and had another go.........well I am happy to know that it reached it's destination all the way in the land of Oz.  I was lucky enough to have Chooky herself stitch for me in her Secret Santa Christmas Swap last year, so it was nice to finally return the favour.......

I stitched this little piece by Little House Needleworks called Necessities Sampler, added both Chookyblues and my initial, and finished it up as a little pillow.  You can see some other bits I sent for Chooky and her Fairy Girl over at this post........ can you believe that she called it 'Australia beats New Zealand'...... she may as well have added 'again' at the end of that title.........LOL

Thanks for all the 'encouraging' comments about those little hexagons on my last post, I have left them sitting out where I can see them, hoping they will inspire me again........... yeah right!

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

PS:  On Saturday all these little ones were born to this lucky ewe.......... doesn't she look a bit panicky about the prospect of dealing with 4 all at once....... I had to smile when hubby sent me the photo from his phone and titled it 'Busy Mum'.....

My SSCS gift .....

......... one of the highlights of Christmas Day yesterday was opening my Secret Santa Christmas Swap gift, sent to me by the lovely Chookyblue......... if I had known just what was inside there is no way I could have waited until Christmas morning.  But because I was trying so hard to be nice not naughty, I waited and boy was I excited at about 5.45 yesterday morning......... that's what happens when the girls wake you at 5.35am begging to get into their loot!    I have been so spoilt ............ this is the most gorgeous wallhanging - I absolutely love it - it is so me ........ and if I am completely honest I may have even shed some tears when I saw it!

I can't put in to words how much I love this........ the verse is SO true........ 

and the gorgeous little stitcheries are so pretty ............. here are closeups of a few ..........

I was going to email Chooky to tell her how thrilled I was, but decided to track her down in the online whitepages ............. first time lucky with the right number ........... her Book Worm answered the phone and yelled out to Mum that it was 'someone called Nicky and she's a Kiwi' ......... well spotted Book Worm, it's hard to hide my NZ accent LOL.  It was fun to catch up with you Chookyblue,  I hope all your plans for Christmas Day went well and that I didn't hold you up too long! And of course a HUGE thankyou for my fantastic gifts including these other lovely cards and notepads .........  isn't her photography cool??

Chookyblue does a wonderful job of organising the SSCS exchange, and there are lots of happy and grateful people posting about their gifts today, so Thankyou for organising the whole 'event'!

So Christmas Day was a very hot day here, we enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner at home, before heading to the beach with Kelly for some cooling down in the water.  What  a lovely spot where the river meets the sea........... and then followed by an evening meal at my Dad's place.

I hope your Christmas was a happy one, enjoyed with family or friends and that Santa was as good to you as he was to us.   We have some busy days of farm work coming up, so we are making the most of a couple of days off to relax, hope you're finding some quiet time too ................I'll be back later with what I sent in the SSCS exchange.

Till then, thanks for visiting ..................... Nicky

Abracadabra 'Bliss' quilt

I was on a bit of a roll with stitching down binding by the time I'd finished my Tis the Season quilt, so I got stuck in and finished this one for our dear little niece, who turned two last Sunday.  And for once it was finished before the birthday. lol  

I thought I'd get a bit clever with the backing, and put in a row like the ones on the front.  I realised once it was half made that this would make the quilting a bit tricky to get the lines matched up exactly.  It was quite a performance, but I did get it lined up OK, not perfect, but at least finished! 

This is the small quilt from the Abracadabra design by Bloom, and is purchased as a pdf file.  It is a great pattern, very easy to follow instructions and you get two quilts from a layer cake.  I hope to make the larger quilt with the remainder of the layer cake for one of my girls.    This is probably the biggest thing(and it's not even that big!) that I've quilted myself, I'm not brave enough yet to try free motion quilting, it's just straight lines for me at the moment!

It's Friday Night Sew In this week(link in my sidebar), I'm not joining officially this time, not sure if I'll be stitching much on Friday night, I've come home with another rotten flu and will probably have a quiet few days.  If you are joining in though............... Happy FNSI!
Will catch up again after the big final on Sunday night - GO THE ALL BLACKS!!!

Some girls like diamonds .......

Earlier this week I reached the milestone of Halfway to 70 (not quite halfway to 112 yet though Miche'le?)     I'm one of those girls who really wants her husband to 'know' exactly what I'd like for my birthday, but of course without me having to tell him, and this year he has absolutely come up trumps.  This chook house arrived home on the trailer with he and the girls on Tuesday night, and I couldn't have been more surprised(and totally thrilled!)  Funny thing was he went off to town telling me he was picking up my birthday present and ended up running a little late getting home.  I left work and was on the way home, drove up to an intersection only to see hubby and the girls driving past with this on the trailer.  My jaw hit the floor, and I laughed hysterically as I followed my birthday present all the way home.  Their plan had been to get home before me and decorate it with lots of balloons.  The girls were even blowing them up on the drive home  ...................so a grateful thanks to my beautiful family for a wonderful surprise!

I had chooks in an old falling down hen house years ago, but we had a lot of stoats around one summer and they slowly but surely killed them off.  The hen house was pulled down and buried, and I've been keen to get some more for ages now.  SO, if you have any recommendations on your favourite kind of laying chooks I'd love to hear them ............. and one day soon I shall share photos of some hens in their new house.

Till then ....................take care ........ Nicky

Chilly days

Greetings!  It's been a slow week here, the girls have had a couple of days off school while we were snowed in.  We've also had no landline phones in the whole distirct for the last couple of days so it's been very quiet, not sure if that is snow related or not but I hope they fix it soon, as we don't get mobile reception here either.  We've just been crossing our fingers there would be no emergencies!  Last day of school today, so we're all ready for a couple of weeks break.

Not much relaxing in this chair this week.......

And we've all been having fun in the snow ..............

I have finished the long-lost bag for my friend, I hope she'll feel the wait was worth it. lol    One more thing to cross off my WIP list!  I've also pieced the little charm pack quilt I showed last time, and started piecing the back for my niece's Abracadabra quilt in Bliss fabrics. 

Angel Pin Carry Bag - Rosalie Quinlan Designs, from Homespun # 21

 Finally thanks for the comments on my last post about the Silver Ferns sadly losing the netball World Champs final.  I can tell some of you (Kiwis) are feeling my pain. lol  When our eldest bought home this gift on Monday from her cousin/best friend who has just been on holiday to Australia, I couldn't stop laughing!  So appropriate, a kangaroo with boxing gloves on ready to give someone a hiding. LOL   I love it!   

                                  

 I have a little something in mind for Chookyblue but she might regret saying there's no hurry......... that's a dangerous thing to say to me.

Hope you're having a great week, take care ........................ Nicky

I'm still here ............

......... so it seems they haven't carted me off yet - lol.  It's heartening to hear there are so many others out there just like me!  Starting too much and finishing even less - thank goodness for OPAM and Sew It's Finished.

We've had a busy couple of weeks here on the farm, so not  much stitching or blogging happening lately.  I have signed up for Friday Night Sew In for the 18th, hosted by Heidi and Bobbi.  If you want to join in head on over here.

I had a FNSI of my own last night, and made this wee pencil roll for a little friends 9th birthday party my youngest is attending today.  I changed my design slightly from last years effort, and added velcro so the top flap will fold over before rolling it up.  Next time, I'm going to try an elastic loop and a button, less fiddly than tying the bow for little fingers maybe.  Woohoo a project started and finished on the same night ...... and ............I even used fabric I had on hand.  If you can't find me later I'll be off shining my halo.

 



But........to offset that good behaviour, I have made a couple of online purchases lately including this fabulous book ......it really is a beauty .......and I have some of Camille's gorgeous Bliss on the way - I couldn't resist any longer. There are lots of people out there tempting me with beautiful pictures of Bliss fabric and projects.  Thanks Michelle and Suzi and others.   :-)

Well then, I'm off to spend the rest of the afternoon with my sewing machine, planning to piece the shoo fly blocks for the first Vignette block and get some more done on my latest Gardener's Journal block. 

Thanks for visiting today.......till next time happy stitching ................... Nicky