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

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 Gardener's Journal - It's Finished

What a great way to finish 2012 with getting my A Gardener's Journal quilt FINISHED!  I started way back in 2010 stitching with the original Stitch-A-Long girls, and put my final stitches in to the top at the beginning of 2012.  Eventually I got around to sending it off for quilting to the very clever Leeanne at quiltmekiwi who has worked her magic for me.  I am so thrilled with the quilting, I never imagined it could be so perfect for this quilt, thanks Leeanne for making my first ever professional quilting experience so awesome!

A Gardener's Journal Quilt - Designed by Hatched and Patched

  

Thanks to Chookyblue and all the Stitch-A-Long girls for the encouragement, motivation, and inspiration that you all share so willingly, you all helped me get over the finish line on this one.

Till next time ......... happy stitching.......... Nicky xx

Merry Christmas

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.  Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957)

Wishing all who visit here a wonderful Christmas, I hope you have a magical day with the people you love................  you may see from the pic what I will be doing after Christmas(stitching binding that is, not playing Scrabble!)  I will share the beautiful quilting Leeanne has done when I have the binding all finished.

Much love to all and Merry Christmas.......... Nicky xx

Still here .......

Well hello, it has been quite a while since I've been here ....... again..........3 months ago today since I last posted.    So much has been happening, some good, some not so good, but I wanted to pop in and let you know I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth.

Here are some random pics from the last few months..............

Some misty winter mornings on the farm ...................

A pretty sunrise.............

This framed stitchery is called Friendship Tree by Natalie Bird of The Birdhouse. I finished this in June for my best friends birthday. It was a lovely little piece to stitch, and I got the co-ordinating frame when we were in Australia earlier in the year.  I must remember to add it and another little finish from May(which is currently in transit) to my August OPAM finishes as I haven't 'finished' anything since February :-( 

I love the little wooden buttons that came in the kit, aren't they gorgeous?

I have been trying to find some crafting time in the last couple of days, and have managed to start another new project - surprise, surprise!   Nothing like starting something new when nothing else is calling out to be stitched on......... lol.    Can you guess what pattern this little lady is from?

She is from Anni Downs recent book 'The Simple Life', and will be a little zipper pouch.  It's been such a long time since I've done any fusible web applique that I'd almost forgotten how!  I'm not sure if you can see part of my little stripey dog on the left side of the pic, he isn't coming out how I'd planned, so I will redo him in a darker colour I think.  And then I'll have to learn how to put in a zip....... don't know how that will go.

Well, now that I have bitten the bullet and actually written a post, I hope I will be able to keep it up and not be a stranger any more!  I hope you are finding some time for some stitching.................. thanks for visiting, till next time ........ Nicky

A Gardener's Journal ........ the final block

Late last week the final stitches went into my last block of A Gardener's Journal, and it felt kind of sad to be finished.............. of course I still have to get the borders on and decide if I'm brave enough to quilt it myself or send it out to get a proper job made of it!  Once that's done I can get onto the new Stitch-A-Long project, another Anni Downs quilt, My Favourite Things from her Some Kind of Wonderful book.  I'm really looking forward to that!!   

Finally ......... the blocks are joined, almost a quilt top now!

Here are some pics of the kids vegetable gardens, they have their own little patch each, this is our youngest's below.........

................... and our eldest girls here ..........

And below is part of my potato patch...... some yams are in the tyre at the back.....

and some of the other goodies growing in our garden........

.............we've been eating lettuce, salad greens, radishes and silverbeet for a while now, and lots more is nearly ready now ....... I've had a terrible time getting carrot seed started this year, the first lot I think the seed was too old, and it's been pretty dry since I sowed the new seed.  We are desperately short of water, we are only on our own rainwater supply, and there is no rain forecast till at least the end of the month......... so I need to convince hubby to help me pump some water from the creek for the garden.  

So now there's only 5 more sleeps to go, I'd better behave myself so Santa stops by ........

Till next time....happy stitching

Nicky

An Angels Story Table Runner

I quilted this little runner on Sunday and got the binding sewn on this afternoon.  This is from An Angels Story by Anni Downs and has been in the flimsy stage for several years.  It is meant to have hearts appliqued around the cream border, but when I dug the pieced runner out from a drawer recently I knew if it was going to wait for those hearts it might never get finished.  Perhaps if I knew how to I should have quilted something pretty in that border. But plain it is!  This should have been Number 31 on my list of WIPs at the beginning of the year, but I couldn't even find it at the time! lol 

Thanks for stopping by to visit today ............ this must be a record for me, 3 posts in 3 days ................see you again soon ................... Nicky

One block left now ....

 After some *gentle encouragement*  from Chookyblue, I have now pieced my second to last A Gardeners Journal block and here it is.................Block F............. but that very last block is still quite a way off finished.

 Over the weekend I also finished up Virtues Sampler by Little House Needleworks.  This is now in my rather large pile of finished cross stitch to be framed.

 And while I was busy on the machine I pieced the first block of my Butterfly Garden, I'm pretty pleased with how it's looking, and I've finished a couple more miniblocks during the last few days.

So now I need to catch up on this months Tis the Season and Birdie Stitches blocks...................I don't want to fall behind ............. again!

I hope you're having a great week, thanks for visiting me today, it's lovely to *see* you ................ till next time ................Nicky