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

Wintertime

Hello again... winter has well and truly arrived here, with a short sharp cold spell last week.... here are some pics from round the farm in the last week or so......

Number 1 helper....Miss Kelly

Bleak

Heifers waiting for meals on wheels........

......... and tucking in.....

 Not sure if this chap is used to snow, but he is snug and warm under his new cover and enjoying his hay....

 And after a day or so we were back to sunshine again......one of our swede paddocks in the foreground, the hoggets are now eating these......

And this years heifer calves being nosy.....

 Thanks for visiting the farm today......... I'll be back in a day or two with a couple of finishes.... till then, happy stitching....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

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

A not so scrappy trip

Yesterday I pieced the last 6 blocks in my version of the scrappy trip quilt that took the quilting world by storm a couple of months ago - you know me, better late than never right?!   It has taken me a couple of weeks to get this one done, but I am thrilled with the final result.  It is not exactly scrappy as the fabrics - Sweet Broderie by Rosalie Quinlan and some Lecien Basic spots and dots - were originally destined for the Vignette Mystery quilt designed by Leanne Beasley(my first block below.)  However I knew after tracing the stitchery of that first block that there was no way I would ever finish a quilt with that much stitchery and applique - it would sit around gathering dust FOREVER.  So when I saw all the scrappy trip quilts appearing I knew I had my perfect pile of fabrics waiting for me!  It is one of the largest I've made at 60 x 72" and now I have to think of how I will quilt it...... any ideas??

Still love this block - maybe it will end up a cushion......

Here is part of the reason I've been absent from blogging recently, our girls recently got ponies, and we've been spending a lot of time working with them as they learn the ropes.  It has been a very long wait for the girls, our eldest has been dreaming of her own pony for years now, and the day has finally arrived.  Lots of fun being had by all(and anxious times for a Mum who is not really into horses - but we are learning together.) 

Today I have plans to finish my pincushion for the Stitch-A-Long blog, it is the last day of the month of course so it has to happen today!  I'll be back later to share the progress on that and   some pics of a recent swap...... I hope you have a wonderful Easter Sunday today.......Nicky x

PS: Thanks for the comments on the Bloglovin - is it just me or is there no way of reading a full post in Bloglovin without clicking through to the actual site?   I'm not entirely sold on Bloglovin yet, but will give it a go for a while.