Spring flowers

I'm lagging behind in the 52 Scrap Challenge that Anorina is hosting....

Recently she made a lovely cushion from a Dresden plate...

I cut two blades from each of my blocks ....

it was fun sewing chains of blades....

and getting them to hold hands and make a circle...

... and spread out their arms to make a star....

and cut off little bits and make sweet little mini scraps....

... and then sew them together to make a flower....

... seeing spring is just around the corner...

... did you notice the size of the dresden blades.... ?

two blades in a 2 1/2" square... too cute....

... Righto, Gotto Go... those little flowers need some more tender loving care ...

Little Sewing Bag ....

Our SAL project this month is a sewing bag from Annie Down's "Some Kind of Wonderful" book

It's been great to do some of the smaller projects from the book - I do love them  

... you didn't honestly think I could only make one of them did you? .....

.... and I am traced out for next months project which is the needlecase from the same book ....

Oh... and if you are still waiting for your table runner this may be yours.....

Righto, Gotto Go.... parcel to wrap ....

A UFO and a non 1 item for Christmas.....

Way back Cheryl from Willowberry Designs hosted a lovely little French Items swap and shared with us a bunch of sweet little patterns

I did send out my swap items but I had quite a few sitting in my UFO box

.... now they are done ....

... there is a lavender bag, needlebook, scissor holder and thimble holder.... all rather cute and will be in the gifties box....

Narelle hosts One Christmas Item a Month....  I haven't done mine so it is a non item..... but I have made a head start on a couple of pretty Christmassy things.....

... these are some "one day they will be decorations" ....

... and these are some rather fun "one day they will be a runner or 3 different mats"

I fussy cut some lovely winter scenes and included them as the 6" block inside a Sawtooth block

I did one of these as a swap block earlier in the year... and liked it so decided I wanted some!

Righto, Gotto Go.... deadline for the Stitchalong sewing bag is looming..... that lining and template base is a mighty challenge for me...

Preparations ......

This time of year is very exciting as our local city begins to get ready for Carnival Week... there are always loads of activities happening...

I like to get involved in a Creative Fields quilt display at Highfields (no surprises there!) and yesterday a few of us met together at Quilters Angel to sew up background curtains for the displays...

You can see Kris over there helping Marion with the pressing and marking, whilst Bev and I are stitching away and Steph is in control of photographs!

we are allowed to drink our tea out of those beautiful teacups you can see on the dresser... makes it so special

I love the quilt display and this year there will be quite a nice selection of quality craft items for sale from various vendors as well as about 200 quilts.

I also like to visit Toowoomba Quilters display in the city, some of the gardens and the teapot display - (which also happen to serve lovely home made scones and jam) ......

I baked a Gingerbread Loaf to have for some sweet sustenance....

... it is of course an easy peasy recipe ....

OLD FASHIONED GINGER CAKE

225g (8oz) flour
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
2 tsps ground ginger
100g (4oz) butter or margerine
100g (4oz) brown sugar
4 Tbsps treacle
2 Tbsps milk
1 egg

Stir flour, bicarb and ginger in a bowl.  Melt butter, sugar and treacle.  Cool slightly then beat in milk and egg.  Stir liquid ingredients into dry ingredients.  Beat well. turn into greased and lined loaf tin.

Bake 180 C (moderate oven) 40 - 45 mins...

We had slices toasted and spread with butter.... yummo

Marion gave us each a bunch of beautiful roses ....

they are just gorgeous...  

Thursday night whilst we were waiting for it to stop raining in England so we could watch some cricket I finished off my Scandanavian Rose (Rosalie Quinlan) stitchery

I did this preprinted linen totally in backstitch with a Perle 8 thread .... I think it will  make a lovely cushion cover.....

Righto, Gotto Go ... the weekend is upon us..... hope you have an excellent one

Miscellaneous....

... that's what I  categorise a bunch of things I can't think of a name for.....

I rather liked this moon I saw on my way home yesterday afternoon.....  brought a cold morning with a light frost.... we have had a mild winter really ....

... We are starting to join some of the blocks now in the Aiming for Accuracy Quilt-a-long ....

Michele has got sponsors for this quiltalong and I was lucky enough to win one of the random draws

It is a June Tailor ruler and helps with trimming down the half square and quarter squares... 

... really great they send all the way over to us in Australia... postage is pretty horrific...

I have found another use for the ruler.... 

... trimming up my little squares for this months Stitch-a-long project....

I've been doing some more of this secret project ... never thought I would be doing more hexie flowers....

... and a little bit of hand quilting ... on yet another secret giftie....

... and some machine quilting....

I am very pleased that I have been asked to do some quilting for others now.... and getting paid for it.... a dream coming true.   I am thrilled that I can start paying for my addiction by doing my addiction!!! 

Righto, Gotto Go...

... I am nearly at the end of the applique on my Boys Story Blocks... there is stitching to add to the blocks before I can start trimming them down....

A new week.....

I just cannot start a new day... let alone a new week without a cuppa.....

 or two! 

Printed panels are a lovely way to practice and play with free motion quilting... 

I got a couple of panels from the Flirt range....  there are little fat birds and irresistible to me....  Quilters Angel down the road stocks it and I got a bit extra to add to the panel...

So I traced the birds and made some more to applique on a strip and a little bit of hand stitching to make the little twirlies on the head and tail ....

and joined the strip on 

The quilting design was already in the shapes so I just went around them ....

A little bit of ric rac over the seam and a plain binding....

Backed with some sweet soft flannellette 

A couple of gifts to put in the cupboard ......

Righto, Gotto Go.... that second cuppa needs brewing...

Friday sewing....

Thank you Wendy for hosting FNSI for me and 58 others ... I had a fun day.. hope you did too.....

Kris came along to join me and Bev (no blog) during Friday day and lookie what she brought along with her....

..... HOME MADE JAM ......

You can see I have already tucked into the strawberry jam and the other is orange and ginger which I shall be having on my Sunday morning toast....

There is just nothing like full fruit home made jam, thanks so much Kris... and such cute little jars they came in too! 

Well, once my sticky little hands were washed (you cannot eat strawberry jam without getting sticky!!)

I became aquainted with this little blue bird.... I love the printed white fabric I found for the stitchery - it is giving a lovely dimension to the picture...

... then later in the evening after I fed Hubz I made up another block for the A4A quiltalong - only one little bit of unpicking to get my points to meet....

these are all the blocks we have done so far....

I am enjoying each block and getting tips and hints for improvement as we go along

Righto, Gotto Go.... maybe I'll make up a pincushion.....