Sew-a-long .....

Terry is hosting a Charming Stars sew-along....  it needs 3 charm packs (plus 2 squares) and some contrast colour so I am using up a layer cake (Papillon) I bought quite some time ago.... and have purchased a soft ivory (Bella Solid) to use for the stars.....

A range of these colours and the ivory at the bottom of the pile

The pattern is from Moda Bake Shop HERE

you can read more about it HERE ..... it's fun to sew a quilt with others and even with the same pattern all the quilts look so different..... (there is still time to join... just let Terry know) 

I still haven't finished my scrappy stars (which are made wrong so they are scrappy boxes) from Terry's sew-a-long over 2 years ago...... let's hope I make better progress this time.... but I did do some more work on them this week....

There is something masochistically satisfying about trimming up a huge pile of HST squares....

I hope I will have a bundle of finished squares by the end of the weekend

A quilt group I attend is making place mats to be given out with the local Meals on Wheels programme.  I had some left over spotty pieces which I used to practice some free motion and bound them in black.... I think they will be happy for someone....

Righto, Gotto Go... scrappy blocks to make!!!

A pretty flimsy....

My bluebirds blocks have made it into a flimsy this week

... just delightful little stitcheries .... they are in months with Australian celebrations so we have:-

Australia Day (January)

Valentines Day (Feb)

Easter (March) though it is often in April

Anzac Day - April

Mothers Day - May

Queens Birthday - June 

Winter - July

Friendship Day - August (to be honest I didn't know about this one!)

Wattle Day - September

Halloween - October

Melbourne Cup - November

Christmas - December

I am thinking about how to do the quilting... I don't want to stitch over the embroidered parts .....

(designed by Christine)

I stitched up the little extra bluebird pattern for a label

  

.... meanwhile my dog made a good subject for a bit of fun ....

.... Righto, Gotto Go....  have a lovely rest of the week...

Boys Story .....

 Hubz has been out of town for a few days and so I have taken advantage of the empty house, the wet weather and the fact that I can easily live on a pot of chicken soup and plenty of tea - and the occasional piece of french toast with lashings of maple syrup

It has taken me a while to finally get this very cute quilt quilted and bound..... 

I found it hard to think of how I wanted to quilt it..... finally I decided on quite big swirls in the main piecing, in the ditch and just around the edge of the pictures in the applique blocks, and just around the squares in the little cartoon stitcheries....

Soooooo much fun doing the different blocks .... I just loved every part of this quilt, the pictures are funny and the detail is amazing ....

Should you wish to look at more detail of this quilt just follow THIS LINK.... I know you will be surprised but I did blog lots about it as I went along.... and the link should pick up all the relevant posts...

Boys Story is designed by Anni Downs - as always her book has a number of delightful projects .... I know I will be using it again

Righto, Gotto Go..... a cuppa to celebrate methinks.... (and later maybe a beer to celebrate) ...  

Bitsa This and Bitsa That.....

I did some large swirls on my Boys Story quilt.... since it has a flannel back I didn't want to do too tight quilting and these swirls reminded me of winds and seas and they help sailboats and kites and things....

It has kept the quilt soft and snuggly..... now the binding.....

My bloggy friend Keryn was selling some of her delightful Christmas creations off her blog shop HERE .....  I could not resist....

These are pompom ones .... look at those faces!

,..... my larger Santa arrived with a mate to keep him company on the trip over....  these two are weighted and sit nicely....

... Santa can sit and his arms and legs change position... this is sitting waiting... (and maybe needing to pee...)

.. this is just chillin'..... (and maybe a bit of flirting!)

... and this is yoga pose.... (and maybe some UMMMMMMMM sounds)

These are going to make a lovely addition to my home made decorations..... they are adorable...

Long long ago I did the stitcheries for Bluebirds, designed by my friend Christine....

I have added the peepers on the sides ....

... here they all are waiting for me to get on and make the sashing....  they really are delightful pictures...

.... but they will have to wait since I am finishing off some secret projects .....

... which may, or may not involve this little friendly stitchery .... designed by Bronwyn Hayes at Red Brolly

Righto, Gotto Go..... spots to quilt, binding to sew, shirts to slice up.....

It's supposed to be a wet cold weekend here ... ...I might need to stay indoors...

Moose....

Have you seen Toni's fabulous new quilt - Northern Exposure?

I am so grateful to have been allowed to play with it.....

Firstly I went in the ditch round the main blocks to secure it all... then I went carefully around the applique so that the wonderful pictures would be pronounced....

some loose loops and leaves in the background (I picked up the leaf shape in the purple fabric)

... and some gentle curves around the flying geese

 .... I wanted to do enough quilting to make the design stand out (and hold it all together!)  but not take your eyes away from the lovely colours and shapes....

.... rather fun looking at it from the back too..... can play a guessing game on which moose it is....

There is a very cute Maurice the Moose softie also

Thanks Toni.....  I love your designs ....

At the moment Toni is searching for some pattern testers and sample makers... I have signed up (I do love her patterns and am an sewing addict)  and if you are interested read her blog post HERE

(link to Toni's shop is HERE)

P.S. When I first got the top to start quilting I was thinking Moose = Canada= Maple leaves so I doodled a bit with those ....

... I thought my maple leaves looked more like a special herb!!!!

Righto, Gotto Go.... I am going to be playing with a quilt top I finished ages ago...  this is Anni Downs "Boys Story" and I have some warm robot flannelette for the backing.....

.... what are you up to? ....

More binding.....

A friend asked me to make up a quilt for her to give to a little girl..... she liked bold pink and brown, wanted horse panel and also puppies and flowers.....

It is needed this month so I have worked hard to get it finished in time... this is what I have come up with....

the horse panel pictures were 12" so it was an easy way to work out to do the other blocks 6"

I quilted around the big applique daisies and added squiggles and freeform daisies in the blocks... in the horse blocks I quilted around the horses and then some wavy sky....

... stripes in all the colours made up the perfect binding....

I did struggle a bit with what was asked... I'm not used to making it all up on my own but I rather like the finished result.... 

Righto, Gotto Go... there is some secret sewing to be done.....

FNSI and another birthday....

Wendy hosted us for FNSI even though she has had a very busy week  - thank you very much 

This time we had young widget over so sewing time was less than usual but I did finish off cutting up my shirts for the shirt challenge once he had gone off to bed...

... I did make a bit of a mess .....

I think that is the hard part of the shirt challenge, cutting seams, pressing, cutting into workable blocks....

..... meanwhile....

Another birthday I was late for (facebook should send reminders 3 weeks before!) is Christine....

we sew together in real life and I know she loves miniature and she loves soft and pretty

This piece is 10" square (total) and made from an old doily and put onto a plain pink background .....

... carefully sewn around every edge of the doily and then filled with little mini feathers

I marked a grid on the pink and did mini orange peel loops all over it...

... and finished off with some beads to add a little bit of bling....

... and added a scented candle ......

A little while ago Anthea was doing a clean up of some books... I put my name down for the Anni Downs book but lost out for being too slow.....

Imagine my surprise when this arrived in the post... the winner of the book, Jeneta, has opted to send it to me saying when she saw it she wanted to win it for me as she thought is was just the sort of thing I would like ....

I'm blown away.. thank you so much Anthea... and Jeneta... I can't wait to make something from it...  (I just love those little fat sheep on the hillside!)

It's the weekend... there are strong predictions of some good rain... I do hope they are right.... so far damp and cold and windy (for me that's like sleet!!!)