Wednesday, March 9, 2016

FNWF, stitching, blocks, a brooch and olives....

Thanks Cheryll for having us over for .....


... which was also Friday night at The Quilters Angel with friends....

I worked on this little Tea Cup Teddy (Michelle Ridgway Designs)  - it's very cute



... the strangest thing happened... some of these fabrics jumped into my bag....



Continuing with blocks I have the fifth block in The Splendid Sampler - designed by Jen Kingwell ... very pretty and good practice to needleturn those tiny circles.

Happy Happy (11 pieces)

Tuesday brought the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler stitchers together and made these blocks...

Handy Andy (41 pieces)

Gulf Star (25 pieces)

We are now up to 107 blocks and a total of 3421 pieces....

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In our new to us garden there is an olive tree which is bearing nicely this year with fat olives.  I got some great recipes from friends and have started preserving some ....


For these ones Hubz clobbered them with a mallet and we got the pips out... not pretty and we won't bother again.... they have been soaked in brine for over a week and are now chilling out in some garlic, chilli and origanum olive oil.


There is another lot soaking at the moment (just slit down the sides of the olive this time)

Time will tell and I'll let you know, those who say they have done them tell me they won't buy commercial ones again

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Our local library held a social morning on Saturday in order to encourage people to use the library more (a lot of people are ordering books online or using ereaders and there are less people visiting)

Whilst the librarian did highlight a book we did a small craft - this sweet brooch which Marion from The Quilters Angel had prepared for us....

Next month they are going to show us how to fold the pages in a book to make a shape (not sure we will be as complicated as the one in this picture) but it sounds like fun...  I am not a huge reader but I do like a book on the go and it would be very sad if we started losing our libraries



Righto, Gotto Go... I have some sweet bugs to play with today....



18 comments:

Raewyn said...

Snap with the teddy in the teacup block! Looking good :-) I love your latest blocks... you're doing a great job of keeping up! Neat about the olives, I bet hubby had fun smashing them even though it wasn't pretty! I'm ashamed to say it's years since I've been to a library, although I love to read.

Jeanette said...

Love teddy & your blocks. I've wanted to grow my own olives for years but they'd need to be a dwarf tree in a pot. Hugs, xx

Chantal said...

Love your blocks; embroidery, pieced and appliqued, (especially Gulf Star. Gorgeous work Fiona on the brooch. Is it big? It looks bigger than my hand. Anyhue, love it! Very peculiar fabrics you have in Australia. But so nice too. Wish I could go and shop there and hopefully be jumped on by some lol. ;^)
scrap(dot)and(dot)quilts viagmail.com

Cath said...

Lovely projects Fiona....hopefully I can get back to the FN get togethers myself...soon....I am still recovering after getting back from England. The Olives look amazing...you can get great olive pitting tools from Howards Storage World (OXO is the brand). I have one for my cherries....better than breaking a tooth later on.

WoolenSails said...

Lots of beautiful pieces and the new fabrics look wonderful.
I always loved going to the library but I can go online and order books from other libraries and have them delivered to ours, so i just order them and my husband picks them up. I do enjoy the iPad reading, I don't have to wear my glasses and great for reading myself to sleep.

Debbie

KERYN B said...

Love the fabrics that somehow found there way into your bag. The olives look great nice and big you will have to let us know how you go we tried them and it didn't work. Love seeing all those blocks. xx

Jane said...

oh, love those fabrics, think they're forgiven for jumping in the basket. Look forward to hearing about the olives, you've got a great harvest

Deb R said...

ohh I love those fabrics too!!! Wish the would appear in my bag lol

Jennifer said...

You might have to look into getting an olive stoner! Looking forward to seeing Sylvia's Bridal Sampler - I love those repro fabrics.

Anthea said...

Very pretty Jen Kingwell block, Fiona... as for the olives, I think you have a new hobby there!!

kiwikid said...

Oh boy you have to watch out for jumping fabrics!!! They can be pretty fast!! The bridal sampler blocks are wonderful, you are going so well with them. Good luck with the olives!! We had some a Greek friend made, they were amazing. The teddie is looking cute too. The library corp here send out the library bus to us once a week, I love going there... into talking books at present, I can listen and sew!! Have fun with the bugs!!

Elyte said...

You have been very busy as usual. Those jumping fabrics, many of us seem to have the same problem. All the new blocks look lovely. The projects are moving along.

Michelle Ridgway said...

It's amazing how fabric does that! Lots of stitchy activity at your place. All your blcks look great. Bonus to have such a great olive harvest....I am one of the strange people who absolutely hate them! Mr R. eats all mine x

Maria said...

Lots happening at your place Fiona... What lovely fabrics jumped into your. bag....

Lin said...

I love olives however they come but my favourites are the 'homemade' ones you get in out of the way Spanish bars. Hope you enjoy yours. I love your flower vase SS block. xx

Karen S said...

Lovely stitching and fabric purchases. Great progress with the blocks, too.
It will be interesting to see the results of your efforts with the olives. Hope you have success.
Great to see your library encouraging people to come along. Ours made a big increase in number when they changed their hours and opened for Sunday afternoons.

Kathleen said...

I just discovered The Splendid Sampler and have made 3 blocks. It's going to be fun and hopefully use up some of my scraps. I like your fabric choice and what a good job on the needle turn applique.

As usual, I love reading your blog

Bev C said...

Hello Fiona,

I love your stitchery, I go each week to the library, nothing quite like the smell of books. Usually read one or two novels each week.I can just about taste your olives, we prick ours with those little olive forks, time consuming but you do get to suck on the pip.

Happy days.
Bev.

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